The family-run Palace Pizza Bar & Grill gave its family everything, manager Anthony Derkits said. The restaurant was a source of pride, he said, and taught the family how to deal with adversity. His children grew up in the restaurant
Derkits is excited and anxious for what comes next, ready for a new challenge, but it won’t be easy to say goodbye to the Lehigh Valley restaurant, a “cornerstone” for the family.
“It’s going to be really tough,” he told The Morning Call.
The restaurant at 3690 Lehigh St. in Whitehall Township will serve its last pie today.
“Thank you to all the customers/family for a great 41 years and for all the support along the way!” an announcement said on a blackboard inside.
Anthony’s wife, Rosie Galluzzo-Derkits said her parents, Dominick and Joseph Galluzzo, opened Palace Pizza in 1985 just a week before their daughter’s birth. She and her brothers Vinnie and Dominick Jr. were young children when they started helping out at the restaurant.
“I’m ready for the future,” Vinnie Galluzzo said, which will include more time with his family and taking it easier than before.
Their parents both died at the age of 63 — Dominick Sr. in 2021 and Josephine last year, leaving their children as the three owners.
“They were just everything to everyone,” Rosie said. “The love that they had for each other was what you enjoyed seeing as a child growing up. … My dad was my best friend. We did everything together, and a lot of stuff was work-related sometimes because you’re in a family business — you’re working all day every day — but we’re a close family. … We tried to get on family vacations. We tried to be together for a lot of things. Just the love that my parents had for everybody, just trying to help the community. They were always with open arms.”
So why close the restaurant?
“I think it’s just getting a little bit harder as we all get a little older and navigate our own lives,” Rosie said, highlighting how the restaurant work became more challenging without their parents.
She said, “We’re just ready for a new start. We’re ready for some, I don’t know, maybe quality family time. Like we’ve missed so much as our children grew, and just working all day every day, you just miss a lot.”
It will be a “bittersweet” goodbye for Rosie, who is moving to South Carolina and said she doesn’t know what will be next for the Palace Pizza space.
The restaurant has touched a lot of lives, Rosie said. It taught her how to live and survive, and about hardship and figuring things out. Her children celebrated birthdays there. Customers from the restaurant’s beginning still come around. They’d tell stories of her dad, and she’d watch customers’ kids grow up too.
“I’m proud that we even got this far,” she said.