Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Alfonso's truly a family affair

This old-fashioned pizzeria owned by a Sicilian family hasn't changed a recipe since it opened in 1978.

By ARLEEN SPENCELEY
Published December 21, 2007

University -- Right around noon, the pace picks up at Alfonso's Pizzeria.

"Can I get a couple slices?"

The regulars roll in, and Alfonso rolls the dough. It has been that way since 1978.

"If people come back for 30 years, you must have done something right," said Alfonso, through his still strong accent.

Alfonso Orefice, 61, who runs the pizzeria with his 57-year-old brother Orazio, greets the new customers and cracks jokes with the ones who have been coming by for years.

"He made the pizza too big for the plate, but that'll be breakfast tomorrow," says Alfonso's son Marco, sliding a sausage and meatball pie across a red table to a waiting family.

The old-fashioned pizzeria hasn't changed a single recipe, and for the most part, the menu has been the same since the start.

"If it works, why change?" Alfonso asks.

He keeps things simple, accepting cash only and keeping the colors and photos and food that remind him of home.

"I come from Italy," he said. "Actually, Sicily. Siracusa. That's the city."

His parents and brother left Sicily for New York when Alfonso was in his 20s. He stayed behind because of an immigration law that said he was too old to move with his parents.

But in 1970, a job waited for him in Long Island, and his family called him from Brooklyn. So Alfonso came to America on his own.

In the Bronx, he met a girl named Gloria, whose family was always in the pizza business. She was from Italy, too.

"When I met him, I knew that he was for me," says Gloria, now 60.

They decided to marry, and at his father-in-law's suggestion, Alfonso decided to join the family business.

"He went to work with the family to learn," Gloria said.

First he developed a passion for pizza.

Then, he opened his own pizzeria on St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan. He called it Gloria's.

Gloria's Pizzeria took off nicely, but after Alfonso took a trip to Tampa, he sold the shop to head south with his wife and firstborn son, Frankie.

"I wanted to get out of New York; a new adventure," he said.

The Orefices moved to Tampa in 1978 and opened Alfonso's Pizzeria at 14942 N Florida Ave.

"Know like they advertise about the guy with the doughnuts? That's me, with pizza," Alfonso said.

He shows up in the morning at seven, turns on the ovens and makes the dough for the day.

A day at Alfonso's usually means a busy lunch, a busy dinner, and a lot of familiar faces.

"Been so long in one place, you get to know a lot of kids," Alfonso said.

"They get married, bring their own kids. Makes it nice, seeing the people grow up and go their own way."

Gene Hancock's family has frequented Alfonso's for more than 20 years.

"It's not a real fancy place," Hancock said. But "it's a good place to get good food in a casual atmosphere."

Keeping things that way takes some doing.

Turn your back to pick up the phone and food burns in the oven. You have to constantly "do two, three things at once," Alfonso said.

But there, you're doing them with family.

"I remember when I was in preschool, my mom used to pick me up and take me to the pizzeria," said Alfonso's 23-year-old son Marco, who still works there.

"She used to go make the lasagna, and I used to wipe off tables, make sodas and bring people their slices.

"I used to get in the way more than anything."

Marco's older brothers, Frankie, 33, and Sergio, 27, also spent a lot of time there as kids.

"It was pretty much my entire world for the majority of my younger years," Sergio said.

The boys did homework at the tables they would serve during high school and college.

It was all they knew as children, and it seemed to gobble up all of their father's time.

In adulthood, they realized how special it was.

"As you get older, you realize what he was trying to do," Frankie said. "He was trying to take care of his family."

And family is what Alfonso's is all about.

"I think that's the main thing in life," Alfonso said. "Without that, you have nothing."

Arleen Spenceley can be reached at (813) 269-5301 or aspenceley@sptimes.com.

If You Go:

Alfonso's Pizzeria:

14942 N Florida Ave.

Tampa, FL 33613

(813) 961-9856

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 09:52:05]