The most complete guide to
Eating Out in Port Chester
and Rye Brook
A Supplement to the
Tarry Lodge changes hands after 54 years in Rocca family By Jananne Abel
A
fter 54 years in the Rocca family, the Tarry Lodge changed hands this week. Billed up until now as “Port Chester’s oldest family run restaurant,” the Tarry Lodge, a cozy eatery at 18 Mill St. known for its thin-crusted pizza and reliably good, stick to your ribs Italian food at reasonable prices, was sold to Dublin-born Tony Loughlin. He doesn’t plan to change a thing.
“It’s a landmark,” said Loughlin in his distinct Irish brogue. “It’s known for its pizza and food in general and a happy bar crowd.” While no major changes will be made, Loughlin, who now lives in Stamford, Conn., does plan to do a little cleanup, things like replacing the carpeting, in January or February. “It just needs a facelift,” he said. “You don’t fix what’s working.” “He wanted to get a T-shirt to say, ‘I’m not changing a thing,’” said former owner Chris Rocca, who passed the torch to Loughlin Monday afternoon. Loughlin definitely won’t touch the restaurant’s famous thin-crusted pizza, which was, in fact, inherited from the previous owner when the Rocca family took over the Tarry Lodge more than five decades ago. “He believes the same thing I do,” said Rocca. “That’s why we never put the family name on top of the restaurant. He believes that people are loyal to the business. The restaurant is more than just me. The restaurant is an entity unto itself. People come because they like the atmosphere and the food. Nothing else will change but me.” However, said Rocca, now 50 and not in the best of health: “I’m hoping he will change things. I’m a little rusty after 27 years. It’s good to have new blood in there.” “I tried to organize the restaurant so it will run whether I’m there or not,” said Rocca. “No individual should be indispensable—the chef, the owner or anybody. I think the Tarry Lodge will continue and prosper. It should as long as they stick to the fundamentals.” While Rocca grew up in the restaurant business at the Tarry Lodge, Loughlin was brought up in the pub business in Ireland. At one time his family owned a chain of pubs. Now his parents have just one in Loghrea, County Gallway. Tarry Lodge is the first restaurant Loughlin, 36, can call his own, previously managing the private Glenbrook Athletic Club in Stamford which has a bar and catering hall. Loughlin is keeping the cooks and the rest of the staff at the Tarry Lodge. “He was very adamant about telling everyone he wants them to stay, “said Rocca. “They were a little nervous at first. Now all the nervousness they had about the changeover is pretty much dissipated,” he said last Saturday after working with Loughlin for two weeks to show him the ropes. “He’s very personable, looks pretty sharp and knows what he’s doing.” “He brings a lot of expertise in the bar area,” said Rocca. “I didn’t know much in the food area. Neither did my father,” a bartender in New York City before World War II. “He didn’t have a lot of background in food, but he learned. He had an old chef in his late 70s, John Gotti, who had worked on cruise ships. He learned a lot from him about the food business.” Rocca started scrubbing pots at the Tarry Lodge at age 14 and making pizzas at 15. On his 18th birthday, his grandmother’s cousin, Nat, taught him how to tend bar. When our interview was scheduled for last Friday, Dec. 7,
he had to reschedule because his bartender didn’t show up. So even in his last week as owner, he was still tending bar in a pinch.
