Trapper’s Pizza Pub 20th Anniversary: Interview with Greg Rinaldi

Trapper’s Pizza Pub is turning 20 this month, and to celebrate two decades of serving up pizzas in our East Syracuse-Dewitt community we are publishing a blog series to highlight the occasion. This week we were able to chat with Greg Rinaldi, who is the original owner of Trapper’s, Trapper’s II in Minoa, Stingers in Manlius, and Wildcat in Camillus.

Stay tuned later in the Summer for updates on a 20th Anniversary Party that is currently in the works.

Vision of Community

Greg Rinaldi grew up in Fayetteville and attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School. He currently resides in Minoa and is the owner of Superior Seal and Paving. When he first opened Trapper’s Pizza Pub, Rinaldi was living in East Syracuse and had already opened Superior Seal and Paving. His original motivation for opening Trapper’s was as a way to offer year-round employment to his Superior Seal and Paving staff, who were typically forced to find work in the Winter season. Opening Trapper’s Pizza Pub was the perfect way to offer a steady stream of employment.

Rinaldi’s vision for Trapper’s was of a family-friendly atmosphere where everyone and anyone could come in and enjoy themselves. He took bits and pieces of other restaurants and bars he had come to love and combined them to create the pizza pub we now know and love.

Expansion

When Rinaldi decided to open Trapper’s II nine years later, it was because his employees wanted him to expand and grow the business. “I felt I could. I had good people working for me and they were all pushing me to open a new location,” he says of that point in time.

He would go on to open all four locations, running each of them as well as Superior Seal and Paving at the same time.

Transition

Rinaldi eventually stepped away from running his four restaurants when his son was young. “I had so many employees, it was wearing me down… it was eating up all of my time,” he said of the decision. Now, he enjoys frequenting Trapper’s and his other former restaurants as a regular customer. Most of the restaurants have employees that he hired back in the day, so there’s always someone to say “hi” to or catch-up with.

When Alex Szlamczynski, the current owner of Trapper’s Pizza Pub, was first hired he was just another employee. Rinaldi said of Alex, “He came in and worked really hard. He was a smart kid.” Alex took over the operation of Trapper’s, as well as the day-to-day management of the East Syracuse location. Keep an eye out for a forthcoming interview with Alex too for this series.

20th Anniversary Message

When asked how he felt about his original restaurant turning twenty this year, Rinaldi was thrilled. “I think it’s great,” he said. “The success of it [a business] is that when someone leaves, it continues to run. It’s a credit to all the owners. I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy watching them succeed.”

He left us with the following message for all of the Trapper’s staff, customers, and community: “I’m just grateful that they’re [all of the restaurants] still around. I’m grateful to the community and the people who own them who’ve honored the original vision. They stuck with the plan and made it better.”

“Maybe I was right with the things I did originally,” Rinaldi mused about his original vision for Trapper’s. “I can’t say enough about how hard they all work,” he said about the new owners of his former restaurants. “People don’t realize it’s hard to work in the restaurant industry. They all have great owners and they all work.”

Trapper’s Pizza Pub’s 20th Anniversary is this May 2021, but we’ll be continuing the celebration into the Summer. Thank you to our staff and loyal customers for continuing to support us throughout the pandemic. Thank you, also, to Greg Rinaldi for taking the time to talk to us for this post. Keep an eye on our Blog for more on the 20th Anniversary.