Innerviews: Legendary restaurateur Joe Fazio shares his rags-to-riches success story
Approaching his 86th birthday on Oct. 11, restaurateur Joe Fazio looks back on his bootstrap success story with a mix of pride and wonder. He started in 1951 with six stools, three booths and 15 cents in his pocket.
Everybody knows his name. He's a legendary figure in Charleston. People from far and wide flock to his celebrated Italian restaurant in the back end of town.
In the private dining room that once was a bedroom for eight Fazio children, Joe Fazio talks about the portrait of his parents, Dominic and Rosie, painted by city artist Bernie Wiepper.
The restaurant sprouted from his family's modest four-room home on Bullitt Street, on the edge of the once-notorious Triangle District. He was born in one of the dining rooms, formerly the bedroom he shared with seven siblings.
Approaching his 86th birthday on Oct. 11, Joe Fazio looks back on his bootstrap success story with a mix of pride and wonder. He started in 1951 with six stools, three booths and 15 cents in his pocket.
"Here I will soon be 86 years old. I can't believe where I am today. My mom and dad would have been proud. We were real poor, but I was determined.
"My dad always told me, 'Joe, the United States is the land of opportunity if you are willing to work.' He said if you treat people nice and work hard, your dream will come true.
"I grew up here on Bullitt Street, where my dad had a barbershop. My mom wanted a little restaurant, so he moved the barbershop to the side and made a restaurant for my mom -- six stools and three booths.
"He came here and opened a barber shop on Lee Street across from Fruth School. A shave and a haircut was 25 cents. I shined shoes in his barbershop for 5 cents. From there, he came to Bullitt Street in the Triangle District.
"Court Street, the Triangle District, was bad. They sold moonshine, 50 cents a pint. They had prostitutes, fights. They gambled night and day. Beer joints were everywhere. Everybody in the state knew about Court Street and the Triangle District.
"I asked Pop why he bought a place on Bullitt Street. He said, 'Son, I only had so much money to pay down, and everything was convenient here. Diamond Ice. Pfaff & Smith Gravel. The river. The A&P on Broad Street. All the meat companies. Corey Brothers produce. All the beer companies. And the Kanawha Valley Bank only a 10- or 15-minute walk.'
"Court Street was so bad, the police wouldn't even go there. When I would go to school, the kids would beat me up if I didn't have a dime or nickel to give to them. When I became 10 years old, I started fighting back. That's how I learned to fight.
"I could whip everybody in the school. If somebody started a fight in the classroom, Miss King would say, 'If you don't behave yourself, I'm going to send for Joe Fazio.'
"I put boxing gloves on when I was 12. In the back end of town, they had a little garage, and we would go there and work out. I never lost a fight.
"My father worked hard. He could do plumbing, electrical work, fix shoes, cut our hair, a little of everything. He was very intelligent, but he couldn't read or write. Little by little, the Italian people moved here because they wanted to be near my dad. He was like a godfather.
"His name was Dominic. He dressed in a black suit with a big hat and horseshoe pin. When he went downtown, he stood out. He would carry four or five packs of chewing gum in his pocket, and when he would go to City National to pay a bill, he would give them a stick of gum. Pop always had a smile for everybody.
"Mother's name was Rosie. She baked bread and made pizzas and pepperoni rolls. She had a garden out back and a garden up the street about a block long. Pop had grapes and made wine and sold wine.
"If you came in here to eat, Mom would give you a glass of wine and wouldn't charge you. Neighborhood kids would come in once a week and she would give them all pizzas.
"We all lived in the back of the restaurant in four rooms. All the kids, eight of us, slept in the same room, four in one bed and four in the other bed. When the boys got big, Pop put us up in the attic. Today, we have our air-conditioning ducts up there.
"I delivered newspapers and won a lot of trips. I had more than 200 on my route. I delivered shoes for King's. For every pair of shoes I delivered, they would give me a dime.
"Frankie Veltri was born right next door. We went to Fruth School. Frankie quit in the third grade. I went to fifth grade. I could have used a high school education, because it was tough.
"I ate pizzas since I was 2. I stayed in the kitchen all the time. Mom would send me to the garden to get spices. She taught me a whole lot about all the spices she raised. When I was 7 years old, I could make my own pizzas. I was just born to be a cook.
"I went in the Army in 1943. I was in the Pacific. I was a cook and dietitian. I worked in the officers' mess and taught a cooking and baking school.
"In the Army, General Tully gave me a signed certificate for outstanding ability in boxing. I trained people in the gym on how to use the speed bag and heavy bag.
