Family tradition: Many employees have worked at Giuseppe's for 10+ years

MEREDITH — Thirty years ago, when she came to New Hampshire to open a new restaurant for her family, Julie Gnerre-Bourgeois had to leave her parents and siblings behind. So, she said, her employees became like her family.

And that’s why so many of them are still with the pizzeria. In an industry notorious for high employee turnover, Giuseppe’s has 19 workers who have been with the restaurant for more than a decade, and nine who have worked there for more than 20 years.

Gnerre-Bourgeois’s mother and father, the late Joe and Annelle Gnerre, already had a couple of restaurants to run on the Maine coast, so she was by herself when she came to Meredith in 1989.

“I moved here to open the restaurant. I didn’t have any family that moved here with me, so my employees became my family,” Gnerre-Bourgeois said.

Bethany Lamprey said her older brother started working at Giuseppe’s in the first year of its operation. “He loved it,” she said, so she started working there a few years later, when she was 19. At the time, she was a student at Plymouth State University, as the school is now known, and she said working for the Gnerre family was different. One night, she said, her planned ride back to Plymouth fell through, and Joe Gnerre offered to take her home as if it were just a short drive down the road.

“I just became like a younger sister to Julie, her mom and dad treated us like family,” Lamprey said. “It was always like that. You don’t leave that.”

Katie Leonard, cook and manager, has been working at Giuseppe’s for 23 years. So has her husband, Frankie. In fact, there have been many family groups that have come through, or grown within, the pizzeria. Brothers and sisters have both worked there, children of veteran employees get their first job there, and employees have met their future spouses while working together.

A.J. White, a 25-year veteran, said the familiar feel extends beyond the staff.

“One of the reasons I like being here, not only are they great to work for, are the regular customers – A lot of our customers have been coming here for years,” White said.

Gnerre-Bourgeois said it’s been good for business to have so many long-term employees. But, she said, it wasn’t a planned outcome.

“I think it just happens, I don’t think it’s anything that you can predetermine. I think it stems from the heart,” Gnerre-Bourgeois said. Accidental though it is, it has proven critical to her business’s fortunes, she added. “Without them, I couldn’t do it.”