Family, Food, and Forever: Inside New Jersey’s Premier Wedding Destinations

This week, host Mike Ham heads to the stunning Park Château Estates & Gardens in East Brunswick to sit down with three legends of New Jersey hospitality — Barry Maurillo, Joe Maurillo, and Vito Cucci. These lifelong friends and business partners are the visionary team behind three of the state’s most celebrated event venues: Nanina’s in the Park, The Park Savoy Estate, and Park Château.

In this warm, wide-ranging, and often hilarious episode, the guys dive into:

• The story behind acquiring and transforming these historic properties
• How their deep friendship and shared Nutley roots shaped a decades-long business partnership
• What it takes to pull off 800+ weddings a year with heart, style, and precision
• Their nonprofit work, including The Cheer Me Up Foundation and Shining Stars, supporting kids, families, and special needs performers
• The legendary Nanina’s sauce story (yes, it’s a college class project gone deliciously right)
• Vito’s unexpected journey into elite horse racing and breeding (spoiler: he’s got winners)
• And the secret to staying happily married while running one of the most demanding businesses around

Whether you're planning a wedding, chasing a dream, or just a sucker for a good Jersey hustle — this one’s got it all.

Links Mentioned:

• Park Château Estates & Gardens
• The Park Savoy Estate
• Nanina’s in the Park
• Cheer Me Up Foundation
• Shining Stars Network
• Nanina’s Sauce

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Transcript

Mike Ham [0:00 - 0:26]: Foreign. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Greetings for the Garden State, powered by the New Jersey Lottery. I'm Mike Ham. We are here at Park Chateau Estates and Gardens with Barry maurillo, Vito Cucci, and Joe maurillo. Guys, welcome to the show. 

Vito Cucci [0:27 - 0:28]: Hey, how are you? 

Mike Ham [0:28 - 0:29]: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [0:29 - 0:30]: Thanks for inviting us. 

Mike Ham [0:30 - 0:32]: Just make sure we're. If we're talking, we're holding. 

Vito Cucci [0:32 - 0:33]: We're not talking. 

Mike Ham [0:33 - 0:49]: We need to talk. But no, this. This is the first time. So I mentioned I've been to Nanina's before for different events. I know, like, you know, not the Unico. Golf outings, things like that. You know, always winding up back there with, you know, my friend Alan and all that. 

Joe Maurillo [0:49 - 0:50]: Also club. 

Mike Ham [0:50 - 1:18]: What's that, the third half club. Yeah. And then the Park Savoy. Like, I used to live in Morristown, so the golf course back there, Pinchbrook, I go play that all the time because I was a, you know, county resident. And you'd always be putting with, like, a wedding up top on the terrace there, and you'd miss and they'd let you have it. It's always, always a good time. But all three properties is the first time I've been to this one. And this is gorgeous, right? This is like. This is kind of the. The crown jewel. 

Barry Maurillo [1:18 - 1:20]: It's a premier road. 

Vito Cucci [1:21 - 1:22]: It's kind of special. 

Mike Ham [1:23 - 1:23]: Yeah, it is. 

Vito Cucci [1:23 - 1:24]: Yeah. 

Mike Ham [1:24 - 1:29]: And this is the newest one out of the three. This is the. Like, the newest one in your correct portfolio, right? 

Joe Maurillo [1:29 - 1:32]: Yeah, this was. This one opened in 2017. 

Mike Ham [1:32 - 1:46]: Yeah. And what's this been like to kind of have a property like this? Because there's the hotel, there's the restaurant. We're in this space here. I mean, I know there's a wedding going on today, and, like, it just, like the way that it's all done up and just the look and feel of it, it's. It's incredible. 

Joe Maurillo [1:47 - 1:48]: I mean, it's pretty much a compound. 

Mike Ham [1:48 - 1:50]: Yeah, a compound, exactly. 

Joe Maurillo [1:50 - 2:12]: You come here, you stay for two days, check into the hotel, you have a welcome dinner, rehearsal dinner, and then after the next day, you have your wedding reception. We have the chapel here. You do the ceremony right on property. There's no reason to leave here for two days. And then the next morning you wake up, your guests will wake up, and they'll have a recovery breakfast at the hotel. 

Mike Ham [2:12 - 2:14]: Recovery breakfast is always nice. 

Joe Maurillo [2:14 - 2:23]: It's an experience that no one in New Jersey can duplicate. The way we have this set up, it's really unique, and we. We make wedding dreams come true. 

Mike Ham [2:23 - 2:23]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [2:23 - 2:25]: With that whole concept. 

Mike Ham [2:25 - 2:35]: Yeah. Do you guys have any idea of how many couples have been married in properties that you guys own over the last like 30 plus years? Can you like ballpark it at all? 

