Rosetta Sicoli: entrepreneur - Sault Ste. Marie.

• Author: Merchant, Gwen
• Position: 2002 Winner - Owner of Thymely Manner restaurant - Brief Article

Rosetta Sicoli went from not being able to afford pantyhose, to owning one of the top-rated restaurants in Canada. She has "come a long way baby" and all in a "Thymely" manner.

Thymely Manner has been running successfully for 17 years in the City of Sault St. Marie, where Sicoli resides.

The Where to Eat in Canada publication has listed the restaurant business as one of the top 500 in Canada for at least six years.

Sicoli started the business "right from scratch" in 1983. She bought an old house on St. Albert St. East and renovated it. The doors opened in September of 1984.

She says the biggest challenge she has had to overcome was obtaining financing for the venture.

"It was a big-time struggle," Sicoli says. "All the banks said "no."" Being single, and a woman, did not help in her attempt to obtain financing, says Sicoli. She says bank managers would often tell her they had no problem giving her a loan as long as her husband would be a co-signer.

Finally Sicoli went to a trust company and was able to secure a loan. She says statistics point out that 80 per cent of restaurants are "doomed to fail," but she "sure wasn't going to be one of them."

She was told to declare bankruptcy numerous times, but refused to do it.

"I almost lost everything," Sicoli says. "Losing everything wouldn't have been that bad if it hadn't been so important to me at the time because my family was associated with it."

After vowing to pay back debtors, Sicoli began to make her recovery.

"It would have been so simple (to declare bankruptcy)," Sicoli says. "But I never did anything simple."

"When you hit rock bottom, everything's on the way up after that," she says.

Keeping it a success is not simple either, according to Sicoli.

"A lot of hard work, a lot of hours every single day" is what keeps the business flourishing, she adds.

"People get into business and assume it's going to be a right-off," she says. "I'll have a fancy car, a big home, wonderful clothes...all of those things do not happen overnight. In fact sometimes they don't happen. But if you're doing what you really love doing, then that's what should be the reward because you're doing what you love to do."

Another reason Sicoli believes the restaurant is such a success is the fact that all the food she prepares is cooked with natural ingredients, in a manner that Sicoli calls "peasant cooking."

"Aim to be honest and true to your craft," she says. "Be honest with who you are and with your customers."

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