Mario Purro has taken over responsibility and ownership of his family’s business, transforming an Atwells Avenue storefront from Bradford Variety, a neighborhood convenience store, to Bradford News Café, a new eatery in Providence’s famed restaurant district. Previously, Purro served as the special events and entertainment manager for Twin River Casino and as production manager and general market manager at GMR Live and GMR Marketing.
PBN: How will you take what you’ve gained from working at a major hospitality venue and apply it to running Bradford News Café?
PURRO: It’s a development process here at the Bradford, day by day. Of course there’s a specific plan in motion, but the one area of service that I incorporated during my time at Twin River is guest development. I believe there needs to be a connection with guests in order for them to accept your services or decline them. … And because the Bradford is a small startup, it’s crucial that every guest walking through its doors feels a connection.
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PBN: The location has been in your family for more than 25 years. What are you looking forward to in this new chapter?
PURRO: I’m looking forward to incorporating my [experience] with my neighborhood community as it was when it was Bradford Variety. I’m looking forward to playing an active, positive role to help create a community-based business that gives back, creates memories, and makes an impact on peoples’ lives.
PBN: The hospitality industry increasingly utilizes technology for events, promotions and client outreach. What role will technology play in the branding of Bradford News Café?
PURRO: We offer newspapers to read in order to keep that nostalgic, storefront feel, but we also offer free WiFi because many of our guests are business-people on a working lunch or students working on assignments before morning classes and they need to be connected, get things done. That said, it also plays a big role in entertainment. The Bradford has a Web site, 1300-plus friends on Facebook and is expanding to Twitter because people want to know what’s going on without having to ask. Technology is communication and people want to communicate as quickly and effortlessly as possible within both big business and small business alike. •
