Business Spotlight: Flocchini family keeps with Carson City tradition

When the Flocchini family, owners of Sierra Meat and Seafood Company in Reno, purchased The Sausage Factory last May from long-time owner Joe Tonino, they sought to build upon an already good product.

The only thing that changed at the time was the name. And, as it turns out, not much else has changed since.

The location, at 259 Sage Street in Carson City behind the Cal-Ranch shopping center, is the same.

Most of the 18 employees are the same, too, including Tonino, who retained ties with the business as a consultant.

Even a few of the meat products -- some hot dogs and sausages, in particular -- produced at the facility still include The Sausage Factory label.

Much of the reason why has to do with respect.

"Two family businesses working locally, it's just a great fit," said Chris Flocchini, president and chief executive officer of Flocchini Family Provisions. "I was so impressed with how clean tasting the products were, and the process by which they made their products."

The way Flocchini sees it, the families are also cut from the same mold.

"Joe always preached to me to do things the right way," he said. "Make a good quality product and let the product speak for itself. It costs what it costs, and people will understand."

The Sausage Factory, a food product fixture in Carson City for decades, was purchased by Joe Tonino's father in 1968 and he inherited the business.

In fact, Tonino still owns the property on which the 8,000+ square-foot processing plant and warehouse sits, Flocchini said. His company leases the building from Tonino to run its business, he said.

"We are content with doing things right and really high quality," Flocchini said. "If that effects our growth then so be it, but that's just been our approach."

Flocchini Family Provisions is a third generation family business, Flocchini said, having been in the meat business since the 1920s.

The family started out by purchasing the Durham Meat Company in San Francisco, and did business in the Bay Area until 2001 when they moved operations to Northern Nevada.

The Flocchinis had purchased Reno-based Sierra Meat and Seafood Company in 1986, a business that eventually would become its flagship when the corporation shifted operations to the Silver State.

Chris's brother, John, runs the family's Durham Ranch in Wyoming, owned since 1965, and where bison are the company's signature livestock. The Flocchinis also own 2,000 head of cattle, a specialized cross of Wagyu -- where Kobe beef comes from -- and Angus.

Father Bud and Uncle Rich Flocchini are still active members of the family company as well.

But being local and family owned is only part of the formula that made the transition from The Sausage Factory to Flocchini Family Provisions successful, Chris Flocchini said.

"It's not enough just to be local, we've got to be local and really good at what we do," he said. "We've picked up what was done before, and we've actually added to it."

Flocchini said his company has brought the two high quality lines of The Sausage Factory and Durham Ranch together to create something truly special in the meat-processing business.

"We've been working on the formulations, improving upon what was already just a fantastic product," he said.

Flocchini said his company uses only whole cuts of meat -- and no trim -- to produce tri-tip and brisket sausages, pork-based dinner and breakfast links, as well as hot dogs out of the Carson City plant.

In fact, the Flocchini family has continued a Sausage Factory tradition of supplying hot dogs and sausages to the Reno Aces Ballpark.

"We're actually broadening what's been done at the Aces Ballpark," Flocchini said.

Partnering with the local area's AAA baseball team is just an example of how Tonino and the Flocchinis have reached out to served the community in which they live.

"Joe was very active in the Carson Community for years, an we're going to continue being active in the community as well," Flocchini said. "We're proud members of the community, and it's a real honor to continue on what Joe's family has started."

Other improvements to the brands at Flocchini Family Provisions include the company's focus on producing all natural products, Flocchini said.

"We decided to go all natural on all of our products," he said. "We worked on producing a clean label for the past 12 months."

This means producing meat without added nitrates, phosphates, or artificial perservatives, Flocchini said. It also means using real sugar instead of sweetener as a component to products.

Flocchini Family Provisions has even achieved certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to process certified organic products, and it obtained license to produce under the Certified Angus Beef label.

The changes are attracting both regional and national attention, Flocchini said.

The Walt Disney Company has picked up a tri-tip sausage and a hot dog product to serve at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.

And the Flocchini flagship, Sierra Meat and Seafood Company, is appearing the on cover of National Provisioner magazine next month, Flocchini said.

"Nobody thinks of Nevada, and the Sierra Nevada, as a sausage capital," he said. "But our product is competing with the best in the country."

The process of sausage production is a real science, said Steve Church, general manager of the Carson CIty plant. It takes several carefully crafted steps to create the high quality products that customers have come to expect.

It begins with whole cuts of muscle, and no trim, Church said.

The meat is then ground and blended when the recipe calls for beef with a pork-base.

Once ground, the meat is mixed with spices and emulsified to create a paste-like mixture ready to be tubed in casing.

Run through the casing machine, the links are pinched, tied off, and hung on drying racks before being moved to the smokehouse for curing at a temperature of around 160 degrees, Church said.

Out of the smokehouse, the meat is ushered to a cooler where it is quickly brought below 40 degrees to avoid the growth of bacteria.

Church said there is about a five-hour window in which they have to bring the internal meat temperature down from 160 degrees to under 40 degrees before bacteria growth begins. He said the real critical stage is when meat temperature reaches between 120 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

After the links have been cooled to appropriate temperature, they are removed from the racks, cut, inspected and sorted for packaging.

As involved as the process is, though, for the Flocchini family it is just another day at the office doing what they've loved for more than eighty years.

"The great thing is, I can confidently stand up and say support this local business, because it's a truly great product," Flocchini said. "We're not resting on our laurels. We're investing in our business, continually looking to make our product better. It's trully a world class product."