A long history Rocca’s father, Bill, his Uncle George Botta and his mother’s cousin, Carl Pugni, bought the Tarry Lodge in 1947. Seeing neighborhoods changing in New York City where they had worked, they decided to move to the country and chose Port Chester. They bought the Port Chester tavern from a carpenter by the name of Anthony Sgambeterra who did the rustic woodworking within the establishment which allowed him to appropriately call it a lodge. The name Tarry might have come from the end of his name or the fact that he had a daughter named Terry, said Rocca. However, no one knows for sure. “It was a gin mill that served pizza and spaghetti,” said Rocca. By the mid50s, his father took over total operation of the restaurant and during his tenure built the small kitchen out twice. The Tarry Lodge building was constructed in 1906 and always housed a bar or restaurant. “I know for a fact it was a speakeasy during Prohibition,” said Rocca. Rocca and his brother, Bill, bought the business from his father when he decided to retire in 1974. The senior Rocca died on Feb. 25, 1996 at the age of 81. Chris was 23 and shortly out of Georgetown University. He had considered law school or the diplomatic corps but didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do with his life. He has no regrets. “When I got out of college, I had to decide whether I wanted to study further and theorize about things or actually go out and experience them. I chose the latter.” “I wanted to do something,” said Rocca. “One thing about the restaurant business is it’s actually real. We have to eat every day. I learned about the world around me and to understand people. What’s more important to learn about this life than about other people?” The two brothers built an addition in 1977 on the strip of land facing Abendroth Avenue which now serves as the reception area and a dining room with booths and Tiffany-style lights as well as a private party rooms upstairs. The entire restaurant seats 110 in three dining rooms plus 25 at the long bar and siderail. The bar and main dining room of rustic dark wood accented with antlers and hooks on the wall are separated by a panel of colorful stained glass floral designs. The third dining room is located a few steps above the main one. The private upstairs room, called “The On Deck,” seats up to 40. Bill left the business suddenly in 1983, leaving Chris, who grew up in Port Chester and graduated from Corpus Christi School and Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, as the sole owner.
Rocca is North Carolina bound After closing on the building, parking lot and business Monday afternoon,
Dec. 10, Rocca expected to leave Tuesday night or Wednesday morning for Concord, N.C., a suburb of Charlotte. He said the city has a lot of parallels to Port Chester with its older downtown and surrounding houses built in the 1920s. That’s what attracted him and his wife, Pat, to the community. Ten years ago Concord had 25,000 people but has now grown to 60,000, the farmland around it allowing for expansion. The Roccas were lucky to move into a neighborhood where the people have in a short time become good friends. The 10-year-old development where they bought a house contains a nice mix of people from various parts of the country.
Restaurant sale took 3 years
Politics and Port Chester’s future
Rocca and his wife started talking about selling the Tarry Lodge and moving South after his father died in 1986. “We took some time to look at North Carolina,” he said, where both his wife’s sister and brother live. Pat is originally from South Carolina. Rocca has been actively trying to sell the restaurant for three years. “It’s not an easy thing to sell an established restaurant,” he said. “People want to buy an existing facility and rip it apart,” something he doesn’t understand since statistics show that 50% of all new restaurants fail in the first two years.
Tarry Lodge is home to the 40-40 Club, Lions Club and Rotary Club Board of Directors. Over the years the eatery has been a political hangout for Republicans, Independents, Democrats and Conservatives alike. Many a political campaign has been crafted within the walls of the restaurant’s private dining room upstairs. Rocca ran unsuccessfully for Port Chester trustee in 1980 and 1981 on the Republican ticket. “Thank God I wasn’t elected,” he said. “I think I’ve done more good not being an elected official than I would have if I had been elected. I have a great respect for elected officials. They put a lot of time and effort into a really thankless job.” “I am not now nor have I ever been a Democrat,” said Rocca. “I just work for people I think are good no matter what their party affiliation is.” He was the campaign manager when Christine Korff ran for mayor in 1994 and helped with all of her campaigns. Before that, he was involved with the Citizens Independent Party, a group of renegade Republicans—Sam Terenzi, the late Rick Giorgi, Steve Wallach and Dan Tartaglia. They ran a full slate consisting of Terenzi, Matt Troy and Rick Giorgi in 1993. They came in second after the Republicans. Sal Morlino and Goldie Solomon also ran independently that year. “We realized after that we couldn’t win an election without a major party line,” said Rocca. “That’s when we started supporting the Democrats.” Besides his friends, Rocca said he will actually miss the politics. “If nothing else, it was absolutely fascinating,” he said. “What I’ll miss most is leading the struggle to help Port Chester realize its potential. I’ve been fighting the fight for 27 years. But I’m tired. Let someone else take up the banner.” “We could have come much further than we have in a shorter time,” Rocca lamented. “The real problem is we’re our own worst enemy. We spend so much time fighting amongst ourselves. We’ve never had the kind of real leader we need to bring things together. We’ve had leaders, but they all seem to have some kind of fatal flaw.” His advice: “Bury the egos, work together for the common purpose and avoid people who are obviously in politics to line their pockets. Just remember, when Port Chester progresses, everybody wins.”
