PD News

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

September 14, 2008

Half century on, ‘Sabatini’s’ still synonymous with ‘pizza’

Founder John Sabatini still active in business at 91 years old

By Jack Smiles jsmiles@psdispatch.com
Times Leader Staff Writer

When the teenaged girl directed her friend from Back Mountain to her house in Exeter, she asked, “Do you know where Sabatini’s is?”

Of course, the Back Mountain knew. That’s the kind of iconic status the Exeter pizza restaurant has achieved since John Sabatini open the business 50 years ago in September of 1958.

John, 91, was born and raised in Old Forge, the son of an immigrant miner from Italy. John’s first job was delivering bread for Augustine’s bakery as a teenager.

John’s introduction to pizza was when he was six years old and his nextdoor neighbors, the Rosatis, made trays on Saturday nights in their new-fangled electric oven in their home-based tavern and sold it for five cents a slice.

In 1940 John married Catherine Mack from Pittston and they moved to Exeter. John got a job selling pots and pans door-to-door. John enjoyed the work and was good at it, one year he led the country in sales for his company, but after 12 years he decided there had to be something better.

Pizza was it.

His wife made pizza at home from an old family recipe.

Friends Sue Chiavacci, Rose Ambrosino, Stella Lippi, and Sophie Zack urged John to go commercial with wife’s pizza recipe.

“They said they’d be behind me 100 percent if I did it and they were,” John said of his group of friends.

The friends didn’t just patronize Sabatini’s; they worked there, Chiavacci and Ambrosino for over 20 years.

But if it weren’t for a man named J.P. Campbell, Sabatini’s might not have happened.

John went to the Exeter Bank with his idea for a pizza restaurant, applied for a loan and was turned down. Pizza was considered a risky business in those days.

Then John ran into Campbell at an Exeter Lions Club meeting. Campbell was on the bank board.

He pulled John aside and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get it.”

Loan in hand John bought a building walking distance from his home.

More importantly it was on Wyoming Avenue, which John believed was critical to success. When Sabatini’s opened in September of 1958 the three sizes of pizza pies sold for 65 cents, 95 cents and $1.25.

The business took off immediately.

There were two other pizza businesses in the Wyoming area at the time, Victory Pig in Wyoming and Tommy’s in Exeter.

Tommy’s was Sabatini’s Main competitor.

“I didn’t worry about the competition,” John said. “I thought I keep a clean place, work hard and let them worry about me.”

John always kept up with pizza oven technology. In the 1960s he installed gas-heated Retroflex ovens, which had cooking decks which rotated like turntables to provide even heat.

Soon Sabatini’s established a reputation for quality pizza, especially among school kids. Students from the nearby St. Cecilia’s School were among the early customers and they spread the word to their parents and teachers.

John said some of his best customers were the Exeter High School football players.

John recalls with a laugh how when Exeter played Plains, he put a coffin in the restaurant with a sign reading, “Here Lies Plains.”

John opened a second Sabatini’s on the Boardwalk in Wildwood in the early 1960s. He ran it for a couple years while his son Joe ran the original in Exeter.

Though the Wildwood business was successful, John said it was hard to make money. “Everything was too expensive. I worked a 100 hours a week and sold a lot of pizza, but it wasn’t worth the amount of work. And you had to rely on weekends. Two or three rainy weekends in the summer killed you.”

Back in Exeter the business grew.

Customers in the highly Catholic area didn’t mind waiting hours for pizza on Fridays during lent.

John turned full-time management of the business over to his son Joe in 1970. Joe eventually bought the restaurant. Joe retired in 1988, but John continued to keep a hand the business it as he does to this day at 91.

Under the Joe the restaurant was expanded twice and kept up with the oven technology.

Today it can seat almost 200 customers and serve them quickly from the conveyor belt ovens, which have been upgraded twice.

Today Sabatini’s is owned by John’s grandson – Joe’s son Lindo – who marvels at his grandfather’s energy.

“He opens the restaurant six days a week to let the cleaning crew in. He golfs and dances,” Lindo said

Lindo took over fulltime management in 1997, and bought the business from his father in 2005. He expanded the menu adding soups, salads, and pasta.

Sabatini’s also serves cheese steaks and wings, but it’s still Sabatini’s Pizza.

There’s a saying in the industry that the secret to a good pizza has little to do with sauce and cheese, but rather it’s a hot oven and freshly-made homemade dough.

Friday morning, as he worked making dough for another busy weekend, Lindo agreed with the saying.

“It doesn’t matter what the toppings are if you’re not putting them on quality dough. To me it’s all important.”

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