Joseph “Joe Joe” Costanzo Jr. slept in restaurant booths at his Primadonna Restaurant in McKees Rocks. He missed family events. His wife, Donna Costanzo, said the best way to see him was to work at the restaurant. He knew most diners’ names, greeting them with a hearty hello and a dish filled with a free zucchini appetizer. Many recipes were inspired by dishes his mother Helen made for him and his siblings.
Costanzo, who turns 70 in August, endured various roadblocks in his 17 years in the restaurant industry, starting from opening night to a stint in prison and two kidney transplants.
It’s quite a tale — and it’s been chronicled in the book “On the Rocks: The Primadonna Story.”
The title is fitting, said publisher John Koehler of Koehler Books, in Virginia Beach, Va. It has several meanings — a life on the rocks, a drink on the rocks, a restaurant located in the Rocks.
Koehler said this is a personal story, a classic biblical redemption story, one that has the potential to raise other people up.
“The day we opened, one of the locals comes in and says, ‘You’re not from McKees Rocks. No one from outside the ‘Rocks’ will be successful here,’ ” Costanzo recalled of that day in 1986. “I didn’t know anything about McKees Rocks, only that it was a tough neighborhood. I started the business from zero.”
Those who know Costanzo know that those words motivated him.
“Challenges for Joe Joe create an eye-of-the-tiger response,” said Jimmy Carr, Costanzo’s best friend from Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood where they grew up.
The 312-page book publishes Aug. 8 and takes the reader on Costanzo’s journey of success in the 1990s as restaurant owner, radio host, entrepreneur, columnist and aspiring politician, to his sharp fall that ended with time in federal prison.
The narrative is told through Costanzo’s voice, though he didn’t write it. His oldest daughter, Maria Costanzo Palmer of northern New Jersey, co-authored the book with Ruthie Robbins, a McKees Rocks native, and a former teacher of Palmer’s.
“That is my neighborhood,” Robbins said. “The Primadonna had the best food. This book is truly a heartwarming story.”
Palmer describes her dad as a “larger-than-life character, who achieves the seemingly impossible but can’t help getting in his own way.”
Costanzo landed in McKees Rocks because he knew the previous owner, Nick Fusco of Fusco’s Italian Restaurant. Costanzo purchased the restaurant and added a bar. He couldn’t afford to buy in a place such as Shadyside, where his father owned the bar Le Mardi Gras.
The elder Costanzo didn’t want his son to open in McKees Rocks.
Costanzo, who now lives in Cecil, remortgaged the house he owned with his wife, Donna, to pay for the restaurant and used pension money from working at the U.S. Post Office to add the bar. His cousin Pino became the chef. Costanzo named the restaurant for Donna. The word “prima” means lady in Italian.
He was one of the first advertisers on the KBL, a regional sports network. Celebrities who dined there included actress Jamie Lee Curtis, former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, boxer Joe Frazier and actor Danny Aiello. Costanzo once made a to-go dinner of linguini with white clam sauce for Frank Sinatra.
“No one loved the restaurant more than Joe Joe did,” Carr said.
He was accepted in McKees Rocks because he wasn’t a phony.
“That, and the food was good,” he said. “The food always has to be good. And it was about taking care of customers and treating them like family, welcoming them to enjoy an Italian meal and share stories around the table.”
A popular dish was the chicken Parmesan and spaghetti con sausage made with Ricci’s Italian sausage, green peppers and onions and covered in sauce. He bottled his own Italian dressing.
In 2001, the Primadonna was chosen for the DiRōNA Award, which is like receiving an Oscar, or maybe more like a Lifetime Achievement Award, Costanzo said.
Then, chaos ensued.
Financial troubles that started in the mid-1990s, after Costanzo ran for Allegheny County commissioner, caught up with him. He was charged with federal tax evasion and pled guilty in 2004.
“I got into debt,” he said. “I did some jail time.”
He is grateful for his wife and daughters, Palmer and Kelly Costanzo Argirakis, of Cecil. The experience inspired Palmer to work with Get on the Bus, a nonprofit dedicated to uniting children with their incarcerated parents.
Costanzo spent five months in jail. His health was deteriorating from a diabetes diagnosis in 1988 and poor eating habits from working long hours at the restaurant. He went on dialysis in 2015.
Costanzo received a new kidney in September 2019, which his body rejected.
On Sept. 22, 2020, he received a second transplant.
Palmer read excerpts from the book to her dad while he was recovering. He would squeeze her hand, letting her know he heard her words.
He misses the restaurant.
“Rocks people were unpretentious, salt-of-the-earth people with grit and a sense of humor,” Costanzo said. “Once people in the Rocks trusted you, diversity and community meshed in a manner unlike anywhere else.”
Costanzo sold the restaurant in December 2002 to John Welsh and helped with the ownership transition into early 2003. It closed in July 2011 and the space currently houses Galaxy Market, a convenience store.