"I made pizzas in the Army in Honolulu. They didn't know what a pizza was. Now everybody talks about pizzas. Today, there are over 60,000 pizza places. It's a billion-dollar industry.
"My dad told me when he was in Italy, they had an outdoor oven. Everybody made bread the same way. When they had a piece of dough left, families got together and brought their leftover dough and made a pizza. Pizza is a piece of dough. That's where the word comes from.
"I have a defective right eye. I don't see very good out of it, but I didn't let it stand in my way. I won a jitterbug contest. I was a yo-yo champ. I was a fast runner. You know those pop-it boards with the rubber ball? I was a pop-it champ.
"King's Restaurant across from the Virginian Theater on Lee Street had a 20-ounce steak called the General Eisenhower. I ate four of those within an hour. Then I ate three and a half dozen soft-cooked eggs. I won $300.
Everybody knows his name. He's a legendary figure in Charleston. People from far and wide flock to his celebrated Italian restaurant in the back end of town.
The restaurant sprouted from his family's modest four-room home on Bullitt Street, on the edge of the once-notorious Triangle District. He was born in one of the dining rooms, formerly the bedroom he shared with seven siblings.
Approaching his 86th birthday on Oct. 11, Joe Fazio looks back on his bootstrap success story with a mix of pride and wonder. He started in 1951 with six stools, three booths and 15 cents in his pocket.
"Here I will soon be 86 years old. I can't believe where I am today. My mom and dad would have been proud. We were real poor, but I was determined.
"My dad always told me, 'Joe, the United States is the land of opportunity if you are willing to work.' He said if you treat people nice and work hard, your dream will come true.
"I grew up here on Bullitt Street, where my dad had a barbershop. My mom wanted a little restaurant, so he moved the barbershop to the side and made a restaurant for my mom -- six stools and three booths.
"He came here and opened a barber shop on Lee Street across from Fruth School. A shave and a haircut was 25 cents. I shined shoes in his barbershop for 5 cents. From there, he came to Bullitt Street in the Triangle District.
"Court Street, the Triangle District, was bad. They sold moonshine, 50 cents a pint. They had prostitutes, fights. They gambled night and day. Beer joints were everywhere. Everybody in the state knew about Court Street and the Triangle District.
"I asked Pop why he bought a place on Bullitt Street. He said, 'Son, I only had so much money to pay down, and everything was convenient here. Diamond Ice. Pfaff & Smith Gravel. The river. The A&P on Broad Street. All the meat companies. Corey Brothers produce. All the beer companies. And the Kanawha Valley Bank only a 10- or 15-minute walk.'
"Court Street was so bad, the police wouldn't even go there. When I would go to school, the kids would beat me up if I didn't have a dime or nickel to give to them. When I became 10 years old, I started fighting back. That's how I learned to fight.
"I could whip everybody in the school. If somebody started a fight in the classroom, Miss King would say, 'If you don't behave yourself, I'm going to send for Joe Fazio.'
"I put boxing gloves on when I was 12. In the back end of town, they had a little garage, and we would go there and work out. I never lost a fight.
"My father worked hard. He could do plumbing, electrical work, fix shoes, cut our hair, a little of everything. He was very intelligent, but he couldn't read or write. Little by little, the Italian people moved here because they wanted to be near my dad. He was like a godfather.
"His name was Dominic. He dressed in a black suit with a big hat and horseshoe pin. When he went downtown, he stood out. He would carry four or five packs of chewing gum in his pocket, and when he would go to City National to pay a bill, he would give them a stick of gum. Pop always had a smile for everybody.
"Mother's name was Rosie. She baked bread and made pizzas and pepperoni rolls. She had a garden out back and a garden up the street about a block long. Pop had grapes and made wine and sold wine.
"If you came in here to eat, Mom would give you a glass of wine and wouldn't charge you. Neighborhood kids would come in once a week and she would give them all pizzas.
"We all lived in the back of the restaurant in four rooms. All the kids, eight of us, slept in the same room, four in one bed and four in the other bed. When the boys got big, Pop put us up in the attic. Today, we have our air-conditioning ducts up there.
"I delivered newspapers and won a lot of trips. I had more than 200 on my route. I delivered shoes for King's. For every pair of shoes I delivered, they would give me a dime.
"Frankie Veltri was born right next door. We went to Fruth School. Frankie quit in the third grade. I went to fifth grade. I could have used a high school education, because it was tough.
