Most likely the newest pizza parlor owners in northern Hudson County are Felipe Alvarenga of West New York and David Hepperle of Guttenberg. Together as a team, they blend like tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese – perfect together!!! Mr. Alvarenga worked in the restaurant business for 15 years, learning the food trade in the kitchen area and working his way up to the art of being a chef, and his last two employments were at Amando’s Restaurant and the Hilton Hotel restaurant in Fort Lee, New Jersey, until going into the textile business eight years ago, and he is now the owner of Capitan Embroidery Company in Fairview, New Jersey. Mr. Hepperle, who has been a pizza lover all his life, was already in the textile business working with his father Ernest, who owns the family business Marlene Lace Company in Guttenberg, and who was friends with Mr. Alvarenga for 10 years. Thus, Mr. Alvarenga and Mr. Hepperle became friends through textile business ties, and their friendship has grown.
However, how did pizza come into the present business picture? Well, the original owner of a Guttenberg pizzeria knew that Mr. Hepperle was a lover of pizza and approached him about purchasing his establishment. Mr. Hepperle, not knowing anything about the food industry business, contacted his friend Mr. Alvarenga, and the rest is pizza history in the making. They bought the restaurant and kept its name for the sake of neighborhood continuity, and they are now the owners of CAESAR’s Pizza on Kennedy Boulevard East in Guttenberg!
Mr. Alvarenga is married and his lovely wife’s name is Edith Barraza-Alvarenga, and they have two children, a son James and a daughter Debby. Mr. Hepperle’s lovely wife’s name is Ingrid, and they have twin daughters named Amanda and Victoria. Mr. Hepperle is also a trustee of the Guttenberg Board of Education.
The new pizza parlor owners, after five months of ownership, have been busy upgrading the restaurant menu, as well as Mr. Hepperle learning the art of cooking from his partner Mr. Alvarenga the chef! They have developed gourmet pizzas of all styles, and are planning to experiment with whole wheat, multi-grain and organic dough-pizzas. They already developed hot and cold sandwiches, wraps, appetizers, soups and salads, pasta dishes, calzones, seafood and desserts.
They are open for lunch and dinner from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, and have delivery service, and catering for all occasions. Their range of delivery service has expanded to Weehawken, Union City, West New York, Guttenberg, North Bergen and into Edgewater, Cliffside Park, Fairview and even Fort Lee upon request. They boast a brisk pedestrian trade from local schools and businesses, as well as neighborhood clientele. With people/customers coming in and out, and the telephone always ringing for delivery service, they are happy with the activity, along with corporate accounts in the mix of doing business!
Mr. Alvarenga and Mr. Hepperle happily tell us that their family members team up to help them daily with the activity or orders, as Mr. Alvarenga’s wife helps cook in the kitchen and Mr. Hepperle’s daughters make homemade cheesecake on the premises! Furthermore, they are constantly thinking of new ideas in food-making dishes for the public, and they even now have their own secret pizza recipe, which they have locked up in their office. No Kidding!!!
Thus far, local community leaders have all stopped in as customers, such as Guttenberg Mayor Gerald Drasheff, Councilman Alfonso Caso, Police Lieutenant Joel Magenheimer, Board of Education President Sari Zukerman, and Guttenberg’s athletic living legend Brian Guaschino, chairman of the town’s planning/zoning board! Looks like their pizza restaurant business is rocketing to regional stardom! To Felipe Alvarenga and David Hepperle – All the best!!!…
Mrs. Antonette Gogliucci of West New York and her ever happy and humorous husband Benjamin, a.k.a. “Uncle Ben,” will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in 2009. Best wishes to the Gogliucci family!!!..
United States Army Private Marilyn Fernandez, sister of Melissa Fernandez of Union City, has completed basic combat training at Fort Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina. Congratulations!…Meanwhile, United States Navy Seaman Joseph C. Lisa, son of Joseph C. Lisa, Sr. of North Bergen, has completed basic training at Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, Illinois. Congrats to you, too!…
Erika Muller of Secaucus, we see, has upgraded her advertising motif in and around northern Hudson County in the local media and on billboards, and they look terrific! Ms. Muller is the scion of the Muller Insurance Company patriarch R. John Muller of Hoboken. Great artistic work and good luck!!!…
Alberto Cabrera of Weehawken tells us that he will not be running for re-election this Spring 2009 in the Township’s Board of Education elections as his son will no longer be a student in the township’s school system, and he personally feels that as a board member, he would rather be a parent of a child in the community’s school system. However, he would like to thank Mayor Richard Turner for appointing him years ago to the board elective roster, and thanks his colleagues on the local board for their peer friendship. Mr. Cabrera, however, is still a member of the Township’s Zoning Board and is presently the Town Clerk of Guttenberg. These two positions will continue to keep him community-minded and very busy. Best wishes Alberto Cabrera!!!…
Hudson County Surrogate-Judge Donald W. DeLeo of North Bergen tells us that he will be addressing the Seniors Club at the Our Lady of Czestochowa Roman Catholic Church Seniors Hall on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 2 p.m., located at 120 Sussex Street in Downtown Jersey City. The subject/seminar will be “Updated Information on Wills, Living Wills, Living Trusts and Stories from your Hudson County Surrogate’s Court!” Don’t miss it!! By the way Judge DeLeo, you were receiving high praise from a legal colleague recently, from none other than North Bergen Township Attorney Herbert Klitzner, who resides in Secaucus, and who is a fine jurist in his own right! Always a pleasure to deliver good news!!!…further information can be obtained by calling 201-795-6377. Have a great seminar!!!…and so it goes…until next time…see you around town… “MATT”…
Please note: Readers who would like to contribute to this column can do so by mailing your news items and photographs, along with your name, address and telephone number to “Matthew Amato”, c/o The Hudson Reporter, 1400 Washington St., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Thank you.