facebook.com/ristorantebartolotta
Ristorante Bartolotta, the Bartolotta's first restaurant
Since opening Ristorante Bartolotta in 1993, The Bartolotta Restaurants group has established a prominent reputation throughout Milwaukee with several fine dining and casual restaurants, and for-profit catering partnerships. Yet Joe Bartolotta, his wife, Jennifer, and his brother, Paul, wanted to do more than serve great food. Through the organization’s philanthropic arm, Care-a-lotta, and partnering with the Wisconsin Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to launch the ProStart culinary arts program at four Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) high schools, the Bartolottas have become stalwarts in community outreach.
“Joe founded the company on five tenets: taking care of each other, taking care of the guests, taking care of community, taking care of vendors, and the last is making money,” said Kelly Mallegni, marketing manager for The Bartolotta Restaurants. Care-a-lotta was established in 2009 to formalize the many donation requests they received.
Care-a-lotta supports local organizations in three ways: Care–a-lotta Community is a program where they donate $100 in Care-a-lotta gift certificates to 40 organizations for their events and auctions each month. Organizations can fill out a request online, and certificates are distributed through a lottery system.
The Care-a-lotta Credit program provides a donation equal to 10 or 15 percent (depending on the day of the week) of the food and beverage costs for 501(c) 3 or 501(c) 4 organizations that host a special event in any Batrolotta’s restaurant or catering facility.
Gal-a-lotta provides one all-expenses paid gala per year for one 501(c) 3 local nonprofit organization to help generate awareness, build support and raise funds for its mission. Vince Halpin, Care-a-lotta board member and general manager of Mr. B’s Steakhouse in Brookfield, said each board member reviews all applications and narrows them down to three finalists. Those three organizations give a presentation to the board about what they do and why they should win Gal-a-lotta.
“We had three very worthwhile causes, but ultimately we had to choose one, and this year the winner was Running Rebels,” Halpin said. “The two founders of the organization came and gave a passionate, heartfelt speech, and they brought some kids that would benefit from the gala.”
The Bartolotta Restaurants funds each gala at one of their locations. This year’s gala, benefitting the Waukesha Women’s Center, takes place Aug. 23 at the Italian Community Center, one of the facilities which The Bartolotta Restaurants has a for-profit catering partnership (others are Grain Exchange, Discovery World and Peck & Bushel farm venue). The Running Rebels gala is slated for October 2019; the exact date to be determined.
Joe and Jennifer are supporters of urban education and have partnered with the Wisconsin Restaurant Association to help launch ProStart culinary arts training program at Bay View, Vincent, James Madison and Washington high schools. “When this MPS program came to Jennifer and Joe, it really fit in strongly with the third tenet, which is community,” Mallegni said.
ProStart has exposed many students to culinary arts and made them aware that it can be a viable career path. Jennifer frequently visits the four high schools, and she can often be found in a chef’s coat working alongside the students. Bartolotta chefs, along with chefs from SURG and Hospitality Democracy, help train and mentor students.
Mallegni said they’ve recently implemented Care-a-lotta ambassadors in each of their restaurants to create initiatives specific to needs in their communities. At Lake Park Bistro, the Care-a-lotta ambassador organized a trash pickup around Lake Park.
For more information, visit www.bartolottas.com.
