Wallkill Valley Times May 01 2019 | Page 2

2 Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, May 1, 2019 The end of an era IN THIS ISSUE Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Crossword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Letters to the Editor. . . . . . . . . . 8 Montgomery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Police Blotter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 School News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Service Directory. . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Walden.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 PUBLIC AGENDA WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 Climate Smart Gardiner Task Force. 7 p.m. Town Hall, Route 44-55, Gardiner. THURSDAY, MAY 2 Montgomery Town Board, 7 p.m. Town Government Center, 110 Bracken Road, Montgomery. Shawangunk Town Board, 7 p.m. Town Hall, 14 Central Ave., Wallkill. TUESDAY, MAY 7 Walden Village Board of Trustees, 6:30 p.m. Village Hall, 1 Municipal Square. Gardiner Town Board. 7 p.m. Town Hall, Route 44-55, Gardiner. Town of Shawangunk Planning Board, 7 p.m. Town Hall, 14 Central Ave., Wallkill. Montgomery Village Board, 7:30 p.m. Village Hall, 133 Clinton Street. HOW TO REACH US OFFICE: 300 Stony Brook Court Newburgh, NY 12550 PHONE: [phone], FAX: [phone] Emails may be directed to the following : ADVERTISING [email protected] CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS [email protected] TO REACH THE EDITOR [email protected] FOR THE SPORTS DEPARTMENT [email protected] PUBLIC NOTICES [email protected] WEBSITE www.timescommunitypapers.com The Wallkill Valley Times, (USPS 699-490) is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday at Newburgh, NY 12550, with offices at 300 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY. Single copy: $1 at newsstand. By mail in Orange, Ulster or Sullivan Counties: $40 annually, $44 out of county. Periodicals permit at Newburgh, NY. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallkill Valley Times, 300 Stony Brook Court, Newburgh, NY 12550. Rob Malatesta, owner of Rob’s Pizza in Wallkill, retires after 30 years By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] T eenagers and parents wandered in to Rob’s Pizza in Wallkill on a lazy weekday afternoon. A couple of kids munched on pizza slices and did homework in a booth. Customers ordered from glass display cases featuring pizzas and garlic knots. Owner Rob Malatesta greeted most customers by name. “Hey Joe!” he called as a Joe LoCicero, Malatesta’s first delivery driver, strode in the door. While they both approached middle age now, LoCicero and Malatesta were only young men when the restaurant opened. A kid from the Bronx, Malatesta knew Wallkill from visiting his uncle. At the time, the little hamlet didn’t have many restaurants, let alone a pizza place. That’s when Malatesta saw an opportunity. With three bank loans for $30,000, Malatesta opened the store at 15 Main Street on February 3, 1990, when he was 20 years old. Now, he’s retiring, and plans to spend more time with his family. Malatesta has made a lot of friends and met a lot of people through his little pizza shop, whether they be customers or employees. “I was welcomed with open arms a long time ago and I met a lot of great, wonderful people,” Malatesta said. “I watched kids become adults and then become parents and then parents become grandparents in a lot of years.” Rob’s Pizza is a gathering place, especially for the community’s youth. Kids stroll down after school, couples go out on first dates, families celebrate birthday parties and anniversaries and good grades, sports teams celebrate wins or build comradery over a defeat. “This is home, and this became home for a lot of kids,” employee and long-time friend of Malatesta Alyson Specht said. Malatesta loved to serve youth sports teams through fundraisers and specials such as free pizza every time the varsity baseball team won a game by eight points. The football team and cheerleaders came to the restaurant before every home game. It’s a place where memories are made. “This place means a lifetime of memories,” Locicero said. And Malatesta is fair to his customers; Employees Tom Norton, Emma Malatesta, Owner Rob Malatesta, (Bottom, from left): employ- ees Roseanne Mitchell, Alyson Specht and Christina Evtuch outside Rob’s Pizza, a Wallkill establishment for 30 years. Malatesta retired last Saturday, turning the business over to Pasquales. Specht said he would let people pay for their food later, when payday came around. “He’s just an amazing, giving person,” Specht said. “He’ll give you the shirt off his back.” The restaurant was a family affair; Malatesta’s father used to make pizza dough. His sister, Roseanne Mitchell, is an employee in the store. His children, Emma, 15, and Nicholas, 17, grew up around pizza. “I started making pizzas when I was four,” Emma said. Owning a business has come with its challenges. Malatesta moved to the current building at 26 Wallkill Avenue in 1996, but had to move back to 15 Main street after a fire damaged the building just one year later. The business moved back to its current location after the building was repaired in 2000. The restaurant’s 1,000 gallon fish tank once broke, pouring water all over the floor. “It was terrible, 1,000 gallons of water in the place,” Malatesta said. “But we saved the fish.” The work itself of owning a business can be wearing. Malatesta said he can work 12- or 14-hour days, six days a week. The grind contributed to his decision to retire and begin new endeavors. While he’s sad to leave the place where so many memories were made, Malatesta said he is looking forward to a new chapter in his life. “It’s bittersweet,” Malatesta said. “It’s not an easy decision.” The restaurant will now be owned and operated by Pasquales of Gardiner and New Paltz.