ITALIANS OF WOLLONGONG: VINCE CAPPETTA

Vince Cappetta was born in 1953 and is one of two children born to Michele and Raffelina Cappetta. By the time the family came to settle down in Australia for the third time in 1965, Vince was 12 years old. HIs brother Andrew was 5.

Michele got a job at the Port Kembla Hospital in the kitchen and on the weekends he worked at Luccarda`s reception centre as a waiter. Having been in the hospitality industry back in Naples, Michelle understood the ins and outs of running a restaurant and hotel.

In 1969 Michele and his wife purchased a Delicatessen in Crown Street, Wollongong. They ran the Wollongong Deli for approximately 2 years and in 1970 they purchased an existing Continental Delicatessen in Cowper Street, Warrawong. They then on-sold the Warrawong Delicatessen to family members and in 1975 they purchased Bruno`s Restaurant Reception Centre and boarding house at Tarrawanna.

Vince had finished his apprenticeship and married Maria Braccia. Maria, Michele and Raffelina, worked in the kitchen along with other staff. Bernard, the French Chef that Bruno originally employed, would continue working there and Vince would be front of house. Brother Andrew was still at school but would help out on the floor. Together they were the new team running the function centre. Michele, Raffelina and Andrew moved out of the family home and were now living on site. Vince and Maria lived in Warrawong.

The original brick ovens that Luigi Luccarda put in were still there when the Cappetta family took over. When I spoke with Vince he commented on how well these old ovens worked. They were solid, bricked in ovens and would cook 10`s of chickens at once, cooking them beautifully. He also said Chicken, at the time, was like Lobster, a rare treat. It was only later, when they renovated the kitchen, and the ovens stopped working, that they had them removed, breaking down the walls to do so.

They continued with the Saturday weddings, the occasional Sunday wedding, as well as the Friday night dinner dance, as Bruno did. Sunday’s was also popular for Christenings and Confirmations. Monday was usually rest day. The wedding receptions were going well with bookings in advance up to 1 year.

After a couple of years things started to change and there was a noticeable difference in the patronage for the dinner dances. Also, with other restaurants opening up in the area, they made the decision to scrap the dinner dances all together. This was also the perfect time to refurbished and extended the premises. The original restaurant sat 60 people and the back function room could hold up to 300 people. Once the renovations were finished they could hold a wedding of up to 600 people with the two centre walls opened up. They were able to achieve this by building one big room on the front of the building by converting the existing bedrooms of the original house, that Michele and Raffelina were living in at the time. The newly renovated front room could now hold 200 people. They could hold one large function or two smaller ones at the same time.

It was now 1980. They built two houses next to the function centre that sat on a separate tittle. Vince and Maria lived in one and Andrew and his wife Nina lived in the other. Michele and Raffelina now moved back to family home at Warrawong. Andrew, who was now a qualified chef, was working in the kitchen.

The weddings were becoming increasing popular and Vince and Maria were finding themselves becoming more and more involved with the `extras` that a wedding reception required. So they added a small office and offered a complete package. Bomboniere, Wedding Stationary, Flowers, and other services, if needed. The acquired all their bomboniere from La Bomboniera in Leichhardt, Sydney, NSW.

All the while the boarding house was still functioning, housing up to 10 men at a time. They would be given coffee and other items for breakfast, panini for lunches and a cooked dinner at night. Monday was housekeeping day along with washing and the ironing of clothes.

By the mid eighties the restaurant patronage was getting low, yet the restaurant would remain open and trade during the week. The focus really was the functions. Saturday and Sunday were the popular day for the wedding receptions, Christenings and Confirmations, with Friday’s having the occasional wedding too. Other types of functions were run on a regular basis. Many service organisations would have gatherings there as well. The Lions club would have their fortnightly dinner meetings of up to 30 people. The would also have end of year Christmas party.

Conferences and corporate events were becoming increasingly popular as the seating capacity was the draw card as well as the parking availability. What the Cappetta family noticed was that with the success of the Conferences, attendees were looking for accomodation as well. Vince would refer the attendees to Motels around the local area. Seeing the need for accomodation, the Cappetta family considered building a small motel on site. The boarding house was becoming quieter, but because it was it’s own entity, plans were put into council to knock down the old boarding house and build a Motel with 16 rooms. The motel would create accommodation for those who needed to stay after the conferences or even after a wedding function,. They also had a honeymoon suite. This was approved in 1987. The remaining boarders eventually moved on.

In 1988, Tourism Wollongong approached Vince to run a function celebrating the Bicentennial of Australia. To do so, Vince would have to add a disabled bathroom on the premises. He had the space to do this internally, as the bathrooms were already large and by cutting into a portion of the ladies bathroom ( the sitting area) he was able to build it. He also added a new and very wide external doorway for access. Not only was the doorway used for disabled access, it was large enough that a car could be driven through, and because of this they even had car shows at the function centre.

The conferences were doing well, and even though they now had the Motel, it still wasn’t enough to provide the necessary accommodation for the amount of people seeking somewhere to stay afterwards. In 1989 the family purchased the Leisure Coast Motel in Towradgi. The motel had 40 rooms plus a restaurant. Andrew and his wife Nina would now run the Restaurant and Motel leaving Vince and Maria, along with Michele and Raffelina, running the function centre.

The new addition seemed to fix the problem with the accommodation for the conferences. Both Vince and Andrew had their own growing families and found the demand of running both businesses too much. Looking for a way to wind down somewhat, in 1991 the Cappetta family sold Bruno`s Restaurant and Reception centre to the IRT (Illawarra Retirement Trust) with 57 weddings still on the books.

Vince and Maria, along with their children moved into the Leisure Coast Motel alongside Andrew, Nina and their family. Together they ran the Motel and Restaurant for the next 10 years, Occasionally, Michele and Raffelina would help out, but for the most part they were now retirees. The three acre property was sold in 2002.

After a short break, Vince and Maria opened a new coffee shop in the Piccadilly centre, Crown Street, Wollongong. Starting off with just coffee, the menu slowly changed and breakfast items were added. They soon began offering lunches and takeaway hot food. They operated the coffee shop six and a half days per week. 6 am - 5pm Mon - Fri and half a day Saturday. The plan was to only work there for 2 -3 years, but they found themselves working in the shop for the next ten years. They finally sold the business in 2013.

After officially retiring, Vince began helping his son three days per week at his Sydney venue. His son Michael, who runs an award winning function centre, called Ottimo House at Denham Court Estate, is a third generation Cappetta working in the industry. The Cappetta family were the longest serving family to run the wedding reception centre at Tarrawanna, with over 16 years at the helm. Andrew and Nina stayed at the Motel, working for the new owners for approximately 2 years, and they also ran, and still run a coffee shop. Vince and Maria in total have worked 38 years from the reception centre to the motel and their coffee shop. Quite the contribution indeed. Along with helping out their son at his function centre, I think they will be giving us quite a few more years of Cappetta hospitality.