America meets Tommy Cutlets on Monday night.
America meets Tommy DeVito, quarterback of the New York Football Giants, along with his parents and family and Jersey friends in the MetLife Stadium stands, along with his popular hand gesture should he throw a touchdown pass against the Packers.
“The underdog needs a shot,” Al Lombardi was saying, “ ’Cause a lot of kids get overlooked. He was one of ’em. It’s a great opportunity. It sends a message to a lot of kids: Don’t stop. Keep going.”
Al is the owner of Lombardi’s, not far from where DeVito lives with his parents in Cedar Grove. And not far from Violante & Son, where Anthony Violante says from behind the counter: “I’m known for my cutlets. I can’t say that Tommy’s mom gets ’em here. I can’t speak to that. But it’s a very common question I’ve gotten recently.”
Tommy Cutletsmania indeed.
“I can’t say it’s increased my business, but it’s certainly generated a lot of interest in cutlets in general,” Violante said. “ ‘Do the DeVitos come here? I’ve heard your cutlets are great, what separates your cutlets?’ It’s a fairly common question the last few weeks.”
OK, what separates your cutlets? “We do everything by hand,” Violante said. “It’s extra thin, everything is cut to custom. I like to think that the quality of bird that I use, the way that they’re prepared. … We cut a lot of chicken, and it’s done every day daily fresh.”
Across Pompton Avenue at Esposito’s, Sharon Cira reveals: “We’re about to make a sandwich in his name. We heard that he really loves the chicken cutlet sandwich.”
The Tommy DeVito Special: chicken cutlet, mozzarella, roasted peppers, prosciutto, balsamic vinegar.
DeVito stopped in on Saturday of his bye week at Lombardi’s, where a “Proud to Be American” sign on the front door greets you.
“We have a feature after him now, a chicken cutlet vodka sauce pizza,” waitress Karen Convery said. “I had a customer that came in and said, ‘Tommy apparently likes your chicken vodka sandwich, and I’d like to order it.’ I said, ‘OK,’ and the guy had it and I said to him, ‘So what’d you think?’ And he said: ‘He’s right. This is one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had.’ So now we have a chicken cutlet vodka sauce pizza.”
When DeVIto threw a TD pass against the Patriots, Lombardi’s handed out 60 free DeVito burgers (mozzarella and vodka sauce) to delighted fans. Al Lombardi plans on audibling on Monday night. “I think we might have the DeVito pizza for free at halftime,” he said.
When you are the Jersey Guy quarterback of the New York Football Giants, you are the talk of your proud town, especially after leading Big Blue to back-to-back wins.
At the bar at Lu Nello Reataurant, Frank DiGiacomo and Anthony Pope light up at the mention of Tommy DeVito. Gustavo Guymaraes is the valet.
“It’s good to know we have a local hero playing for the Giants representing us,” he said late last month. “It’s fun to brag about with the Jets fans because our third-string quarterback is better than Zach Wilson. It’s so good to have a guy from Cedar Grove better than Zach Wilson.”
DeVito, of course, is no longer the third-strong quarterback. Brian Daboll stayed with the hot hand after Tyrod Taylor’s ribs had healed.
“I’ve known Tommy since he was 6 or 7 years old,” Chris Wernely said, “so seeing a kid that I grew up with playing for my hometown team, starting quarterback, it’s awesome to see it starting to pay off for him ’cause he really does deserve it.”
Wernely used to block for DeVito on the Cedar Grove Panthers.
“Every Friday the football team would be invited over to the DeVitos, they’d have food for us, games for us to play, we would watch a little bit of film, stuff like that, and they were always trying to keep the team connected and build that sort of brotherhood,” Wernely said. “Every Friday from fifth grade to eighth grade.”
Kevin Vega works behind the counter at Giuseppe’s.
“You gotta think about this: He’s a rookie,” Vega says. “Think about a couple of years from now. Everybody in the NFL better watch out for that guy.”
Greg Polimeni is the owner at Rare The Steak House in Little Falls. DeVito’s parents were there recently.
“They’re all Giant fans in Cedar Grove and they’re just proud that a Cedar Grove native is on the Giants,” he said.
Ross Catanzarite of the Accent Group, a full-service construction company, knows DeVito’s father, Tom, of DeVito Plumbing and Heating. “I’m blown away, I’m blown away,” Catanzarite said.
The Tommy DeVito Story is too good to be true. Inside a CVS on Pompton Avenue, Nilie Pajoohi smiles and says: “I’ve learned that he loves his mommy and daddy a lot, and they take good care of him.”
America, meet Tommy Cutlets.
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