Barry Maurillo [2:35 - 3:18]: Well, yeah, that's 25 years, I guess. 20, 23, 24 years. It's hard to come up with a number we average now with the three places, about 750 to 800 weddings a year. We've had all three since 2017. So if you do the math there, it's quite a bit just there. And then we've had two places from 2011. When we opened up Park Savoy, we already had Nanina's from 2002. So we were probably averaging around 500 then. 

Mike Ham [3:18 - 3:21]: Yeah. So it's a significant number. 

Barry Maurillo [3:21 - 3:23]: It's substantial. 

Mike Ham [3:23 - 3:23]: Right. 

Barry Maurillo [3:23 - 3:25]: We never put a, we never put. 

Joe Maurillo [3:25 - 3:27]: A math north of 15,000. 

Mike Ham [3:28 - 3:28]: Oh, yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [3:28 - 3:29]: But it's. 

Mike Ham [3:29 - 3:29]: That seems. 

Barry Maurillo [3:29 - 3:30]: It's a lot of weddings. 

Mike Ham [3:30 - 3:49]: Definitely. I'm curious. I mean, I'm not. I kind of know, but I'm curious. The hospitality sector for all of you, is this something that like, you guys like. I know your father ran a spot in Nutley for a long time. Was that like, was hospitality kind of. 

Barry Maurillo [3:49 - 4:03]: Just engraving the gas station business he ran? And there's hospitality in every, every, every business that you're dealing with, the clients. So, yeah, yeah, he. And he, we got a lot from. 

Joe Maurillo [4:03 - 4:07]: Him and he taught us some really good values. 

Barry Maurillo [4:09 - 4:22]: My brother Joey will speak right after this. And he took over as an 18 year old young kid and knocked it down and rebuilt it. And then I'm going to let Joey take it from here because it was amazing. 

Mike Ham [4:22 - 4:23]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [4:23 - 4:31]: No, but we were in a family business and my father taught us simple values. Get up every morning and work hard. 

Mike Ham [4:31 - 4:32]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [4:32 - 4:40]: Be honest and give service, service, service. And you could take those three principles in any business in this world. 

Mike Ham [4:40 - 4:41]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [4:41 - 4:47]: And be successful if you just follow that simple footprint. And that's the. Basically what all three of us did. 

Mike Ham [4:47 - 4:48]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [4:48 - 5:00]: To grow this company and. But service, service, service is the key. Attention to every little detail. And Vito was in hospitality also too. 

Vito Cucci [5:00 - 5:46]: Yeah. I mean, I grew up in a restaurant family. You know, my parents immigrated in 1956 from Sicily, came here, my dad was doing kind of menial work. Saved up enough money to get into the hospitality business, open pizzerias, whatnot. So the background was there, you know, the stage was set for it, you know, and then, you know, the three of us got together in, I guess mid 95. 95, 95. And you know, it Was up from there. You know, we just melded. I like to call our. I like to refer to ourselves as the Rolling Stones. 

Mike Ham [5:46 - 5:47]: Sure. 

Vito Cucci [5:47 - 6:07]: Okay. Like, there's three of us. All right. You know, it speaks to our longevity. We've been together for all these years, you know, and you see the Rolling Stones, you see them, they still perform together. You know, they have a great relationship together. And you know, we just really. We love each other. 

Mike Ham [6:07 - 6:08]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [6:08 - 6:20]: And we all have the same values. We all came from the same place. We all grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, blue collar town. You know, work hard, do the right thing. 

Mike Ham [6:20 - 7:09]: So, yeah, who we are, that is. It's really interesting too because like, you know, you guys have been business partners for. Since you said 95. So like for 30 years, you guys have been working together. And that doesn't always, like, that doesn't always happen. You know, there's like things that happen, life happens, all that kind of stuff. And I just think that it speaks to kind of just the, the quality that you're able to kind of put out with all your spaces. Obviously goes right back to the fact that you guys are so synergistic in the way that you work. Right. I mean, it must be, it must be a good thing to have like, you know, guys that, you know, that you can count on every single day to like, for the stuff that needs to get done. Because you know, if you're doing, you know, you know, a few hundred or several hundred weddings a year or all the other stuff that goes on at those spaces, like you need that, like you need to be able to rely on your people. 

Joe Maurillo [7:09 - 7:54]: Well, the key for our success is we treat everybody with famous like family. But also our children work the business. So Barry has three boys that run the facilities, Vito has a son, and my daughter does a social media. So we are truly a family run business. But the key, the key to our success is that our employees treat this place like they own it. Yeah, but we treat them like they're our family. They're like one of our kids. We walk in the kitchen, we hug and kiss the dishwashers. We hug everybody. We tell them we love them. We tell them we care for them. If they're in trouble, we help them. We do everything we could to make this one big happy family. And it pays off. 

Barry Maurillo [7:54 - 8:08]: We tell them we love them because we do. Cause they are part of our family. And like Joey said, we're all together. It's a family oriented business throughout. Meaning the chefs, they're part of our family. 

