Enrico DiCicco has been teaching in the Craig School of Business since 2018. In addition, he oversees two locations of DiCicco’s Italian Restaurants, a family-owned business his father opened in 1956. Those two locations are on Cedar and Nees avenues and Shields and Armstrong avenues. 

How did you get the opportunity to teach at Fresno State?

 I came to Fresno State to play baseball in 1982. I played for about two-and-a-half, almost three years. Once my baseball career ended, I never graduated because I decided I was good with the restaurant business. So I stopped attending school. Then my wife and I got married, and we had three children. After my last child graduated, I was the only one in the household without a college degree. So, I came back to school at Fresno State. When I did that, I enjoyed it so much that I asked how I could teach here. And they said, if I got my MBA [master of business administration], they would hire me. So I did that, and I’ve been teaching ever since. 

How did DiCicco’s Italian Restaurant come to be? 

My father and his three brothers opened the original location in 1956. As more families started coming into Fresno, they wanted to open more restaurants to feed all these different people. That’s why we have so many locations, and each is individually owned and operated by a different member of the family. We just use the same name. 

Did you actually want to own one of the restaurants? Or did it just fall onto you? 

Well, I knew I could own a restaurant and it would provide a very good life for my family and pay the bills. Teaching doesn’t pay very much, but I enjoy it. Owning a restaurant pays for my life, but teaching is what I did instead of having a midlife crisis and getting a Harley. 

What does a typical day look like for you, on a day when you teach and work at the restaurant? 

Today is a good example. This morning, I went to the restaurant for about two hours, and then I went to FCC [Fresno City College]. And now I’m here until 6 p.m. It’s my longest day. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only teach for an hour, so I’m at the restaurant more on those days. It’s all time management. Time management is the key to success. But once you get caught up to the speed of the game, then everything’s easy.

Can you give an example of something you teach students about overseeing restaurants?

 Well, I just talk about the restaurant. For example, when I ask the students, “Who do they believe the most important entity of the restaurants is,” they say me, but I say, “No, it’s the restaurant itself.” The restaurant itself is the most important entity, because without it, we are not going to be successful, and the customers are not going to be happy. It’s like a pyramid. So we have to make sure we all respect and take care of the entity that takes care of us. All I need to do is give employees the platform, the resources and the ability to be successful. They are my key ingredient. So I give them a good environment to make them want to work. 

Any advice to students who want to get into the industry?

 What I tell my students in class is, “The best you think you can do is something. Don’t do nothing.” And exposure is your best form of knowledge. So what you think you want to do might not be what you end up doing. So no matter what you graduated in and what certificate of achievement you received at Fresno State, that’s irrelevant. Just go do something, and if you like it, do more of it, and if you don’t, do something else. But doing is your form of knowledge and knowing how to find your path. Sometimes it’s not a straight path, it’s a windy road, and it’s okay to fail. Failure is good. If you don’t like something, still figure out how to be successful. Whether you have a bad instructor or a bad boss, you still have to get things done, so you have to figure it out and give you tools you need to be successful.