A man who is freakishly paranoid over a good pizza sauce is only fleetingly interesting, maybe a story you tell to an out of town friend. Angelo probably realized this, which is why there is the other component to the legend. Anyone -anyone -can win the recipe to his secret sauce, valued at tens of thousands of dollars, maybe even more.
Angelo's love of dirty jokes is well documented. For a man with no sense of humor about himself or his sauce, he sure loved a filthy one-liner. The more repulsive the better. Word was that if you could make Angelo laugh with a joke he hadn't heard he’d give you the recipe to his secret Pizza sauce. Right on the spot. It was his code of honor.
You didn't have to be a comedian to win the sauce recipe though; Angelo was a gambling man. For a thousand dollars you could buy in a poker game of cards with Angelo and the other pizzeria owners. If you cleaned him out of his cash, his final bet would be his lauded recipe.
But any local telling you the story would also tell you that you're better off keeping your money. Maybe instead you should buy a nice television or plan a small trip with the family, because Angelo never loses. It doesn't matter how good you are, Angelo is better. He can read a guy from a mile away, and his expression never changes and can never be read. Of course that only goaded on people who prided themselves good with cards, so he never ran out of challengers. And they always lost.
Like everyone else, I was familiar with the tale of Angelo and his pizza. I didn't know what to expect when I first started working for him. Would he be the strange character everyone said he was? Or was he a Santa Claus; just another fat guy with a memorable mustache that ended up being all myth, no magic.
I didn't find out. Not right away at least. My first day of work I walked into the Pizzeria that I had eaten in many times as a child and saw Angelo. He was shorter than I thought- about 5'4- and his Groucho Marx mustache was bushier than I remembered.
Angelo's love of dirty jokes is well documented. For a man with no sense of humor about himself or his sauce, he sure loved a filthy one-liner. The more repulsive the better. Word was that if you could make Angelo laugh with a joke he hadn't heard he’d give you the recipe to his secret Pizza sauce. Right on the spot. It was his code of honor.
You didn't have to be a comedian to win the sauce recipe though; Angelo was a gambling man. For a thousand dollars you could buy in a poker game of cards with Angelo and the other pizzeria owners. If you cleaned him out of his cash, his final bet would be his lauded recipe.
But any local telling you the story would also tell you that you're better off keeping your money. Maybe instead you should buy a nice television or plan a small trip with the family, because Angelo never loses. It doesn't matter how good you are, Angelo is better. He can read a guy from a mile away, and his expression never changes and can never be read. Of course that only goaded on people who prided themselves good with cards, so he never ran out of challengers. And they always lost.
Like everyone else, I was familiar with the tale of Angelo and his pizza. I didn't know what to expect when I first started working for him. Would he be the strange character everyone said he was? Or was he a Santa Claus; just another fat guy with a memorable mustache that ended up being all myth, no magic.
I didn't find out. Not right away at least. My first day of work I walked into the Pizzeria that I had eaten in many times as a child and saw Angelo. He was shorter than I thought- about 5'4- and his Groucho Marx mustache was bushier than I remembered.
