Memories as Fresh as the Bread: Tridi-Jo’s in Stone Harbor Left a Lasting Impression
Tridi-Jo’s 97th Street location.
The Seven Mile Times took to our Facebook page to solicit readers’ memories for this story. In just over four hours, our request garnered almost 350 responses. Pretty impressive, for sure. While everyone had their own special memory, nearly one out of every two responses mentioned Tridi-Jo’s home-baked bread.
If you aren’t familiar, every sandwich was served on homemade bread, baked fresh in-house every day. Interestingly, Liscio’s – a renowned bakery in the Philadelphia area that coincidentally has its own ties here to the Seven Mile Beach – has trademarked the phrase, “It all starts with the bread.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a former customer of Tridi-Jo’s who would argue with that concept. For example, Pete Davidson, whose mother worked at Tridi-Jo’s and occasionally brought home some of the fresh bread, can still remember how wonderful it tasted. It’s now decades later and Pete’s memory is still clear: “They were the best rolls in the universe,” he says in a recent Facebook post.
For those who may be new to the Seven Mile Beach, Tridi-Jo’s was a beloved Italian restaurant and pizzeria that called Stone Harbor home for almost three decades. It opened on 96th Street in 1971 and then went to 108th Street, but people will remember Tridi-Jo’s for its longtime location on 97th Street, the current site of Quahog’s Seafood Shack. But who remembers that it was a miniature golf location when Tridi-Jo’s took it over?
The Tridi-Jo’s story begins around 1950 when Frank and Elizabeth Tridico moved to Avalon from the Kingsessing section of southwest Philadelphia.
Frank was an auto and diesel mechanic, skills that he learned at the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Philly. For the first several years, he operated an Esso service station in Stone Harbor before opening a Sinclair service station and Tridico’s Garage at 21st Steet and Dune Drive in Avalon. He was soon handling auto maintenance and repairs for the Borough of Avalon vehicles.
“Frank was a great guy,” remembers Phil Judyski, a lifelong Avalon resident. “A great guy and a very good mechanic.”
Meanwhile, about a block west of the garage on 21st Street, the family’s restaurant empire would begin to evolve into what would become a beloved institution in Stone Harbor. It had a modest start on what was the main road into Avalon at the time. It was located in a one-story brick storefront next to what then was then the A&P Market and would later be known as The Pioneer Market. To this day, some longtime Avalon residents still remember the bright red and white linen tablecloths and, of course, for others it was the food. “The best rolls and the best pizza – ever,” adds Judyski in a recent conversation.
“It was a formal, sit-down Italian restaurant,” explains Michelle DeRose, Elizabeth’s granddaughter, in a recent conversation that took place about 10 blocks from the family’s original location. “Everyone would just come and hang out in the kitchen. I can remember people like Phil Matalucci and Tito Macchia coming in on a regular basis. My grandmother would cook whatever you wanted. That’s how she operated.”
The popularity of Tridico’s grew in what was a very small and quiet seashore town … so much so that Elizabeth eventually acquired the unit attached to her restaurant and began transforming the space into what she envisioned to be a ballroom for dining and banquets. Sadly, circumstances that her granddaughter now describes as “very eerie” never allowed that to happen. Elizabeth died in April 1965, the night before she planned to open the new ballroom space.
Although Elizabeth’s brother, Joe Faustino, known throughout the Seven Mile Beach as “Uncle Joe,” would continue the operation very briefly until opening his own pizza and sandwich shop – essentially the delicious legend that was Tridico’s in Avalon ceased to exist when Elizabeth passed away.
Thankfully, Elizabeth’s daughter – also named Elizabeth, but known to family and friends as “Little Tridi” – must have paid close attention while assisting her mother. That, or perhaps she simply inherited her mother’s gift in the kitchen.
Although the family had no previous restaurant experience or formal food-service training, it possessed two very valuable qualifications: good business sense and, most importantly, a handful of very tasty old family recipes. And as the Seven Mile Beach would grow into a favored tourism destination, the demand for good food and restaurants would grow as well.
“My mom, with three little girls and a son to come later [Joanne, Michelle, Kimberly, and Jason], became tired of people always asking about Tridico’s and the food they loved,” DeRose says. “People would always ask her when they’d be able to get it again.”
