Pacific Marble and Granite, Middletown, Conn.
Bramato is pretty casual about his transition from wage-earner to business owner.
“I took a couple weeks’ vacation and we opened the store,” he says. “I was still working at my job, and my wife was running the tile business; when she’d have questions, she’d call me at the factory, and I’d give her the answers.”
Within a few weeks, though, business became brisk enough that Bramato quit the factory job and began claiming his own piece of the American dream.
In much the same way, the couple opted to add marble and granite fabrication to their business mix. Bramato explains that early on, when a job would require both tile and countertops, he’d sub out the countertop work.
“It was almost always a problem,” he says. “After a couple years, we just decided to do our own fabrication.”
Again, the Bramatos started modestly, with a bridge saw and hand tools. They did hire a pair of employees devoted just to stone fabrication, though, and Carmelo Bramato trained them himself.
“Pacific Marble and Granite started as a very small shop, but to me, even if we were only doing a kitchen a month, it was an improvement,” he says. “But, as soon as we opened the fabrication shop, the place was booming.”
Today, tile takes a secondary role to countertops and vanities. The company still employs a tilesetter but, “We’re a lot more into the granite and into fabrication,” Bramato says. “For one thing, we get our tile from different distributors; we don’t import our own tile.
“The installation is good, but we’re more into fabrication.”
PLENTY OF BANG
When Carmelo Bramato uses the word “we,” he really means it. Pacific Marble and Granite is truly a family operation.
Marisa Bramato still works by her husband’s side most days of the week, taking her place in the showroom with daughter Stefania. The couple’s son, Gaetano, works in the fabrication shop and handles all the templating.
Then, there’s the daughter – Elisa – in whom the love of stone doesn’t run quite as deep. Although still only in her twenties, Elisa Bramato managed two restaurants when one of owners approached the family about opening another eatery in their showroom space, with Elisa as a partner.
“We decided, because we own the building, to open our own restaurant and have Elisa run it,” says her father. “My wife works there on Mondays when Elisa takes a day off.”