PBN 2021 Business Women Awards
Achievement Honoree: Lisa Mattiello, Pranzi Inc.
LISA MATTIELLO HAS ALWAYS loved food, beverages and occasions for people to gather.
Growing up in Warwick in a family with five children – she was the second-youngest child but the oldest girl – Mattiello has been cooking “full-blown” holiday dinners since she was 11.
She is now CEO of Providence-based Pranzi Inc., a catering and events-planning business she started 23 years ago in a small storefront in Seekonk. Independence is a theme with Mattiello. She likes to take charge and is good at getting the job done.
Mattiello – whose husband is a cousin of former House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello – said that in the height of wedding season, she has about 180 employees. That number was at about 55 or 60 as of February 2021 because COVID-19 upended the catering industry.
Mattiello said millions of dollars in business was canceled when venues were not permitted to host weddings in the early months of the pandemic last year.
All was not lost, however.
“Some brides put their weddings in backyards, in which case, we do tents and rentals,” Mattiello said. “We appreciate our relationships with other venues. I feel as if there is enough business for everyone to play nicely together.”
When the coronavirus first struck, Mattiello said, there was confusion about the rules for caterers. “You could go to a restaurant with 200 people, but I could only have 10 [people] at an outdoor wedding? A wedding is different. You know who they are, their phone number, it’s like built-in contact tracing,” she said.
She credited Dale J. Venturini, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, as being an ally. “There were lots of Zoom calls” as the association leadership worked to get caterers’ questions answered, Mattiello said.
Luckily, Pranzi had diversified its offerings years ago in order to give its staff winter hours, which has helped to soften the blow of wedding cancellations. Its grab-and-go line of soups, salads and sandwiches, Nicole’s Gourmet – named after Mattiello’s daughter – has been available at Seasons Corner Markets in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Pranzi also had boxed meals available for pickup or delivery for health care workers, families, work crews, or for large or small events.
Pranzi is set up to supply boxed meals on a last-minute basis, making it possible to do such things as feed hardworking snow removal crews this past winter, said Mattiello. That fast-action ability is helping to further offset COVID-19 event losses.
