Longtime Cape May pizza maker says pandemic and landlord dispute crushed his business

CAPE MAY, N.J. — Distant thunder rumbled over the gabled, Victorian roofs, and charcoal clouds were barreling over the beach toward Mohamed Abdelsalam, but the former soldier in the Egyptian army was 20 feet up a ladder and not coming down.

“Mohamed, please. We can wait,” said his wife, Lisa, who steadied the ladder with their son.

Mohamed, 68, has been cooking up hot pies at Louie’s Pizza for nearly 25 years and vowed not to leave Wednesday until he could take his sign down and move on with his life. Everything else inside the store was gone, gutted by the property owner earlier this month in a dispute over unpaid rent.

“I’m not scared,” Mohamed said after wind gusts whipped sand through the streets.

The Abdelsalams said business was down 90% last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic but they were still making pizza in Cape May just days before their equipment was taken on April 13. Lisa, 57, said her husband feels he’s being treated unfairly because he’s an immigrant and she broke down in tears when asked if she sought coronavirus relief money for their business.

“The honest answer is I just didn’t have it in me,” she said.

Lisa also lost both of her parents last year.

According to Cape May County court records, the property owner, Icona Resorts, did not attempt to evict the Abdelsalams, but rather filed a civil claim against them seeking $55,619.80 in damages instead of unpaid rent. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy enacted an eviction and foreclosure moratorium in March 2020 that has been renewed each month of the pandemic.

Icona won a default judgment against the Abdelsalams last year. To collect those damages, Icona used a “warrant of distraint” that’s based on 13th-century English common law. The rule allows the property owner — through the local sheriff’s office — to physically collect both money and property to recoup damages. That’s what happened on March 4, when $150 was seized from the Louie’s Pizza cash register under the supervision of the Cape May County Sheriff’s Department. Another $22 was taken on March 15.

On April 13, most of the equipment in Louie’s was removed.

“Given that some of the property is a pizza oven, the landlord will have a licensed plumber on hand to disconnect the gas,” Frank Corrado, an attorney for Icona, wrote in a letter to the sheriff’s department a week before the equipment was removed.

Corrado told The Inquirer that there are 11 tenants in the complex owned by Icona and “Mr. Abdelsalam is the only one who refuses to pay rent.” He said Mohamed was notified multiple times about the rent. Corrado provided documents that show the couple was served a copy of the complaint by a private investigator at Louie’s Pizza on Aug. 13.

“Because he was not able to evict the tenant, the landlord secured a judgment in the amount of approximately $60,000 following all legal process and subsequently executed on that judgment, again following the legal process,” Corrado told The Inquirer Wednesday.

Eustace Mita, chairman and CEO of Avalon-based Icona Resorts did not return requests for comment.

The Abdelsalams say they were unaware of the court proceedings — hence the default judgment — and did not have a physical lease with Icona after the property switched hands in 2019. They say they’ve never received a certified letter, never heard from a single attorney, and say they weren’t in the store on Aug. 13. The Abdelsalams say a property manager, whom they know only as “Mark” reminded them about the rent over the summer. That man declined to comment when reached by phone.

Some of the court records list a “Tony Lopez, manager” as being present when money was taken from the register. The Abdelsalams say they have an employee named Tony but say his last name isn’t Lopez and he’s not the manager.

A “notice of distress,” signed by Corrado, was taped to the front door of the pizzeria on April 13, 2021, notifying the family their goods were seized.

“We had no clue,” Lisa said. “We could not be more surprised if we tried.”

A Philadelphia attorney, Joseph Rutala, is reviewing the court documents for the Abdelsalams but has not been retained by the family and couldn’t comment on the case. Bruce Frank, the couple’s former landlord in Cape May, said he couldn’t recall the family ever missing a rent payment in two decades.

“Mohamed was not only a good tenant but a good friend,” Frank said. “I’m devastated at this.”

When Mohamed arrived in Cape May Wednesday afternoon, he said his ladder was gone, too. He had to borrow one from a nearby construction site. He did not want to lose the sign and did not want anyone else making pizza there under his banner. He boasted that his pizza was once included among the best at the Jersey Shore by Philadelphia Magazine.

“Everyone knows me here,” he said. “I have a good name.”

Mohamed, who grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, met Lisa when he worked at a pizza shop in Atlantic City in the early ’80s. They were married a few months later. They have three children, including son Yoseph, who studied criminal defense in law school.

“This was done in bad faith,” Yoseph said outside the shop Wednesday

The Abdelsalams said they were hoping to turn things around this summer. Mohamed’s voice cracked when he spoke of his time behind the counter.

“I mean, let me make a living,” he said. “Give me a chance. ”

The family has turned to GoFundMe, not to salvage the situation in Cape May, but to open a new shop back home, in Colmar, Montgomery County. They’ve raised nearly $19,000 so far with one person donating $2,500 alone.

“This is a heartless story,” one person wrote on the page. “I am honored to help these wonderful people.”

Lisa said in all the years they’ve owned the business, she couldn’t recall her husband ever stepping foot on the beach. He was too busy, she said, at his pizza shop across the street.

“There was so much love,” she said. “Right now, I feel like I want to get out of here and never come back.”

Mohamed eventually listened to his wife’s and son’s pleading and came down from the ladder as the quick, powerful storm swept through. But she knows he’ll go back.

“He won’t be able to leave it,” she said later, via text message. “I may have been the one crying, but trust me, he feels worse.”