Hardware City cafe pays homage to Hartford’s boxing legend
PHOTO | Steve Laschever
April Miller has been in the restaurant business since age 19, but always dreamed of owning her own eatery. She's honoring her step-dad in naming it Willie Pep's Corner Cafe.
PHOTO | Steve Laschever
Pep’s Corner Cafe is adorned with pictures and fond memories of Hartford boxing icon Willie Pep.
Stan Simspon
When April Miller thought about a name for her new corner cafe in New Britain, there were a couple of options.
“I could have named it 'April's,' ” Miller said. Then conceded: “But who the hell is she?''
Instead, she thought, why not name it for someone she loved, someone who suffered from the fogginess of dementia in his later life. Someone whose primary wish in life was to always be remembered.
In professional boxing circles, featherweight champion Willie Pep (born Guglielmo Papaleo in Hartford) is considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters who ever lived. At 126 pounds, he won his first of two titles in 1942 and was friends with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jake Lamotta and Sugar Ray Robinson. The gregarious and engaging Pep worked hard, played harder and was known for his one-liners, love of the casinos, betting horses and romancing the ladies. He died in 2006 at age 84.
Tribute to her stepfather
Willie Pep's Corner Cafe, at 366 Farmington Ave., is April Miller's tribute to her stepfather. The 20-seat eatery opened in Feb. 2015 in a former bodega. It's essentially a five-day-a-week sandwich shop with gourmet salads, billed as a place with great food at knockout prices. Over 90 percent of the business is done over the phone. Call-ahead orders are critical because the cafe is essentially a daughter-mother operation and the food is made fresh daily.
Miller, 40, has been involved in the restaurant business since 19, working as a waitress, bartender and restaurant owner.
“I was doing it for other people for so many years,” she said. "I always wanted to own a little something, to be my own boss, make my own decisions, make my own menu. I saw a lot in the last 20 years about what works and what doesn't. This is an old school kind of restaurant. The food is really good. We have reasonable prices and incredible customer service.”
The menu selections have a boxing theme. “The Welterweight” salad (pears, apples, walnuts, lettuce, dried cranberries, goat cheese) sells for $7; “The Heavyweight” sandwich (steak and cheese with sautéed peppers and onions on a Portuguese roll) goes for $7.75. An egg, bacon and cheese sandwich is $3 under the “Willie Pep's Quick Breakfast” selections.
Miller's mother, Barbara Papaleo, works with her. Papaleo is Pep's widow, his sixth (and last) wife. They married on Pep's birthday — Sept. 19 — in 1987. He was 65. She was 32. April Miller knew Pep for 21 years, from age 9.
Pep's cafe is adorned with pictures and fond memories of the character that was Willie Pep. A video of his fight with arch nemesis Sandy Saddler is shown on a television atop a soda refrigerator. Pep's ring record was 226-11-1. Having the Pep name on her cafe reminds Miller to run a business with the high standards that made him a world champion.
Caring and generous
She and her mother remember Pep as a caring and generous spirit, who was always a gentleman, with a quick wit. When he was speaking in public, Pep would always acknowledge Barbara and ask her to stand. She knew what was coming next.
Pep would tell the audience his doctor once advised him that it could be potentially fatal to marry a woman half his age.
Willie's response: “Doc, if she dies … she dies.”
The audience would roar.
When asked about his multiple wives, Pep's stock answer was that they all shared a common trait. “They were great housekeepers,'' he said. “After the divorce, they kept the house.”
Mixed clientele
The cafe's clientele is a mix of town employees, neighborhood folks, corporate workers and those who loved Pep, or knew someone who loved him.
“Everyone has a story,” Miller said. “And 99 percent of the time we're like, yeah, that sounds like Willie.”
The younger customers usually don't know much about Pep and think he was a fictional cartoon character. Miller tells them to Google Pep. When they return, they are in awe of his accomplishments.
When Pep was alive, he enjoyed frequenting the Casa Loma restaurant on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford's south end. There, he would get coffee, breakfast and hold court.
Miller believes Pep would have loved his namesake cafe in a locale known as “Hard-hittin” New Britain.
“He'd be here every day. Every day,” she said with a laugh. “Having his coffee. He'd probably have me bring in doughnuts. My mother would probably tell me no. His biggest thing was that he always wanted to be remembered. He did what he did — and he was always saying 'don't let 'em forget me. … Don't let 'em forget me.' ”
Stan Simpson is the principal of Stan Simpson Enterprises LLC, a strategic communications consulting firm. He is also host of “The Stan Simpson Show” which airs Saturday, 5:30 a.m., on Fox CT — and online at www.fox61.com/stan.
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