Obituary — Giuseppe (Joseph) Messina, 1935 – 2024
CLAYTON, CA (July 25, 2024) — Joseph Messina, a longtime resident and restaurateur of Clayton, passed away peacefully at home on June 11.
He was a native of Palmi, Calabria, Italy, and first left to perform mandatory service as a nurse in the Italian Navy, stationed in Livorno, Taranto and Venezia.
After trying to find dairy work in Switzerland, he returned south to Palmi. His parents soon arranged for Peppino, not content to be a farmer, to meet his future wife, Domenica (Millie) Piccolo, and they married in 1959.
Millie, a naturalized U.S. citizen, sponsored her new husband to come to America. Together, they worked in her parents’ restaurants, Santina’s in San Mateo and Napoli Pizzeria in Vallejo.
When the Piccolos returned to Italy in 1963, Joseph and Millie bought Napoli from them. The couple built a successful clientele, which included a multitude of lonely submariners based at
nearby Mare Island.
In 1969, the family, now with three daughters, returned to Palmi in time to see the moon landing on TV. After a year, Joseph returned to the United States after the local Mafiosi threatened to kidnap his children.
Back in Vallejo, he engaged in building three houses before deciding to start another restaurant. Due to a non-compete agreement with the owners of Napoli, and with Melo’s Pizza, established by his brother-in-law, Carmelo, in Pleasant Hill, Joe and Millie searched further afield and found a parcel on Kirker Pass Road. They petitioned the city of Clayton for a permit to build a small commercial center, initially anchored by a new pizzeria called Peppino’s.
The late hours of the Concord Pavilion were a big draw for Peppino’s, and they even delivered dinner to the stars in their dressing rooms. In 1985, they sold the restaurant to friends Giuseppe and Pina Prinzivalli and then completed construction of two more buildings in Pavilion Plaza.
In “retirement,” Millie became a Realtor-broker and sold homes far and wide, lastly for Alain Pinel. Joseph was a lifelong soccer player and enthusiast and decided to coach a girls’ team in Clayton. They built their Italian-style villa on Peacock Creek Drive. After Millie died in 2005, Joseph moved to his final home on Pebble Beach Drive.
He traveled to Mexico, Australia and Europe, and enjoyed escorting family from abroad around California. In 2019, he finally returned to his native Palmi, with his daughters, and witnessed the famous La Varia festival, which he had not seen since he was a boy. Now recognized by UNESCO, it draws people from around the world. As his health declined, he continued to follow the calendar of festivals from Palmi on YouTube.
And he continued to dabble in stock – but only in Tesla, then a local car company that he insisted on visiting in Fremont. In 2014, he bought the first Tesla in his neighborhood, in competition with a friend’s Maserati. Both cars were Italian red.
Peppino is survived by three daughters, two grandsons, and all his Piccolo sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, including Gaetano, also of Melo’s Pizza. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Teresa, who, with Joseph’s late brother Rocco, owned Italia Pizzeria in Vallejo.