Victor Miele, 84, Sports Lover, Bighearted `Uncle' Of Vic's Cafe

TACOMA - Uncle Vic. They all called him that - from retired plumbers and mechanics to the occasional sports star.

They had called Victor Miele that since 1945 when he opened Vic's Cafe, where folks came to swap stories, play poker and sometimes even make their own sausage omelets.

It wasn't for the food that they came, said his son Frank, of Renton. It was for Uncle Vic himself - "a typical little old Italian man with a big round tummy" who had a love of sports and a quick, sassy smile.

"You know, he ate that greasy food all those years," said his son. "But when he had a physical recently, the doctors couldn't understand it. He was in great health, with a good heart and clean arteries.

"He kept working six or seven days a week, doing exactly what he'd always wanted until the end. We felt that's what kept him going."

Mr. Miele died after being hit by a pickup truck Wednesday outside the Tacoma Elks Lodge, where he dined every Wednesday at 5 p.m. He was 84.

Born in Tacoma, Mr. Miele graduated from Bellarmine Preparatory School, where he had played shortstop on the baseball team.

During wartime service in the Army Air Forces, he was found to have a way with food and was sent to work in the mess hall.

"That's when he started going to work at 5:30 a.m.," said his son. "He kept doing it the next 50 years."

After World War II, Mr. Miele helped at his father's grocery store in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood. Not satisfied with the soda fountain that was there since 1910, Mr. Miele added more and more restaurant amenities - booths and tables - until his father gave him the place.

In its "salad days," the cafe drew city bigwigs, and celebrities like world-champion boxer Rocky Marciano. Ahmad Rashad, the NBC sports commentator and former football star, grew up nearby and ate there.

Now that Mr. Miele is gone, Vic's Cafe at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and South 16th Street in Tacoma has closed for good.

The only other thing as important to Mr. Miele was sports; he kept up with games via TV or radio - especially Sunday, his day off, when he went to Mass and only dropped by the cafe to tidy up.

Mr. Miele's cook, Louis Rousseau, said his boss was "very easy to get along with, but could pull rank.

"He did have his own way of organizing things, though. He had no idea how other restaurants did it. But he must have been doing something right. He was there a lot of years."

Rousseau said Mr. Miele tried to give customers what they wanted - "or what he thought they wanted."

Longtime customer Tony Anderson said, "Uncle Vic was just a great guy. He was small in stature but big in every other way. If somebody came in off the street and couldn't pay, he'd give them a meal. And he always took care of the priests."

Other survivors include his daughter-in-law Sue Miele and grandchildren Mike Miele, Barbra Miele and Chris Miele, all of Renton; niece Mary Ann Quarry, Tacoma; three grand-nieces; and a grand-nephew.

Mass is at 10 a.m. tomorrow in St. Rita's Catholic Church, 1403 S. Ainsworth St., Tacoma.