"I ate pizzas since I was 2. I stayed in the kitchen all the time. Mom would send me to the garden to get spices. She taught me a whole lot about all the spices she raised. When I was 7 years old, I could make my own pizzas. I was just born to be a cook.
"I went in the Army in 1943. I was in the Pacific. I was a cook and dietitian. I worked in the officers' mess and taught a cooking and baking school.
"In the Army, General Tully gave me a signed certificate for outstanding ability in boxing. I trained people in the gym on how to use the speed bag and heavy bag.
"I made pizzas in the Army in Honolulu. They didn't know what a pizza was. Now everybody talks about pizzas. Today, there are over 60,000 pizza places. It's a billion-dollar industry.
"My dad told me when he was in Italy, they had an outdoor oven. Everybody made bread the same way. When they had a piece of dough left, families got together and brought their leftover dough and made a pizza. Pizza is a piece of dough. That's where the word comes from.
"I have a defective right eye. I don't see very good out of it, but I didn't let it stand in my way. I won a jitterbug contest. I was a yo-yo champ. I was a fast runner. You know those pop-it boards with the rubber ball? I was a pop-it champ.
"King's Restaurant across from the Virginian Theater on Lee Street had a 20-ounce steak called the General Eisenhower. I ate four of those within an hour. Then I ate three and a half dozen soft-cooked eggs. I won $300.
"People from the newspaper were there to take pictures. I've been taking pictures all my life. I used to take pictures for the Gazette. I'd take a picture for them, and they'd put it in the paper the next morning, and it would say, 'Photo by Joe Fazio.'
"If they had a fire or something, I was over here on Bullitt Street at 2 or 3 in the morning. I used to open at 11 and stay open until 2 seven days a week.
"When I got out of the service, I ended up working for Frank Veltri for about 10 years. He had a lot of clubs. I was his bouncer, cook, chef, driver, everything.
"My dad gave me the restaurant in 1951. My mother got killed, and my dad wanted to give up the restaurant. I told him I'd take it.
"My mother went to the grocery store three blocks from here and had a lot of groceries. She would never get in a car with anybody, but she knew Bob Bailey. He said, 'C'mon, Mom. I'll give you a lift.' The next day, he dumped her out on Young Street. He got the chair, then they commuted his sentence to life, and then he got out. He's dead now.
"I think I had 15 cents when Pop turned the place over to me. On account of my dad's good reputation, Frank White at Economy Grocery gave me credit and flour and Elk Grocery gave me credit. I paid my bills on time. Tag Jones had Capitol Equipment and he gave me any equipment I needed, and I paid him a little at a time.
"My dad came in one day and opened the cash register. It just went to a dollar. He said, 'How come you ain't got no change?' I said I didn't have any money. He went to the beer place next door, came back and put $5 worth of change in the cash register. I was tickled pink. That was a lot of money 58 years ago.
"Everybody liked my spaghetti sauce, so I bottled it for years. I only charged $4 a gallon. When I first came here, I sold 10-inch pizzas for 35 cents. I put my pizzas on the market, the only frozen pizzas. I was the pizza king of Charleston. Nobody was selling pizzas.
"About 5 or 5:30 in the evening, cars would go by, and I'd cook 12-inch pizzas and go out and give them slices of pizza. Some people would go around the block for seconds. I made pizzas for all the kids, the whole neighborhood, and didn't charge them.
"For years, I made sauce and pizzas for King's Restaurant, Humphrey's Dairy Bar and Bob Phillips. I couldn't make enough pizzas. I was working 12 to 15 hours a day.
"I quit marketing the pizzas and sauce because it was too much work, but marketing pizzas and sauce made my restaurant popular. People started coming over.
"I needed more room. Where the coatroom is, I put in a room that seated 10 people. Still, I turned people away. I told my dad I needed a dining room. In the room where I was born, where we all slept as kids, I tore that chimney down and made a private dining room. I call it the Family Room, because I was born there.
"Then I added another room, and later, I added another room. Then I built this big kitchen. I probably had the biggest kitchen in the world. I've moved the kitchen six times.
"I used to be open on Monday, and they had wrestling matches on Monday and all the big-time wrestlers would come here and eat pizza. And I've had a lot of the big name boxers. Billy Conn. Natie Brown. Tony Galento. Jack Dempsey. Rocky Graziano. Sugar Ray Leonard. Cassius Clay. I showed him some magic tricks and he showed me some.
"I've had a lot of stars here. Jayne Mansfield. Liberace. Nick Nolte. Leslie Nielsen. F. Lee Bailey. Johnny Weissmuller, the best Tarzan we ever had, worked out in my gym. I hit the speed bag for him. He said, 'Boy, that's the best I've ever seen.' I was one of the best in the country. I am even to this day.
