For nearly six decades, The Old Spaghetti Factory has built its reputation on a simple but enduring principle: quality. Founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1969 by Guss and Sally Dussin, the restaurant concept was born from generations of hospitality experience. Guss grew up in the restaurant industry after his father immigrated from Greece and established a restaurant business in Portland in 1914. After operating several restaurants of his own, Guss set out to create a simpler, more efficient dining concept that would deliver consistently high-quality food and memorable experiences. That vision became The Old Spaghetti Factory.
Quality Food
“The foundational elements that we offer at The Old Spaghetti Factory haven’t changed since we opened in 1969,” said Chris Hein, Vice President of Food and Beverage for The Old Spaghetti Factory.
“The concept is, serve great food in a unique environment and take care of the guests. All of our food’s still made from scratch in the restaurants today.”
In fact, some recipes like the bleu cheese and thousand island dressings are the same as they were the day The Old Spaghetti Factory first opened its doors.
All entrees at The Old Spaghetti Factory are served with soup or salad, fresh sourdough bread with butter and their signature Spumoni ice cream for dessert.
“We buy top quality ingredients. One example is that our Spumoni ice cream has all-natural flavors; there’s nothing artificial in it. That costs a lot more, and we serve it to every guest that comes in, so six million servings a year, but our owners are committed that we’ll pay a little bit more for that because it’s important to them to give the guests something special,” said Hein.
When The Old Spaghetti Factory began expanding, their menu structure was a value for families that you couldn’t get anywhere else. Today, all these years later, their menu remains a great value for American families.
“We haven’t really had to change that much from the concept side of it. We have tried to stay current with our offerings to make sure that as tastes change, that we meet those taste trends, but we’re not in the market of trying to be this or that based on what is popular. We try to just be us,” said Hein.
Quality Atmosphere
The Old Spaghetti Factory is a family restaurant in every sense of the phrase. Still owned and operated by the Dussin family today, the restaurant is also a popular choice for families to gather for celebrations of all kinds.
“If you’re here for a celebration, it’s a big deal. We’re gonna make sure that you get sung to on your birthday,” said Hein.
“I think people come back to The Old Spaghetti Factory because they have a good remembrance of what it was like and the way that they felt when they were here. They felt good service, they enjoyed good food and it’s a unique environment; there’s no place else like it. Our restaurants are not cookie cutter.”
With 40 locations predominantly on the West Coast, each restaurant is specially decorated with the city’s history in mind. For example, their Riverside, Calif., restaurant occupies the historic Sutherland Fruit Company Packinghouse built in 1912 and is decorated with fruit packing memorabilia as an homage.
“I think what’s important is that people feel like it’s their Old Spaghetti Factory,” said Hein.
Quality Behind-the-Scenes
For Pierce, Kitchen Systems Trainer at The Old Spaghetti Factory, his two main concerns when choosing equipment are safety and quality. He wants something that will last “forever” while also being simple enough for everybody to easily learn how to use it.
“And me personally, I haven’t had a lot of products from Cambro that have been damaged over time, and we use those products pretty hard,” said Pierce.
Rachelle Parker, Vice President of Purchasing for The Old Spaghetti Factory, echoed that sentiment when she said, “It doesn’t make any sense to get something that is less money when it doesn’t hold up for longevity. For instance, Cambro, you can probably go into some of our locations and see some of the High Heat Pans that are 5, 10 years old easily, and there’s no cracks in them or anything.”
At the Old Spaghetti Factory, Pierce believes Cambro’s High Heat H-Pans™ are “quintessential.”
“We use them for everything; that’s how we function. [We] put our hot sauces in there, and we heat our hot sauces up to temp. Things have to be 165 degrees, brown butter 185, and they handle well. I never see them warp or crack,” said Pierce.
When cooling and storing their H-pans of sauce, The Old Spaghetti Factory relies on Camshelving.
“I like the fact that the Cambro products are far lighter and you can break them down. You can take the rack tops off, run them through [the dishwasher] and they’re good to go,” said Pierce.
“The prior [metal shelving] we had…you couldn’t take those apart, you’d have to disassemble the whole shelf. So, to have a maintenance guy come in in the morning and run one of those racks through in less than five minutes and then get everything back on the shelf versus dragging something outside and hosing it down for 20 minutes…the time and cost of labor is much better.”
The Old Spaghetti Factory’s success can be traced back to a commitment that has remained unchanged since 1969: never compromising on quality. From scratch-made recipes and premium ingredients to thoughtfully designed restaurants and durable equipment behind the scenes, every aspect of the operation is guided by a long-term mindset. While trends, technologies and customer preferences have evolved over the decades, The Old Spaghetti Factory has stayed true to its founding vision, to provide great food, memorable experiences and exceptional value for generations of families.
