The principal and the pizza: A lifetime of loyalty
Jason Briggs is a Trenton native who went to McCorristin (now Trenton Catholic). While a student there - this is around 1995 or so he took a part-time job at DeLorenzo’s Pizza on Hamilton Avenue.
“I was 16 years old, and grew up in the neighborhood, on Olden Avenue, right around the corner from DeLorenzo’s,” Briggs said. “I didn’t have a car, it was walking distance from my house, and, well ... not my cousin, but kind of like that, worked there. So I went in one day, met with Rick (DeLorenzo) Jr., and I started making boxes in the basement and washing dishes.”
Graduation came, and with it, Briggs took off north to Caldwell University. But he didn’t leave DeLorenzo’s.
“I’d come home every weekend and work,” Briggs, who was studying to get into the education field, told me. By this time he was working the floor, hosting, making sure patrons weren’t crowding the front of the restaurant.
Then came student teaching, at Brooklawn Middle School in Parsippany.
“Yeah, I’d make sure to wear black pants to work at the school on Fridays because I’d get out of there by 3 p.m. and be at the restaurant by 5 p.m.,” Briggs said.
Post-college, Briggs landed a job teaching. St. Ann’s in Lawrenceville, 8th grade. Additionally, he was working on his Masters degree, so obviously, his career at DeLorenzo’s came to an …
“No, I’d still go in, after school some days and on the weekends,” Briggs said. “At this point it wasn’t for the money, but more for the sense of loyalty I felt to Rick Sr. and Jr. I never made the pizza, I worked the front of the house. Before that I bussed tables, cleaned up, and learned how Rick (Sr.) liked to do things. Which was everything at 100 percent, to never do anything small. Even filling the salt and pepper shakers, they better be filled to the top. Polishing silverware? Better polish it good.”
Briggs noticed the skills he learned under Rick Sr. (who recently passed away) translated to the world of teaching.
“Sure, working hard, doing everything 100 percent, it spilled over into my career,” Briggs said. “It may sound silly off the bat what do you learn in a pizza restaurant about teaching? - but that’s exactly what happened.”
Briggs’ teaching career blossomed, and he quickly went into administration, becoming the viceprincipal at St. Gregory the Great Academy in Hamilton.
And… he still kept his DeLorenzo’s gig.
In 2010 he became principal of St. Gregory; he was also working on his doctorate; he was also married, started having kids, and so he finally quit his …
No he didn’t. He still kept working at DeLorenzo’s.
“Actually, I’m working there tomorrow night,” Briggs told me last Friday. “And yes, I’ve been asked why I still come in. It’s a couple of things. It’s a connection to the people who work there, to Rick Jr. and his dad. All the people I worked with here were very formative in my life. So that was a connection I wanted to continue to keep and then and as I said, it’s about - and continues to be about - a sense of loyalty and being part of something that is a long standing tradition that I feel proud to be a little part of.”
By the way, another lesson he picked up from Rick Sr. - no job is beneath him.
“Yes I have a doctorate and yes I run a successful school, but it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the value of hard work,” he said. “I learned that here, and it transferred into my professional life. No one in my school is allowed to say ‘it’s not my job.’ I may be the principal, but I’ve waxed floors in my school, I’ve cleaned many messes. And I I earned that from Rick (Sr.). There he’d be on Saturday mornings, working in the restaurant long past when he had to, doing the small stuff his employees could have done. It formed me. Taught me to never ask someone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself.”
So now, in 2020, the longtime principal, the father to a 12 and 9 year old, with a wife who works as a dentist … obviously, the 25 years he’s spent working at DeLorenzo’s are coming to a close.
Right Jason?
“Sure, I guess I’ve thought about leaving,” Briggs said, before catching himself. “Actually, no. I never thought about it.”