Johnny Pork Roll and the True Taste of Jersey

We sit down with John Yarusi, the dynamic owner behind Johnny's Pork Roll and Coffee, a beloved establishment nestled in the heart of Red Bank, New Jersey. The conversation kicks off on a reflective note as they pay homage to the legacy of John Taylor, whose departure from New Jersey in 1906 marked a pivotal moment in the state's history. Taylor's influence, particularly in shaping the identity of New Jersey through his invention of pork roll, serves as a poignant backdrop for their discussion.

As Yarusi shares his entrepreneurial journey, listeners are transported into the world of Johnny's Pork Roll, a culinary venture that began humbly as a food truck. Driven by his profound love for New Jersey and a desire to reignite appreciation for the iconic pork roll sandwich, Yarusi embarked on a remarkable odyssey, navigating the challenges of the food industry with determination and zeal. Despite lacking formal culinary training, his unwavering passion propelled Johnny's Pork Roll to new heights, culminating in the establishment of a brick-and-mortar location in Red Bank.

Throughout the episode, Yarusi delves into the intricacies of his personal background, offering insights into his upbringing, experiences in radio and advertising, and the pivotal moments that shaped his journey as an entrepreneur. His anecdotes paint a vivid picture of the trials and triumphs he encountered along the way, illustrating the resilience and spirit of innovation that define New Jersey's entrepreneurial landscape. Moreover, Yarusi emphasizes the profound sense of community that lies at the heart of Johnny's Pork Roll, highlighting the camaraderie among food truck owners and the deep-rooted connections forged through shared culinary experiences.

As the conversation unfolds, Yarusi articulates his vision for the future of Johnny's Pork Roll, expressing a fervent desire to expand its reach beyond the borders of New Jersey. With plans to take his concept nationwide through a traveling show, he envisions spreading the joy of pork roll while celebrating the rich tapestry of Jersey culture. In doing so, Yarusi hopes to showcase the unique blend of tradition, innovation, and camaraderie that distinguishes Johnny's Pork Roll as a beacon of culinary excellence in the Garden State and beyond.

In essence, this episode encapsulates the essence of community, nostalgia, and culinary creativity that define the cultural significance of pork roll in New Jersey. Through Yarusi's compelling narrative and unwavering passion, listeners are treated to a glimpse into the rich tapestry of Jersey heritage, where food serves as a conduit for connection, celebration, and shared memories. Whether you're a native Jerseyite or a curious outsider, this episode promises to leave you craving a taste of Johnny's Pork Roll and the vibrant spirit of the Garden State.

johnnyporkroll.com

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Music: "Ride" by Jackson Pines
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Transcript

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[Music]
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Sun ra buting from a CL of bra all right what's up everybody
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welcome back to another episode of greetings with the guarden state power by the New Jersey Lottery I'm your host Mike ham we're here here in Red Bank New
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Jersey at Johnny's pork roll and coffee 2 with John yusi John welcome to the
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show dude this is awesome it's good to be here we got a whole audience here too also this is a very somber day yes it is
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a very somber day so like we're recording this February 10th this is coming out in March uh but tell the
1:18
people why this is a somber well I think today's a somber day because a dear Soul left the Garden State on this date in
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1906 that would be one John Taylor of Hamilton Square New Jersey wow it's like
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a really he's like the Elvis of what he's like my Jesus well like yeah without John Taylor who who is John then
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you know I don't know man I'd be like Johnny gabou or Johnny Mortadella or
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something I don't know know what be Johnny hot dogs yeah um so let's just go
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like 30,000 foot view what Johnny's pork roll is I mean that's not like immediately obvious from the name but
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like what do you guys do here what do you make uh physical location we're in the physical location but there is a
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truck too so do the whole thing I started a truck 10 years ago and I really felt like the pork R sandwich was
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getting maligned and not really getting the respect it deserved I felt like it was slowly becoming something teenage
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kids ate on a bagel and I'm like that's not right it's supposed to be on a hard roll and it's supposed to have a runny
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egg and it's supposed to have this blackened little pork roll around that little egg and so I said I want to start
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a food truck that makes the best pork roll sandwich in the world and has great coffee that was the whole menu yeah and
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slowly it branched N9 or 10 different pork roll sandwiches all built around the same idea and then I open the store
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in Red Bank uh 5 years ago Okay so we've been here five years so when you were uh
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like putting this thing together and like you know all that you really didn't have like a food background no I had
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more of a love of New Jersey and a love of pork roll and I came from a sort of
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media branding advertising I worked on the radio at one point when I was right out of college you know at a local station
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and I just I adored New Jersey and I felt like you know this little funny meat that I grew up eating as a kid like
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all of us you know deserved its respect and it's out there I mean it organically people love pork rolling I'm like I'm
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going to jump in and dominate that space yeah cuz i' I've seen reviews there was
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one guy I was at the track this summer and there was a guy put a Google review up he's like oh up that Johnny pork roll
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truck I waited you know blah blah blah exorb amount of time to get a sandwich there's hardly a me on it obviously the
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guy not from New Jersey and I so badly wanted to write back and go why why would you say that what people would say
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to be in the truck like are you from New Jersey I'd be like no I'm from Nebraska I just saw a marketing opportunity to
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exploit you and I Really Work selling lipid or whatever the hell makes these cholesterol drugs but it really was it
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was just a love of being where I was from and I was like a self- hitting New Jersey and in my teen years I feel like
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you like everything New York was the EP center of my world all my news came out of there all my sports teams I rooted
4:03
for were from there and then things changed in the 80s like when New Jersey got the Devils I went to Ranger games as
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a kid that was it I couldn't root for the Islanders I'm not from Long Island I was a ranger fan and then Jersey got a team I'm like wow this is pretty cool
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and then I slowly got over the hump you know even first going into New York City like where you from I'm like uh New
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Jersey like you didn't want to tell people you were from there they would laugh at you yeah and slowly things
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changed and I don't know what happened that we got our credit and respect but I just saw that Trend in wave and again I
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worked in median advertising I saw it I said there's something here I'm jumping into this stream yeah do you know what I
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mean I I I've grown up my whole life you know ocean Mammoth County little bit in
