When hockey season ends, players typically spend their time catching up with family and friends while hitting the weight room, video room or rink to ensure their skills stay sharp and continue to improve. Even in the minor leagues, unlike the old days, professional players make enough money that they do not need to concentrate on a second job in the offseason.
While this is true for Rochester Americans goalie John Muse, he also chooses to spend part of the summer helping the family business in his native Falmouth, Mass.
That family business the Paul’s Pizza and Seafood restaurant, located on Cape Cod, which is one of the most popular summer tourist destinations in the Northeast. With the solstice on the horizon, you can imagine the place will be packed with hungry customers.
This will be Muse’s second year of helping to tend to those patrons, as his family purchased the restaurant in June of 2016. In an interview with Pucks and Recreation, he explained that continuing the 57-year-old restaurant’s legacy was the goal.
“My mom was close to the family (of the original owner Paul Noonan),” Muse recalls. “Her first job was working at this restaurant. After Paul passed, his daughters ran the restaurant. When one of his daughters passed away unexpectedly, the family was looking to sell the restaurant. They were comfortable with my family buying it because they knew who we were and, after a few months, we bought it officially.”
Paul’s Pizza and Seafood has continued its tradition of being a true family-run business, as even Muse has found time to assist his mother, father and oldest brother Charlie in running the restaurant throughout the year.
“I started helping once I got back from Charlotte (after the 2015-16 season with the Checkers),” said Muse. “I am not officially employed at the restaurant, but I help run their merchandising campaign, which they have never done in the past. I have contacted companies to help get merchandise ordered and manage their Facebook page. I also respond to customers on Yelp.”
Muse has two NCAA championships and an ECHL title on his resume, but Paul’s has its own award-winning track record for him to tout as a marketing aid. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Muse, an alumnus of Noble and Greenough School and Boston College, where he led the Eagles to NCAA championships in 2008 and 2010, has used the skills he has learned on the ice to succeed during his ECHL and AHL career. In the pros, his most noteworthy accomplishment to date was winning the 2012 Kelly Cup playoff MVP award with the champion Florida Everblades.
However, he also balanced his time well in prep school and college, and is now leveraging his marketing degree to help the restaurant’s continued growth.
“The work schedule while I play hockey is flexible,” he said. “I can manage their social media pages remotely and I make sure we are well-stocked before I return to hockey in the winter.”
There is plenty to tout in Muse’s marketing campaign. On 10 occasions since 1979, Paul’s has been recognized as serving its area’s best pizza by Cape Cod Life Publications.
In the year since the Muse family has purchased the restaurant, they wanted to make sure it maintained its high quality of food while revitalizing other aspects.
“When we acquired the restaurant, we did not want to change the quality of the food, especially the pizza,” said Muse. “We brought back the entire staff, and since we took over the changes we have made have included painting and adding TVs and more taps to the bar area. My brother has made a strong effort to improve the bar in the restaurant.”
With Muse back in his hometown for the offseason, he has also used his time to bring friends from college to the restaurant. “I have even brought the pizza to Rochester so teammates can also taste the food,” he added.
Muse’s efforts to bring Paul’s Pizza and Seafood to his latest winter home is an advertising campaign in itself. But besides the signature menu offerings, the establishment’s feel of a “tight-knit community” keep Muse’s craving for more.
“There are so many regulars who come in, and I have become familiar with a lot of people” he said. “It is eye-opening to see how welcoming the restaurant is. The staff always make you feel welcome, and that is important with every business.”
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