With an anniversary bash to be held on June 12
If you were traveling from Brooklyn to Cornwall-on-Hudson, you wouldn’t normally go through Pennsylvania. But that’s how Gary Fiorello got here.
It happened 30 years ago, which is why he’s celebrating an anniversary.
June 12 will be a big day at Village Pizza (194 Hudson Street in Cornwall-on-Hudson). From noon until 3 p.m., the parking lot will be off limits for cars.
Instead of providing spaces for vehicles, it will be home to a face-painting station and a batting cage for kids.
“Thirty” will be the special theme for customers who venture inside the restaurant. They can order 30-cent slices of cheese pizza or 30-cent Zeppoles. And, at night, they can get two large cheese pizzas and an appetizer for 30 dollars.
There will also be a pizza eating contest for kids, with the winner being the one who finishes the most slices in a given amount of time. But let’s get back to Mr. Fiorello’s odyssey that brought him to Cornwall-on-Hudson. In 1981, he and his partner signed a contract to open a restaurant in Pennsylvania. They made several trips from New York City to the home of their future business. And then, although it wasn’t their fault, the deal fell through.
Rather than give up their dream, they looked at locations in Orange County. They checked one in Washingtonville and another in Cornwall. Then they visited a Fiorello relative at West Point. On the way, they passed an abandoned garage with a “for sale” sign. It didn’t look like a potential restaurant. But they wrote down the phone number on the sign.
A few weeks later, they called the number and learned that the building was still available. It would require extensive renovations, but the price was reasonable. Today it’s become a popular retreat for people placing take-out orders and for those wanting to sit and enjoy a dinner.
The owner doesn’t regret his lack of success in Pennsylvania. Had the deal gone through, he wouldn’t have come to Cornwall – where he met his wife and raised a family.
