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WEST WHITELAND - Lance Shortt wouldn't mind getting
results like Junior's restaurant owner Alan Rosen, who has sold
more than one million cheesecakes to QVC viewers over the last 10
years.
And he wouldn't mind a performance like Kim and Scott Holstein of
Chicago, Ill., who have sold more than two million pretzels since
their first appearance on QVC in 2002.
And he really wouldn't mind a success like Chesapeake Bay Gourmet,
which has sold some 22 million crab cakes to QVC's audience since
that food company first aired its product in 1995.
This Friday, Shortt, the owner of Rino's restaurant in Exton, will
get his shot.
Shortt is scheduled to make his debut QVC appearance between 2 and
4 p.m.
The two-hour segment will be broadcast live from
the Navy Pier in Chicago, the eighth stop on QVC's Decade of Discoveries
10-stop tour.
Shortt will have eight minutes to show off and sell his creation,
Rino's Seafood Lasagna. He will be one of 10 aspiring entrepreneurs
to present their products during the broadcast.
Running throughout July, August and early September, the 2005 Decade
of Discoveries Tour will unveil a total of 100 new products at 10
of America's most popular summer vacation destinations.
Shortt said he is “a little bit nervous” pitching his
product before the nation's largest home shopping channel, which
boasts an audience of 87 million homes.
But not to worry - Shortt has been to QVC vendor
school, so he knows the drill.
“It's over-the-fence selling,” he said, describing the
soft approach QVC takes to marketing products. “It's real comfortable.
Viewers want to know the (entrepreneurial) story. You sell the story,
as well as the product.”
Some 4,000 products were submitted to QVC's Discoveries
Tour product searches, held nationwide through the early part of
this year. Shortt's seafood lasagna was selected in late April at
the product search held at the company's Studio Park headquarters
in West Goshen.
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After the selection, Shortt had to get cooking.
To meet QVC requirements, Shortt and his staff at Rino's baked 2,000
pounds of seafood lasagna, froze it and shipped it to a packaging
company that packs each two-and-one-quarter-pound order in dry ice
and Styrofoam boxes.
“It adds to the expense almost as much as the cost of the product,”
Shortt said, sitting with his family at the 327 E. Lancaster Ave.
restaurant he has owned since 1986.
All of the fuss pays off for the customers, though. When the product
arrives at their front door, all they have to do is put it in the
freezer or take one out of the box and pop it in the oven.
Shortt is using the same packaging company as Chesapeake Bay Crab
Cakes. QVC is all about consistency, he explained - every order
is identical.
Each pan of Rino's Seafood Lasagna consists of layers of shrimp
puree seasoned with herbs and spices, a blend of ricotta, mozzarella
and Romano cheeses, marinara sauce with chunks of plum tomatoes,
onions, fresh garlic, olive oil, and fresh basil.
Lance prepares his special marinara at
his restaurant, Rino's, in Exton.
Shortt makes the noodles himself. The layered stuffing
includes lump crab meat, sea scallops, and large shrimp. The entire
piece is topped with a lobster blush sauce consisting of a puree
of shrimp, plum tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.
The process takes three hours.
The product is not on the menu at Shortt's restaurant (at the
time of this article but is now), but is offered by his catering
company. It has been a recipe made only at Christmas time for his
family.
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“Throughout the winter and spring, we saw
thousands of products in hopes of
finding 100 to feature on this summer's tour,” said Marilyn
Montross, director of vendor relations. “QVC is thrilled with
the products selected and proud to help provide exposure for rising
entrepreneurs and inventors.”
If Shortt is successful with his Discoveries Tour appearance, he
hopes to be asked back by QVC. If that should happen, Shortt says
he'll be ready with his Lobster Ravioli with Blush Sauce.
Shortt credits much of his success to the support of his family:
his wife Sandra, daughter Samantha, an 18-year-old freshman at Immaculata
University, and 14-year-old son Jules, a student at Malvern Preparatory.
The family lives in Birmingham.
Shortt has come a long way since an electrical fire in the spring
of 1994 destroyed his restaurant.
A middle-of-the-night call from a friend, the wife of a West Whiteland
Fire Company volunteer, alerted him to the blaze.
“I jumped into my car,”Shortt recalled. “When I got
there, it was engulfed. It was the worst day of my life.”
Seeing the building in flames, Shortt ran inside to save what he
could. All he came away with were pictures of his children that
hung near the cash register.
It took him six months to rebuild.
“I never want to feel like that again,” he said.
Over the years, Shortt considered franchising as a way of introducing
his products to a larger audience, but nixed that. He said he was
concerned he would lose control over the quality of the food. The
opportunity with QVC is perfect, he says — a great venue and
total control of the product.
The 47-year-old restaurateur sees the broadcast with QVC as a date
with destiny: “My pop said you're not a doctor, you're not
a lawyer, but if you work hard, good things happen.”
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