Mike Ham [8:08 - 8:09]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [8:10 - 9:17]: And honesty between the three of us. We've always been together. We believe in each other. And it's hard to have two partners get along for 30 years, let alone three. But we've never had a problem. Any problems we have is over in 10 minutes. We know that every dime is each other's dimes. No one's worried about stealing, cheating. Just the honesty and the family atmosphere throughout the whole company, from whoever to the general manager. So it's been a marriage that, like Vito said, we love each other, and that's going to always be. And having our children all involved, and they also get along like as good as any brother could. Could be and sister. And it just happened to work out. 

Vito Cucci [9:17 - 10:46]: To speak to that. There's definitely a great symmetry. There is. I think I love to brag about the culture. I think there's a. I think there's a great culture in our company. I really do. You know, you'd have to go to everybody, you know, who works here to see it, but. And speak to them. But from. From our point of view, there's. There's definitely. I think our. Our company has a great culture. I mean, really, that Joe and Barry just spoke of it. And getting to the point of the children was always one of my concerns, and I always kind of spoke to it with the boys. Like, you know what, guys? You know, we have a great relationship. We understand each other. We love each other. We all have our own duties. We do it right. Is it going to translate into the next generation? It was always a concern. We're about, I would say, what, a couple years into it with the boys and girls, with the kids. We like to call them the junior partners. And I'm feeling very good since COVID Right. Yes, from right after Covid. And I'm feeling really good about it. I mean, they just. They communicate well. You know, it looks like it's gonna translate to the next generation. 

Mike Ham [10:46 - 11:45]: Yeah, I mean, it's. Look, you know, Joe, when you were talking about just the, like, the family atmosphere and, like, the staff and everything like that, to have that across, you know, like, the three main properties, and then to be able to especially, like, a place like this, where there's three buildings here, you know, there's like, all. It's everything spread out. But it's like the experience, if you're going to have people come here for a few days, like, you want them to have, like, from start to finish, like, the best experience that you possibly could have. But then, you know, if you have staff, that's that feels part of it. Like they're invested in, you know, what's going on here. And, like, they feel a part of it, you know, that just goes a long way. And then the guests and the people that are here for a wedding or whatever, they. They feel that too, which I think is amazing. I want to talk about, like, the physical spaces, though. So, like, Nanina's Park Savoy here at Park Chateau, like, these are all historic spaces in their own right, aren't they? I mean, those parts of. 

Joe Maurillo [11:45 - 11:48]: Yeah, they all had some kind of a. Not land. Landmark. History. 

Mike Ham [11:49 - 11:49]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [11:49 - 12:17]: But Nanina is definitely a landmark. And that place has been since 1950. And when it was a la carte restaurant, it was like one of the best restaurants in New Jersey with one of the best wine cellars in the state. Park Savoy was a country club. It used to be called a foreign park Country Club, then it turned to Park Savoy. So that's been 45 years. 50 years. 

Vito Cucci [12:17 - 12:21]: But that has history. That spot has history from the late 1800s. 

Mike Ham [12:21 - 12:22]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [12:22 - 12:23]: Do you know the history? 

Mike Ham [12:23 - 12:37]: Well, I was, like, looking through some of the stuff that. That she sent over before we. Before we got started, but just kind of, like, it would speak easy. And, you know, it's like Luciano and all these guys that rolled through there. I mean, that's like. I didn't. I had no idea that. 

Joe Maurillo [12:37 - 12:41]: That it used to be called the Canary Inn back in Prohibition. 

Vito Cucci [12:41 - 12:42]: Canary Cottage. 

Joe Maurillo [12:42 - 12:50]: Cottage, yeah. During Prohibition. And Lucky Luciano, his syndicate kind of were running through there. 

Mike Ham [12:50 - 12:50]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [12:51 - 13:03]: And then it turned into the Florin Park Country Club, and then the. The county bought it and then subdivided and the Park Savoy started. 

Mike Ham [13:04 - 13:21]: Yeah. When. So when you're, I guess, like, identifying these spots that you want to, you know, like, go in, purchase it, you know, renovate it, all that kind of stuff. Was there, like a. Like, re. Like, was that part of the reason to take sort of like a landmark spots, like. 

Joe Maurillo [13:21 - 13:23]: Like, we're visionaries. We are visionaries. 

Mike Ham [13:23 - 13:24]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [13:24 - 13:25]: Very good, Joe. 

Joe Maurillo [13:25 - 13:43]: And I could tell you. I'll tell you a quick story on how Park Savoy came to fruition. I was at a wedding with my wife, and she always says, all you think about is business. You never. So we're sitting at this place. I go, we're going to buy this place. I said, we're going to square this ballroom up. Look at that view. 

Barry Maurillo [13:43 - 13:44]: It's going to be amazing. 

