By James Lomuscio
A kitchen worker had called that he wouldn’t be in, so Mel Mioli was in the Westport Pizzeria’s kitchen early Monday, filling pots with sauce, meatballs and prepping for another day at 143 Post Road East.
Mel Mioli in front of Westport Pizzeria, 143 Post Road East.. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“When we opened it just me, Joe and his wife,” Mioli recalled about the day he and his brother first opened the business at 107 Main St. on Oct. 12, 1968.
“Now, it’s just me,” he added.
On this particular day Mioli — formally named Carmelo, Melo to family and close friends and Mel to generations of Westporters -— waxed sentimental as he looked back over the past 50 years.
He recalled some of the hundreds of employees he had hired and memorable characters among literally millions of customers he and the Mioli family served for half a century.
Mioli thought about the first day: 25-cents a slice and 15-cents for a small soda. The statue of a pizza chef that his sister Rita and his late brother-in-law Lino had given him, “our lucky charm,” was gingerly placed with care in the Main Street window.
The piece is among the few tangible items that remain in the new place. Another is the original, massive dough stirrer, for decades a larger-than-life mixer that cranked out the forerunner countless crusts.
Joe Mioli helps out brother Mel in busy times. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
And on Friday, 50 years to the day the Mioli brothers opened shop — Columbus Day — Mioli, as well as his customers, will have the opportunity to step back in time. In celebration, the Westport Pizzeria plans to roll back its prices to 25-cents a slice, 15-cents for a small soda and 25-cents for a large one. Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe is also scheduled to be there to issue an anniversary proclamation.
“All my family will be here to help,” says Mioli expecting a huge turnout.
Mioli, who came from Santa Teresa di Riva, Sicily, settling in White Plains, N.Y. in 1961, was encouraged to open the shop by his brother Joseph Mioli, who had worked in food services at Manhattanville College in Purchase N.Y.
Mel Mioli had been working as a draftsman at Technical Material Corp. in White Plains, N.Y. when at 28, he agreed to follow Joe into the restaurant business.
Why Westport?
“Because every Sunday during the summer my whole family would go to Sherwood Island for picnics and swimming,” he said. “We always liked the idea of moving to a place by the water.
“So, Joe and I started to drive around,” he added. “We liked what we saw, and we decided to open a restaurant in town.”
The narrow strip of a pizzeria, about 1,000-square feet with entrances via Main Street and Parker Harding Plaza, became Mioli’s home for 46 years. Joe worked there until he retired in 2004 to run for state Representative for the 136th District. In 2005, he won, holding the position until 2011.
Over the years, Mioli’s other brothers John and Santo, his sister Rita and nieces and nephews worked there — not to mention Mioli’s wife Carrie and their two sons Francesco, now a lawyer, and Alessandro, now an accountant in California.
For decades the Main Street location was a community gathering hub where the famous and no-so-famous broke bread and rubbed elbows from Paul Newman and Robert Redford to the late Charlie Moffett, a YMCA custodian, and the late World War II veteran and journalist Jim White.
Mioli said he never wanted to leave Main Street; however, the new landlord, as in the case with nearly all Main Street mom and pop shops, raised the rents to the point of no return, he said.
“When we opened, it was $350 a month,” he recalled. “When we left it was $11,300.”
Even with inflation that made a slice go from 25-cents to a current $2.75, 11 times the original, the rents charged by the landlord, New York City-based Malkin Group, Inc. that is owned U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s father-in-law Peter Malkin, had increased more than 32 times.
So more than four years ago, Mioli chartered a new course, securing financing to buy his own building in which the pizzeria would be the main tenant. The pizzeria fills the space previously operated by an Italian restaurant Eatalia.
“That was emotional,” Mioli said about leaving Main Street.
The night he closed shop at the Main Street restaurant, Mioli welled up before he turned out the lights. Overcome, he walked over and tapped the old pizza oven.
“I said, ‘We spent a lot of time together,’” he recalled.
The new location, however, turned out to be a good business move due to a renewed focus on neighboring Church Lane due to the Bedford Square development.
“It’s a better location now,” Mioli said. “The traffic has shifted from where we were before to this part of town.”
Before the move, some friends encouraged Mioli to throw in the towel and retire, but he resisted.
“I enjoy what I’m doing, I love the customers and I’ve made great friends,” he said. “I don’t think about retiring. “
