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FeedFired Up
Carlo deMarco brings bigger and better to Downingtown.
Photos by Steve Legato Published May 22, 2009 at 10:37 AM
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It’s night three of Firecreek Restaurant & Bar’s March opening event for friends and family, and Carlo deMarco is stationed outside the kitchen, poised to pounce on any entrée that doesn’t meet his exacting standards.
For the next few hours, deMarco will be tracking everything in the Downingtown restaurant. Perhaps most important to this seasoned chef is customer reaction. Whether it’s friends or family, feedback is a hot commodity.
A few days later, 24 hours before Firecreek’s official opening, deMarco is enjoying an unseasonably warm afternoon on the patio of his other restaurant, 333 Belrose Bar & Grill in Wayne. Despite word that Firecreek’s liquor license is on hold, he’s calm as can be. On any another day, he might’ve been “wigged,” but deMarco is fresh off of a two-day break, it’s gorgeous outside, and early feedback about his new venture has been good.
Still, a crucial decision has to be made. Do they open without the liquor license? Apparently, deMarco’s mind is made up. “When you don’t open on time—especially after a lot of hype—there’s a loss of credibility,” he says. “It’s embarrassing.”
As it turns out, Firecreek did open without a liquor license—a great deal for customers, but not for deMarco and partner Rob Donaldson. “We were giving away top-shelf booze,” says deMarco. “We had a strong showing in the dining room, but instead of staying open until 11, we closed at 9:30. That’s an hour and a half of lost bar business.”
Still, the night was hardly a disaster. By 5:15 p.m., the enormous dining room was half full, and the kitchen served more than 300 customers. They’d all come out to sample the much-hyped new restaurant’s carnivore-friendly, fire-grilled American fare and edgy aesthetics.
A subsequent turnout on Firecreek’s second weekend in business fell short of expectations, but deMarco didn’t sweat it. The liquor license—and better weather—was coming.
Opening a 5,375-square-foot restaurant in this shaky economy is a bold move—something deMarco freely admits. “It’s crazy that we’re doing it,” he says. “But we’ve been on this train for months; it needed to get to the station. Once a train gets rolling, you can’t stop it mid-track.”
“Think big” has been a successful business model for many Philadelphia restaurateurs, if less so in the suburbs. Higher volume often delivers greater earnings, but it can also mean more overhead—and an exponential increase in the number of things that can go wrong. 
“Keeping Belrose strong as we settle into Downingtown won’t be a problem,” says Donaldson. “But Firecreek will be a challenge for a while. We’ve got a hundred more seats, twice the number of employees, and more moving parts.” (Those moving parts also include the yet-to-open Doghouse, a casual burger joint adjacent to Firecreek.)
Expanding from one restaurant to two should be a real test for deMarco, particularly on the business end of things. “Carlo’s going to learn new aspects about operations that he only got a taste of at Belrose,” says Donaldson. “Being a chef/owner has taught him a lot, though. He’s well aware of costs and where things need to be cut.”
Adds deMarco, “Owning a business and being intimate with the numbers makes you a good business person. You learn all about P&L when it’s your money.”
That appreciation for the bottom line has helped him maintain a solid relationship with Donaldson and investors at Belrose and Firecreek. The only person who puts a cap on the kitchen’s creativity is deMarco himself—and that’s only when the cost of ingredients gets out of hand.
“I look at menus from 10 years ago, and it’s like, ‘Oh my god.’ The cost of product and staffing has gone up dramatically.”
But that’s just the sort of challenge deMarco craves.
“There is an infinite amount of new information and products out there, and a lot of cool stuff happening in kitchens,” he says. “But I’m much more concerned about being precise and consistent than I am about being weird or eclectic. I may try stuff like cooking sous vide at home or playing around with my smoker—and maybe I’ll think about doing it here—but it has to make sense, and it can’t be out-of-control expensive.”