Joe Maurillo [13:44 - 13:46]: We are going to. You're sick. 

Barry Maurillo [13:46 - 13:46]: Let's go dance. 

Joe Maurillo [13:46 - 13:54]: Let's go have fun. I go, I am telling you, we are gonna buy this place. And within a year or two we end up buying it. 

Mike Ham [13:54 - 13:55]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [13:55 - 13:57]: And that's a God's not a true story. How about that? 

Mike Ham [13:57 - 13:58]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [13:58 - 14:02]: My friend's son's wedding. And Joe, I never heard of parks avoid before that. 

Mike Ham [14:02 - 14:03]: Sure. Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [14:03 - 14:07]: And Joey was persistent. Called the. The owner quite a few times. 

Mike Ham [14:07 - 14:07]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [14:07 - 14:11]: Until finally says, yeah, I'm ready. Same thing with Nanina's in the park. 

Joe Maurillo [14:12 - 14:12]: Yes. 

Barry Maurillo [14:12 - 14:53]: Joey, persistency paid off because we reached out. We knew their attorney. We reached out often. It's not for sale. Why stop bothering us. And finally, Linda Greste, who was owner, it was the Gator family non ennis husband finally talked her into. Because he was a doctor and doing very well and wanted his wife to be home. And finally talked his wife into saying, why don't you get these guys that been you say bothering you? Why don't you go sit and talk to them? Let's make a deal and get out of this business. 

Mike Ham [14:53 - 14:54]: See what they got to say. 

Barry Maurillo [14:54 - 15:09]: And it was always Joey who would make the phone call. And he's still in sales. He does insurance and he's an entrepreneur and great at what he does. But this place made the deal. Go through this place different. 

Joe Maurillo [15:09 - 15:14]: Veto. Me and V found it first. The realtor called. Veto, right? 

Vito Cucci [15:14 - 15:14]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [15:15 - 15:24]: And he says, oh, there's a place for sale in East Brunswick. I never. I didn't know. He's. I go, you two guys go, look, I'm not interested. We're never buying a place in East Brunswick. 

Mike Ham [15:24 - 15:25]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [15:25 - 15:36]: I said, if it's good, let me know. I'll go. They called me from the parking lot, said, get in your car now. We just hit the lottery. We stumbled on goal. 

Mike Ham [15:36 - 15:36]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [15:36 - 15:39]: You might not like what you see when you come up. 

Mike Ham [15:39 - 15:39]: Sure. 

Barry Maurillo [15:40 - 15:47]: But the way we're all visionaries, you're going to. You're going to. You're going to get what we just got. And Vito loved it. 

Joe Maurillo [15:47 - 15:48]: So I drove. 

Barry Maurillo [15:48 - 16:01]: Vito on the other place was always hesitant. Well, you sure you didn't park Savoy? You sure we could make that good? Yes. Joey goes, just. Just listen to me. It's going to be amazing. Well, now this one, Vito stepped up. 

Vito Cucci [16:01 - 16:02]: This. 

Barry Maurillo [16:02 - 16:07]: Is that what Me and Vito see it. We see it. Great. Then Vito just saw the whole. 

Joe Maurillo [16:07 - 16:10]: So within five hours, we had the whole thing figured out. 

Mike Ham [16:10 - 16:10]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [16:10 - 16:22]: You know, Vito saying this, Paris saying that. I'm saying this. Oh, and then we could build a hotel next door on that lot when it, you know, and everything we talked about, we executed and we did it. 

Vito Cucci [16:22 - 16:22]: Yeah. 

Mike Ham [16:23 - 16:31]: That's. Yeah. Incredible. And just so when you pulled up, when you said you weren't going to like it, when you pulled up, like, why. Why didn't you think he was going to be into it? 

Joe Maurillo [16:31 - 16:34]: Well, just East Brunswick. I never heard of East Brunswick. 

Vito Cucci [16:34 - 16:34]: No, no. 

Barry Maurillo [16:34 - 16:37]: I said you, you may not like what you see when you pull up. 

Joe Maurillo [16:37 - 16:39]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [16:39 - 16:40]: You see the property? 

Joe Maurillo [16:40 - 16:40]: Yes. 

Barry Maurillo [16:40 - 16:43]: We start going over it. It was an older. 

Mike Ham [16:43 - 16:44]: Okay. 

Barry Maurillo [16:44 - 16:44]: Building. 

Mike Ham [16:45 - 16:45]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [16:46 - 16:49]: We have gardens now. There were no gardens. There was a brick thing out there. 

Joe Maurillo [16:49 - 16:51]: That, that was actually a driveway right here. 

Barry Maurillo [16:51 - 16:53]: That was a driveway that went through here. 

Joe Maurillo [16:53 - 16:53]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [16:53 - 16:54]: Right. 

Joe Maurillo [16:54 - 16:55]: The gardens was a driveway. 

