Carmine Sprio: Adding Flavor To Meals Made At Home

Carmine Sprio: Adding Flavor to Meals Made at Home
and on Television


You may think that heavy advertising and marketing is the key to packing a popular, trendy restaurant night after night. After all, how else are restaurants supposed to attract customers when there is so much local competition? Take chef and restaurateur Carmine Sprio and his 150-seat Albany, New York, restaurant, Carmine's. With his unique philosophy solidly instilled in his staff, the only advertising and marketing Carmine invests in is word of mouth.

A down-to-earth plumber-turned-restaurateur and popular TV personality, thanks to his successful regional half-hour cooking show on NBC affiliate WNYT, Carmine is focused on keeping life simple while enjoying the pleasures of preparing and sharing good food. Simply put, Carmine's life centers around cooking up satisfaction for all who surround him.

"When you come right down to it, I'm a regular guy who loves making people happy," says Carmine. "I'm at home in the kitchen, but I'm no white-coat chef cooking purely for my own gratification. In my restaurant, I cook for you, but on my show I cook with you, and I make things that are easy enough for anybody to make at home."

What attracts people to this contemporary Italian restaurant? It's simple: Carmine himself. Those who make their way to the 7-year-old establishment, at the end of a shopping center at 818 Central Avenue in Albany, are often in for a surprise. Carmine may drop by and visit their table, buy them a drink, or even pick up the entire dinner tab.

"You have 10 restaurants to choose from on any given night," says Carmine. "If you choose us, and we make you feel special and meet or surpass your expectations, you'll come back-and you'll tell your friends."

Instead of spending ridiculous amounts on advertising in any given month, Carmine would rather put those dollars into buying customers a few drinks, picking up someone's dinner tab for a special occasion, or preparing a special birthday dessert. "It lets people know that I appreciate their business, and that is money well spent," says Carmine.

"Carmine's is very much word-of-mouth," says Holly Cargill-Kramer, Director of Communications for the New York State Restaurant Association, the Albany-based trade group that named Sprio its 1999 Restaurateur of the Year. "Some people bring in customers with special events. Some do it with advertising. Carmine does it with Carmine."

"He is the restaurant, and he has a warmth and charisma that makes you feel good about the experience," she added. "The most successful restaurateurs all have that."

One of the most unique aspects of Carmine's is that, on any given night, customers could surprisingly end up being treated to a taping of his hit TV show, Carmine's Table, which is regularly taped right in the studio kitchen in the heart of the restaurant. You never know who will be on the show menu-a renowned opera singer, an NFL player, or even Carmine's own mother! It's simply part of the unexpected fun that guests experience at Carmine's.
Since 1999, when Time Warner Cable picked up Carmine's Table, which later moved to the local NBC affiliate in Albany, New York, his regional half-hour cooking show has kept its promise of always providing viewers with something fresh, different and unexpected, but always fun.

Speaking of television, Carmine is kept busy juggling his time between his own show and appearing on other celebrity cooking shows taped before live audiences, including Food Network Live. Carmine has also used food to bring people together with his guest appearance on TLC's Perfect Proposal, where he helped a special customer pull off a wedding proposalwith millions watching!

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