Mass for Zygmunt F. "Ziggy" Chmiel, 86, a lifelong resident of Bayonne, short order cook and former co-owner of Sloppy Joe's, a 24-hour restaurant located on East 22nd Street off Prospect Avenue, will be tomorrow at 9 a.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Bayonne. He died at home Wednesday.
A place where businessmen from Broadway rubbed elbows with truckers and factory workers for 41 years, Sloppy Joe's was always a great place for people to meet, according to Chmiel's widow, Frances - who waited tables at the restaurant for three years before marrying her husband.
"It always had a great name around Bayonne," she said. "After we sold it, everyone would come up to my husband and me and say how much they wished Bayonne still had a place like Sloppy Joe's." She said the restaurant was the best place around for fresh sandwiches - which her husband would often prepare and slice right in front of the customers - and the quickest place to get great French fries, which were served in a brown paper bag and cost as little as a dime.
In 1932, under the direction of his brother Walter, Chmiel and his two other brothers, Joe and Stanley, expanded a small luncheonette trailer on 22nd Street between Avenue F and the Hook into the famed eatery.
Chmiel - as the last surviving brother - sold the restaurant in 1973.
"After my husband sold it, a few different pair of owners tried to keep it going, but it just didn't work."
She said the place lost most of its appeal without the any of the Chmiel brothers around.
Later, Chmiel was a supervisor of the Bayonne Board of Education's supply department for 11 years. He retired in 1985.
Chmiel was an Army veteran of World War II.
He was a former coach and manager of the Bayonne Little League.
He was a member of the Mt. Carmel Lyceum and the former Biltmore Athletic Club of Bayonne.
Chmiel is survived by his wife, Frances (Markowski); a daughter, Patricia Thiel; two sons, Michael and Paul; a sister, Genevieve Suchak; two grandsons, Paul Michael Thiel and Christopher Chmiel; two granddaughters, Melissa Johnson and Jill Chmiel, and a great great-granddaughter, Carlissa Johnson.

Jersey Journal
Jersey City, New Jersey
June 6, 2003


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