Mike Ham [16:55 - 16:56]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [16:56 - 17:04]: There was no bridal suites. There was. That we added on. We just knocked down 75% of the place and kept a few walls. 

Vito Cucci [17:04 - 17:26]: And I'll tell you one of the incredible things about it is. Let me tell you about one of the incredible things about it, about the renovation. We did this. You'd have to see it before we started. We did the construction, the planning part took how many months? Maybe five, four or five months. 

Joe Maurillo [17:26 - 17:40]: But we broke ground during. Without even permits. Like right now. Let us start doing, you know, demo and stuff like that. So we started in April construction and we opened the following. 

Vito Cucci [17:40 - 17:50]: Right. We had 10, 10 months from shovel in the ground to when we opened. That's just incredible. 

Barry Maurillo [17:50 - 17:56]: The engineer of the town says, gentlemen, it's a two year job. I hope you don't book any weddings before that. 

Vito Cucci [17:56 - 17:57]: Got one next week. 

Barry Maurillo [17:57 - 18:12]: Well, we did. March 4th was our first wedding. It was around that. We had 130 people every day here. We brought them Dunkin Donuts. We got them lunch. It was crazy. 

Joe Maurillo [18:13 - 18:18]: We spent more money on lunch and coffee for the help. But they're not, they weren't allowed to leave. 

Mike Ham [18:18 - 18:18]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [18:18 - 18:20]: But we got. 

Barry Maurillo [18:20 - 18:21]: Without any consequences. 

Mike Ham [18:21 - 18:21]: Sure. 

Barry Maurillo [18:22 - 18:31]: Because Veto had open heart surgery a couple of months after we opened and I was a month after Veto. So it put a lot of. We put pressure on ourselves. That was. 

Joe Maurillo [18:32 - 18:32]: Right. 

Barry Maurillo [18:32 - 18:36]: Probably we didn't have to because we could have gave it a little more time. 

Mike Ham [18:36 - 18:37]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [18:37 - 18:43]: And. But, but it all worked out. But we booked 350 watties before we opened. 

Mike Ham [18:43 - 18:44]: That's unbelievable. 

Barry Maurillo [18:44 - 18:45]: Out of a trailer. 

Vito Cucci [18:46 - 19:10]: I got to give kudos to the town of East Brunswick. They were fantastic. I mean, they were on board. We had a meeting with them because we had had a bad experience with a site, another historic site. That would have been unbelievable. I'm not going to speak to the town or where it was or who it was, but we kind of learned our lesson. 

Mike Ham [19:10 - 19:10]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [19:11 - 19:46]: And we Sat down with the mayor here and we explained to them who we were. You know, hey, we're Vito, Joe and Barry. We're noninas in the park. We're the Park Savoy. Okay. We work really great with the towns where we're in. We. We give back to the community. Do you want us here right up front? Are you willing to work with us and help with what we need to have done? Inspections, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They were fantastic, right? 

Joe Maurillo [19:47 - 19:48]: Mayor Stahl at the time. 

Vito Cucci [19:48 - 19:51]: Mayor Stahl at the time. And now Mayor Cohen. 

Barry Maurillo [19:51 - 20:04]: And then may transition became judge and Mayor Cohen was the new mayor and filled right in. And he was as amazing. It's just been a great town to. 

Vito Cucci [20:04 - 20:09]: Work with the building inspectors. I mean, you know, guys like, you know, guys. 

Joe Maurillo [20:09 - 20:11]: But we treat them like family, too. Respect. 

Mike Ham [20:12 - 20:12]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [20:12 - 20:20]: Right. So if you treat everybody the way you want to be treated, people will give you that little extra help and support. 

Mike Ham [20:20 - 20:20]: Right. 

Joe Maurillo [20:20 - 20:24]: If you have an attitude and you're nasty, you never win in life. 

Mike Ham [20:24 - 20:25]: No, definitely not. 

Joe Maurillo [20:25 - 20:28]: So you get more bees with honey. And we treat. 

Barry Maurillo [20:28 - 20:36]: And it's out of the heart. It's not fake. We're not salespeople when we do weddings. We do things through our heart, not because we want to sell. 

Mike Ham [20:36 - 21:30]: Right. The Mayo Performing Arts center is the heart of arts and Entertainment in Morristown, New Jersey. MPAC presents over 200 events annually and is home to an innovative children's arts education program. To see Impact's upcoming schedule of world class concerts, stand up comedy, family shows, and more, head to mayoarts.org or just click the link in our show notes when. So it's just funny that we were kind of on that topic because I do. Like we talked about, you know, some of the stuff that, like, I've attended at Nanina's after, you know, like. But just things that are dedicated to the community, you know, and the stuff that you guys do, the stuff that you kind of. It's always a point to make sure that you're engaging with the community and giving back in different capacities. Can we talk about, like, obviously we understand the importance of that, but kind of talk about some of the things that you guys do, whether it's like a foundation that you either started or involved in and stuff that's like, important to you that you're able to continue engaging with those communities. 

