New alliance to link restaurants, vendors
Donna Trapani of Islip plans to start the new year with a brand new business, one that will offer a service to Long Island restaurants for free.
Trapani, 33, started out in the restaurant industry about two decades ago, folding boxes at a pizzeria. She has been developing the Long Island Dining Alliance for a year now and said it will launch early in 2012 based in an office in Bay Shore.
She has signed up about 250 restaurants. Her alliance will match them with vendors that clean linens, deliver food, provide software and technical services or perform other tasks for restaurants. There is no charge for the restaurants to sign up. Vendors will pay the alliance a fee of about $1,000 annually to be included in the LIDA directory, she said.
Trapani said she expects the alliance to be profitable sometime next year. It has a website, ourlida.org, and eventually will include a job bank listing names and contacts of those seeking employment in the industry.
Mario Saccente, executive vice president of the Long Island chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, commented: "I welcome her."
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