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I was going to ask where you were like where you grew up and all that I was born in Overlook Hospital in Summit New
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Jersey okay so a North Jersey guy I'm from Taylor Ham land or that new
4:54
thing we call Central Jersey kind of but um yeah we lived as a little kid I lived in p away went to Arbor school and then
5:03
we had gotten a summer home in Lavalette and eventually we moved from Piscataway to watchong had our little summer house
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in Lavalette so I grew up in that Seaside Point Pleasant Manasquan realm which is funny cuz after that we moved
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fulltime to Mammoth County in Spring Lake and that was like a whole new world to me like north of Manasquan Inlet was
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like whoa big jety seaw wall it's like what goes on here I can see New York so it was bizarre to me but I've been up
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and down the coastline at least this area Central Jersey my whole life and I ate pork roll as a kid and I grew up
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surfing and going to the beach and being hungry is how when I got out of the water and this was just this thing we
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ate and then um I I split and went to New Jersey and like New Year's Day 92
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into 93 I went to Idaho with my cousin who had just finished college at OCC and
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my uncle taught at the University of Idaho and he said why don't you come out here it's so inexpensive you get residency in 6 months with me all over
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the so my cousin's going go what do you want to do and this was right on the tail end of my illustrious radio career
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that I had down here because in high school I fell in love with this local radio station FM 1063 and it was playing
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the Smiths and Melissa Eid and the Bongos and the feles and all these bands
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that you know RM all that stuff echoing the bunnyman and I just adored it I said I want to do this and so I had this
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little bit of moment of success in radio which led to DJing and Asbury at night and then that kind of all imploded on me
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and I didn't run away but I said I need to change scenery end Idaho and the only reason I tell you this story is that's
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when it dawned on me I was 24 maybe that pork roll was only in New Jersey right
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like I assume like tasty cakes were everywhere and rce potato chips things that coming from New Jersey like this is
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the way it is the sun will rise and pork BR is available everywhere and the minute I got halfway through Pennsylvania I was like what are you
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talking about yeah you know what I mean totally you know and my uncle obviously was from New Jersey who lived in Idaho and then it became a running joke that
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we had to bring P roll back to Ido because when you give that to people and they Tred like this is really unique what is it yeah so all those things kind
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of culminated and that's why I was like I want to start a little business around porol sure I really when I went to
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college it was in Pennsylvania and one of my buddies that I played baseball with was from like Long Island yeah and
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I just like assumed that it was like a like Taylor ham pork like a Northeast thing so I was like you know what that
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is right like you get you get those in Long Island he was like I don't even know what the [ __ ] you're talking about dude it it happened I was like I was so
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blown away like how we get kids that play at the Armory like hockey great
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little hockey ranking red back and they have all these little traveling hockey teams so these are junior kids like they're 14 at the oldest and the Long
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Island team will always come in here to look online oh where the best place to get a sandwich so they end up in here
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they don't know what the hell pork roll is and I get the biggest kick out of feeding All These Little Squirts pork roll she like this [ __ ] is awesome I'm
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like it is it is it's not bacon I'm not telling you it's bacon but its own little vertical there's nothing else
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like it I me it I so I could so relate it's so bizarre like Staten Island even
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sure but now it's like it's crossing over it's the the Staten Island like this shit's unbelievable it's like this
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Mortadella kind of blah blah blah ground up pork thing but yeah to me it'll always be so
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Jersey it's so embedded to us I don't think there's any other state that has a
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a food product that is like they have a style of sandwich or style of fried chicken or barbecue or this or that blah
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blah blah but you know lobsters main whatever you want to say but pork roll is this revered old processed food I
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mean it's it's CRA and today it's funny cuz today is the day the guy left you know he's still buried in Trent New
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Jersey right which is also crazy yeah good old John Taylor John Taylor uh so you're in Idaho we'll pick up the story
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there ID you're in Idaho and then you decide you're coming back I guess I end up getting a job on the radio back here
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so I came back to worked on the yeah I worked at um oh I hated it I felt like a grown up cuz I had a like a benefits
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package in 401k like wow I'm a real like this Joy I'm really getting a salary to do this and I
9:04
worked at 92.7 wobm right it's WF ocean
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County's first and best you know what I mean it's like I was like in my 20s I'm like what the hell am I doing I used to
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play like the PES mode Neo and the bunnyman now I'm playing Gloria Stefon and Simon and garle it was just like ah
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and they probably knew I hated and they fired my ass so I got fired from that job then I didn't know what to do then I
9:27
almost got an MTV's Real World I swear to God the year they were doing it in England I had sent a little film I made
9:33
about myself and I got vetted like the top 10 finalist but I didn't make it so I was like an alternate I wish you did
9:39
because we could have talked about that yeah that would have been pretty funny yeah that didn't happen and then I
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was like I don't know and then I I got my first job in New York and I worked for a design magazine in New York and
9:50
that kind of led me into the whole media and advertising and branding visuals and
9:55
graphics and type and d and I just loved it I just soaked it up I did that for a chunk of my life and then that kind of
10:02
went upside down on me and then I was like what am I going to do and I've told the story cuz it's the truth it's like
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the hurricane my father died my whole life imploded my marriage with my wife
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and my two girls and was like I was like oh my God what am I going to do I mean that it's like and I'm like I'm going to
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do a pork roll food truck yeah like like I really said that's what I'm going to do why because I had a client I worked
10:27
with in New York and he was Raising grass fed beef and I used to go on QBC like hey it's John from Lance with
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this grass-fed beef from Montana and at that point the client I had really
10:40