Joe Maurillo [21:30 - 21:53]: Yeah. So the key. The thing that we started back in 2000. No, 1994. 1994. My daughter had a brain tumor exterior, thermoid tumor. And it was at Children's Hospital In Newark. And we had literally like 25 people in the waiting room. 

Mike Ham [21:53 - 21:53]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [21:54 - 22:10]: And when she came out of surgery in the intensive care unit, there was probably six kids that not one person was sitting by their bedside. And we had. Me and my wife were allowed in, but another 20 people waiting in the waiting room for my daughter. 

Mike Ham [22:10 - 22:11]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [22:11 - 23:08]: It broke our heart. So the day my daughter was leaving school in the hospital, we said we were going to get toys for every patient. So we got a list of the patients and we got Barney and a Polaroid camera. We went through every room and we took pictures with Barney, made him smile, gave him a little gift. And it was so rewarding. It was like the best thing I ever did in my life. So we all talked about it, and we started the Cheer Me up foundation because we just cheer people up. So we do events at Nanina's Christmas parties. We give 640 Thanksgiving baskets away to families throughout, like five or six towns in our area. We. We at the CP center, we do a Valentine dance, and we do a lot of great things. We cheer them up. We can't change their life. Yeah, but we cheer him up. 

Barry Maurillo [23:09 - 23:14]: Joey started the foundation and works diligently to keep it. Amazing. 

Mike Ham [23:14 - 23:14]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [23:14 - 23:28]: So kudos to Joey. We back him, of course, because it's an amazing thing to do. But without Joey, the foundation would have never been or continued to operate. 

Joe Maurillo [23:28 - 23:33]: And there's another charity that we're involved with that Vito's more active in. 

Vito Cucci [23:33 - 23:36]: Yeah. In fact, we're having the gal that's your mic. 

Joe Maurillo [23:37 - 23:37]: The mic. 

Vito Cucci [23:40 - 23:41]: I keep forgetting the mic, folks. 

Mike Ham [23:42 - 23:44]: Just so natural. We're just flowing. It's going great. 

Vito Cucci [23:44 - 24:19]: We are. It is. It's just a natural conversation. So myself, Joe and Barry also are involved in the. What's called the Shining Stars. It is a foundation that focuses towards the performing arts. We have children and adults, and it's for special needs. And they perform. They have performances throughout the year, and then once a year, we do a Gallup, which will be on June 4th. Right, Barry? 

Joe Maurillo [24:19 - 24:21]: June 4th, June 4th. Wednesday night. 

Vito Cucci [24:21 - 25:01]: Yeah. Here at the Chateau. It's a fantastic evening. We have a gala. Everybody gets dressed. We celebrate the kids. The kids perform. The kids and adults, I should say. It's just a fabulous foundation. Mike and Sally Kersey started it years ago. They have two special needs children and they just spent. They just give a lot of their time and it's fantastic. Go online, Google it. Shining Stars Foundation. And you'll. You can read about it, donate to it. It's great. 

Mike Ham [25:01 - 25:53]: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely put the cheer me up stuff and the shining stars stuff, like links and stuff. So people just go click. If they want to either get involved or donate or whatever, they can go do that. So make sure you do that because obviously they, they sound great. And I honestly just real fast Radio Garden State, our radio station, which is just geared towards creators in the state of New Jersey. I feel like there's some, you know, opportunities or synergies are there or whatever, so we should definitely chat about that. I want to shift gears like a little bit with you, Vito. So Belmar racing and breeding, right? Is that correct? Yeah, can we talk about that a little bit? Because I found that I wasn't. I was looking through all the notes that she sent over and I was like, oh, wow, these guys literally, like do so much stuff. Maybe you have more hours in the day than most people or whatever, but it's just, it's so cool to see all these different things you guys are involved in. So can we talk about that a little bit? 

Vito Cucci [25:53 - 25:55]: That's a subject dear to my heart. 

Joe Maurillo [25:55 - 25:56]: Yeah, for sure. 

Vito Cucci [25:57 - 26:00]: I love that. What do you want to know about it? 

Mike Ham [26:01 - 26:04]: You just had or just had a winner in. 

Vito Cucci [26:04 - 26:38]: Yeah, well, my, my horse, Door Knock. Well, I'm a. One of the major owners of Door Knock, who won the Belmont Stakes last year and also the Haskell Stakes, which is a big national race, but is held at Monmouth park in New Jersey. It was a fabulous, fantastic year. I mean, I've raced horses. I started out in the. In the standard bred Trotters and Pacers. Oh, I guess back in 85. 

Joe Maurillo [26:39 - 26:40]: What a canyon. 

