Business focus: Bambino’s offers healthy, made-from-scratch meals

It is said that good things come to those who wait. Coeur d’Alene business owner Angelo Martini Brunson thinks North Idahoans have waited long enough.

In a former Laundromat on North Fourth Street, Brunson, 39, and business partner Dana Musick opened the white table-cloth service Bambino’s Pizza and Gelato, the second Italian-themed venture in town for Brunson. Offering organic food that is prepared from scratch, Bambino’s has proved to be a bustling and healthy alternative since the doors opened a few months ago.

“Bambino’s is for people who really enjoy organic food made from scratch,” Brunson said.

The restaurant, which straddles the line between midtown and downtown Coeur d’Alene, was boosted in part by word-of-mouth from frequent customers to Angelo’s – Brunson’s other successful Italian restaurant just a few blocks to the north. With windows looking onto Fourth Street, religious figurines such as the infant Jesus and Madonna overlooking the tables, a series of oil-paintings on the northern wall, painted exposed brick on another and an open-air kitchen and bar at its heart, the new restaurant’s interior is more like a warm and inviting living room than the sterile spaces found in some eateries. That warmth even extends to Bambino’s plush red bathrooms, where patrons might find they feel at home, or maybe just what they’d like their own lavatory to look like.

“We wanted something different, not institutional,” Brunson said. “(Bambino’s) is completely 100 percent different from Angelo’s … We really have a huge following of people seeking healthy food made from scratch. I think that is really important because you are what you eat.”

But before Angelo’s or Bambino’s came along, Brunson got his start in the restaurant business in Seattle, where he lived for 30 years. It was at an early age that he learned the ins and outs of the business through hands-on experience. Before he and wife, Julie, moved to Southern California in 1999, Angelo had operated a large restaurant and piano bar in Washington.

After a brief stay in Big Bear, Calif., the Brunson family, which now includes three young children, headed north in 2001 for Idaho’s picturesque city by the lake. Within a few years, Brunson went from managing the Market Cafe until it was sold to new owners to becoming a thriving business owner when Angelo’s restaurant was opened in 2005. Once open, business soared. Brunson credits that to the people of Coeur d’Alene and to the many visitors who are willing to make a trip to town just for the food, even from around the country. “I really owe a lot to Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “They really appreciate good food made from scratch.”

Following the warm reception that Angelo’s received, Brunson started looking into opening another eatery nearby. When the former Laundromat became available, the location fit the budding entrepreneur’s vision perfectly.

“It just kind of popped out of the sky at me,” he said. “I thought ‘Wow, what a great location!’ “

With the location secured and business partner Musick, 61, former owner of The Veranda restaurant in Kellogg, on board, Bambino’s was taking shape.

“We both knew of a lack of healthy eating places around here,” Musick said. It was when she was dining at Angelo’s, enjoying the gourmet cuisine, that Musick thought “he knew what he was doing.”

With joint funding in place to support their business enterprise, a complete menu featuring Italian food from panini to pizza, there remained just one last but crucial ingredient, which was putting together a reliable staff. “The restaurant business is a risky business,” Musick said, adding that good staffing is essential. “So far they have done great.”

Ask Brunson and the reason behind their success is simple; the 22 individuals on staff who make it happen everyday.

“I’ve just been blessed with the most wonderful help,” he said.

Sitting at a table after an afternoon lunch rush, Bambino’s restaurant manager Jaydn Keyes, 29, reciprocated Brunson’s high regard for his staff. “He’s by far the best boss I’ve ever had,” Keyes said. “He will be there for us no matter what – not only with the business but personally. You don’t find that very often this day and age.”

Good food has long been a fuel feeding Brunson’s entrepreneurial appetite. And now that desire to provide robust organic food in a friendly atmosphere has paid off twice for the people of North Idaho. “It’s been a really fun ride up to this point,” Brunson said.