Every family has a story to tell, and when Maria C. Palmer reflects on her family’s legacy, she sees a hardworking underdog who made sacrifices for his family; she sees the enduring impact that one man’s dream had on an entire community; and most importantly, she sees a family love story. But it could have had a very different ending. The true story of her family, as told in her new book, On the Rocks, is one of grit and determination; fame and failure; and of forgiveness and redemption.
From Great Loss to Great Perspective: Disgraced Restaurateur Rewrites His Family’s Legacy
RINGWOOD, NJ, October 4, 2023 — One great newspaper review catapulted Joseph Costanzo Jr. and his Primadonna restaurant to national fame, and one knock on the door by a federal investigator made it all come crashing down. In spite of serving a prison sentence and losing the award-winning Italian restaurant he built with sheer grit and determination, Costanzo told his daughter that he is the happiest he has been in decades.
“He said, ‘you know Maria, I haven’t been this happy since my restaurant won all of these awards because I’m getting the full circle now. People are getting a chance to know my story and to appreciate what I’ve gone through, and I can teach them the lessons on the other side,’” Maria C. Palmer recounted during a recent interview.
Costanzo’s new perspective reflects the resilience he has shown since his younger days as a postal worker with an impossible dream to open a worldclass restaurant, and in February 1986, that’s exactly what he did.
That restaurant was The Primadonna, and it attracted the likes of Danny Aiello, Jamie Lee Curtis, Pat Sajak, Michael Keaton, Tommy Lasorda and many other celebrities.
“We estimate that over the 18 years that he was in business that a little over a million customers came through our door,” Palmer said. “His character really helped to build the empire that the restaurant became.”
In their new book, On the Rocks, Palmer and co-author Ruthie Robbins dish up heaping helpings of nostalgia, with entertaining stories of quirky characters, delectable dishes, great memories and enduring friendships from a time when dining out was an experience to savor.
Written in Costanzo’s voice, On the Rocks traces his unlikely rise from postal worker to owner of a nationally acclaimed restaurant, where the often two-hour wait times only served to brew deeper connections, adding to the familial appeal of a community hotspot united by Costanzo’s drive to turn the blue collar burb of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, into a sought-out destination for fine Italian dining.
But Costanzo’s dream comes at a cost, and as the story unfolds, readers follow him from the day-to-day frenzy of a wildly popular restaurant, through a failed attempt to run for public office, to life behind bars.
“He was at the top of his game when everything spiraled out of control,” Palmer reflected. “He really did the impossible. He took this nothing, failing business and turned it into this diamond in the rough. Then it all got pulled away. Just as fast as it rose, it fell.”
Costanzo’s story doesn’t end there, and that’s what makes this true tale of a hard-working underdog so universally appealing.
“We all make mistakes. We all fall,” Palmer added. “The most beautiful thing on a tiger is the stripes. And we earn those from the hard challenges we go through.”
About the Authors
Maria Costanzo Palmer is a writer and Page Turner Award Finalist for her co-authored book, On the Rocks. She is also a regular co-moderator for the Food Is Religion Club on Clubhouse. A former host on L.A. Talk Radio, she was recently featured on Food and Beverage Magazine Live, a nationally syndicated podcast, as well as iHeartRadio. Her writing has been published in OC87 Recovery Diaries, and she has made a number of media appearances.
Growing up as the oldest child of an award-winning restaurateur, Palmer unexpectedly became a daughter of the incarcerated. This experience ignited an interest in working for Get on the Bus, a nonprofit dedicated to uniting children with their incarcerated parents.
Ruthie Robbins is an award-winning educator who worked for the Montour School District in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and for Johns Hopkins Talent Development Secondary. Robbins now teaches English and Language Arts in Buffalo, New York. Well-known as co-creator of a popular amusement park interdisciplinary unit, she is currently working on other books and is preparing to launch The Writing Factory Online, a comprehensive writing program for middle schools.
For more information, please visit or www.ruthierobbins.com; or connect with the authors on Facebook: Instagram: Twitter: Clubhouse: @maria.palmer; and LinkedIn: Maria Costanzo Palmer and Ruthie Robbins.
Publisher: Koehler Books
ISBN-13: 979-8-88824-027-4 (soft cover) ISBN-13: 979-8-88824-029-8 (hard cover) ISBN-13: 979-8-88824-028-1 (e-book)
Available from Amazon.com and the Senator John Heinz History Center
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
