THE BIG EXIT ZERO Q&A
BUSINESSMAN DAN CAPPELLETTI Interview by DIANE STOPYRA Photograph by ALEKSEY MORYAKOV
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HIS week, we sat down with Dan Cappelletti, aka Cappy, the 60-year-old, motorcycle-riding patriarch of Cappelletti & Sons Beachfront Pizza, and the owner of the new, much buzzed-about Italian deli on Perry Street. He says he’s never had a day of work he didn’t enjoy, and we set out to find out how this could possibly be… Where are you from? Originally, 100 miles east of Chicago in a town called Elkhart, Indiana. But my dad was in the concrete business, so we moved when I was very young to Pottstown, Pennsylvania and I was raised there.
When did you leave home? I received a football scholarship to Salem University, but when I got there I couldn’t even read. Why not? I had ADD in school, which was treated much differently then. Guys with high energy were always in trouble, so I hadn’t learned. But then a little old lady in town took me under her wing and showed me, and I graduated college in 3.5 years with two majors — physical and special education — and three minors. From there, I went on to get my Masters from University of West Virginia. When did you come to Cape May? I was 28. My first impression when I came over the bridge… I was blown away. It was absolutely beautiful, and I’d had no idea this existed on the east coast. I started teaching special education right away at Lower Cape May Regional High School
and I got a summer job cleaning fish at South Jersey Marina. What was that like? I imagine… smelly? No, it was quite the opposite, as long as you knew how to clean; my truck was always Clorox-ed down. It was the best job in the world. And my two sons — they were about 10 and 11 at the time — grew up down there. It was a very Huckleberry Fin and Tom Sawyer life for them. When did you open Cappelletti & Sons Beachfront Pizza on the promenade? That happened in 1989, and it’s still there, though now it’s owned by Pete Mancuso. Did you have any experience with pizza at the time? My grandmother cooked, and I learned from her. I have four brothers and two sisters, and we all learned to cook from her. She and my grandfather had Cappy’s Italian restaurant in Indiana, so that’s where it all started. C April 10-April 23, 2014 EXIT ZERO Page 51