Tarry Lodge’s new owner, Tony Loughlin, toasts with Chris Rocca, the Port Chester restaurant’s previous proprietor, in the bar. The eatery is located at 18 Mill St. Rocca’s wife and four children moved to North Carolina 16 months ago so the kids could start school in August of 2000. He didn’t know it would take him this long to sell the restaurant. Katie is now 20, Carol is 19 and attending Rowan-Cabbarus Community College in Concord, Kendra is 14 and a freshman at Jay M. Robinson High School, a brand new facility with 1,600 students, and Christopher, 13, attends Concord Middle School. Since they left, Rocca has visited his family on the average of once a month. “It’s been a bit of a strain, but they’ve been very understanding,” he said. Since he’s driving down to North Carolina this week, his wife, who works full-time in the finance office for the Charlotte-Mecklenburgh School District, has a list a mile long of things she needs him to do before Christmas. He’ll come back to Port Chester a few times after Christmas to tie up some loose ends. After that, Rocca plans to look for a job, probably in the food service industry. He isn’t worried about the prospects, after having read an article in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago that said the South, and North Carolina in particular, was begging for restaurant managers. “I figure with my experience I won’t have any trouble getting a job,” he said. “What I want to do long-term I’m not sure yet. I know working for a newspaper doesn’t pay very well.” He does hope to do some writing, however. He plans to send some of the columns he’s written for the weekly newspapers in Port Chester to the daily Concord Independent Tribune to see if they want to pick him up. “If Andy Rooney wants to retire, I’d take his job,” he joked.
Over the past three years he had a few deals put together, one right at the beginning that didn’t get too far. Then he had an agreement worked out with a fellow from Long Island before LongIsland-based G&S Investors, Port Chester’s downtown developer, stepped in and interrupted that sale last fall and “strung me along until March.” They neglected to tell him they were buying the restaurant and flipping it over to an operator who was putting up the money. The closing was delayed and the operator backed out in March. “The operator used to come in every day to make plans,” said Rocca. “He was going to tear the place apart. A day before he was to sign the contracts with G&S, he backed out. I don’t know why.” In the end Rocca sold the property and business to Loughlin for an undisclosed amount of cash, which he will have to share with his brother and sister, who had an interest in the property. The transaction is being financed through a Small Business Association loan. “I have to split the biggest chunk, the building, with them,” he said. “I’m not retiring, am not going to be wealthy, far from it, after I pay all my debts.” But now he can walk away without any worries, so it was worth the wait. Rocca sold his house on Priscilla Lane a year ago—in November 2000—and has been living with friends Aldo and Debbie Vitagliano and their children Luke and John, 10, and Daniel, 6, on Elizabeth Street since then. He’s godfather to the twins and they all call him Uncle Chris. “I do provide some useful services like babysitting, and I know they will miss my bringing food home from the Tarry Lodge every Thursday night.”
Memories Rocca listed some of his fondest memories: Band Night at Port Chester High School’s Ryan Stadium, elections, when Christine Korff first got elected mayor, the Columbus Day and Memorial Day parades, the old Elks Club up on King Street (now Rye Brook Village Hall), the Port Chester Rotary Club in the late 1970s and early 1980s when everyone in town was in it, Boy Scout Pasta Night at the Tarry Lodge and the night he and other friends took Rick Giorgi to New York City before he moved to North Carolina several years ago. Rocca said he knows his mom, Eleanor, wouldn’t be disappointed about his selling the restaurant because he had already started the process before she died in January 1999 and she realized his reasons for doing it. He said his father might have been saddened by his decision. “Things change. You have to move on,” said Rocca. “We had a good run— 54 years. Who could ask for better than that?”