Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlynn Patrizi.
Hi Ashlynn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Vic & Al’s opened its doors in March of 2019, right as the pandemic started. We realized very quickly that we had to pivot from our soft opening parties to something different. Our team came up with the idea to give all of our food away to people heavily affected by the pandemic. This is where our Community Kitchen was introduced. We had an online forum for people to sign up for time slots to come pick up their “free meal” whatever that may be for the day. We served about 10,000 meals over the course of three months until it was finally time to open up just for To-go food.
Our efforts to give free meals to everyone affected by the pandemic really got the word out on our new restaurant. We donated meals to hospitals, service industry folks, our neighbors and anyone who needed it. Not to mention we also had similar efforts when the big ole’ Texas freeze happened.
As the pandemic continued, we made all the effort to keep our customers and staff as safe as possible, always following CDC guidelines and supplementing income for our staff to maintain a livable wage.
The year is now 2022, we have formed a great relationship with the cherrywood neighborhood, service industry workers and anyone who walks through our doors. We treat everyone like our favorite family members and we try to maintain that positivity throughout.
The owner, Nic Patrizi (my brother), has now opened up his third restaurant off Bee Caves and Cuernavaca; it is a brick-and-mortar of Patrizi’s.
If anyone should get credit, Nic is the one to mention. I don’t think he has had a day off in the last 5 years, he is very invested in the well-being of his staff and customers, not to mention he does it with a smile on his face.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. Owning and running a restaurant in itself is a very intense high-stress job. Owning and running a restaurant when half of the world is quarantining and isolating is a whole different ballpark.
Every day something was constantly changing. All the sudden we needed a million face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and protective gear for our staff, not to mention most places couldn’t keep any of these things stocked.
We had a lot of the community reach out in an effort to give back to us. People who were coming for our Community Kitchen were making us handmade cloth masks, volunteering their time and efforts in any way that they could which was greatly appreciated. In the first couple of months, we quickly realized what a great community we were beginning to be a part of.
Thankfully we were able to get SBA Loans for both restaurants; however, the funds did not last long. Staffing was incredibly hard and we are forever grateful for the staff that has stuck by our side through it all.
Unlike most restaurants who let go the majority of their staff, Nic Patrizi insisted on not only keeping everyone but ensuring that they had a sufficient amount of income to sustain a comfortable life. (if we go down, we go down together)
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Vic & Al’s?
Today Vic & Al’s is quickly becoming a neighborhood watering hole & eatery. We have about 50% regulars and 50% new customers daily due to our very high rating on yelp & community efforts during the pandemic.
Our Bar & Food:
Our restaurant is fairly petite, with inside and outside dining and a small kitchen in the back. We have a beautiful, functional pantry that most guests will comment on when they first arrive, and not to mention we have about 12 chandeliers inside. We have a beautiful wood fire oven that we cook most of our food in. We cook up scratch-made dishes daily that change and are inspired by Louisiana Plate Lunch or the good ole’ “meat & three”. We like to keep it fresh and new for our returning guests and newcomers seem to enjoy the “build your plate” style of dining. We try to locally source the majority of our food in an effort to support the surrounding farms. Another neat aspect about the restaurant is we reuse and recycle the majority of our products and ingredients. We strive to make everything in-house from our mustards, aiolis, cajun seasoning, and dressings to our bitters, liquor infusions, seasonal shrubs… etc. We have a fairly low price point for most of our menu and this is just a decision we have made as a business in order to keep the surrounding clientele.
Our Service:
Our service is a hybrid of counter service and table service. Our main goal always is that our customers are happy. Which means our customer service standards are extremely high. Customers order all their food and drink up at the counter and then there is typically staff running food out, bussing tables, and checking in on guests. This type of service has helped us survive during these uncertain times as we have struggled with staffing. (never-ending struggle)
Our hours of operation are 9:00am – 11:00pm daily, Happy hour Monday through Friday 3pm – 6pm.
How do you think about luck?
It’s hard to say. We could start the day feeling ‘lucky’ that we have been able to survive this pandemic as long as we have but it’s hard not to feel sad for all the other businesses that haven’t had the luck that we’ve had.
There is so much hard work, effort and personal investment that our restaurant family has put into our businesses and we feel extremely lucky to have these people be part of this journey with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vicandals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vicandals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicandals
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/vic-and-als-austin
- Other: https://vicandals.square.site/
Image Credits
Greer Reudin
