Capriottis Catering

General information

About Capriotti's
My grandfather Nazzareno Capriotti emigrated from the town of Marche, Italy, at the age of 24 in 1920. He settled in Marcus Hook, PA, where the other people from his hometown in Italy settled. Unable to find work in Marcus Hook, Nazzareno joined others looking for work, and traveled with them to Hazleton to hopefully find work in the mines. Upon his arrival to Hazleton he met my grandmother, Nellie Vendura, whose parents came from the town of Calabria, Italy. Having lost her mother at the age of 4, she had lived in many boarding houses with her father and three other siblings. It was in the boarding house that Nellie learned how to cook. They settled in the town of Kelayres to raise their family.
Growing up in my grandparents’ house with my parents and two sisters, I was introduced to Italian cooking. On Sunday mornings the house was always filled with the aroma of Italian fried meatballs and sauce cooking on the stove. It was a tradition to have pasta every Sunday and Thursday in our family. On Fridays my grandmother woke up early to start kneading the dough to make bread, pizza, fried dough and stromboli’s and after school everyone came to my house to enjoy the food. I am proud to say that the recipes used at Capriotti's for our meatballs, homemade sausage, sauce and stromboli are that of my grandmothers.
In 1984 my parents opened a pizzeria in Kelyares, PA. The name for the restaurant was Cappys. Our menu consisted of the same homemade recipes sausage, from my grandmother. Around the same time that my parents opened Cappys, my sister Laurie married Robert Veet. They purchased the C & P Store on Chestnut St Hazleton, PA in 1987. Laurie and Bobby decided to expand their business and incorporated some of those same recipes into their catering that they had learned from my grandmother. They began catering luncheons at factories, parties, and off site catering
In 1986 I graduated from High School and joined the U.S Army Reserves. After completion of basic training, I worked at Longos Bakery. While at Longos Bakery I perfected my skills at dough and bread making, along with sauce preparation.
In 1991 I purchased Bodnar’s Market in Tresckow. Two weeks before the scheduled closing, my army reserve unit was activated in support of Desert Storm. I served in Saudi Arabia and Iraq until June of 1991. In my absence Robert and Laurie Veet managed the store. After my return I renamed the store, Tresckow Super Food. I then began doing offsite catering serving family reunions, weddings, and company parties anywhere from 10 to 600 people. .
As time went by Tresckow Super Foods catering was starting to gain popularity. Working out of the kitchen in the store, there was no where to do onsite catering, so we were limited to doing only off premise catering. A lot of time and thought went into what I really wanted for my business. I enjoyed the catering aspect of my store, and wanted to start expanding my catering business. At around the same time as fait would have it, the diocese of Allentown was selling their bingo hall right here in Tresckow. They had approached me and asked if I would be interested in purchasing the building. I jumped on the opportunity and could not have been happier with my decision. The building was in need of a major makeover, so I renovated the whole building, and now have a very successfully catering business to meet all of my expectations.