Prince Pizza Route One Saugus MA
Prince Pizza Route One Saugus – Our Story
CLICK HERE for the OFFICIAL Prince Pizzeria Website!
JFK was our young new president. Elvis, Roy Orbison and Patsy Kline topped the charts. A large pizza cost a buck. WWII Veteran Arthur Castraberti had a wife, three young children, a good education and a great job with Prince Spaghetti in Lowell, MA.
The year was 1961 and Arthur’s life was about to change.
Prince Spaghetti owned a 12 seat drive-in pizza stand and “spaghetti house” in Saugus—often referred to as an Italian Howard Johnson’s. It was losing money. Prince’s president thought Arthur could turn it around. He had no idea just how right he was. But Arthur was not interested in management by committee. He wanted to own the place.
Arthur and Prince made a deal. No money down, no interest. Arthur had to make good on the failed business’ debts in 10 years and the place was his.
“I had never been in a restaurant kitchen until I bought one,” says Arthur. “When I walked in, I saw two employees—a waitress in the corner reading, and a cook flat on his back asleep. I introduced myself and fired them both. ’But how will you run the place without us?’ they protested. ‘Oh, a great deal better, I imagine.’“
Arthur called his 65 year old father, Oreste. “You know how to make sauce, don’t you pop? Well, I could use your help.” Oreste, a talented cook, worked with Arthur to develop the original Prince Sauce that has made them famous today.
Sales climbed, but they were not enough to cover the debt. “I owed more than I ever thought I could pay. That was my incentive to work harder,” says Arthur. With a family to support and a mortgage every month, Arthur needed income and the restaurant did not make enough for him to draw a salary. So Arthur taught school. Every weekday, he would race from school to the restaurant and work until closing. Weekends he just worked at the restaurant. There were no employees. “It was a terrible time,” he laughs today.
After five long years of tremendously hard work, Arthur began to sense some progress. “I cleaned up the place; gave it heart.” Arthur had transformed Prince into a warm family restaurant where people can relax. He gave huge discounts to the Little League teams, who considered Prince their second home. Seniors received a free meal on Arthur’s parents’ birthdays—a tradition still practiced today.
“I sowed the seeds of my success when I could least afford it,” remembers Arthur fondly. “I took in the kids and the seniors and now those kids come back with their own families and their own teams.”
A few years later, Arthur had finally saved enough money to expand the restaurant. “Every part of this building is an appendage of my body,” asserts Arthur today. “Every expansion was paid for in cash. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
After several expansions over a 10 year period, Prince boasted a large dining room and three function rooms. Then in 1978, Prince added the highly successful 175 seat Giggles Comedy Club, which is now sold out almost every week. Prince Restaurant currently offers seating for about 700 people.
For 44 years, while growing Prince Restaurant into a legendary icon, Arthur Castraberti became known as one of the Boston Area’s most successful restaurateurs. During that time, he poured his heart into the community. He became president of the Route 1 Business Association, founded the Saugus Chamber of Commerce and supported dozens of charities including the Little Leagues, local schools, the Neurofibromatosis and Make a Wish Foundations and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
According to the Boston Globe, Arthur Castraberti is “is one of the visionary entrepreneurs who built Route 1 as we know and love it.”
In 2005, Arthur’s son, Steven, took over ownership of Prince Pizzeria and runs it with his wife, Trisha, who oversees finance, marketing and recently redesigned the Comedy Club and function Rooms.
Steven and Trisha are both active in the community, supporting schools, sports teams and charities. Trisha serves on the North Shore Music Theatre Board of Trustees and was nominated for the honor of 2007 North of Boston Businesswoman of the Year.
Arthur is still actively involved, dividing his time between Gloucester, MA and Sarasota Florida, where he volunteers at in the Cardiac Rehab unit of Doctor’s Hospital.
“Steven is doing an excellent job,” says Arthur Castraberti, “We’re just a family business. We worked hard. We still work hard. We live a good life and don’t worry about what the competition does. We focus on what we do.”
Billy Costa Reviews Prince Pizzeria Route 1 Saugus on T.V. Diner!
Prince Pizzeria has received numerous awards, including being voted Best Pizza of the North Shore and is often called, “one of our favorite family-style restaurants in New England,” as VisitNewEngland.com puts it. The Phantom Gourmet says Prince is “ideal for feeding a family or a party.”
Don’t take their word for it. Come in and see for yourself. You’ll feel part of the family in no time.
