#AHLOTB: The dual life of John Muse

Photo: Micheline Veluvolu

by Ryan J. Harr | AHL On The Beat

If one were to research goaltender John Muse on the internet, the most common results would be about his many years spent in the Carolina Hurricanes organization or the Texas Stars and Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.

One thing that can be for certain, though, each source would list his hometown of East Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Located an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Boston, Falmouth has a population of nearly 32,000, according to the 2010 census. That reading made Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod.

One thing you would not find, however, is that John — along with his mother, Kitty; father, Peter; and oldest brother, Charlie — helps run and operate Paul’s Pizza & Seafood, located right in the heart of Falmouth.

Paul’s Pizza & Seafood was established in 1960 by the late Paul Noonan. Following his passing, his two daughters took over until last Spring when one passed away unexpectedly. When there was talk about selling the restaurant, the Muse family was interested in purchasing the nearly 60-year-old restaurant, and in June of 2016, the restaurant was officially signed over to the Muses.

“Paul’s Pizza & Seafood is where my mom got her first job when she was a kid,” said John, who in his alter ego, makes up one-half of the goaltending tandem of the AHL’s second-oldest franchise. “The Noonan family has known my mom since she was a kid, so when they were considering selling the restaurant they were comfortable with our family taking it over. The whole process took about 6 months and then in June, everything was finalized.”

Kitty and Charlie manage the bar, restaurant and kitchen operations as well as the business side of things while Peter handles all of the maintenance work. John, in addition to his daily duties of stopping pucks, oversees all the marketing.

“My mom and brother do the majority of the work to keep everything running smoothly and I help out with the tech aspects of things along with all the merchandising,” said Muse. “We installed new computer systems in the restaurant to make ordering easier, so I helped teach the staff how to use everything properly. I also manage the social media accounts, like our Yelp and Facebook pages, and will be starting an Instagram account for the beginning of the summer. We also recently started selling merchandise, so I got to design hats, t-shirts, hoodies, and polos.”

Prior to turning pro, Muse attended Boston College for four years, earning a bachelor’s degree in Marketing while leading the Eagles to two NCAA National Championships.

“My education in marketing has definitely helped with various aspects of what I do with the restaurant, but I’ve also talked to people I know who have experience in the restaurant business and am using some of their advice as well.”

Paul’s Pizza & Seafood is a well-known restaurant in the Falmouth area that offers a variety of specialty pizzas and seafood but their most popular item on the menu is a plain cheese pizza.

“Obviously, having great pizza is a plus, but I think one of the main reasons Paul’s is so popular is because of the family-type feeling you get coming into the restaurant. During normal summer nights, it gets pretty busy as we sell anywhere between 300 to 500 pizzas and a lot of the time you’ll see the same people routinely coming in for dinner. It also helps that the Cape is the most popular summer destination in New England and after a day at the beach, families would rather go out for dinner than cook.”

Paul’s Pizza & Seafood has been voted one of the top places to eat in Falmouth, including the Upper Cape’s Best Pizza award winner 10 times.

Following the completion of the Amerks season, Muse will head back to Falmouth to continue improving the social media pages in hopes of bringing in more business for his family’s restaurant.