challenged you to think of new ideas so I said to them at one point I said maybe we should do a grass-fed Burger truck
10:45
you know that'll get the product in the street we'll gain emails we'll give a discount to get their email we'll Market to them you know these Wall Street guys
10:52
are all about health you know I made all this money now I want to live forever so they were all ahead of that curve honestly they really were those guys
10:59
with embracing this kind of eating clean and eating healthy so I did a food truck and I had researched it and there was a
11:04
little truck that ran around Manhattan that night that I was just so enamored with and all it was called was the
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dessert truck and I love the generic nature of it like the chair the the like
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so I said man there should be a little truck in New Jersey that's just the pork roll truck like this would work anywhere
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in New Jersey it would be a funny sort of way to bring people together half a little pork roll sandwich and coffee and
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so that's where I cultivate the IDE in my head and then I was on the ass of my heels like what am I going to do cuz I
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couldn't find a job and I started the pork roll truck right after the hurricane right I had a couple friends
11:39
right down the street at the Dublin um the Dublin House in redm and my one friend at that point Marty uh had a
11:45
restaurant he had bought Carlos o'conor's okay which was one of the first funny Mexican restaurants here in
11:51
Redbank honestly like PR wanito and all the other guys that are here that are Head and Shoulders on a different level
11:57
and that place is no longer around but I told him this crazy idea I had I said I wanted to do a pork roll food truck you
12:03
know we're drinking Guinness chatting he goes that's a great idea I just want to do pork sandwiches and coffee and at
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that point I was working um with a coffee guy I won't say his name but I was involved with another little coffee business and I kept thinking about my
12:16
idea of coffee and ppal ppal and coffee and we all kind of jumped in together and started a little truck and like 10
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years later you know it's like it's kind of here but so when you just crazy yeah you put this idea for the truck together
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yeah uh I just thought food trucks were so neat I looked it up yeah like what was the food truck scene like in Jersey
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10 years ago cuz like I I feel like jerseyy is one of like a place that doesn't you go to like LA or other
12:40
places and it's like food trucks are the thing you know I don't think that's really the case in Jersey you know what
12:47
because of legislation It's really because of rules like New Jersey is a fascinating little state from top to
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bottom and it's like you have counties 21 of them then you got our overarching state government and then every little
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municipality Township has their own little weird rules and they'll hide behind rules why food trucks aren't allowed here there everywhere and so
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it's very um prohibitive for somebody wants to jump in but I guess around 20101 I feel like that's when like ooh
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food trucks got cool all of a sudden there were a handful of them around and then boom it just blew up right around
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the time I feel like I caught it right on the uptick when they were just everywhere because they're just little mobile food businesses they're
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incubators their dreams their ideas like they're as Jersey as they come and some of the rules of lacks like recently I
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think uh the governor lacks or the state lacks the rules as far as food trucks and and breweries a you know what I mean and I
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get the restaurant and bar associate go hey hey hey that's not fair you're acting just like a bar you have food you
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have TV you have alcohol how are you any different yeah it is outside in the street to get it you're going to bring
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it in but it it to me it's all about competition in the truest sense and those things push everybody to keep
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doing a good job yeah even in food you know what I mean you want another guy next to you maybe he's pushing you a little bit keep you doing your thing so
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food trucks you know it's still a challenge to New Jersey it's definitely easier than it was 10 years ago like
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farmers markets there's different opportunities to try to get going yeah cuz it's tough you got to want to do it
14:16
is the food truck in we'll take it 10 years ago when you started uh like cuz you have this idea and you're like you
14:22
know working with other people to kind of get the idea off the ground and know yeah I said the idea were there like other food trucks that were helpful for
14:30
you or more just like what's that world like is a collaborative type thing no this is a really funny story anybody
14:36
watches and knows the truck called The Cinnamon Snail he started at a Red Bank
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it was an all vegan food truck and he was revered I mean they would line up and wait for this guy and I remember the
14:47
first year I pulled up next to him in my little 1985 gromming curb Master flat
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top little tiny fridge 3 Bay hand washing sink like stripped down and I'm all by myself in there making my little
14:59
and my menu was just pork roll like a cheese I mean that was it no no like no now I was like what do you make I make
15:05
pork roll sandwiches make the porkroll sandwich and working next to that guy I always looked up to him I said Jesus
15:11
this guy's so successful they line up they wait for him blah blah blah and then by year two I started to catch him a little bit I had a little bit of
15:17
traction and he wouldn't even talk to me for the first two years like wouldn't even say hello to me finally by the
15:23
third year he came over to me and his name is Adam he said so I guess you really like doing this and I said yeah I kind of do he goes don't feel offended
15:30
that I didn't come and talk to you I've seen a lot of guys jump in and out and a lot of guys have an idea they jump in they go there a lot of hard work I'm not
15:36
making what I thought they would make and they get out So eventually case and point were still friendly and I'm
15:42
actually his commissary don't tell anyone for his food license in nobody listens to this show anyway so but you
15:48
know I I did I watched that guy and he went to New York I mean he was the top food truck in New York City at one point
15:54
in the Wall Street Journal you know did a g flow or GoFundMe to build his Thomas AR in Brooklyn and he couldn't even run
16:00
his truck in Red Bank where he's from yeah that be like being John Bon joovy in sville says I'm sorry you can't play
16:06
here what yeah whether you like him or not like that's where the guy's from sure that's his town like so I never
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understood that you know Red Bank in a lot of these towns can make it really challenging and again it's this kind of
16:18
idea I hate that about business but it's like their protection you know yeah yeah right I would't even mention a certain
16:24
Ballroom I used to work at that I loved and I was going to go back there and people who know me say oh my God I know what he's talking about
16:29
but it was one of those things like the in-house concession guy doesn't want me encroaching on his area yeah and that's when I first started used to driving
16:35
nuts I could go to a strip mall for something and let's say there's a pizza guy or Bagel guy they're there're like what are you doing here I'm like I'm
16:42
here for this event or this or that TR to get all so it it can be a challenge but you know there's a handful of us
16:48
that help and Cinnamon Snail was one of them strangely enough the vegan oink and moo I remember the first events I did
16:54
they were just nice Five Sisters like the food truck scene back then was like being in a band that makes sense to
17:00
anybody like hey man I need a base cable or hey man I forgot to load this or I do you have distortion pedal blah blah blah
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like people would help you they wouldn't be like no I don't have that yeah so I don't know I love that part about it and