Vito Cucci [26:40 - 26:47]: Yeah, yeah, was my first horse, was very successful. I guess that's why I'm still in it. 

Mike Ham [26:47 - 26:47]: Sure. 

Vito Cucci [26:47 - 28:12]: You know, you get a taste of it and you're successful. Sometimes it's good that you have early success, sometimes it's not so good. But I transitioned into the thoroughbred business about, oh, I guess maybe it's about five, six years now. And here again, it's been very successful. I mean, when you think about the amount of horses that are born every year. Foals, yeah, between 15 and 18,000 foals each year. To get a horse that wins one of the classics is pretty much like winning the lottery, I would say. And it was just such a fantastic experience. I love the business, I love horses, I love meeting new people. It's just such a rewarding sport. Before that, actually, at the end of the harness business, I was breeding a lot and I actually bred the 2002 Hambletonian winner, which. The Hambletonian is the premier trotting race in the world. Yeah. So the past. Past few years have been pretty rewarding as far as. 

Mike Ham [28:12 - 28:15]: And here's a fun fact for people that are listening. 

Barry Maurillo [28:15 - 28:19]: After winning the Belmont and all these other things, he's almost even. 

Mike Ham [28:22 - 28:22]: Working. 

Vito Cucci [28:22 - 28:23]: Let's work on it. 

Mike Ham [28:23 - 28:24]: Right. 

Vito Cucci [28:24 - 28:25]: But there's still time. 

Mike Ham [28:25 - 28:38]: Yeah, still time. But the New Jersey State animal horse. There's more horses in New Jersey per capita than any other state in the country, which really. Yeah. When you. I mean, so small but, you know, still so many people. 

Joe Maurillo [28:38 - 28:39]: And I thought it'd be Kentucky. 

Vito Cucci [28:39 - 28:40]: Yeah, no. 

Mike Ham [28:40 - 28:43]: Yeah, yeah. It's more per capita than Kentucky. 

Vito Cucci [28:45 - 28:54]: But per capita. But, you know, that to that point, Saratoga, people. People have to realize how important the horse business is to New Jersey. 

Mike Ham [28:54 - 28:54]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [28:56 - 29:34]: It employs so many people. It does so much for people. Maintains our green. Our green space, the farms, so they're not developed whatnot with the state. Right now, we're in a state now where Meadowlands is struggling a little bit. You know, Monmouth park has kind of had somewhat of a resurgence, but, you know, it struggles the state. We really do need casinos in the state. 

Barry Maurillo [29:35 - 29:37]: Could you do anything about that or. No. 

Mike Ham [29:38 - 29:42]: See what I can do. I'll talk to whoever I may know, you know. Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [29:42 - 30:13]: I mean, you know, I understand the whole South Jersey, North Jersey thing with casinos and whatnot, but really, honestly, the state needs casinos. I mean, that's the. Where we're. We're trying to compete on unlevel ground against the other states who have racing. You know, Kentucky has casinos now. You know, they contribute to the purses, to the breeders, to everything else. New York has it, Pennsylvania has it. We don't have it. 

Mike Ham [30:13 - 30:14]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [30:14 - 30:17]: I mean, to keep this industry alive, we need it. 

Mike Ham [30:17 - 30:25]: Yeah. So, yeah. You know, and just going back to, you know, even, like, from there, the farms and everything like that, it just. It's all cyclical and all kind of work together. 

Barry Maurillo [30:25 - 30:26]: Absolutely. 

Mike Ham [30:26 - 30:54]: Let's shift it back because we're getting closer to the end of the episode, but let's shift it back to, you know, Park Savoy, Nanita's in the park, and then here at the. The Park Chateau, three guys from Nutley. Obviously, the food needs to be, like, on point. Right. So can we talk about the separation of, like, how good the food is at these places and why that's, you know, that's a big difference maker when it comes to putting on hospitality events, weddings, all that kind of stuff. 

Joe Maurillo [30:55 - 30:58]: We are very critical when it comes to the food. 

Mike Ham [30:58 - 30:58]: Sure. 

Joe Maurillo [30:59 - 31:14]: I used to be 250. Between the three of us, we were all about 100 pounds heavier because we used to be back in that kitchen tasting and every recipe sampling. Sampling. We didn't like something. You couldn't be a chef with in our company if you didn't have thick skin. 

Mike Ham [31:14 - 31:15]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [31:16 - 31:23]: And if we didn't like something, one of us would automatically say, you gotta make some change on this recipe, or. 

Barry Maurillo [31:23 - 31:24]: We take it off the menu. 

Joe Maurillo [31:24 - 31:30]: But we are known for. We are known throughout the whole state as having unbelievable food. 

Mike Ham [31:30 - 31:31]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [31:31 - 31:33]: And from our. 

