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FEBRUARY 4 - 10, 2021
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CoMMUNITY UPDATE
Vol. 28 No. 6
A ‘cornerstone’ closes in W.H. Pompei restaurant shuts down after nearly 50 years in business By NAkEEM GRANT ngrant@liherald.com
Courtesy Vincent Pavlovsky
PoMPEI RESTAURANT, AT 401 Hempstead Ave. in West Hempstead, closed in December.
When restaurateurs Nadir and Jenny Rago purchased Pete’s Cuisine, at 401 Hempstead Ave. in West Hempstead, and opened Pompei restaurant in 1971, they had big visions for the business. They dreamed of transforming the small building into a place that would attract people from all over the community. When Nadir’s health declined in 1984, his daughter, Ada Rago, took over the business and made that dream a reality.
“Ada was in medical school at the time, and had plans of becoming a pharmacist,” her husband, Vincent Pavlovsky, recounted. “Once her father got sick, she dedicated her life to running the business through hard work, and made it into a thriving business in West Hempstead.” Ada expanded the space in the late 1980s, when she bought the property next to the restaurant to create a parking lot. Shortly afterward, the restaurant added sit-down catering, which was a success. For many Continued on page 4
W.H. family returns H.S. ring to Valley Stream North grad By ToNY BEllISSIMo tbellissimo@liherald.com
When he wasn’t playing football and wrestling as a Valley Stream North High School student athlete from 2006 to 2009, Joe Castrogiovanni would often head to Hall’s Pond Park in West Hempstead for some exercise. One of his routine walks, in May 2009, proved costly, however, when Castrogiovanni lost his class ring. “The ring was always a little loose, and it must have just slipped off my finger,” he said. “I didn’t notice it was gone until I got home. I went back that same evening to search for it,
but couldn’t find it.” Castrogiovanni had no luck, but later that month, West Hempstead couple Robert and Grace Kopec did. Robert saw the ring lying on the walking path, scooped it up and stuck it a drawer, where it sat for more than a decade before the urging of his daughter, Lauren, and social media played a role in its return to Castrogiovanni. “I walked a few miles at Hall’s Pond every day back then,” Robert said. “The ring was on the ground, and there was nobody around. Somehow, the story came up in discussion during the [2020] holidays, and my daughter took some action
I
was shocked to get the call somebody had the ring.
JoSEPH CASTRoGIoVANNI Franklin Square
to try to get it back to the person it belonged to.” With “Spartans” inscribed on the ring, along with the name “Joseph,” a wrestler, a football and the number 57, Lauren Kopec searched the internet for Nassau County high school
nicknames. Then she then took to Instagram and sent a message to the Valley Stream North Spartans account: “Hello, I know this message is really random, but is there any chance you would have a roster from the football or wrestling team from 2009? My parents found a class ring . . . any help would be appreciated.”
Valley Stream North Athletic Director Michael Frazer got the message, and contacted former football head coach Tom Schiavo to try to track down the 2009 varsity roster. Schiavo, who has every team photo in his office, wasn’t in school at the time, so he made a quick call to Elias Gaston, who graduated that Continued on page 3