How does a little deli in Fair Lawn supply lunch to workers at 40 businesses? The name of A Family Affair, in Fair Lawn, tells it all. It takes only three Tisis, plus a van and driver, to handle all the orders. ”The key is organization,” said Edward Tisi Jr., a graudate of the New York Restaurant School. ”I’ve been in places where 10 people don’t work as fast as we do.” Ed’s Jr. and Sr. arrive at 7 a.m., and Angela, Ed Sr’s wife, comes in at 8:30. ”I have to give Mom a little break,” Ed Jr. said. In the process, the three create more than tuna salad and B.L.T.’s. A recent menu featured as specials a tortilla wrap of pepper mill melted Harvarti dill cheese with sautéed diced portobello mushrooms and Caesar dressing ($5.25) and cheese tortellini tossed with sautéed broccoli rabe and Italian sausage ($5.95 a pound).
Everyday fare includes a moist and tender grilled chicken cutlet with grilled eggplant, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard ($4.75); bow-tie pasta salad ($4.49 a pound); and tossed romaine salad with egg ($4.50), with tuna ($4.95) or grilled chicken ($5.25). Visitors to the sparkling white-tiled deli will find not only prepared food, but also homemade sauces and mozzarella and imported Italian products like Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and San Marana tomatoes. A Family Affair also caters events and meetings and prepares gift baskets.
Perhaps Angela Tisi has the key to understanding the efficiency of the threesome:”We all get along well but lunch hour comes we become a business, not a family.”
MARGO NASH – The New York Times