Joseph's Pizza

Homemade Bacon, Egg and Cheese Roll

26. Where do your recipes come from?

Our father was the original creator for most of our recipes. He loved to tinker in the kitchen to try things out. Now it's the team - our family. When we have a new idea we sit down and discuss it. When we find something we want to try out we'll go to our larger restaurant on North Main St. and open the kitchen. We'll start cooking and handing out samples to our customers to see what they think. We can spend many days testing new recipes this way. Our customers are great for giving us their feedback. They're loyal and they're honest. They'll tell us when they like something and when they don't.  



Joseph's Specialty Calzone

27. How do you come up with the original ideas?

Often we start with a seasonal item - something like butternut squash. We'll play around and see what we can do with it. Then we'll ask customers for feedback and take it from there.

A lot of things just come from trying new ideas. Our father used to do that all the time. One time he was playing around with dough and came up with a pepperoni roll and ham roll. It's a square piece of dough, like a calzone. We put in meat and cheese and fold it into a square pocket. Someone came in one day and he asked them to try the roll. They loved it and soon he couldn't keep enough of them. We probably go through 50 a day now. They're great for kids to take to school or to pack for a football game. That came from our father just giving out something to see what his customers thought.

28. Do your salad dressing recipes change over time?

No. The recipes are about 40 years old. Our suppliers will come in and tell us that they have this amazing dressing - it might even be made by someone who used to own a restaurant. But you know - we didn't make it and it wouldn't be ours. We've been making our recipes for 40 years. We know what's in them. They're well received by our customers because they're delicious. If we did even one small change our customers would let us know.



Antipasto Platter

29. You have a pretty extensive menu and yet you cook everything to order. How do you manage your kitchen?

It's a big challenge. Not only do we have a large selection but we deal with a lot of raw foods and specialty items like our gluten-free offerings. We're very blessed in our staff. Our baker has been with us since 1983. Our cooks have been with us for a long time too - nearly 15 years. So it's really our staff who make it possible.

30. Can you tell us about the history of Joseph's?

It was started by our father. He was originally from San Francisco. He was working there in the grocery business.


Bread baked in-house

31. What brought him to Jacksonville?

Our father loved to create. The grocery business was work but it wasn't creative work. One day he decided to open a restaurant to give him a place to create. He was like the Iron Chef. He could create something around just one ingredient.

He was always open to learning new things too. We carry that tradition forward. If we hire a new cook we'll tell them to learn our menu exactly as we want you to. Then, on Wednesday you can create something for us to taste and we'll put it on special for you. To be a cook you need to be an artist who likes to create. And that's exactly how we run our restaurant today.

32. Can you tell us about your first store on Main St.?

Our father bought it from the previous owner in 1956 and we've been there ever since. He worked with the previous owner for a few weeks to learn the menu, which at that time was less than 10 items - it was just pizza and bread. It remained that way for a few years until our dad created the Italian sausage, the meat sauce and the marinara. These became the classics.

We were raised in that restaurant. In 1956 Main St. was the major thoroughfare in Jacksonville. There was no I-95. When we were growing up it wasn't uncommon for customers to come in and go straight into the kitchen to say hi to Joe to see how he was doing. Times have changed but the location still works for us. It's nestled in a very good neighborhood.

33. What attracted you to Atlantic Beach?

We enjoy the beach. We wanted to be part of a neighborhood. We're very community oriented and want to be involved with the communities were located in.

34. What do you like the most about running Joseph's?

It's the customers and our staff. If our staff is like our family, our customers are like our extended family - they're our family and our friends. We have a lot of long term clients - and staff too. Our staff will be with us as long as they want to be because they're family. We can't be there every hour of the day so we rely on our staff to help run the restaurants. We're very fortunate in that regard.

35. What's next for Joseph's?

Our long term interest is to find a way to package some of our items for retail sales. Items such as our Calzones, our rolls, and our dressings. People come in all the time to order these to take home and we'd like to extend that to a bigger audience in the grocery space.



Joseph's Pizza - family
Susie Bateh, Rose Bateh, Ashley Hanania and Sandra Bateh-Hanania






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