Finally, around 1971 she decided to give it a go in Stone Harbor.
But what to call this new restaurant? The name Tridico’s was the Avalon restaurant. And the Tridico name was being used on service stations in Avalon – including a new Gulf station right where the new Avalon Boulevard would come into town around 31st Street and Dune Drive. Let’s see, this new restaurant was owned by Elizabeth, or “Tridi,” and her husband Joe DeRose. So, they settled on a combination of their names: Tridi-Jo’s. And so, the restaurant that would become a Stone Harbor mainstay was born.
DeRose is quick to point out that “while our entire family worked in the restaurant, Tridi-Jo’s was my mom. Plain and simple. She was Tridi-Jo’s.”
Tridi’s touches were everywhere. First and foremost, the food. Perhaps surprisingly, “There was no recipe book,” DeRose notes. “Instead, it was a handful of this, a dash of that, and some of this. That’s how we made the dough, the sauces, everything. It was all done by taste.”
Another Tridi touch was that she kept a Christmas tree up year-round in the restaurant. “My mom believed that if everybody treated each other like it was Christmas, every day – the world would be a much better place,” DeRose says.
John DiSabatino III still has fond memories of working for Tridi. “My first job was working for Tridi. I started as a dishwasher and then over time Tridi taught me how to make the sauces and the dough. She was so kind – just an amazing person. I miss her and the restaurant so much,” he writes.
Everyone had their own favorites and memories. From Stacy Lyn Lojar: “This was my family’s favorite place! The rolls were always incredible. Tridi-Jo’s was always our first meal when we arrived on the island.” Many families had a similar tradition of visiting Tridi-Jo’s upon their arrival in town.
So yes, the rolls, along with boardwalk-style pizza (paper-thin crust) were all favorites – while others had to have a Tridi-Jo’s stromboli or antipasto in order to make their vacation complete. Early news reports credit the Tridico family for introducing the stromboli to South Jersey.
According to Susan Bennett Zehren, “Tridi-Jo’s was the best! Loved, loved, loved their antipasto salad. It was huge with a big scoop of tuna in the center. Big enough to feed three to four people with plenty left over. We’d get it at least once a week. And of course, their pizza and stromboli were great too.”
Another person online wonders, “Does anyone remember their lasagna soup? It’s the only place that I’ve found it and it was amazing. I can still taste it.”
Jill Haggerty attributes a “beach-life” skill that she acquired thanks to Tridi-Jo’s. “I remember learning to balance a stromboli on my bike handlebars. We had five girls in our apartment and when we’d ‘splurge’ it was a Tridi-Jo’s stromboli. It was big enough for all five of us.” Makes you wonder how often she relies on that skill these days.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. And Tridi-Jo’s would be no different. The family began to wind down the operation after Tridi lost her battle with cancer in October 1994.
Like many former customers, Cassie Balzer has searched for those flavorful memories that she still remembers today. “It was hands down the best restaurant on the island. Always our family favorite,” she says. “I’ve searched for years hoping to locate a cookbook or maybe another restaurant that someone in the family may have opened. I will always remember those fabulous rolls, all sorts of pasta – and that antipasto!”
Well, Cassie, we’ve learned here from Tridi’s daughter that there were no recipes to publish in a book. Instead, those family recipes were measured by hand and by taste. And there’s a good reason why you haven’t found another version of Tridi-Jo’s anywhere.
“We made a promise to our mom,” DeRose explains. “She understood how difficult the business was on her and her mother. She didn’t want that for her daughters. We made that promise to her.”
Simply put, Tridi DeRose was the heart and soul of Tridi-Jo’s. She poured everything that she had into the restaurant. Her work ethic was the driving force. So it’s understandable that Tridi-Jo’s Restaurant would cease to exist once Tridi passed. “You can’t have Tridi-Jo’s without Tridi,” DeRose concludes.
Still, it must be comforting to the family to know that even after all these years, Tridi’s spirit and memory live on through the thousands of customers that she and her family served over the years.
It All Starts With The Bread ® Liscio’s Bakery