17:12
I have to say about my street in Red Bank here with the store we all kind of behave similarly all the food businesses
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you know I need peppers I need napkins I you have any Lids like it's kind of neat to work alongside where you're competing
17:24
obviously but there's like you know what I mean kind of industry admiration I think food truck guys they're just a
17:30
different breed yeah I'll always think of myself as a food truck guy more than anything else it's like Showmanship in
17:36
theater yeah it's obviously food it's the whole stick of it you know the hype I don't know
17:42
yeah so when you started the truck and you were talking about kind of how like you know you had the idea obviously and
17:47
then you start working with these other people around the same time like your life is basically getting
17:53
like right yeah it was crazy and to me like starting a food truck is kind of like not everyone would think of that as
17:59
like the the safety valve to pull you know and uh so like did you see at a
18:06
certain point early on be like okay this is getting me back on the right track or whatever to kind of like get that thing
18:11
rolling or get your uh life like you were talking about roll I swear to God it gave me back uh a sense of myself and
18:18
I know this sounds really corny but it was like I was just like stripped of everything like I felt like vulnerable
18:23
felt naked I mean I really I don't know if anybody's watched that show on his
18:28
Channel foods that made America great I I obsess watching those cuz they're all about food businesses and they all start
18:35
somewhere and they don't start big you know I mean they were little ideas that grew whether it was Kentucky Fried
18:40
Chicken Domino's Pizza whether you like it think it's good or bad that's not really the question but or the answer
18:46
but they went after things and I saw even about Hines who invented ketchup who was the first guy to put stuff in a
18:53
clear bottle and his first attempt at creating some sort of good-looking attractive we tasting thing to put on
18:59
meat because people overcook meat because they're afraid of getting sick and when you overcook stuff it has no flavor no taste so he created ketchup
19:06
yeah cuz for that was all these weird Brown Cookie Crap and brown bottles he went completely bankrupt like failed
19:13
miserably the first attempt and came back right Campbell soup right you think
19:18
of that camp New Jersey like the guy almost succeeded in dehydrating soup and
19:23
making but had no taste so what did he do he went to France and he learned how to cook and learned about Flavor came back and applied with learned like to me
19:30
that's just the stuff that keeps you going and to me food trucks are those little tiny ways for a food person to
19:36
take a shot believe in themselves you know what I mean right it it's a lower risk or to start a food truck I feel
19:42
like than to start a restaurant but you know it I don't know it's just the whole
19:47
thing I just feel very lucky that I got from A to B and I I don't mean to well I guess it's por roll it's me and poror R
19:53
sure I don't know it's just neat and it all goes back as I said just to Jersey I don't know that sounds but yeah it's
19:59
just where I don't think it's corny on this show that's like all we do it's Jersey I said like not descri like what is it I go well if New Jersey was a
20:05
country yeah like anywhere in Europe and you say what's your ethnic food I sell Jersey ethnic food that's to be what do
20:11
you sell I sell Jersey ethnic food like it it's our thing it's totally our thing and it's only made here still which is
20:18
even more amazing when you think about it totally bizarre and so this is be my last question before we have to break so
20:24
what's so we talked about kind of how like the the truck like what the starting the truck meant for you in that time of your life but then even now like
20:31
10 years later which is like you said with the Cinnamon Snail guy like most people kind of like pop in pop out uh
20:38
you're still here now with like an actual physical location right to God sure uh but we won't touch you know we
20:44
won't knock like we'll knock on wood somewhere find any but like uh what's it like being a jersey guy kind of like
20:51
almost coming back to this general area where you're from like Jersey Shore that kind of thing um and doing something
20:57
that's so like you know prototypical Jersey food you know and like kind of
21:02
you know marrying that whole thing together and doing what you're doing now you know what's weird I swear to you that's what I said about like radio and
21:09
and advertising media it really took all the things I had learned in 50 years of life and allowed me to put them all
21:15
together yeah I mean I it just all made sense to me it all came together and it
21:21
doesn't sometimes feel like a job which is terrible to say but people envy that and say well but you do what you want you say but it was just love it just
21:28
truly was like uh as I'm proud to be from this state I'm Proud To Love pork
21:34
roll I I'm proud to share with people I mean I I mentioned you I've worked on this little film that's almost done and
21:39
I want to try to pitch it as a show idea yeah but I want to go around the country and make pork with people and talk to
21:45
them and then after we beyond the aspects of what that is then it's like well what is this now to you wherever I
21:50
may be and I we were talking about it earlier but it's like to me food is like the one
21:56
thing I still think could unite a lot of the issu we go through regardless of diet and all that stuff everybody has to
22:03
eat yeah so sharing food to me and I don't know if that's just from an Italian background not the S elitist but
22:08
you know an Italian if you go to their house the first thing they're going to say is are you hungry you want something to eat like it it's the most natural way
22:15
to say welcome or can I nourish you you know what I mean so in a food truck it took my like I did weird theater as a
22:22
kid and I did radio and I understood stick you know what I mean I don't mean it in a bad way but it's like
22:28
entertainment and that's why even like working in Asbury which has still like been the greatest I don't know thing of
22:33
all of it was that truck in Asbury Park it's almost like 10 years it'll be I think the 10th year that'll be there
22:39
this summer but yeah the the characters you meet the People You Meet the ones from Europe the ones that don't know
22:44
about it the ones that are say Taylor ham like it's like stick for miles and
22:49
like you know I I as I said it just really is weird how it all transpired and I just saw it in my head and I said
22:55
I want to go do this and I kind of made it happen so but but again I didn't do it all by myself you know like anybody
23:01
wants do anything you can't do anything by yourself I mean you can in your mind of course really I was very lucky and
23:06
fortunate I had a lot of people along the way that continue to help me or have helped me in this whole story and I
23:13
still feel like it's unfolding you know what I mean telling it yeah right yeah dude here with you it's like this is a
23:19
this another piece of the puzzle this means you finally made it though being on my show what what does that mean made
23:24
it you know what I mean well I mean being on my show is what means you made it you know all the big all the big
23:29
guests oh my god um all right so let's take our break all right uh and then we'll be back but this is the greens with the G podcast powered by the New
23:36
Jersey Lottery we're here in Red Bank New Jersey at Johnny's pork roll and coffee 2 with John yusi we'll be right
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our show notes hey folks I want to tell you about the crew over at make cool [ __ ] these are The Magicians who recently gave our
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25:00
from the garden state.com I was I was making one of
25:06
those silly little videos they like hey happy 4th of July I'm in my little aspbury Park roore I'm making a little Ru and off camera you hear this guy go
25:13
do you have a menu and it like drives me over the like isn't it written on the side of the truck well it says what it
25:19
is I didn't have the menu out morning like you either know what the hell we sell or don't even bother we're com and go hey man looks like a good truck a lot
25:25
of people here you must know something good you know what is it chopped up babies no it's not chopped up babies it's pork roll oh I'll try one like so
25:32
so I you hear this guy offline he's like hey do you have a menu like to have a menu and all a sudden they go yeah it's
25:38
right there on the side of my truck and it says Johnny's pork roll and coffee D he goes oh yeah pork roll and coffee D
25:43
you I go that's right buddy yeah that's all I got you got it you're a smart guy and then he walks away right he
25:49
disappears and you hear me look at the camera go can you believe that [ __ ] guy I'm like can you believe that [ __ ] that's like do can you believe that [ __ ]
