The Sunnyvale Sun

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Longtime restaurateur named '06 'Businessman of the Year'

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

For visitors coming off Mathilda Avenue, Joe Antuzzi's Il Postale Italian-American Bistro is the first Murphy Street restaurant seen; for 11 years, it has been a strong contributor, community pillar and symbol of the vibrant offerings in Sunnyvale's downtown area.

Antuzzi, 55, is a South Bay native, born in San Jose and raised in the Campbell-Los Gatos area. He's owned pubs or restaurants in the South Bay since he was 28, and on July 4, he was honored as Sunnyvale Businessman of the Year at the State of the City celebration.

"Joe has been a very important and involved downtown businessman for a long time, and his commitment to downtown is certainly laudable," said Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzi Blackman. "It's time that the council recognized the guys who work hard in the trenches."

The award came after a tough year for the downtown merchants. With the continued delay of the mall redevelopment project, Antuzzi said, Sunnyvale's downtown has earned a reputation as a dead area, without anything to do or see.

To combat that, the Sunnyvale Downtown Association grew stronger and tighter, stepping out from under the wing of the Chamber of Commerce. Now Antuzzi said things are looking up, thanks to the success of the summer music series and strong local businesses.

"Hopefully the award means that the council and the selection committee recognized all the volunteer hours a lot of us have put into improving the downtown," he said.

Antuzzi is just coming off of a stint as president of the Sunnyvale Downtown Association, and he spends many Tuesday nights--when he wanted to be in his restaurant greeting customers--in City Council chambers. He was involved on discussions ranging from downtown cleaning schedules to the merchants' issues with proposals for the Town Center Mall redevelopment project.

"I think Joe was really able to walk the walk and take some of the heat at times and bring things to the table that people didn't want to really talk about," Blackman said.

Antuzzi said when he was starting out--after deciding against being a teacher because of the pay--he didn't want to get involved in the political and civic side of owning a business, but soon learned it was necessary for survival.

The proximity to Sunnyvale Caltrain station was what brought him to his current location.

"I was looking for a historic downtown area, and I was looking ahead," Antuzzi said. "I did a lot of traveling, and saw a lot of European cities that used mass transit systems."

He came to Sunnyvale 11 years ago after closing the San Jose Café on First Street. He plans for another decade at least, and signed a new 10-year lease a year ago.

And although he said he'd like to see a lively project built across Washington Avenue from his front door, he has never let himself depend on the businesses around him to survive.

"I believe a business is only as good as it is," he said. "Location, location, location with bad product, bad product, bad product is not going to work."

Antuzzi said self-reliance is one of the things that has allowed him to weather the economic downturn that has hurt so many other small businesses.

And beyond just fighting a bad economy, Antuzzi said small businesses--restaurants and specialty stores alike--are fighting against a growing onslaught of chain stores and big-business retailers who can pay cities more money and operate on a larger scale.

"One thing Sunnyvale has been able to do is withstand the pressure so that small independents are able to survive."