Fort Lee Middle School Custodian Also Man Behind ‘Joey Pizza’

If you’re heading to the lower Main Street area this week for the Saint Rocco Italian American Mutual Aid Society of Fort Lee’s 83rd annual , one vendor you’re not going to want to miss is Joey Pizza.

Joe Cappellini at for 13 years, and if you sit down with him for any amount of time, it quickly becomes evident that the union representative for the district for custodians and maintenance loves his job.

But his true passion, he says, is pizza, something he’s been doing for quite a bit longer.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 12 years old,” said Cappellini, who’s from the Bronx. “It was handed down from the family.”

But Cappellini doesn’t own any pizzerias anymore. Instead, he uses his vacation time to make the circuit of feasts and festivals, setting up shop alongside his uncle, who makes zeppoles.

“I use it for my side gig,” Cappellini said. “And the only way I could do it instead of owning the business is I do all the feasts in the neighborhoods and festivals.”

This year marks Cappellini’s 30th year in the food business, and the Saint Rocco Feast in Fort Lee is his penultimate of the summer, having recently finished a festival in the Bronx, at which he said he made about 600 pies, with one more in downtown New York planned.

This is the fourth year Cappellini is taking part in Fort Lee’s Saint Rocco Feast, which he said he’d heard a lot about since he started working in the borough. He said he sat down with organizers, and the rest is recent local history.

“They asked me about four years ago if I could come in and join them because they heard good things about my pizza,” Cappellini said. “They loved the sauce and the dough and the cheese and everything that goes with it; it makes an awesome pie.”

He estimates that in years past, he’s cranked out anywhere between 100 and 150 pizzas over the five-day feast, but he hopes that number could be even higher this year.

“It depends; I’m hoping to do better this year because we have the Ironman,” Cappellini said. “It’s a big thing for Fort Lee. It’s nice to get something like that in your town.”

As for the number of pies he’s planning for, Cappellini said, “I’m always prepared for the best.”

“It’s basically for the community,” he said. “In the middle school, I also serve the community as a custodian, so why not do it for pizza and feed them too?”

Cappellini, who said he plans on setting up his pizza oven and booth on Tuesday for the festival that starts Wednesday evening and runs through Sunday, came in a close second in a “fastest pizza making” competition in Las Vegas in 1992, cranking out a pie in 19 seconds.

“I think the guy beat me by two seconds,” Cappellini said, adding that the speed factor does help him at festivals when there’s a big rush.

“When you’re doing 150 pies a night, it’s pretty exciting,” he said.

But the bottom line for Cappellini isn’t about making as many pizzas as he can as fast as he can; it’s about helping out however he can.

“It’s for the church, helping them out and a lot of fundraising,” said Joey Pizza. “I always like to give a helping hand out there, whether I’m a custodian or serving as a union rep. for the custodians or being out there in the community for Saint Rocco’s.”

The feast opens at 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. A mass at Saint Rocco Chapel takes place at 9 a.m. Sunday, with the annual procession at 4 p.m.

For more information on the 83rd annual Saint Rocco Feast in Fort Lee, visit Saint Rocco’s website.