By Ginger Dawson
NKyTribune reporter
Pompilio’s restaurant and bar is an institution in these parts. Every living generation of diners in the greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area has had an experience, or memory, of this venerable old bar/restaurant that has anchored the corner of Sixth St. and Washington Ave. in Newport’s Gateway District for over 85 years.
The energy of Italian food, libation, people, family, friendship and, as of 1991, Bocce Ball (an Italian lawn bowling game) is thick in the air on that corner.
Newport has always had a strong Italian heritage with a festival that continues today. Heck, currently, even the mayor has the last name of Peluso.
And, it has been a magnet for Hollywood. We all remember Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman with his toothpicks from the 1988 movie Rainman. Another movie, Airborne, with actors Jack Black and Seth Greene was filmed there in 1993.
I, myself, remember a first visit around 1985. The very cool original 1940’s decor with the big round mirrors and in-booth jukeboxes were the ultimate in retro. Dining on spaghetti, chilled(!) red wine served in carafes with little tumblers to drink out of made it a unique experience. I was waiting tables then, and my group of self-consciously “knowledgeable” hipster restaurant co-workers marveled at this oddity. What did we know?
For over 85 years, it has taken a lot of people and energy to keep this place going. The founding Pompilio family shepherded it for forty-nine of these years. This was an impressive run by any standard, and as these things go, the family ultimately ran out of steam. Ensuing generations were not interested in the restaurant business.
In 1982, the Pompilio family, and all of Newport, were lucky when the Mazzei family took over. The Mazzeis carried the torch for 29 more years (another good run!) until a second generation took over and brought on new partners.
Luck held out again for Pompilio’s. Larry Geiger and his high school buddy, Joe Bristow, became partners with Mike Mazzei (who bought out his family) in ownership and management in 2011.
At Newport High School, where both Joe and Larry graduated in 1998, Larry was engaged in sports, was class vice president (under Joe’s role as president) and also taught himself to play guitar, “you know, just to have something to do.”
Larry went off to college at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he received a business degree in marketing and finance in 2003. After graduation, he had a couple of jobs in the finance industry. They were OK.
Also during college, he had restaurant jobs and, being a natural extrovert, realized he just loved the social aspect of the business.
Joe Bristow’s first job, at age 15, was as a busser at Pompilio’s. He knew what was going on at the restaurant and had the foresight to see that an opportunity might be in the works. He extended an invitation to Larry to join him around 2006 in a managerial partnership. When ownership in the business was offered to them, they were both ready. Joe knew his man.
Larry Geiger and Pompilio’s is one of those matches that is just so good that you smile at the perfection of it! His self-proclaimed “overly social” personality couldn’t be better for the job.
He loves the people — customers and employees both. He loves the challenges of running the business in all its aspects.
His relationship with his partners couldn’t be any better. They each have their own distinct roles with a common goal; make Pompilio’s the very best it can be.
Joe is STILL his best friend and Mike Mazzei is held in high esteem as a mentor and advisor.
Heck, he even met his wife Molly at the bank making daily deposits. She was a teller there, and the first date was made at the drive-through window. They married in 2013 and have three kids.
One would think that that might be enough going on. But no.
Just this past year, the partners bought another business, KHI Food Brands, long-established in Burlington. KhI is a custom food manufacturing business that produces and packages shelf-stable foods in a range of quantity, large and small-batch, for many different types of customers.
This all started when Remke’s Markets, a local grocery chain, expressed a desire to sell Pompilio’s pasta sauces in their stores.
Larry is the Chief Operating Officer. Overseeing a staff of five employees, Larry is in discovery mode and enjoying the challenge of learning all he can about the business and maximizing its potential.
KHI cans tomatoes and other suitable produce for area farmers. If you see a local restaurant’s food products on the shelf at the grocery, it’s a good chance that KHI had a hand in it.
And they can do this — a vanity project for the serious home chef. KHI will take your recipe and adapt it for a small run production for you to sell, give to family and friends or use as a great advertising giveaway.
Or, if you don’t cook, you can pick one of KHI’s tested and approved recipes.
This could be one-stop Christmas shopping! Think about it.
And, “you know, just to stay busy,” Larry has continued to play music, manning lead and rhythm guitar in a series of bands.
After college, back in Northern Kentucky, he and four of his friends formed a punk band, Shotgun on Blonde. They played out at all of the usual places at that time — The Southgate House, Sudsy Malone’s on Clifton’s Short Vine and Covington’s Mad Hatter. Momento Mori.
Shotgun on Blonde had a good run for a few years (2005-2008) and burned its fuse out as bandmates’ priorities shifted (euphemism for tired of late nights and playing for free) and transitioned to a cover band.
Hot Stuff made the rounds and money for about five years playing paying festivals and gigs at places like JerZee’s Pub and the Taste of Cincinnati.
Larry’s priorities shifted yet again when he and Molly married (no euphemism there!). He no longer enjoyed the late nights away from home. As he stated, “I’ve got a beautiful wife, I want to start a family — does this make any sense?” He decided that it did not.
But, time went on and he missed playing music with his friends. The band has recently reunited and Hot Stuff rechristened itself as, wait for it…..The Fuzz Club. Now, he is able to play with them in a way that is more compatible with family life and his busy business obligations. They are recording together at Mike’s Music in Covington’s Mainstrasse Village. No more rock and roll late nights of hedonism and debauchery. After all, he IS turning 40 this year.
Larry is fortunate in that he is naturally driven and is an optimist. These are necessary attributes for an entrepreneur. However, being an active, voluble sort, he has had to learn the lesson of patience, something that was not particularly a part of his DNA.
Taking over an existing business, especially one that caters to the public, is not easy.
“You’re full of great ideas and want to do them. I learned from day one, that not everyone is going to like what you’re doing,” Larry stated. He has found that patience is the only thing that will sustain him and allow him to ease in new ideas customers like and employees will accept.
And speaking of patience, like all businesses who are struggling due to the Covid19 pandemic, the idea of patience has taken on a whole new meaning.
In this difficult, unpredictable time, when the goalposts seem to be continually moving with an unsettling regularity, he bolsters this appreciation of patience with an attitude of consistency and dependability. He believes this is what needs to happen now, and for moving forward.
He illustrates this with a favored quote, attributed to Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”
Larry Geiger and Pompilio’s has turned out to be one of those matches that is just so good that it IS perfection beyond his being “overly social.” This makes everyone smile.
Ginger Dawson writes about people — the neighbors you need to know and people you need to meet and understand. If you have ideas for subjects please share them with Ginger at ginger@fuse.net.