By Creighton A. Welch - Express-News
The thought of Shrimp Paesano in all its crispy, buttery glory is all you need to evoke mouth-watering flashbacks of one of San Antonio's restaurant institutions.

For 40 years, Paesanos has been a go-to site for high-quality Italian fare and a gathering spot for friends and families.

“It's the quality of the food; and on Friday at the Quarry, it's still the hangout for all the old-timers who have been hanging out for 40 years,” said Tom Rohde, a longtime customer and real estate developer who regularly joins the Friday lunch crowd of lawyers, judges and politicians for chatting and deal-making.

Owner Joe Cosniac, 62, first came to San Antonio from Canada for HemisFair in 1968. He left after the fair ended, but later returned in search of work. When he couldn't find what he wanted, Cosniac and Nick Pacelli, his business partner who died in 1992, opened the first Paesanos in a kitschy building on McCullough Avenue on Feb. 2, 1969.

“It was a great hangout for the rich and famous and wanna-be rich and famous,” Rohde said.

Though he had no formal cooking education, Cosniac taught himself to cook and learned the ropes of running restaurants from working in them as a kid. When Paesanos first opened, Cosniac ran the front of the restaurant while Pacelli cooked.

“They know what it means to put out real good food and great service,” said Jimmy Hasslocher, 58, president and COO of Frontier Enterprises, which owns Jim's restaurants, the local home-style chain that was started 62 years ago by Jim Hasslocher, Jimmy's father.

Hasslocher knows a bit about what it takes to make it in the restaurant biz for so many decades.

“I think it takes a team, No. 1. You have to instill in that team what it is that you want,” Hasslocher said. “Joe understands what it takes to put it all together.”

After 27 years on McCullough, Cosniac moved to Basse Road in 1996 near the then-under-construction Alamo Quarry Market and close to the high-end Alamo Heights neighborhood.

“In the old days, it didn't matter where you were located, people came to you,” Cosniac said. “But now people want convenience. They want to eat within a mile of where they live and work.”

In his 40 years, he has mastered the tenet that it's the customer who keeps you in business.

“Everybody who walks in the door is important,” Cosniac said.

Today, Paesanos Restaurant Group owns eight restaurants — five in San Antonio and three in Colorado — but Paesanos is still Cosniac's passion. He opened Paesanos on the River Walk in 1994 and then a third Paesanos on Loop 1604 in 2006.

His keys to success include “the customer is always right” and keeping it simple.

“When it starts being about you, you better close the business,” Cosniac said.

A big problem with some restaurants is they try to over-complicate what they're doing, Cosniac said.

“It's so simple. At least for us, it's simple,” Cosniac said. “The simplicity is taking care of the customer.”

In tough economic times, which Cosniac and Paesanos have seen before, it's important to plan ahead.

“You can't control what goes on outside the restaurant,” Cosniac said. “What you can control is when the customer walks inside the restaurant.”

And don't look for Cosniac to slow down any time soon.

“Perhaps when the business climate improves, we'll look at more expansion,” he said.