TAMPA, Fla. — To prep for a day of work in the kitchen, Vinny Andriotti doesn’t mind putting in some extra hours.

What You Need To Know

  •  Cousin Vinny's began its operation outside of a ghost kitchen but is now preparing its own restaurant next to the University of Tampa

  •  A ghost kitchen is where a restaurant makes food in a place where there is no physical store front and the food is ordered on delivery apps

  •  Cousin Vinny's gained popularity through delivery app orders, and plans to open its first brick and mortar store on Cass Street in the near future

“I can get in here as early as five,” the executive chef for Cousin Vinny’s said.

After all, his passion is food.

He’s spent time in fine dining and always said the end game was to open his own deli.

Not too long ago, he got that chance using his name and his unmistakable accent to create something from the northeast right here in Tampa.

“Any time I introduce myself down here, the first thing I get is someone with an impersonation of a New York accent, they go, ‘Oh, like My Cousin, Vinny. You ever see that movie?’” Andriotti said.

He and some partners opened Cousin Vinny’s.

However, even if you’ve had one of their sandwiches, you’ve most likely never physically been there because for the last year, they’ve operated out of a so-called ghost kitchen.

“There is no physical storefront,” Andriotti said when describing a ghost kitchen. “You will be online ordering you're coming to by just to pick up.”

Which means customers usually don’t have the chance to see where his sandwiches are made—they just order through delivery apps.

Andriotti has his own portion of a space inside this industrial kitchen shared with multiple restaurants.

“There's two within there,” Andriotti said while pointing to other businesses within the ghost kitchen. “So, two, three, four, five, so about five different kitchens and then us, so also six.”

Andriotti and his partners had tried looking for a storefront for quite a while but were not successful.

“If you're looking at a location,” Andriotti said, “so are 15 other people with other really good ideas and you don't know the connections that they may or may not have.”

So, they pivoted.

Which ultimately saved them money because it costs far less to work out of a shared ghost kitchen than leasing out an entire restaurant building.

“Just an easier way to get it on in lower cost and make it happen,” said Andriotti.

The proof of concept worked to where they were able to gain a lot of popularity in just a year’s time making sandwiches that remind Andriotti of his New York home.

But for him, one thing was always missing.

“You're in a hospitality missing hospitality,” he said. “I'm a showman. I want to be in front of people.”

After extensive conversations, he’s going to get that chance.

Right by his university, a deli on Cass Street closed its doors and soon Cousin Vinny's will open those doors to the public where they’ll finally get to see the sandwiches being made in front of them.

“This is coming home this location was everything,” Andriotti said.

He doesn’t know when they’ll officially open, he says they still have a lot of work to do.

But he is thankful that Cousin Vinny’s has been able to thrive in a spot he never imagined working in to make this location he always dreamed of a reality.

When it comes to the ghost kitchen’s health and safety practices, Andriotti says they make sure no other restaurant’s food cross contaminates with another and that there are sectioned off portions of the kitchen that are only used by him and his cooks.

Right now, they’ve stopped accepting orders through the delivery apps and are just doing catering orders while they continue to build out the new store on Cass Street.