TAMPA, Fla. — Marco Orefice could be an accountant if he wanted. A nice desk gig. Normal hours. Good pay.
"I could do something else, but I choose this," Marco said. "This is what I love."
Marco and his wife Brittany run Alfonso's, the oldest family-owned pizzeria in Tampa, at 14942 North Florida Avenue.
"My dad came down to Florida in '77. We opened this place up in '78," said the prodigal son, who worked the register when he was just five years old.
Marco now serves three generations of customers: "Grandfathers to fathers to sons! Little kids who were once in strollers are now driving themselves here!"
For 45 years, Alfonso's has used top ingredients—the best cheese, the best dough, the best sauce—despite the rising cost of supplies.
"It's very important [to keep standards high] because I have a lot of the same customers from 1978 coming in," Marco said.
But he's facing the same challenges that many restaurants are up against these days: supply availability, a lack of good, affordable staffing, plus customers struggling with their own financial instability.
So Marco works every single hour that Alfonso's Pizzeria is open, five days a week, without fail. It's the only way he can consistently serve the very best pizza that his father taught him to make.
"A lot of people just work to work," he said. "But I work because I really love this place."
