Hospitality

52 weeks of the year since 2000, Ronnie Di Stasio has had the studio produce an advertisement to appear in Tuesday’s Epicure section of The Age daily newspaper. The consistent element of each week is a special lunch menu which promotes a two course meal and a glass of wine. Over the years, the size of the ads have varied and on occasions Ronnie will book a full or double page spread for special occasions. Here is a small selection, the photography is in most part by John Gollings:

Cafe Di Stasio is an Italian restaurant in St Kilda and a nineteen year old institution in Melbourne. The owner is a complex personality whose obsession is the total integration of his lifestyle into the folklore of the restaurant. This involves art, architecture, wine, food and mayhem.

We were commissioned to manage the image and reputation of the restaurant (and the associated elements) not just to ensure its viability but to actively reinforce its reputation as the best Italian restaurant in Australia.

Our approach to regular weekly press has been to infer the experience through the use of bizarre or surreal imagery rather than words, we use the space to promote examples of avant-guard art, show family snaps or the Di Stasio vineyard and wine.

As the owner’s enterprises expand we design the packaging and produce the collateral to appear as a seamless blend of the whole. Again; style, confidence and quality are assumed through the simple but bold graphics and lack of words.

All communication is to the consumer and dining out is an elective spend, so it has to be constant, responsive and innovative. The campaign, as such, is never ending and timeless.

Success can be measured by patronage, the cafe is always full, even when others are struggling but reputation is anecdotal. However patronage depends on reputation and by managing the reputation the cafe continues to be phenomenally successful. Readers seek out the weekly ads in epicure and the ad spend by competitors is significant income for the Fairfax Group.

In its own small way the Di Stasio imaging is keeping alive Melbourne’s reputation as a style Capital and Victoria as a place for innovative design.

With redevelopment of the Members stand at the MCG, Epicure won the contract to provide catering services. An independent image for Epicure and the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) was developed to promote the new union.

A small Italian cafe where the name literally became the business card.