For 40 years, Michael J. Tumolo and his family have ladled thousands of gallons of tomato sauce, sprinkled miles of shredded mozzarella and stretched endless balls of dough to create a food beloved at his Brandywine Hundred business.
"Pizza is the meaning and circle of life," says Tumolo, owner of Café Riviera Italian Pizzeria & Restaurant in the Concord Mall, repeating one of his favorite mottos.
If you think he's being dramatic, you don't know Tumolo. He is both sincere and passionate about the pizza and Italian dishes he and his staff make that have marked so many milestones in Delaware.
Cafe Riviera's New York-style pizza and dishes like eggplant parmigiana and tortellini Sophia have been on the table for ball games, birthdays and bachelor and bachelorette parties.
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Its baked stuffed shells and lobster ravioli are served at holiday get-togethers, bridal and baby showers, graduations, anniversaries and retirement celebrations. Food such as beef braciole and spaghetti carbonara is there to comfort before and after funeral gatherings.
Tumolo, his wife Mindy, and son Dan are so grateful for loyal customer support over the last four decades, they felt they needed to be honest and direct about where the business seemed to be headed.
That's why on Aug. 27, they made a startling announcement on the restaurant's Facebook page: Cafe Riviera was closing its doors for good at the Concord Mall. The pizzeria's last day would be Oct. 25.
"I didn't want to just turn off the lights and that would be it," Tumolo said of his reason for the Facebook post.
"This mall means a lot to people. It's as close to a backyard mall that you can get. There are neighborhoods all around us. Customers have brought us into their homes and I'm so appreciative of that."
Tumolo said after months of trying, the family could not work out a lease agreement with the Concord Mall's new owners. Cafe Riviera has operated at the same site in the Concord Pike center since October 1981.
"This was certainly not an easy decision to make," read the Aug. 27 post on Cafe Riviera's Facebook page. "But when the new mall ownership made it clear they were not interested in working with a lifelong tenant, the decision to part ways was made for us."
Now, the decision might not be so final, Tumolo told Delaware Online/The News Journal on Wednesday afternoon.
"Over the past couple days, the landlord has looked at things a little bit differently and has aggressively approached me to see if we can make another decision about moving forward," he said.
Cafe Riviera, consistently a fan favorite, was voted one of the best pizzerias in the state in June 2019 by News Journal readers.
News of its closing was met with an avalanche of reactions from customers and fellow Delaware restaurant owners on Cafe Riviera's Facebook page.
"I am so sorry to hear this! You guys catered our wedding under a tent at Rockwood Museum in 1996 – we still have people say it was the best food!" one customer wrote. "Good luck and thank you for all the wonderful years of feeding my family!
Restaurants like Angelo's Luncheonette in Wilmington's Forty Acres also offered sympathy.
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"We would like express our deepest condolences to a fellow restaurateur and long time Angelo's Luncheonette customer," read a post on its Facebook page. "We're all in this together, and we hope them the very best in the future."
Tumolo said he has been moved by the show of support that apparently made mall owners reconsider letting Cafe Riviera leave.
Earlier this week, an offer was made that Tumolo said he could possibly work with. He and the family will decide soon if they're staying or still packing their bags and leaving Oct. 25.
"It's been an emotional roller coaster ride for me. It's been an overwhelming response. It's tremendous," said Tumolo, his voice thick with emotion. "I have to thank everyone so much."
The Concord Mall, the state's second-largest mall behind the Christiana Mall, has been in flux even before Delaware shopping malls were shut down by Gov. John Carney on March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. (It and other malls in the state reopened to the public in early June.)
In January, Allied Properties, the Concord Mall's owner and operator since 1998, announced it was selling the site. Namdar Realty Group, a New-York based company, assumed ownership.
Namdar owns and operates retail property throughout the United States and calls itself the "No. 1 buyer of B&C Shopping Malls" in the nation. It also buys "properties in distress," according to its website.
Malls are divided in three classes. Class A is the top tier, while Class B and C malls are struggling for anchor businesses, customers and tenants.
The Concord Mall was built in 1968 just as the heyday of mall construction began in the U.S. Its anchor tenants still include Macy's and Boscov's.
But Sears, which had been its main anchor for 30 years, has closed and other mall tenants have vacated the site that has been estimated as less than a third full.
Cafe Riviera opened in the flush retail times, Tumolo said. His family already had cafeteria-style and buffet eateries operating at other malls including one in Deptford, New Jersey, the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, and malls in Oxford and Springfield, Pennsylvania.
The Concord Mall location is the last one remaining.
When the Delaware location opened in 1981, Tumolo said it was a new territory for the family.
"It was like coming to Kansas," he joked. But the Concord Mall restaurant was different than previous sites and was much more than a classic mom-and-pop slice shop.
While an inviting selection of pizzas-by-the-slice await on the counter for quick heating, there's also seating in the adjoining dining room, in a second floor area and outside the eatery.
The main dining area was originally designed to resemble a railroad car and walls on the second floor included hand-painted murals of sites in Venice, Naples and Florence.
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Pizza was the draw, but the menu included reasonably priced veal and seafood dishes and mainly southern Italian pasta dishes, soups, sandwiches and specials like garlic butter knots and Nutella puffs. Crowds came for live music on the weekends and sporting events broadcast on the large screen TVs throughout the restaurant.
In recent months, the coronavirus pandemic has hurt Cafe Riviera, like other restaurants in Delaware. When the Concord Mall shut down, Tumolo had to change his business model. He began offering curbside service from the back door and home delivery.
Even though the mall has reopened, it shuts down nightly at 7 p.m. and walk-in traffic is slow. Tumolo doesn't want to say how much business he has lost or be singled out when so many restaurant owners in Delaware and across the nation are struggling.
"Everything is COVID-related. It's affected everyone in every way, shape, or form," he said. "The word is survival mode right now."
In June 2019, Cafe Riviera expanded outside the mall and Tumolo's son Dan began running La Pizzeria Metro, a new restaurant off Miller Road next to Wilmington Brew Works.
The success of that business has opened the family's eyes to more possibilities and possibly another location. Tumolo is coy and will only say "look for 2021."
For now, he and the Tumolo family need to decide if it's time to move on from Concord Mall.
"Times have changed, the world has changed. We will try to evolve with it," Tumolo said. "It's very hard for me to let go, but I need to make the right decision."
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico
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Not so fast: Cafe Riviera Pizzeria at Concord Mall might not close after all - The News Journal
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