Riviera Restaurant: You Want It, You Got It

“Take his picture. He’s young,” said Alfred Shutermeja.

The owner and everything man at the Riviera Family Restaurant in the Hayfield Plaza Shopping Center pointed at his nephew, bent behind a counter toward the rear of his eating establishment, and kept applying elbow grease to the latest thing needing his attention. So his nephew and part-time employee, Irving Haxhiaj, shrugged and smiled as he, literally, stood up for his uncle.

An Albanian immigrant, Shutermeja has owned the restaurant since 2004. He said his brother-in-law chose the spot, but left the area. Shutermeja said he’s worked in restaurants almost 19 years, and running Riviera Family Restaurant made sense as a way to make a living in the United States.

“Everybody knows the United States is [better] than other countries,” he said.

When asked if he enjoyed being his own boss, Shutermeja said, “I’m no boss ... You working all day, 120 hours a week, what boss? But it’s OK. I make the living … I hope the customers [are] happy. I do my best.”

He said his best will also show up on a customer’s plate, another way he makes sure the customer is the real boss. “I cook everything!” he said with a smile. “What the customer likes to eat I don’t care, I cook it. It’s the customer’s favorite, not my favorite.”

Many nights after closing the Riviera Family Restaurant, Shutermeja said he often drives more than two hours for his favorite thing: fishing. “It’s fun,” he said. But where does he get the energy to work all day and fish all night? “If I go fishing I feel more young!”

Shutermeja and that “young” thing again. However, one suspects that few people of any age could keep up with him.

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Riviera Family Restaurant

7554 Telegraph Rd., Alexandria, VA 22315, 703-922-8878/79

Hours: Monday-Friday 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. (call for earlier take out service), Saturday-Sunday 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.