Over the past 5 years I've told my wife a number of times I don't understand why Nicoletti's doesn't redesign the place to be a little more upscale than it is. I too, don't care about going in there as much as we used to. I love kids (have two of my own), but the worst thing they could have ever done was put in that "play" area! The place has good square footage; why not put it to better use? Sorry Bruce and Ryan, but the quality of your food has gone way down over the years. Hard to give you guys a thumbs up when I have to send back a "hot" ham and cheese sub 2 times because your employees couldn't seem to get it right!
Somebody complained about their lunch buffet - I love the lunch buffet but keep forgetting to go there. When I have gone, the pizza has been great (for buffet pizza) and the salad bar is terrific.
I also like Nicoletti's pizza and I like their pasta offerings as well. Anyone who gets all pseudosnobbish and insists that x is the ONLY
pizza that's any good - yeah, have fun with that. That's like the fauxfoodies who want to argue about BBQ. Get over yourselves.
Nicoletti's location is their worst feature, IMO. In that scuzzy strip mall that looks dirty and crapped out, it's not a good first impression for a restaurant.
They also need an ADULT! manager on hand at all times so those kids do their jobs and don't get stupid. Most of them are fine, but all it takes is one dumb punk to set off a bad review chain.
They need to deliver. They may be doing that already but I've never heard of it, which means other people haven't heard of it either, which means that they're losing business big time.
Now, I don't know who is opening the MOD franchise - for all I know it's Ryan himself and he doesn't care if Nicoletti's goes away. But if it's not him, and he does care, he needs to get with the times and get away from that old school county mentality. Those days are long gone, your loyal clientele is dying out and needs to be replenished with new folks.
Anyone who complains that chains are putting local businesses out, well, there's a reason for that. In our travels we've seen zillions of local businesses that outperform their chain competitors, so it indeed can and has been done. You have to have a good product in a good location, and you have to have clean smiling friendly faces up front. If you're not in a high traffic area, you have to spend some money promoting and reminding people that you're there. Not for a month or two, but constantly. ABC - always be courting.