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“I thought a restaurant would be
a good part-time gig for me.”
The popular restaurant closed in 1992
and life for the Cerami family went on.
Alissa grew up in Madison and attended
Madison Central High School. She was
adamant about never going into the restaurant
business. “I saw the hard work and long
hours it took.” So just out of high school,
Alissa chose to go into the hotel industry.
“I worked for a couple of Marriott properties,
and I went through their first-class training
program.” But Alissa really wanted to earn a
college degree, so she took advantage of the
adult program at Belhaven University in
Jackson where she earned a business degree
then got a job doing administrative work for
Baptist Hospital.
In 2005, Alissa’s daughter, Serenity Lane,
was diagnosed with leukemia. Alissa found
herself a single mother and caregiver for her
sick child. Thinking of ways she could make
some extra money, Alissa talked with Fred
and her sister, Jennifer, about the possibility
of the three of them opening a restaurant.
“I thought a restaurant would be a good
part-time gig for me.” The new version of
Cerami’s opened in 2006 on Lakeland Drive
in Flowood. Eventually, Jennifer and her
husband moved to New Orleans, and Fred
retired. Her part-time restaurant gig became
full-time many years ago and now Alissa is
the restaurant’s owner.
“It’s hard for me to believe that we have
been open for 15 years already,” Alissa says.
“That’s longer than the original Cerami’s
was open.” Fred still comes in most nights
to greet guests. “He is, after all, the face of
Cerami’s. I call him our mascot! I’m the
one who runs the operation and I tend to
stay in the background.”
Her experience growing up in the
restaurant has given Alissa an innate
understanding of what it takes to run
Cerami’s, day-to-day. “I feel like I make it
look easy. I have just been in it for so long.
I believe you should never let the customers
know if there is a problem. They need to
enjoy their meal and not worry about
anything else.”
While some things have remained the
same at Cerami’s, Alissa has introduced a
few changes. “The decorations are the same
as the original restaurant,” she says. “My dad
has always been in charge of decorations!”
Another thing that has remained the same
is the iconic salad cart. “That was dad’s hot
dog cart back in college. We had it as a salad
cart in the old restaurant and we’ve always
had it here as well.”
40 • APRIL 2021