25:55
guy's got a Harvard shirt on I'm like this [ __ ] will told you lied to you you're not that [ __ ] smart when you got that shirt and and so I go show the
26:02
smart man I go here's the smart man you didn't need to see a menu right and what'd you get he goes pork roll rman I go that's right you know my men like I
26:09
give him the thing and it got you know 200,000 views of me yelling at this guy and I rip oh jum that sandwich up your
26:16
Apple all these tough guys then you go to their page you're like guys with beards like hugging puppies I wanted to be like oh right you're a tough guy
26:22
hugging your little puppy like you know like you know when you look at them and you go who is this guy looks like somebody I would know like of us sure
26:29
and yet they come at you like you [ __ ] you I shove that sandwich up your ass that's not a pork that's a Ruben I'm
26:35
like oh Jesus Christ here we go again like yeah I'm sorry it's okay we got
26:41
that all on tape too so oh Jesus great maybe the guy I what it is it's always
26:46
guys from Boston that I get into arguments with always Boston well just always
26:51
Massachusetts yeah they don't understand that's right massholes massholes they didn't know what poor bro
26:57
is up there those courtesy of greetings from the Garden State who like that a clip you know
27:03
that's what's Weir about running a food business today though the ability for every consumer to wield power like to
27:09
really get into it and you know this is a funny story too since we're talking about that this was after the um what's the
27:17
pizza joint you said you interviewed the guy uh NY right oh yeah Italian spot yeah where he made the no 12-year-olds
27:23
no kids right and it got all this hype online everybody was like oh my God can you believe person does that blah blah
27:29
blah blah blah and I'm like Justin you met works here myself like good for him you know if that's what he wants to it's
27:34
his business let him do what he wants one day I was working and it was after I just finished doing Mammoth Park for the
27:40
good old New Jersey Lottery phenomenal day shout out Lottery yeah shout out to Lottery that was incredible i' never
27:46
done the track so I don't know if it was cuz I was kind of a new truck in that annual lineup we got hammered it was like a joke to even get to the truck
27:53
just boom boom boom boom boom so I work you know Saturday Sunday Monday the whole damn thing so Tuesday morning I
27:58
said all my staff all four or five of them I said you know what sleep in you all worked hard this weekend good job
28:04
and I'm lying in bed at like 6:00 a.m. like John you don't have to go to work you can just put online your close to to you had a long weekend you worked your
28:09
ass on I'm like no no no I got to go in somebody might travel to get that sandwich and I feel terrible yeah if I wasn't open it says online I'm I going
28:15
open so I come and I open sure enough we're busy as hell by 12:00 I have one stinking piece of bread left I have one
28:22
roll left and it's 12:00 noon I opened at 800 so 4 hours later and I'm like all right good job you went to work gu and
28:28
his wife and his two beautiful little kids come in and I see him looking at the menu and they're debating you know
28:33
what to do and the father says what do you want to do you want to get him something here or do you want to get him something at pizza slice next door and
28:39
the wife goes I don't know whatever you think goes let's just get him a pork gr egg and cheese they can rip it apart and
28:45
I'm standing by my grill and I have one roll left and I go wow it would kill me
28:50
to waste my last beautiful piece of bread on two kids that are going to rip my sandwich apart I kid you not and the
28:56
guy looks at me goes what are you saying not going to serve my kid I go well I'm saying there's no kids menu up there
29:03
yeah you won't serve my kid I said look I didn't say that it just would bother me people travel here to get what I make
29:09
it would kill me then I made a sandwich for you and your young daughter to rip apart and throw into the garbage you can
29:14
yeah go get him pizza was basically like trying to tell him this guy stormed out and goes that's it you're finished
29:20
you're finished and sure as not the wife her girlfriends whoever else one star one star one star took my 48 down to a
29:27
45 like that then he made this whole post where he recounted exactly what I told you put it on new jersey.com
29:34
asbury.com middletown. comom red.com hats off to the moderators of a
29:39
lot of those sites like hey man this isn't like bash people land he's not even in x town that you're complaining
29:44
about I was like blown away that this guy like got that mad at me cuz I said what I said and I did say it and looking
29:51
back I wish I just said yeah sure have the sandwich long day sorry got Dr from Princeton you'll have to come back again
29:57
and endure Red Bank and parking all you can rip it he mention he said he goes and then he looked at me and said people
30:03
travel to get my food you know and I'm like not saying the greatest things say sliced bread Weir dude the it's weird
30:10
there is an underground scene of eater guys they don't have Instagram pages that they're not asking for a
30:15
sponsorship but they legitimately map out they'll come in here like we're coming here then we're going ABCD I'm
30:21
always blown away you know where they're going to go on this little eat you know what I mean like we got the day up let's go eat some pork roll sandwiches you
30:27
know and roll around so I'm glad that I'm sort of in even that little breath of conversation with the you know the
30:33
Greek legendary up in Carney Slaters come on I I get thrown against them all the time yeah still don't get that
30:40
sandwich yeah no disrespect Slaters I don't get that sandwich it's just too big it's too go like I'm a little bit of
30:47
a I don't know I like things to be like yeah the way they should be in that sandwiches so big but again I'm in the
30:53
league with them the Franks all these guys have been making these sandwiches for a long time yeah and still Swinging with
31:01
him I feel we're just going to like we're not going to do like an actual intro for this seg because we've been going this whole time I don't you know what's funny I got to ask you a question
31:08
okay when was the do you remember the first time you had pork roll as a child do you remember how had first memorable
31:13
one was in uh it was Kate May um and Kate May on the boardwalk they have like
31:19
those big Pavilion things and there was like a little just like uh you know like a little flat top grill like some
31:25
probably like high school college kids working over the summer and uh I remember my dad and I you know my family
31:31
was on the beach my dad and I walked up we were going to get food for everyone so we got Cokes and Taylor hm and
31:37
cheeses and I just said Taylor and cheeses so dude it's all right I don't get upset about that anymore but that's
31:43
painful but that's your childhood memory right yeah oh that that was like I don't know I'm sure that wasn't the first one
31:48
that I ever had yeah but I was probably like eight at that point you know what that's for whatever reason like that still sticks with me and like a Coke and
31:55
a and a pork bu and cheese is still like like a comfort thing for me that
32:00
like a blown in mustard it's so that's really I swear to God all those fake all the fake meats are really up my they not
32:06
fake Meats Beyond Meats is fake that's fake meat it's chopped up pork shoulder
32:12
that's all it is it's chopped up pork shoulder with sugar and salt yes and sodium nitrate oo so evil thank you USDA
32:20
you know what I mean a lot of that stuff's put in because the government thinks it's to keep us safe like making our eggs white that was their choice
32:26
prior to that eggs didn't even need to be refrigerated and they lasted for 6 months oh well we're worried about this
32:31
so and again I'm not again sitting in Judgment of their decisions but when you look at it I hate when people go you
32:38
know pork roll so bad CU again I sell coffee and I have to laugh when a yoga mom will come to go oh well can I get
32:45
egg and cheese do you do egg whites and's like uh I'm not a racist and I like yelling people no I don't say that
32:52
for them but honestly I joke about that and then they go obviously can I have coffee sure great it's organic it's fair
32:57
trade it's got every check mark for sure oh do you have I'm in rope milk I go oh processed milk it's not processed I go
33:04
uh yeah it is it was an almond now it's milk that's called processed pork is
33:10
just pork shoulder who mislabeled many years ago as ham even though we know it's just chopped up pork shoulder but I
33:15
I just hate when people kind of get down on that all the time like it's processed I get processed to me is multiple
33:21
ingredients I don't even know what the hell they are they're you could understand what's in por roll if you look at the label sure so probably
33:27
wearing the label yeah uh so by the way we're listening to the greetings from the G State podcast powered by the New
