Matty Pfau
Virtually everyone I interview makes a point of telling me how much they love living in Rehoboth Beach. There’s nothing like that feeling on Sunday night when it dawns on you that you don’t have to load the car, vacate the premises to drive up (or down) Rt. 1 or over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
But Matty Pfau takes it even further. As an Army kid moving from town to town, he never had a place he could truly call home. He was born in Gallup, New Mexico, living a poor childhood just outside of an American Indian reservation. When he was 11, his family moved to Maryland. After he finished high school, he went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and then the U.S. Geological Survey, gathering data on a wildlife preserve near Laurel, Md. “It was a stable, nine-to-five job. That’s all I can say.”
Matty took a year off to help his sister care for her first baby. “It changed my life,” he says. “Having to care for another being that depends on you is a quick way to grow up.” The understanding he gained about himself gave him some direction, and when he took a vacation to Ft. Lauderdale, he loved the high-energy gay lifestyle of the city. “As I was boarding the plane to return home, I realized that I didn’t want to leave. I got out of the line and called my parents. They said, ‘Do what makes you happy,’ and gave me their blessing.”
Matty took a cab from the airport to a restaurant where he had hung out and asked the owner for a job. He handled the phones at first, but one night he was asked to pinch-hit waiting tables. “It was a disaster,” he smiles. “I lost some guy’s credit card, I spilled food everywhere—I was a big mess.” When he arrived for work the next morning, the owner expressed surprise that he showed up at all. “It couldn’t get any worse,” he told her, “so maybe it will get better.” And it did. He settled in, even entering into a relationship. But after a year, the social whirlwind of gay Ft. Lauderdale was too much for this shy guy. “I wasn’t ready. I had to go home.”
Matty took a job waiting tables in Laurel, but his dreams centered around the hair care industry. He had always been interested in product merchandising, and it wasn’t long before he was representing hair-care giant L’Oréal. It was the first job that he really loved. “I was finally making real money and the position built my confidence.” At 38 years old, that confidence even crept into his personal life; he met somebody and they moved in together.
Matty was offered the position of regional sales manager, and was allowed to handpick his team. Like any smart manager he surrounded himself with people who had lots of experience. As his visibility in the industry increased, another career move brought him to the New York hair-care line Bumble and Bumble. “They polished me and really honed my sales techniques.”
But when the glitzy company was absorbed, Matty lost interest. “I was at a turning point, so I escaped to Rehoboth for a few days to think.” One morning over breakfast at Crystal, a friend asked him to help her at the just-opened Touch of Italy in Lewes. She assured him it would be a breeze, but when he showed up the next day, the place was jam packed. There was some guy in the window making cheese (he had never heard of mozzarella), and a line stretching out into the street. She tossed him a stack of menus from behind the bar and said, “Go to town!” He loved it.
The next day, bigger-than-life and very Italian co-owner Bob Ciprietti spotted Matty. He pointed to him: “Hey, bro—you work here?” “Uhh, I guess I do,” said Matty. The boss looked skeptical: “You know what sopresatta is? Or capicola?” “Umm, maybe they’re some sort of meat?”
That was then, and this is now. Matty is now the lead server for the Lewes Touch of Italy, and trained the servers who would eventually open the much larger Touch of Italy on Coastal highway in Rehoboth Beach.
He has even found the time to meet somebody. When he first met his partner Mike, he was put off because Mike carried a murse…you know, a man purse. “I wasn’t quite ready to date a murse,” laughs Matty. But he quickly got over it and he and Mike are living happily together—murse and all.
Matty calls Rehoboth and Touch of Italy home. “I finally feel a sense of belonging. My roots are here and I’m embracing my friends.” Among the closest of those he names Bob Ciprietti and Joe Curzi (Touch of Italy co-owners), Peter Todd Scioli (GM of the Lewes restaurant) and Mikey Berardinelli (director of operations and the mozzarella guy in the window). “These people have influenced my life more than I can ever say. I’m finally home.”
Well, Matty, that’s what friends are for.
Bob Yesbek is a Rehoboth Beach resident. Email Bob Yesbek