Published: November 15, 2009 08:50 pm      

A revival of the Glory Days with Calacino’s re-opening

It’s a resurgence of the past and the grand reopening of an iconic Beckley pizzeria.

Calacino’s has returned, under new ownership.

Founded in 1930, Calacino’s was the area’s first pizzeria and a popular roadhouse hang-out for young people.

It was famous not only for its pizza, but also for its owner, Dominick “Dom” Calacino.

“Dom Calacino and his family, they were just great people,” recalled Pete Torrico of BJW Printing and a friend of the late Calacino. “Even ’til he couldn’t work no more, he still fixed the best pizza this town’s ever had.

“Usually, he fixed whatever he wanted to fix,” Torrico added. “It didn’t make any difference what you told him to put on it. He put what he wanted on it.”

Calacino liked kids as long as they were well behaved and reprimanded them himself if they weren’t. His birthday was 10-10-10, and his cash register went only to $9.99, according to Torrico.

“He always made homemade wine,” Torrico said. “He would either give you a little bit or sell you a gallon of it.

“On special occasions, he’d get out a bottle of his homemade wine and pour you just a little glass,” he recalled. “He was more special than the place.

“He was a character.”

New owners Jerry Zaferatos and King Minter say they hope to spark a little of the original fire that Dom Calacino burned at the pizzeria until shortly before his death on Jan. 20, 2000.

“That was our theme — to try to just bring it all back,” Zaferatos said. “It’s still Calacino’s.

“We’re carrying on the tradition.”

Zaferatos said the reopening of Calacino’s turned into a community project very quickly because many people remembered dancing or meeting up with friends there.

“It was just a hang-out for people from the 1930s all the way up to the 1990s when Mr. Calacino died,” he said. “It was a landmark for people to come to enjoy themselves and have good pizza and good dancing.”

In its heyday, Calacino’s was a roadhouse, offering drinks and dancing.

Students from Woodrow Wilson, Mount Hope High School and other area schools quickly turned Calacino’s into a popular teen spot, too.

Over the decades, the pizzeria on Robert C. Byrd Drive at the intersection with Maxwell Hill Road proved to be a haven for young people to meet up and show school spirit, talk about sports, dance the latest dances ... and fall in love.

“Many people from Mount Hope have stopped in to share their own memories of Calacino’s,” Zaferatos said.

One Mount Hope customer brought a postcard with a picture of Calacino’s on the front.

On the back, the postcard reads, “There’s been more marriages made at Calacino’s than in heaven.”

To keep the spirit of Calacino’s burning, Zaferatos hung one of Calacino’s original lighted signs inside the dining room, ensuring it is the first thing customers will see when they walk in the door.

Old-time customers may also recognize Dom Calacino’s pizza bar in the front dining room.

In the back dining room, a handmade wooden replica of the original keeps the feel of the old Calacino’s.

“We saved a lot of the booths and the floor, too,” Zaferatos noted, adding that insulation concerns forced the new owners to redo the walls and ceilings.

The reopened Calacino’s shares Beckley’s history through pictures, newspaper articles, magazines, jerseys and other icons donated by local people.

The yellowed newspaper clippings and antiquated photos donated by local people pay a nostalgic tribute to Beckley’s past. Captured beneath the glass tops of the wooden tables or hung on the walls of the dining areas, athletes, scholars, coaches and other local figures smile or strike ferociously athletic poses at the peak of their glory days.

“Everything we’ve got in here is the pride of Beckley and surrounding areas,” Zaferatos said.

Jerseys from Mountain State University, West Virginia University, Virginia Tech and WWHS are among the schools represented already in the restaurant.

Pictures of a championship WWHS basketball team, famous local athlete Chip Keatley, signed jerseys of Pat White and Major Harris, WWHS coach Vic Peelish, a news article on local society twins Judy Ragland and Janet Munson, and a picture of Zaferatos’ choice of “the greatest coach ever to come out of Raleigh County,” Jerome Van Meter, are included in the current collection of memorabilia on display.

“We want anyone in the community with photos regarding outstanding athletes, marching band, coaches, academics, river rafting or coal mining to donate pictures,” Zaferatos said.

To show Calacino’s is a family place, Zaferatos will display pictures of his own children — Dino, Kristy and Amy — on a special “Zaferatos” table in the dining section.

Another table will feature the Minter family and a third will host a collage of Calacino family photos, he said.

Zaferatos said the furniture will be moved to allow for dancing.

A concrete patio and stage have been added outside for al fresco dining and jazz and bluegrass performers.

Games like cornhole will be available on the hillside above the patio.

Minter and Torrico both remember Calacino as being fearless when it came to his pizza toppings — favoring pickled cauliflower — and making only the best pizza crusts.

“Great, great crust, great dough,” Minter said. “He was quite the craftsman with his pizza.”

Calacino’s will be baking pizzas in Beckley’s only “real” brick ovens — one located inside and another on the patio.

“The beauty of a brick oven is the quality of the pizza it creates,” Minter said. “It’s not the easiest way to cook a pizza; it’s the best way.”

Calacino’s will also serve stackers, appetizers, homemade sauces and breads.

Catering, carry-out, delivery and parties on the patio will be available when the new Calacino’s opens Nov. 27.

A longtime Calacino’s customer and friend of Dom Calacino’s, Minter said he often thought it was a “shame” to see the locally beloved Calacino’s building so desolate after Dom Calacino’s death.

He and Zaferatos began remodeling last year and look forward to the reopening.

Among the historic pictures gracing the walls, one familiar face will stand out to many: Dom Calacino will be holding a pizza and smiling from a favored position on the front dining room wall.

— E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com