Pentolina

Successful Hospitality PR campaign

I handled the PR campaign for my restaurant Pentolina - a 50-seater Italian pasta bar in the Melbourne CBD - throughout its entire life cycle, from the opening in 2018 through to the closure in 2022 (with a pandemic thrown in the middle for good measure!).

The primary aim of my PR campaign was to create greater awareness of Pentolina among Melbourne diners and tourists, especially those who love pasta and Italian food, resulting in more first-time customers plus increased customer loyalty (and higher spend) from existing customers.

The secondary aim was to raise awareness of Pentolina with the food-focused media outlets and journalists, to boost our chances of being visited/reviewed by food critics and bloggers, and included in “best of” lists (e.g. “best pasta” and “best Italian restaurants”.)

Stage 1: Opening

Shortly after opening Pentolina in May 2018 with a strong social media campaign, I realised that social media wasn’t going to cut it. We needed mainstream media coverage to fill our empty tables.

So I wrote a media release about the beautiful story behind Pentolina and pitched it to all the major food media and food writers.  

We achieved some amazing PR results including:  

Stage 2: Business as usual

Once the excitement of the opening had passed, it became more challenging to secure ongoing media coverage for Pentolina. The food media tends to focus on new venue openings, so it’s important to make the effort to stay visible!

Over a three-year period, I pitched a broad range of stories to the media including:

  • Upcoming special events and wine dinners

  • Exclusive recipes

  • A profile of head chef Gabriele Olivieri

  • The health benefits of pasta

  • My career journey from lawyer to restaurateur

PR results included:

 I also liaised regularly with Broadsheet to make sure that our directory listing was kept up-to-date and accurately reflected our concept.

Stage 3: Lockdowns

PR was essential to raise awareness of Pentolina’s activities during Melbourne’s extended lockdowns in 2020-21, and to help maintain our reputation and goodwill while we were closed to dine-in customers.

Our lockdown activities - including home deliveries, virtual wine dinners and a wholesale pasta business - were featured numerous times in Broadsheet, City of Melbourne WhatsOn and The Age Good Food.

Plus, I was featured in an article about sole parents juggling work and parenting during the lockdowns, published in The Age & Sydney Morning Herald (It’s the mother of all juggles but Rowena, and other sole parents, ‘just keep going’)

Stage 4: Closure

I made the difficult decision to close Pentolina in December 2022, when my lease expired. The high rent and rising costs in the restaurant industry had made it unsustainable for me to continue.

Three months before the closure, I wrote a media release announcing my decision and sent it to all the major Melbourne food media outlets. The story was published in Broadsheet, The Age Good Food and the Herald Sun, and was also picked up in the national news via News.com.au.

I also secured media coverage for a collaborative farewell event I organised with Bar Americano, an iconic Melbourne bar which closed a couple of weeks before Pentolina.

All of this publicity was priceless: it meant that we were fully booked in the lead-up to the closure and finished up on a high.

PR results included:

Media Gallery

4.png
19.png
21.png
27.png
6.png
9.png
7.png
8.png
11.png
13.png
14.png
30.png
22.png
25.png
23.png
TickerTV.png
5.png
28.png
26.png
2.png
31.png
10.png
20.png
1.png
18.png
15.png
29.png
17.png
3.png
16.png
12.png
Previous

Dr Geoff Cashion