Jupiter restaurant celebrates 30 years of Italian fare

JUPITER — A heaping scoop of hard work, a dash of consistency and a sprinkle of affordability are some key ingredients that have helped Angelo’s Pizza last for three decades.

But Mike Furfaro said it never would have happened without Jupiter’s abysmal Italian food scene in the late 1980s.

Last month, Mike and Lisa Furfaro’s restaurant celebrated its 30th anniversary. The Furfaros marked the milestone with an expansion, nearly doubling their location at 155 Toney Penna Drive, complete with a liquor license.

“It’s our 30th anniversary present to ourselves,” said Lisa Furfaro.

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When Mike Furfaro was 18 and living in New Jersey, he had saved $3,000 to buy his first restaurant: a luncheonette called MAF’s, which he sold when he moved to Florida.

“I always wanted to be in my own business,” Furfaro recalled. “I didn’t know that it would be a restaurant, but I wanted to be my own boss.”

Furfaro was a hard-working teen, finding time to earn money with his father, his uncle or his cousins. He sold beer in the stadium of his favorite team, the New York Giants, and if he had to choose between hanging out with friends or working, the latter always won.

“I wanted the finer things in life and to really succeed,” he said.

A job and the search for warmer weather led him to Jupiter, but he couldn’t find any good pizza. So he started making his own at home, then opened Angelo's in 1988 and named it after his mother's father, who he never knew.

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It’s where Furfaro met his wife.

Lisa Furfaro, who grew up in Chicago, said one day her mother saw a magazine advertisement for Jupiter Village, a development for veterans. Her father had served during World War II and her mother, who is from Puerto Rico, thought the town reminded her of home so the family decided to move.

“It was just quiet and beautiful,” Lisa Furfaro said of the town 30 years ago.

Lisa met Mike through her younger sister Sonia, who had a penchant for chicken Parmesan and landed a job at Angelo's. Sonia told Lisa that Mike wanted to go out with her, and the rest is history.

Family is an integral part of the restaurant, which has locations in Jupiter Farms and Hobe Sound. Customers are welcomed with a friendly face, and family photos (some with famous customers like golfer Lee Trevino) fill spaces in the walls that aren’t taken up by Giants, Cubs or Elvis memorabilia.

Ask the Furfaros if they have a best dish, and they’ll reel off a list that leaves the mouth watering.

But the most special dishes are the ones with the names of their three children baked right in: Cheese Ravioli Alla Francesca, spicy Michaelangelo and Pasta Alla Roberto.

Mike Furfaro is proud to have hit the 30-year mark and hopes the restaurant reaches to at least 50.

If their "Cheers" atmosphere — the place “where everybody knows your name” — is any indication, there's a good chance they'll hit that next milestone.

hmorse@pbpost.com

@mannahhorse