Reopening day for Casale's Half Way Club restaurant on east 4th Street is this coming Tuesday, November 3rd. Tony Stempeck's sister Maria Rogers says the date is not too soon. She says they need to do this: "We intend to use it as a method of healing ourselves and our community.”
And Tony's daughter Haley Stempeck Kramer says they're going to do their best to keep the spirit of 2 unforgettable characters inside. As she told me, "He did so much in his 63 years, so we just hope to put him on the walls, just like we have grandma on the walls."
Tony was a friend of mine. If you met him at Casale’s, you were a friend too. He was a good man, a character…larger than life and a bit of a legend who crossed many borders. Haley says they heard from "Old classmates from elementary school who remember my dad cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the classrooms, former teachers...just every single person that I felt my dad had ever touched." Maria adds, "We even had some folks from Namibia South Africa who were here."
Tony's passing made the national news, with a feature story on MSNBC. As Maria says ,"All this for a boy from 4th street…Tony would be so proud and so pleased he made the national news, that we've been joking that he would insist that one of us would carry around a red carpet for ‘His Highness’."
Behind Tony's bar, the memorabilia tells the story. Maria showed me a pair of boxing gloves from Reno’s Mills Lane: “And Mills had written down here, 'Let’s get it on' which of course was his tag line, and Tony was very proud of those." Above the bar are hats from devoted customers, along with pictures of his daughters that were Tony's favorites. Maria said, "We like to tease that Tony was raised by his daughters. They made him the man he always knew he could be."
Once it reopens, the family will carry Casale's Half Way Club forward and keep this train on the tracks. Haley and her husband are now in charge. She's worked there since she was a kid, just like her dad Tony did. Throughout its 83 years, there's never been any question that the younger generations would take over and carry on. Maria says "It is family first and always has been. Tony carried that on and so will we."
Casale's is known for not changing much of anything since the 1930's, and even after 5 generations of customers no adjustments will be made. But both Haley and Maria know this is one time it won't be the same, without this father, brother, best friend and business partner. As Haley told me, "I just hope that we can continue to make both grandma and dad proud by...not screwing it up."