33:33
Jersey Lottery we love the New Jersey Lottery we love the New Jersey Lottery so shout out to them are they bringing the pork roll ticket back uh this year I
33:40
think are they I think later this year they should TB TB and and and is the company in Trenton going to play ball
33:46
with them I hope this year I don't know cuz you know it would have been a lot better I can't say it and you can't say it they had the proper name in there
33:54
yeah what the hell were you thinking yeah my God I would love to advise sure if Taylor you're watching them I
34:01
have it figured out because really back to where we started with all this pork is a memory sure branding and
34:08
advertising are about tying memories and deep emotional attachment to a product yes pork roll I've said this in many
34:15
interviews has that for miles for a century of time in this state yeah and I
34:20
knew making sandwiches for a dad that would come with this little three-year-old bundle of joy daughter this is her first pork roll sandwich she
34:26
will remember that the day she puts that man in the ground and I don't mean that to sound morbid sure those are
34:32
connections and bonds in one of the other Clips I told us sir I had two women who came and they were Twins and I
34:37
laugh said oh I have twin daughters and we had this lovely conversation Asbury and they had to be I'm guessing early
34:43
70s at least and so I made them pork roll and cheese with mustard they went and sat on the boardwalk when they got
34:49
done they came back to the truck and they said to me that sandwich was just delicious I said oh I'm happy to hear
34:55
that I'm glad you liked it they said no you don't understand understand how delicious it was and they recanted this
35:00
whole story of being 10 n with their father driving to Asbury because Taylor
35:05
had a stand on the boardwalk at one point oh wow the Taylor company was in Wildwood Atlantic City uh Asbury Park I
35:12
believe Point Pleasant Seaside they they had them up and down and all they saw was that yeah and they remembered being
35:17
a young girl with their father going to Asbury Park eating porle and cheese and mustard yeah it just food again back to
35:25
that nourishment of our soul and all of it it it's a Memory sure it really is it's something what's what's yours you
35:33
know what the truth my earliest memory of eating pork was my my mom's mother when I was little and I would stay over at their house and I lived in dellan and
35:40
she would make me scrambled eggs in the morning or something they would be up early and she would always give me this little meat that she would kind of take
35:46
the disc and cut it up and I would eat it with my fingers and I just loved it I couldn't eat it enough and she called it
35:52
pork we never called the Taylor Hound like at least where they were from toell that's kind of that middle section her Zone area yeah but I remember eating it
35:59
that way and the first time I think I had it as a sandwich was probably my teenage years after surfing like you know I mean Bagels weren't as big in the
36:05
AG not to date myself there were people eating bagels obviously and there were places making them down here but it wasn't as prevalent as today yeah and
36:12
half the kids like that's how they know pork rolls on a bagel I'm like do you have Bagels I'm like well I do but there's no hole in the middle is that
36:19
okay yeah that's like seriously that's I say to like come on man it's got to be on a roll man well like another
36:25
interesting thing too because we're talking about like Taylor ham pork roll that whole thing but just like the way that people make them and you make a
36:30
bunch of different kinds of sandwiches which we'll get to in a minute but like you know the bagel thing the ketchup
36:37
salt pepper ketchup all those different things everyone does it like a little bit differently and I think it does tie it a lot to like those earlier memories
36:45
however you got it like I swear to you this is going to sound really goofy but I mean this when you order pork roll for
36:50
me after all these years of doing I can almost tell where you grew up yeah like you go down Atlantic City that area it's
36:56
all poral cheese they don't even want the egg honestly that's the majority guys eat it pork roll cheese you go up
37:01
north Jersey like Essex County P County can you but it a roll spk they like the and it's delicious it sounds crazy but
37:07
if you melt the butter into the roll and then the hot meat dude it's it's money and let's not get it oh my God all the cholesterol stop we're not here for that
37:14
if you don't eat it every day you're going to be just fine but it's so delicious it's bizarre to me the mustard thing is bigger down south white cheese
37:21
is Big down south and I don't know if that's cuz of the Philly cheese steak and their Affinity to white cheese and their thing originally but North Jersey
37:27
they look at you funny even like standing out in Brooklyn like what white cheese what the hell's wrong with you like yeah got to use yellow but we did a
37:34
now we're just telling stories we are not even telling your story so I'm TI about that but pork roll is my story so
37:39
we did last year we did a a barbecue competition so I have like a little smoker and you everyone has to do
37:46
chicken everyone has to do ribs uh and then everyone has to do what dealer's choice right so like the year before I
37:52
did like a porkloin and some other stuff and you know I've tried different things but you know Christy and I it was kind
37:57
of her idea cuz she's actually like a chef right she's like well isn't Bal like a smoked baloney like they smok the
38:03
tube like pit Masters do that during barbecue competition pork roll get smoked a little bit too I didn't even know that we made a smoked pork roll egg
38:09
and cheese on a Martin's roll with a smoked egg aoli which was [ __ ] crazy
38:15
did you use uh Cooper's sharp white American we did oh dude I wish could for to use that cheese good did uh the craft
38:22
singles uh so as indivually W with the and then we put Cape C chips on it too
38:28
with shredded lettuce and tomato that sounds delici well that's like we cleaned up p in the in the it is you
38:34
know what it's fun every single judge voted for us they're like that's the best thing we've ever had you know what's funny when you say that and it's
38:40
really the Latin influence in New Jersey and more the the Mexican if anything
38:45
they like poral now but they like it with ketchup mayo lettuce tomato yeah and dude it's phenomenal I mean it
38:50
really is and you I still I put something online showing that pbl to you pork roll bacon lettuce tomato with an
38:56
egg sometimes guys go nuts oh I got this Blas like what are you doing you get all
39:01
like outraged dude it's absolutely delicious I mean we did a version of like a chopped cheese cuz our boys toer
39:07
you had to like roll their next level [ __ ] out I'm like are you kidding me you guys you're coming after me like this you're coming after me so anyway they
39:14
did it but we were like what you put egg in the CH that's how you do it it's you know but again just the lettuce tomato
39:21
onions ketchup Mayo little mayo on The Toasted Bun like dude it's like a whole another thing yeah I be with it that'll
39:28
blow you away lettuce tomato that kind of variation if done right and you had some fancy egg you said how'd you do the
39:34
egg we like parboiled them so that they were like kind of hard but then we poked a little hole in them put them in the
39:40
smoker so they got smoke finished cooking and then she we took them out she cracked them like whipped them up
39:45
into like a Mayo basically and then put that on there it was funny you said I got to debate with a guy online on
39:51
Facebook cuz I will still jump in and it is me not in a why not in a mean way but we were debating some of these like oh
39:57
it's pre-cooked and they go no I don't think it's pre-cooked I mean maybe you can't eat it raw and I have some old
40:03
tailor marketing material from like the 20s or never eat raw so I know that was a problem that people thought they could
40:09
eat it raw even though it's cooked like a hot dog in bacon or kind of cooked you could eat it raw but not a good idea but
40:15
the guy went on and on and I didn't think the tailor porp at Le was smoked but it is oh I always thought the John
40:21
cases cuz he has it on label hickory smoke like you never see that on the Tor packaging you always see sugar C sugar
40:26
Cur but I checked with somebody at Taylor and it is in fact smoked for a spell and cooked obviously but it's it's
40:33
an amazing product when you really think about it there's nothing else like it before we got on the before we got on
40:40
the mics that basically like your whole life now is right now there's that it's
40:45
it's sad and it's flattering it is I go like hey that's Johnny pork Johnny pork I'd be lying I had a cop pull me over
40:51
once he let me go cuz he did he goes he looks he goes are you Johnny P I go yeah and I do a lot of the PBA and he was
40:57
nice he's like just you know try not to drive so past my sorry and it was nice I mean again shout out a lot of times they are nice you never hear about the nice
