Building and Maintaining an Empire

Panini Pete talks about the many facets of his hospitality group, what it takes to be successful and the importance of giving back.

by Lindsay Mott Fletcher

As a teenager interested in the art of cooking, all Chef “Panini” Pete Blohme set out to do was to one day own his own restaurant. Now, he sits atop the PP Hospitality Group and what your author likes to describe as a culinary (and beyond) “empire” that provides delicious food and lively restaurant vibes, stable job opportunities, real estate acquisitions, media, philanthropy and more in both Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Blohme is quick to point out that he hasn’t done this alone. He credits bringing in his partner and co-owner Nick DiMario in 2014 with much of PP Hospitality Group’s success because “he’s crazy and ambitious, too.” DiMario is “great on structure,” which Blohme says has given him the ability to do other projects and be creative. The pair have known each other for 30 years, and, together, their typical answer is “yes” to a unique opportunity that they then find a way to make happen.

Restaurants

Blohme is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY, and sits on the institute’s Alumni Advisory Council. He has also achieved national headlines, being featured with Guy Fieri on his Live Road Show performing in 25-plus Road Shows and featured on a host of Food Network shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy’s Grocery Games, Guy’s Big Bite and The Great Food Truck Race with Tyler Florence, as well as CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama. He is also a member of Best Chefs America.

Blohme’s local fame began with Panini Pete’s, which has turned into a number of other restaurants over the years including Sunset Pointe in Fairhope, Squid Ink Eats & Drinks in Mobile, The Waterfront in Daphne, Ed’s Seafood Shed in Spanish Fort and the group’s latest idea: Mobile’s Parc Le Tralour Food Hall and Event Center, which is home to four PP brands: Astronaut Chicken, Taco Hermanos, Mob Town Slice and Panini Pete’s.

The food hall concept is unique as you can order from each brand on one check/transaction, and the space shares a master kitchen with finishing stations out front. Moving forward, they are hoping to grow the location as an event space at night.

Real Estate and More

Beyond food, Blohme owns the Squid Ink building in downtown Mobile, along with 21 units of multi-family rental space and three commercial properties. With these units, he has been able to offer apartments to employees at a discount when needed. And the PP brand has now entered the world of cosmetology with the Mob Town Proper barber shop in a building that he owns in midtown Mobile. The shop offers a unique experience adding “some of our expertise” focused on how the customer is treated. “We are having a blast, and we have some great stylists in there,” Blohme said.

Media

He’s also entered the media world with his podcast, The Raw Ingredients, and the publication of his book, Spatula Success. The podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus, but he plans to get back to it soon, as he said he enjoyed the interviews he was able to do and being able to learn and grow from his guests’ experience.

For the book, Blohme took a philosophy — and a pep talk — he uses in his restaurants where he talks about spatulas as a tool that eliminates waste by being able to gather the “underappreciated morsels in a pan or container. If you dig deep and collect that over time, it builds an amazing foundation.” For Blohme, this is how life works: it’s thousands of little decisions that allow someone to dig deep and create abundance.

Philanthropy

For Blohme, giving back has always been important. Along with fellow alumnus Robert Kabakoff, he co- founded a scholarship run for students at the CIA. In addition, his proudest accomplishment is being a founding member of “The Messlords” a group of celebrity chefs who travel the world boosting moral for U.S. troops with culinary training and mass feedings in locations such as Japan, Spain, Italy, Africa, Bahrain, Romania, Cuba and Europe, as well as onboard aircraft carriers and submarines.

Locally, he does a lot of work with veterans and people with disabilities, and he and Kabakoff founded the PR Foundation. He hosts fundraising events and is currently a part of the Warrior Legacy Ranch project, a veterans’ mental health facility project being built in Robertsdale. He also built a house for one of his employees with special needs. He said his businesses have “given us the ability to help a lot of people. It’s neat to make an impact in people’s lives.”

Success

For Blohme, ownership comes out of the ability to be risk adverse. “It’s not just ‘Be willing to work hard and not make a lot of money, but work hard and be in debt and get out of it,’” he said. It’s also important to understand the business that one is involved in inside and out. He said the restaurant business is glamorous to people on the outside, but in reality, it’s a lot of work, and it’s essentially Groundhog Day every day. Over the years, his team has been able to create systems to help with this, and if they do hit a snag, they know that they can get through it. As Blohme says, “It’s not life and death; it’s just lunch and dinner.”

To be able to create his “empire,” it’s been important to work hard, have the ability to be critical of himself and not make knee-jerk reactions. “You have to make the decision because you’re the one taking the risk,” he said.

But it’s also due to the team he has around him. PP Hospitality Group now has a corporate office with a controller, a director of training, a director of recruiting and more. This has allowed him to hire even more great team members and continue to grow a team of like-minded individuals. “We don’t want to be like every other restaurant,” Blohme said. “We want to be better.”

In looking at the PP Hospitality brand, Blohme said this:

“All I wanted to do was open my own place one day, and I finally got a chance to do it. If you stick to your guns and create an environment, it can grow. I’m just so proud that I took the chance, and my wife supported the hell out of me through this journey. You have to pinch yourself. This is really cool what we’ve accomplished, and there are more levels out there. We still want to keep rolling.”