Mama Cimino's expands in Dixon

COVID-19 has had a crippling, or at least a detrimental, effect on the restaurant business.

Jim Gallentine, owner of Mama Cimino’s Pizza in Dixon for the past 19 years, saw an opportunity in this uncertain time to not only survive, but to thrive. In March, when the dine-in portion of the business was shut down due to the pandemic, he chose to expand the business.

Gallentine owned the building adjacent to his pizza place that was the home to World Finance. Last fall, when World Finance moved to a location on the south side of Dixon, that building went unused until March, when Gallentine decided to expand his pizza operation. Lahey Construction was the lead contractor.

“We had been trying to decide what we could do,” Gallentine said. “People had said to us in the restaurant when they came there on buffet nights and other times, it was just a little too crowded. With Mike Lahey’s help, we sat down and designed this where we could expand and meet our customer’s needs.”

The new room has seven booths and seven tables, new men’s and women’s bathrooms and three big screen televisions. Also, there is a buffet area away from the seating area, to handle Taco Tuesday, Fish Friday and a Sunday morning breakfast buffet.

Work was also done to the original restaurant area. Four video gaming machines were moved to the north mall, to open up seating near the front window. A new service counter was installed, and draft beer is now available for dine-in customers.

In the kitchen, a wall was moved back 5 feet, making room for a new fryer, a steam table, a freezer and a grill. Gallentine has also purchased an ice cream machine, but that is not up and running yet.

This marked the second time in 4 years Gallentine has upgraded his business. A conference/banquet room was added then. He sees it as simply giving his customers what they want, outside of a tasty pizza and basket of chicken wings.

“I guess I’m old enough that I’ve learned in life that if you just stay pat, life is going to pass you by,” Gallentine said. “You’ve got to constantly keep improving, listening to your customers and meeting customer needs. When me and my wife go out to other places and look around, we see what’s working and what’s not.”

Gallentine was able to open up for dine-in customers in late July. He noted business has been steady, but is still waiting for the uptick in dine-in traffic he’s hoping for.

“In my opinion, people are not dining out like they used to,” Gallentine said. “We were very blessed during Covid-19 that we had a good carryout, curb-side and delivery business. I don’t want to make people that didn’t do so well feel bad, but we were very blessed. We’re hoping everything will be getting back to normal soon.”