If you’re ever looking for a place to eat out with your friends, you’ll definitely want to consider Midici, a restaurant that is simultaneously high-class / casual and that revolves around fostering friendships and building relationships. MidiCi serves a variety of Neapolitan dishes that are all made from organic, non-GMO ingredients. They provide its customers with a very elegant and upscale environment, while also providing the same affordability and efficiency of a more casual restaurant. For this reason, MidiCi is known as a “fast-fine” restaurant, meaning that it provides fine dining made fast. Amit Kleinberger, CEO of MidiCi and Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, was able to give The LA Fashion Magazine deeper insight into the creation of the restaurant.
Can you go into detail about the mission of MidiCi, which is bringing friends together, and why that has been such an important concept for the restaurant?
“The objectives of MidiCi are unlike the basic goals of many other businesses. Our objectives revolve around the idea of building human relationships. The mission is unique because, it’s not every day that you’ll see a business putting such a strong effort into the goal of pursuing the basic concept of humanity, which is relationship-building.”
What inspired you to go into the restaurant business?
“I absolutely love food. I have been a fan of food since my youth and have been working around all types of food since I was a teen. I worked at a variety of ice cream shops and fast food chains. Throughout the years, there are two things that I have come to especially appreciate about the food business. The first thing is the people. It seems to me that food is the only thing that is always able to bring people together. Secondly, I admired the sense of teamwork that always can with working in the food business.”
What made you particularly interested in starting a pizza restaurant after expanding Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt?
“I began to create MidiCi around the same time of the expansion of Menchie’s. in the midst of the expansion of Menchie’s, I fell in love with the art of Neapolitan pizza. I was drawn to the unique qualities of Neapolitan pizza and was inspired by the way that such a simple product has the ability to bring people together in such a powerful way. By next year, I am hoping to ecpand midiCi to about 100 locations. As the restaurant starts to expand, the energy and passion that is put into the restaurant also begins to expand. That goes for Menchie’s as well.”
Some of the staff at MidiCi said that you occasionally assist in making the actual pizzas. Can you talk about the importance of being personally involved in all areas of a business as a CEO?
“Leadership, to me, is a privilege. There is no such thing as leadership without work itself. Personally, I love working, so I tend to spend a lot of time with the culinary side of the business as well. I am very involved with the food itself. I can honestly say that there is never one week that I am not physically working at the restaurant.”