41:04
things all so bad but we just did a whole I had a laugh when he came over he goes are you Johnny Fork like yeah I am
41:11
not that it matters I'm nobody but it's sure weird to me my name um yeah like I
41:17
had to look up what your last name was cuz I had no idea Russy is such a weird name yeah Johnny y everybody called me
41:23
that was my nickname in high schol Johnny yeah Johnny Y and on the radio it was Johnny why now it's Johnny porol now
41:28
it's Johnny por so when you you have the truck you do the truck for five years about and then at what point do you
41:35
decided Let's do an up brick and mortar shop you know what's weird I started the truck and I had all this little traction
41:40
and notoriety and got a lot of nice you know what I mean I felt like I was doing something people really dug it and I
41:45
watched a lot of other guys that were in the truck scene open stores and I was like oh why don't I have one why don't I have why why am I still my truck and
41:51
these guys have stores it took me longer to do it but when I eventually did it it lasted Ed 5
41:57
Years cuz a lot of those guys that jumped in the stores quickly after 24 months of success in a food truck are no
42:03
longer still in the game cuz it's hard I mean they're different kinds of businesses and they have pluses and
42:09
minus the truck will make more money per hour than the store but the store pumps oil on a more regular basis it's it's
42:15
like that catch22 and I always felt like I needed one and the other to sort of go because again a food truck in New Jersey
42:22
what do you do in January and February I mean you got to be pretty hardcore there are guys that run him trust me out there
42:27
but it's it's tough I mean you got to be like a little warrior you got to be tough to run a food truck food truck
42:32
almost is like kitchen mentality of Deadliest Catch sure like oh I've worked in kitchens I know what it's like it's
42:38
like yeah if you're working a kitchen in 20 foot seas and 20° weather like yeah that's what it's like in a food shop it
42:44
it's just wild man but it's the thing that I still I it goes all back to the
42:50
same thing it's the interaction of making it and giving it to somebody it's the sharing of yourself or nourishing of
42:55
someone else sure they pay you money for it but you're still giving them something you want them to eat love
43:02
appreciate and say m that really hit the spot you know in the true sense of that and poral for most of us that are from
43:08
Jersey hits the spot always sure like no matter when Dude I buy it at Wawa [ __ ] vest I I do I'll 7-Eleven like
43:16
get a little coffee I'll get a in the little Heat box I still enjoy it it's not what I think I make I like to think
43:22
I'm like not ratchet it up a little bit like long horns to lugers like you know I'm kind of that next step but but
43:29
having the store has been great it's a little store I mean it's it's kind of like a food truck with a roof I that's
43:36
like you know you get the walls over here kind of quilted stainless mimicking the food even like the tin ceiling I
43:42
think that that almost kind of like adds like that element of the trucks all have a silver top and then white and then
43:47
even even these where your timeline is of like the it's almost kind of like a window yeah you know cuz I wanted people
43:53
to understand how old pork rol is even ones that don't know like it it again it predates the Civil War which is crazy
43:59
like a lot of Americans died in the Civil War a lot you know it's amazing John Taylor obviously didn't fight he
44:05
was around but yeah it's not that because it it it predates the women's right to vote was 1920 like for 70 years
44:12
women could have eaten pork roll and had no sight bid or Trump who cares what you think no I don't mean that bad you know
44:18
what I'm saying but that's our history that's our history and and as much as people get upset we haven't gone to
44:24
where we need to go yes but damn it man we've come a long way and I can almost
44:30
educate Mark that on a wall and I don't me to get my Soap Box in 1906 the federal government changed the name of
44:36
pork or told John Taylor of Trenton get ham off the label it's misleading and it's unfair it's not ham it's chopped up
44:44
pork shoulder does taste like ham but it's not ham so the federal government said don't call it that what is North
44:50
Jersey and you includ it what do you call it I tell am it was legislation but the point is it was almost legally said
44:55
don't say this but we're freeth thinking animals we're going to say what we want yeah hopefully we're not offensive hopefully we're kind and and whatnot but
45:02
it it's the same kind of thing it's amazing that that product has I don't know it hasn't changed yeah it really
45:08
hasn't yeah which is incredible uh and then he was 20 years old when he invented it he was 20 yeah well like I
45:14
feel like I don't I mean I don't know enough about him but just like the background of like how did he even think of doing something like that but if you
45:21
go to Wikipedia and trust that and I think it's beted to The Trentonian or like people that know a lot about that area in New Jersey
45:28
he uh was born of a father named John Taylor who apparently had connections to the Civil War like honestly fought with
45:34
Washington Civil War and then his son came along and father somehow died in a brick accident or some sort of
45:40
industrial accident he had some sort of am and he died so it forced him at a young age of 14 to get a job like well
45:45
if your father's gone you you've got to do something yeah so he started working with what today I guess we would call the grocery business or the food
45:52
business and he fell in with these guys who were Packers you know moving meat and product and a little bit and the
45:58
urban myth and I say it truly it's like an urban myth but it makes sense he kind of was privy to these Old-Timers talking
46:04
about this cure chopped pork that came in a sack that they gave the soldiers during the Battle of Trenton and it was
46:09
something that they could take cuz it was salted and and eat it as like a ration yeah and again ham steak which
46:16
was kind of breakfast was just becoming a big thing in America like breakfast really came to power with Kelloggs and
46:21
cereal people didn't eat breakfast the average guy got a stale little muffin and maybe a cup of tea with butter out
46:27
the door let's go sure like you know somebody who had came from more affluence maybe had ham steak green eggs
46:32
and ham you know like little meat little egg and all this stuff so I really think he listened to whatever this little
46:38
rumor was and said H I wonder if I can make a kind of heat meat Poor Man's ham steak and that's really what I think if
46:44
I could sit and talk to him I yeah that's kind of what I wanted to make so it was cheaper than buying ham you know which is an anatomical cut more
46:50
expensive piece of meat verus chopped up pork shoulder which is like the Chuck of the pig do you know what I mean yeah
46:56
yeah yeah right like spam um spam is
47:09
anacronismo Chuck and make it play minan right and in a simple sense so you know
47:14
his whole Legacy and he was a purveyor so he sold other things from what I've been told horses like he had Slaughter
47:20
yard it's like he was kind of an entrepreneur yeah he became a state senator um he's cred which is ironic to
47:27
me as a food truck guy he's credited with leading legislation and a charge of New Jersey to get rid of the Street
47:33
Markets which basically were like the old time you think of a guy going down the street with a donkey in a car like I
47:38
got Peaches I got Tomatoes hello those were food trucks 1890 but he didn't like
47:43
that you know what I mean cuz what did he owe he was involved in grocery stores what did I tell you the bar restaurant says we don't like food trucks we don't
47:49
want these food trucks John Taylor was kind of like pissed on the food truck industry in the late 1800s pass
47:55
legislation to outlaw these Street Markets you had to buy through vetted and I'm sure the argument was you know
48:00
maybe wasn't sanitary wasn't inspected you know nothing was inspected sh in that time period so that was him and
48:06
then he had an opera house there's actually a tailor street named after him somewhere in Trenton yeah sadly if you
48:12
go to Trenton all the street signs have been stolen sure yeah they recycle them oh they recycle them I swear to God you
48:17
get lost in Tren you better have a GPS need to not going to know where the hell you are way around um but that's him
48:24
yeah yeah well as we get closer to the end of this episode cuz unfortunately we are coming up close to the end of it kid
48:29
really no I'm only kidding well I mean we covered a lot I feel like one of the things that I've been impressed with you
48:37
yeah uh is my love for Miller highl life sure which we all do uh but uh but like
48:44
one of the things that I've noticed like coming in here uh seeing the food truck out is like the sense of like Community
48:50
