Now That's Italian! Joe's Celebrates Fives Years
By Frank Ruggiero

Joe's Italian Kitchen in Boone has crossed the five-year hump that can make or break a small business and owner Joe Cafaro plans to celebrate.

The restaurant's anniversary was Tuesday, August 1, and though tradition dictates that presents are given to the celebrant, Cafaro instead cooked up a dish of specials for everyone else.

The first 100 customers on August 1 and 2 received a free ice cream bar or bottle of spring water.

In theme with the number five, spaghetti marinara will be served for five bucks, along with vertain sandwiches throughout the weeks Cafaro is also offering stamp cards, where customers earn one red stamp for every regular priced meal. Five red stamps win a free meal or an "Eat at Joe's" T-shirt, while green stamps for every Italian combo sandwich bought will earn a free sandwich.

The specials will last through the entire month of August.

Joe's Italian History

Cafaro was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Anthony and Helen Cafaro. Cafaro regularly boasts that the food found in Joe's Italian Kitchen is the same food found in his mother's kitchen.

"Our recipes are 100 years old, going back to the old country where my grandparents were born and raised," Cafaro said, referring to his family heritage in Sicily and Callabria, Italy.

In Brooklyn, Anthony worked as a mechanic at the Rockefeller Center, while Helen worked as a seamstress for many years, before retiring to raise Cafaro and his brother, Guy.

"Mom taught me how to cook ever since I was a little boy," Cafaro said. "Dad made the meatballs every Sunday- that was his job to get out of taking me to church."

In 1980, Cafaro moved to Charlotte, where he worked as a chef for a number of years in various restaurants. For a while, he became a restaurant consultant but, after 10 years, decided to get back into the restaurant business.

Shortly after the blizzard of 1993, Cafaro moved to Boone. "I missed the winter weather, being from New York City," he said. "There's no winter in Charlotte to speak of."

In August 2001, he opened Joe's Italian Kitchen, modeling it after a typical New York City delicatessen, offering food for take-out, homemade baked goods, premium lunch meals, cheeses and various Italian groceries. As time went on, the deli evolved into a sit-down restaurant.

"And dad still comes to work everyday to make the meatballs," Cafaro said.

As a chef in Charlotte, Cafaro became fluent in cooking different ethnic dishes, and he offers specials on different types of food, including Cajun, Cuban and German.

Though themes come and go, Joe's is strictly Italian, and his family tradition can be found in its variety of dishes, from baked ziti to chicken marsala. The restaurant has also grown popular for its New York style pizzas, which are served nightly.

Wine and beer are offered to complement meals, and Cafaro said, "We offer a few Italian wines- bottles I'd only put on my table for dinner, nothing overpowering. We only serve Moretti (beer) because the Moretti Company has been handed down from father to son and has not sold out to the big corporation.

Though it's primarily a restaurant now, Joe's still offers various deli and grocery items, including olives, eating and grating cheeses, homemade sausage, homemade mozzarella and Cafaro's own, special antipasto. Popular deli meats include prosciutto ham, capicola, "just a few of the basics, but we can just about get anything on request," Cafaro said.

All the pastries are cooked in store, as well as cheesecakes made from scratch. Cafaro's fiancee, Cindy, will soon come aboard to personally operate the bakery. Joe's also plans to expand into a catering, the market for which in the High Country is considerably limited, Cafaro said.