West Reading Avenues Winter 2021-22 - 11

16). As an adolescent, he was - shall we say - mischievous,
wreaking havoc on the car lot with neighborhood friends by
covering it with paper airplanes and stealing valve stems off
of Camaros.
By age 14, after hearing his father say for years that he should
either go in the construction business or the restaurant business,
Tony realized he wanted to cook. He watched cooking shows the
way other kids watched cartoons, and got very good at quickly
writing down recipes - there was no Google or TiVo back then
if you missed a detail. He enjoyed learning by making mistakes
and experimenting with basic recipes to make them better.
By 1991, his father had left a job at Dana and opened Venezia
Pizza at 13th and Douglass Streets near Reading High, which
he owned and operated for about 15 years. Tony, a student and
member of the basketball team at Wilson High School by then,
would race over to the pizza shop after school to work, where
he became known as " Pizza Man " to the kids from Reading.
When the Reading High team was scouting games, they were
confused to see " Pizza Man " on the basketball court! Under
coach Mike Moyer, Wilson was state champions and #9 in the
country in 1992, Tony's senior year (although he is quick to
point out he is much better at soccer than basketball!).
By 2002, with his father and uncle concerned he was falling
into the wrong crowd, Tony needed a change of scene. He
realized to gain the respect of his father, he would need to show
hi m, not tell him, what he could do. He set out on a quest to
become self-made and moved to Salt Lake City, UT, where he
became apprentice to Chef Valter Nassi, II, of the restaurant,
Sansovino. He also took up kickboxing around this time and
credits these things for changing the course of his life.
The timing was a challenge because just one month prior to
leaving, Tony was with a group of friends at Santino's and
caught a glimpse of Magan Brickey, a beautiful, blonde Exeter
grad and former cheerleader. The very next night at Third
& Spruce, there she was again with a friend. This time Tony
wrote a note that said, " Do you like me? " with two checkboxes
marked YES and NO (isn't that cute??). He gave instructions
to the bartender and watched from the second story as he
proceeded to hand the note to her FRIEND! No harm done,
because Tony's cousin liked the friend. Magan, realizing the
mix-up, leaned over to her friend and said, " I'm going to marry
him. " Within a month Tony was off to SLC, but they stayed in
touch. When he got back 18 months later, they were inseparable.
Tony says he " had her " at Thanksgiving, a holiday she never
particularly enjoyed until she experienced it the Italian way,
with foods like pasta, veal cutlets, calamari, and fried rice - all
served before the turkey. For Tony this was in keeping with the
history of Italian cooking, which was really the art of making
" peasant food " - creating tasty food from whatever sparse
ingredients were available. They enjoyed cooking together and
Magan, as the queen of apple pie, meatloaf, pot pie, and crock
pot meals, provided the perfect complement to Tony's Italian
cuisine vibe. He proposed to her at the Tiki Bar in Maxatawny
Township, with the ring hidden under a plate of Oreos and a
very nervous wait staff looking on, ready to ring the Hurricane
bell when she said yes! They were married on 10/10/2004, and
just celebrated their 17-year anniversary.
Once back in Berks County, Tony had returned to a previous job
at Ristorante Piceno in Temple, then helped with the relaunch
of Casa Grande in Spring Township, was a bartender, and even
did a three-year stint selling cars for Mente Chevrolet.
All
were stepping stones to finally owning his own business, and
he is now making the most of it with a commitment to his
staff and the community. The team at Tony's Al Taglio is used
to " Tonyisms, " like " Make the best (*bleeping*) food! " and
" Would you serve this to your mother? " He feels passionate
about fair wages, cross-training the staff next to each other
regardless of role, and not calling himself Chef, just Tony. He
is also acutely aware of the stress felt by those in the restaurant
industry, especially now, and makes it known to his team and
colleagues that he is there to listen if they are struggling with
mental health.
Tony's involvement in the community has included teaching
8- to 14-year-old kids from Reading how to cook nutritious food
from scratch for the past four years through an award-winning
Reading Recreation Commission program called Chef Sprout.
He also created the Angel Lunch program at Tony's, which
allowed customers to sponsor meals and leave encouraging
Post-It notes for nurses and medical professionals during the
early stages of the pandemic. On a personal level, Tony enjoys
working on his 1869 farmhouse property, complete with a barn
and two acres. It is a sanctuary where he can ponder what will
come next for Tony's Al Taglio and Antonio Lavigna.
tuned, and until then...Ciao!
Stay
Ciao!
visitwestreading.org
9
http://www.visitwestreading.org
West Reading Avenues Winter 2021-22

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of West Reading Avenues Winter 2021-22