that's around yeah what your brand is really and I think like that's really like any time I walk in here there's
48:56
always like you know like these guys sitting here I don't even know what they're doing you
49:01
know like they're just hanging out but like the last time I wasam they want to turned you into Mike
49:06
Taylor isn't that awesome his name is ham not to get tangental no sure that's pretty much my middle name yeah uh
49:13
Johnny tangent Johnny call me he go sometimes he's Johnny segue sometimes
49:18
he's Johnny joh segue I don't know I'm sorry I am I no it's okay this has been
49:24
great so far talk to me about the community side of it because I think that's a really interesting thing and a really important part of kind of like
49:30
what you like a weird tribalism to poro in a jersey sense and it's like we're all just kind of products of this state
49:37
and dealing with the same things we all deal with which is what's it all about how can I afford to live here where it's
49:42
the future going to be like and porl again is like a weird soft tissue that connects a lot of people yeah even like
49:49
this guy who you can't see but he doesn't even eat pork only comes here right yeah I was shocked he ended up in the vice video he's like he makes the
49:55
best egg and cheese it's bomb every time yeah it's bomb that's he said he goes it's bomb every time I love you man but
50:03
I don't know I just feel very lucky that this all happened the way it did and I'm not I saw it in my mind and I made it
50:09
happen and it's it's weird and I don't want it to end I really would love to take pork roll yeah well that's what my
50:15
next whether they want to go or not I want to go what's next I do you know I I've worked on this little film I have
50:21
this crazy show idea I want to float out like I want to get in that truck and go around I want to try to open stores in
50:28
Asheville or in Austin or Michigan like I it's a unique food I've always joked
50:33
like West Hollywood like vnice beach and there are places I find on Instagram or find me that are selling it Colorado as
50:40
an example and there people are flipping for it like it not to get into the business argument but I've told this one before
50:47
spam is a$2 billion doll year industry we'll all agree that pork roll is way better than spam sure can't we get 15%
50:55
of that market do the math you don't have to be that bright it's like tipping on a$2 billion bill yeah what's a tip on
51:01
a two I I just think it's such a neat product you know and people laugh you
51:07
know where's it all going but it's slowly creeping out of Jersey and it it's thanks to people like yourselves
51:13
the internet the web like Americans are now much more open to food than they ever were before it's beautiful to see
51:19
yeah totally and again back to unifying people it's food right it's this kind of hey man I I like this or I want to try
51:24
that yeah just something different defitely simple it's it's a it's a beautiful thing it's our ethnic food
51:30
like you said yeah it's New Jersey's ethnic it's New Jersey bacon egg and cheese guys from Florida called that
51:36
what is this it's like New Jersey's baking egg of cheese which I hate cuz you're calling it like you know what it isn't but yeah that's why I like it's
51:42
our ethnic food it's like our Empanada it's our it's our pizza yeah it's our
51:48
cheese steak totally um so if people are listening to this episode and somehow they don't know you or what you do or
51:55
they but they know me which I find that incredibly surprising um when if they want to learn more about you find the
52:02
truck find the location or would you send them to go do that uh everything's indexed online under porr truck so if
52:09
you just do hash portr truck I swear it's almost like my old school link tree yeah for the were those things I'm like
52:14
I'll just do a hashtag cuz I started the truck 10 years ago we like aren't you going to put follow us on Facebook or like us or whatever that I'm like nah
52:21
who just going to do a hashtag underport Truck Yeah so it's kind of weird cuz I'm Johnny porol but everything's under pork
52:26
roll truck but it's pretty easy to find all our sort of who we are what we do
52:32
you can book the truck obviously we do a lot of weddings a lot cool I think it should be mandated I also think Governor
52:37
Murphy even though he's going to be at office soon should anoint me Lord pork roll yeah you know Colonel Sanders got
52:43
that title from the governor of all he did for Kentucky with fried chicken they're like you deserve a title yeah so shouldn't I get like Squire pork roll
52:51
or Lord pork roll lord of the pork roll lord of the pork lord of the pork roll
52:56
to learn a step dance but you know it's really cool but I don't know I we're a truck we're a store we're an idea we New
53:04
Jersey love it we [ __ ] New Jersey [ __ ] New Jersey there's a jersey fetish totally I mean you look at all
53:10
the shows The Sopranos Jersey Licious okay bu fated by us yeah I don't know what it is yeah cuz we don't fit in a
53:16
box no and I hate that term but we don't right you know we're outspoken we're
53:21
considered the best looking people I've been told that's what I've also heard not in this room right now have the highest SAT score somebody said we
53:28
dropped to number two we have the lowest driving rates in the country we have more engineers and phds per capita than
53:33
any place in the world we really do and and I don't mean that to disparage any other state because I love every part about America I really do all of us in
53:40
this crazy way that we all exist as a republic 50 of us but New Jersey is a
53:45
funny little Oddball what the hell New Jersey yeah we produced a lot of stuff a
53:51
lot of stuff man yeah totally and por roll is one of them yeah por roll is one of them and that's it and me It produced
53:57
me right were you produced here I was produced here ineer actually get out of town what
54:04
H was you born Chon Memorial Hospital in P or pton Plains I guess that is PLS yeah yeah so it produced our say County
54:12
uh no that's still Morris County Morris County sorry no disrespect that's okay I up B's kind of a rough
54:18
County I'm not a I love New Jersey all the counties coverland Sal I probably could name all 21 yeah most people you
54:24
ask him to do 21 counties they're like what I probably couldn't I Somerset Union yeah Cape May
54:30
Burlington Sussex right War Sussex yeah way up there um all right so I'll make sure I put the links that people can go
54:37
just check it out website Instagram they can click them they can find where the truck is as Park in the summer over the
54:42
summer in Asbury Park here all the time in Red Bank um but uh I really appreciate you having me down here oh
54:48
dude I appreciate you coming down yeah I appreci all the way from Taylor ham that's right all the way from tayor when you go to your friends up north tell
54:54
them you're are peaceful you do feel it like when you hit that like Central Jersey area you like feel it in your chest dude there's no other state that
55:00
has something as funny as that and I'm kind of sick of it I wish we start debating ketchup or no ketchup yeah right like let that be the next 10 year
55:06
debate oh I hate ketchup I love ketchup right but this Taylor and P BR think I don't know if it'll ever die it's a riot
55:12
it's real it's a real line it's Mason Dixon sure oh yeah it's Mason Dixon sure
55:18
so uh yeah so links will be in the shout outs uh thank you again my honor greetings with the gar.com will be in
55:24
the show notes as well so people can go check out all the lottery again yeah hey Lottery anything can happen in New Jersey
55:30
right really do I think that whoever came up with that tagline that's brilliant it fits us that fits us it
55:36
really does anything could happen here and that was like our big when we had our big conversation about the sponsorship thing that was it I really
55:42
do I always thought that was such a great line anything that happened in Jersey totally cuz we're at the backseat to New York you know the New York Lottery is still the New York Lottery
55:48
and then there's a Jersey Lottery I don't care you compare dollars well they're kind of equal but it's always like and I think when they developed
55:54
that tag like that set us apart like hey man 100% you can make it happen in New York but anything happen Jersey never
56:00
know literally anything you never know bro uh cool so this has been the greetings for the g day podcast powered
56:05
by the New Jersey Lottery I'm Mike ham we were here in Red Bank New Jersey at Johnny's pork rolling coffee 2 with John
56:11
yusi thank you for listening and we will catch you next [Music]
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time oh my God baby do you want to
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ride oh tell me before you go all the way do you
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want to [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] [Applause]
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[Music] ride
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[Music]



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