The Spot: Anthony's in Haddon Heights

We always hear about the shiny, new food companies. The Spot is a series about the Philadelphia area's more established establishments and the people behind them.

In 1980, all four Philly sports teams reached the championship round, Billy Joel and Pink Floyd topped the Billboard charts, Gov. Tom Kean declared "New Jersey & You" were "perfect together" and Anthony Iannone opened the doors to his first restaurant. He was 21 years old.

A native of Bellmawr, Camden County, he'd originally gotten into cooking as a holdover job while he decided what college to attend, but fell in love with the biz, and decided to take his savings and the skills he'd learned on the line and try his hand at being his own boss. He leased a 70-seat former cafe in a new Cherry Hill shopping center and launched his eponymous Italian BYOB.

Three locations, several expansions and 35 years later, Anthony's - now ensconced in a historic two-story building on Station Avenue in Haddon Heights - is still flourishing.

Along the way, Iannone picked up a business partner, John Pilarz, who now acts as the restaurant's executive chef, and also started a trade association for independent restaurant owners. Called SJ Hot Chefs, the group introduced the area's first restaurant week and has fought to make sure chains don't completely eclipse independently owned restaurants in South Jersey.

Though he's never had a liquor license, Iannone appreciates a good bottle of wine. He uncorked a rich red to sip at an umbrella-shaded table on his restaurant patio as he called up old memories and mused about shifts in American dining over the last 3½ decades.

Did you go to school to become a chef?

I was taught the hard knocks way — in the kitchen. After high school, I wanted to take a year off to decide what college to attend, and my dad was insistent I get a job. A cousin of his was in the restaurant business, so he suggested I get a job washing dishes at their Italian restaurant. I hated it.

But you stayed?

I was about to leave - 12-hour days scrubbing pots were not fun - but the chef, who was classically trained in Calabria, Italy, said, "What if I start teaching you how to cook; will you hang out?" So I started spending those 12-hour days cooking instead, and I loved it.

You never went back to college?

No. The owners, my dad's cousins, actually owned several restaurants in the area, so I bumped around and cooked with them for 4½ years, working my way up from line cook to the point where I was basically running the kitchen.

Time to branch out.

I took whatever I had saved, got a loan and bought a former cafe at the Market Place mall in Cherry Hill, on Route 70, for $65,000.

Were you successful from the start?

At the time, there just weren't that many restaurants around here — all these chains weren't around. In our second year, we got a great review from John Bull at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Back then, if the paper wrote something great about you, it was big. People were literally lining up outside our door.

What was the menu like - do you remember the prices?

The menu was a combination of dishes I had learned over the past few years and dinners that were common in our household, Italian family Sunday dinners. Chicken entrees were $6.95, and they came with garlic bread, salad and a side of pasta. I think our veal was $8.95. Lobster tails - 8-ounce lobster tails - were maybe $12. The funny part is we made money back then. The cost of business today has gone crazy - food, labor, permits, taxes.

When did you move from there?

I was approached by a gentleman who was developing a shopping center in Turnersville, Washington Township, on Route 42. He was looking for an anchor restaurant, so we made the move in June of 1987. Four years later, the store next to us became available, so we expanded. Me, my father and my uncle renovated the whole place - we broke through and put in French doors, a fireplace, doubled the seating.

Again successful?

For a while it was very, very successful. We started doing a lot of catering, private parties. Then, in the late '90s, I think it was, the area started getting a huge influx of chain restaurants. Business got a bit tougher - the chains were really eating away at our share of the pie, so to speak.

So, another move.

A friend of mine told me about this place that was vacant in Haddon Heights. We looked at it, and it was this great 1906 building, though it was covered in aluminum siding. At the other location we had been renting, so we thought it would be a good financial move to own the bricks. In 1999, we approached the family that owned it - they still come in for dinner - and a year later we had a deal.

Who is "we," in this case?

Me and my partner, John [Pilarz]. He actually grew up a few blocks away from where I did, though we weren't really friends (he's 6 years younger). He started working in the kitchen for me part time when he was in high school and college - he went to Camden County Vo-Tech and ACC for culinary arts. After that, he went to cook in Atlantic City. One January, the restaurant he was at closed for the month, so he called and asked if I needed some help. I said definitely. He was only going to work with me for that one month, but that was 28 years ago...he never left. When I moved to Haddon Heights, I took him on as a partner.

The building in Haddon Heights - did you catch it before the real estate bubble inflated prices?

We got it before it really went nuts - we paid $300,000 for the building. And we put probably another $50,000 into renovations. We pulled off the siding and restored the original brick facade. Even the window glass is all original. We built a kitchen - it had been a hair salon, most recently - and converted the second-floor apartments into dining rooms. We opened in December 2000, just before Christmas.

Has your menu evolved, over the years?

People's tastes have changed dramatically in the past 35 years. Back then, Italian dinner menus were huge - if you had chicken, you had it like 97 different ways. When we moved, we pared our menu down and got a little more progressive.

Examples of new dishes you added?

We started using heirloom tomatoes, and messing around with cream sauces instead of just gravy or oil and garlic. We started using different cuts of pasta. I knew Mr. Severino (of Severino Pasta) since 1976, when he was just a little one-room operation. Now his sons run the company - it's huge - and they have all these exotic cuts and crazy flavors. We serve a linguini that's made with arugula in it, and one with lemon pepper. And everything's very seasonal now.

When do you think that started, the whole seasonal movement?

I'm going to say, probably 10 years ago. It was just picking up when we started the South Jersey Hot Chefs, and this is our 10th year.

Why did you start that group?

As an independent, I didn't have the advertising dollars to keep my name out there up against all these huge change. So we banded together. When we first started, for me to sit down with another chef I was competing against and share ideas - that was unheard of. I mean, they wouldn't give you their first name back then, let alone share insights.

Your group launched a restaurant week?

Yes. We were the first ones to start a restaurant week in South Jersey - Philadelphia had been doing it, so we tried it and it was very successful. It still is, but it's become a little watered down, because now everybody does it. A couple years later we started seeing people gravitate towards locally sourced, sustainable food, so we started Farm to Fork Week.

Do you think the farm-to-table movement has gone too far?

I don't know if you can go too far. I talk to my parents, who are in their mid-80s, and they're like, "We did farm to table because we had to!" They grew up on farms in Italy and that was just a way of life. Now, it's the cool thing to do and the right thing to do, but people always did it. Even the big chains are starting to pick up on it a little. People today, they're so educated about food. Every other TV channel is food - even kids get into it. My 9-year-old niece is going to cooking classes twice a week - she learned how to make pizza from scratch. We don't get a lot of kids in this restaurant, but those who do come in, they don't want the chicken fingers and fries. They want real food.

Do you go out to other restaurants yourself?

Absolutely. We have a bunch of chefs that go out together. Recently we went to Philly to Percy Street Barbecue. We went for happy hour, where they have 150 beers in cans, and we had those chicken sandwiches at the bar. Then we went to a table and ordered the brisket dinner - a whole brisket for the table, with tons of sides and dessert. There was none left. It was a great experience.

What do you see for your future - 10 years from now, will we still find you here at Anthony's?

It's been a really cool journey, this 35 years. And it's gone by like that [snaps fingers]. Eventually I'd like to move to a city and do a really cool bar. With really nice old-school cocktails, and small plates. But I'm Italian, and I get emotionally attached to things. Someone asked me recently, "What's your exit strategy?" I said, "Death."

Anthony's Creative Italian Cuisine

512 Station Ave., Haddon Heights, 856-310-7766

Hours: Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; Dinner: 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday