A Slice of The American Dream
It has been almost 40 years since a young man arrived on the shores of the United States in search of, what else, the “American Dream.” Eric Utaj, the owner of Poughkeepsie’s own Bronx Pie Pizza on North Road, just a stone’s throw away from Marist campus, was only seventeen when he chose to leave his home country of Yugoslavia for America.
“It was a big experience.” Utaj said, “Coming from a communist country, jumping into freedom when you can get a job, you can get an education, where no one asks where you come from or who you are; as long as you are here you can keep on going, that’s what matters.”
Eric did not come to the United States with an established trade or even a “skill-set” as he was still only a teenager, but one thing he did know was he needed to find a way to make a living and make ends meet. It was not about “want” but rather “need” which guided him as a young immigrant in a country that offered all a “dream.” Eric quickly found work at a pizzeria: “I began with cleaning the place…then from there I started delivery driving with a bicycle and little by little they taught me to start cooking. By the time I turned 20 years old, I already knew how to make pizzas.” His love for the cuisine quickly grew from there, at age 21 he purchased a Ray’s Pizza franchise and doubled his locations with the purchase of Jovani’s Pizza in the Bronx only 5 years later, which is still in the family today.
From a young age he was able to experience what a family run restaurant was like and loved it. “When I started my first on 99th Street and Broadway it was me and my cousins, but we also had like six employees. Every day someone was missing from work, everyday something happens…but getting the small business I got and having your family always around…it was like knowing they aren’t gonna quit for you tomorrow, I felt a lot more comfortable.” People calling in sick, missing their hours, unexpectedly quitting or simply not being dependable are realities of owning your own business, but with family, there is always someone in your corner.
Eric would later move to the Hudson Valley in 2009 for a better quality of life for his young family, working at Brother Trattoria in Beacon. By 2012, however, pizza again called to him; he missed the community that formed around owning his own place and making delicious pizza, so Bronx Pie was born. It was not just a place for himself but where he, his wife, and three kids could make a living and have their hands in the dough, so to speak.
Eric has fond memories of his journey to just outside the gates of Marist College and will be the first to tell you the benefits of working for yourself versus someone else. “When you work for someone else you look at the time but when you work for yourself you don’t look at the time. That’s the biggest thing, like something I do 12–13 hours here and I feel like I do 5–6 hours…it’s amazing.” With ownership comes its rewards, but with ownership also comes its burdens. Eric states, “when you work for yourself, your mind is always focused on what is gonna happen tomorrow. When you are working for a company, you know you are gonna get that paycheck at the end of the week.” That did not deter him though, but instead pushed him to continuously make great food for the local community.
Coming to the United States and experiencing a community where people are not concerned about your ethnicity or background outside of their interest in your past and how you got there. Jobs, education and opportunity were what you made of them and Eric found his calling by providing one of America’s favorite culinary staples. When you own a “piece of the pie” the decisions are more important but as Eric puts it, “I have no stress. For me it was a normal job, trying to do better today than I did yesterday. I love it!”
By Aidan Galione