"Since I've been here, I bought 10 pieces of property. All these houses I tore down had chickens, ducks, squirrels, pigeons, rabbits. It was dirty and rough, real ragged. I relocated people a little at a time.
"I was going to get them to change the name of Bullitt Street because it had a bad name. Then Joe Cook of Pfaff & Smith told me to go to the library and get a book, the story about Colonel Bullitt. So I did, and I said, 'Gee, he was famous.' I didn't bother to change it.
"All the old businesses have gone. Pantuso. Sacco. Iacono. Pfaff & Smith have been here 91 years, and they just now sold out. Don Catalina had a beer company. Willie Dandy had United Beverage. Every one of those people became millionaires. Even Frankie Veltri.
"About 10 years ago, I retired from the restaurant and opened a jewelry store. I knew a lot of people in the jewelry business. I studied about diamonds. I wasn't no gemologist, but I was well schooled.
"The jewelry store was at the restaurant first, but it was too dangerous late at night, so I went to Kanawha City, then to Court Street. Then I had the back trouble, so I closed it because I couldn't stand up.
"I have a nice family. Nell and I have been married 60 years. She was from Kanawha City. I met her in a restaurant on Quarrier Street. She wouldn't give me a date. Her mother and all of them said to her, 'He's an Italian!' She's Irish. But I kept going there, and I got a date with her girlfriend, and she got me a date with Nell.
"We have four children. People didn't want to rent to you if you had four kids. About 43 years ago, there was a beautiful brick home for sale in Kanawha City on Glenridge Road. It had four bedrooms. The guy wanted $42,500. He said if I gave him $10,000 down, he would finance it at 5 percent and I could give him $210 a month for 20 years.
"I said I didn't have $10,000, not even $1,000. I told him I had my pizzas and spaghetti sauce on the market and that I was getting in more stores all the time and business was picking up. I asked if he would give me a couple of months to raise the $10,000. So that's what happened.
"My oldest son, Joseph, does Christian ministry work in Missouri. Randy is in real estate. Danny runs the restaurant. He's been here 30 years. My daughter, Patty, has been here 37 years. My wife, Nell, still makes all the marinara sauce and special cheese sauce and takes care of all the banquets and parties. So it's still a family restaurant.
"Danny's son, Daniel, is 12. He comes here on Fridays. People get orders to go and he takes it out to their car. He loves the restaurant. He's next in line.
"We feed 200 to 400 people every day. I have 30 people working here. I'm proud of what I've accomplished.
"When I just had those six stools and three booths, I said to Nell, 'One of these days, we're going to have a big restaurant.' But I had no idea I was going to end up with this big of a restaurant in the back end of town, most famous restaurant in West Virginia, and have the cleanest kitchen and have celebrities here and doctors and lawyers and judges. And it keeps picking up."
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Posted By: Anonymous(2:56pm 09-18-2008)
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Joe,
I have enjoyed your resteraunt for years. I have talked to you a few times years ago & always remember you as a friendly guy & always very hospitable. I proposed to my wife in your resteraunt 14 years ago today. If all goes as planned we will be there tonight. I enjoyed reading this article & hearing about your life. It's always a pleasure to see people who take charge of their life & make their dreams happen. Too bad now-a-day there aren't too many people like that around. Best wishes to you & your family.
AGD
Posted By: Mitch(7:09am 09-12-2008)
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The best Italian Restaurant in the state!
Great Family and Great food!
Posted By: Back in Time(8:24pm 09-10-2008)
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My wife of 51 years had our first date in Joe Fazio's back in 1956. Joe came over to our booth and said hello. He treated us like we were very special people. We don't get back to Charleston often but when we do we always go over to Fazio's Did I mention we had our very first pizza there too.
Posted By: StoppingTime(2:21pm 09-10-2008)
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I like when you walk into Fazio's, you get a sense that you are stepping back in time. Love the service. Great people.
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I have enjoyed your resteraunt for years. I have talked to you a few times years ago & always remember you as a friendly guy & always very hospitable. I proposed to my wife in your resteraunt 14 years ago today. If all goes as planned we will be there tonight. I enjoyed reading this article & hearing about your life. It's always a pleasure to see people who take charge of their life & make their dreams happen. Too bad now-a-day there aren't too many people like that around. Best wishes to you & your family.
AGD
The best Italian Restaurant in the state!
Great Family and Great food!