September 2015 Issue Business View Caribbean

Business View Caribbean - September 2015 43 en in their garage. And they started to make pizzas for friends and family.” Around the same time, an ice cream shop at the Val- park Shopping Plaza, Trinidad’s first shopping mall, became available. Harford continues the story: “Then the idea was born to open a restaurant. That is when my dad got involved. Seeing that he had the time, he would be the restaurant manager. He would have fi- nancial interest in the restaurant as well as being the operator of the store.” Initially, the restaurant only sold sandwiches, roti, and ice cream, as the partners were not yet familiar with industrial-type oven equipment, but eventually, they got the pizza oven up and running. “Once they got the pizza oven working, after the first months, it became Mario’s Pizzeria. They didn’t want to use my dad’s name. It couldn’t be ‘Richard’s Pizza.’ It doesn’t sound Italian; it doesn’t sound intriguing; it doesn’t sound different. Mario’s had a certain air to it and was chosen.” The restaurant was an instant hit, both because of