Aurelio's Pizza Of Naples, Fl.
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| Father-child teams operate thriving ventures in Naples By JULIAN BENBOW, benbow@naplesnews.com J.P. Stewart can remember his days of Little League baseball in the south Chicago suburb of Flossmoor, Ill. He just can't recall winning.
"I just remember getting knocked out of the playoffs," he said.
Stewart recalled all of the long faces after his team took the loss, and remembered how they lasted all 10 minutes of the drive from the baseball field to Homewood, home of the original Aurelio's Pizza.
There, the teammates coped with defeat.
They found plenty of ways to have fun.
Aurelio's started out in 1959 as a family- oriented storefront pizzeria before branching out to its 40 locations in six states.
When J.P. moved to Naples in 1996, he figured a family-friendly restaurant would work well. A year later, with the support from his father, he opened the only Aurelio's in Florida.
He and his father thereby joined the list of several father-son, or father-daughter, family- owned businesses in Southwest Florida.
In East Naples, John Brewer has worked with his son Gerald for the past 20 years at Brewer's Auto Repair.
John taught his son how to work on cars when Gerald was a boy.
"I never anticipated all these years," John said of the father-son team working together in the business. "I'm proud of him."
John said sometimes working with Gerald can be "a battle," but he knows he can rely on his son.
"You don't have to worry about who's going to show up or who's going to steal something from you," he said. "It's been a pleasant experience. Life-rewarding, I guess."
John D'Agostino said he has worked with his father, Frank, his whole life.
When his father worked at the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Club in Naples, John would help out by busing tables and working the front desk.
Now, Frank D'Agostino owns four Perkins Restaurants in the Naples area. He oversees them all, and four of his seven children are managers.
"It's awesome," said John, who runs the Pine Ridge location. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Neither would the Stewart family, the local operators of Aurelio's Pizza on U.S. 41 in Naples.
Before coming out of retirement to work with his son, John Stewart worked in health-care administration. He knew J.P. wanted to go into the restaurant business.
"I thought it would be fun to do a hot dog stand," John Stewart said.
"I wanted something bigger than a hot dog stand," J.P. Stewart said.
So he got involved with a Chicago-themed restaurant that caught fire with locals who came here from Illinois and Indiana. In the three months before the restaurant opened, J.P.
said, "people would pop in the door asking if it was the same Aurelio's in Chicago."
Soon after, patrons arrived and plastered the walls with Illinois license plates, front pages from Chicago newspapers and enough Chicago sports memorabilia to shut down the Home Shopping Network.
"That's when I realized we made a good decision," J.P. Stewart said.
Over the nearly seven years he and his father have been in business together, J.P. said communication has been the difference between this job and any other job he had before.
"It's a lot more fun," J.P. said. "You tend to sit down, plan and discuss. I was always used to working for someone. Working with my father, we tried to work together. We're constantly in communication.
"When you have a bond that is a part of your daily life, it definitely brings a closeness back and it draws the family aspect closer, also."
J.P. said his Father's Day gift to his dad this weekend is a surprise. His dad said a day off would be a nice gift.
Originally, the restaurant was open seven days a week, and even with scheduled days off, they both ended up working all seven days.
Now Aurelio's is closed Mondays, but John and J.P. still come in for a couple of hours either to do inventory, clean up or sift through the license plates they get almost on a daily basis.
"The only standing rule is I'm not allowed in the kitchen," John Stewart said.
J.P. and his wife, Deneen, are expecting a baby boy in September. Like every newborn who stops by Aurelio's, J.P. Stewart said his son will have his picture taken with a T-shirt that says: "Life starts with Aurelio's."
J.P. wants his son to work with him, but not exactly the same way he's working with his father.
"I'm hoping by 6, he will be washing dishes," he said jokingly about his future son. |
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