Barry Maurillo [31:33 - 31:50]: Us being anal to having the best executive chefs that are out there. Vincenzo Loretti is still there. He's been there since 1971. He's 82, maybe even 83. 

Vito Cucci [31:50 - 31:51]: We can't get him to take a. 

Barry Maurillo [31:51 - 32:30]: Day off, and he won't take a day off. But he was part of Nanina's when they had one of the greatest restaurants in the state. And he brought a lot of his talent and kept it going at Nineena's. And we bettered others where he wasn't involved, other avenues of the food. And it was always a good reputation as it was. So we just bettered what they had. And we were lucky enough to go into a place that had already a great. 

Vito Cucci [32:33 - 32:34]: Foundation. 

Barry Maurillo [32:34 - 32:41]: Foundation and reputation of good food. So. Yeah, Joe, go ahead. 

Vito Cucci [32:42 - 32:47]: You can't forget with Vincenzo, we'll probably name everyone. Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [32:48 - 32:51]: We have co. We have great executive chefs. 

Vito Cucci [32:51 - 32:54]: We have co executive chefs at Naninas. Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [32:54 - 32:59]: And Chef Julio and then Chef Juan at Parks of Always amazing. And Chef Mike here. 

Vito Cucci [33:00 - 33:00]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [33:01 - 33:04]: Calderon is really doing a phenomenal job. 

Vito Cucci [33:04 - 33:05]: Really are. 

Mike Ham [33:05 - 33:05]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [33:05 - 33:09]: Amazing. And the longevity of. It's incredible. 

Mike Ham [33:09 - 33:21]: That is incredible. I didn't know that. And that's unbelievable. But. So that's at Nanina's. And that is the sauce that is. You could buy on the shelves. Right. Correcting that brand like out. 

Joe Maurillo [33:21 - 33:23]: And that was Chef Vincenzo's recipe. 

Mike Ham [33:23 - 33:24]: Yeah. Incredible. 

Vito Cucci [33:25 - 33:36]: It was a great story, actually. The way it came about was we had a gentleman who was our GM at the time, Professor. 

Barry Maurillo [33:36 - 33:57]: He helped us open Nonitas because we really. Vito was in a wedding business. We were running a wedding venue above a health club. But Vito had the real experience. And we brought in John Buzzer, who was. His background was all catering, and he was a GM and multiple places. 

Vito Cucci [33:57 - 34:01]: And he was an adjunct professor and became Monmouth University. 

Mike Ham [34:02 - 34:02]: Right. 

Vito Cucci [34:03 - 34:56]: And what happened was he. What would happen was this, after when we took over and we closed the a la carte restaurant, people would come to us and say, oh, God. You know what? We miss your sauce so much, you know, but we can't get it because the only way we can get it is if we're invited to an affair fair or an event at Nanina's in the Park. So John Buzzard, Professor Buzzard, was teaching an entrepreneurial class at Monmouth University. And he was like, listen, I'm coming up with a new kind of way of teaching. You know, I'm starting a class where we're going to give the class a project. I'm going to give them something to do. And what we're going to do is we're going to take it from scratch and bring it to market. 

Mike Ham [34:56 - 34:57]: Great. 

Vito Cucci [34:57 - 35:07]: And he's like, would you allow us to take your sauce recipe and take it and get it into a jar? 

Mike Ham [35:07 - 35:07]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [35:08 - 35:10]: We're like, john, yeah, that's great. 

Mike Ham [35:10 - 35:11]: No hesitation at all. 

Vito Cucci [35:12 - 35:12]: None whatsoever. 

Mike Ham [35:12 - 35:15]: No gatekeeping on it. Just. We go for it. 

Vito Cucci [35:15 - 35:41]: So it's a crazy thing. Thing, because they started and then, you know, came to be like, well, what. How we. Where are we going to have this sauce jarred? Just so happens my roommate in college. Okay. Was Del Grasso. Del Grasso Sauces. And I contacted Joe Del Grasso. They're in Altoona. 

Joe Maurillo [35:41 - 35:42]: Altoona, Pennsylvania. 

Barry Maurillo [35:42 - 35:44]: And they're bottler. They're bottlers. 

Mike Ham [35:45 - 35:45]: Right. 

Vito Cucci [35:45 - 36:00]: And then they. They flew out. They. They actually had Chef Vincent Vincenzo go out there. They did multiple, multiple tests. Finally got the recipe right. And that's. That's pretty much the history. 

Mike Ham [36:00 - 36:00]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [36:01 - 36:06]: And we hired the. One of the students, and he ran our company for, like, the first five years. 

Mike Ham [36:06 - 36:12]: Really? That's. Yeah. But to me, that. That's so great. And it's just kind of speaks to like, the. 

Joe Maurillo [36:13 - 36:15]: His name was Nick. Started interrupting. 

Vito Cucci [36:15 - 36:15]: No, no. 

Joe Maurillo [36:15 - 36:16]: And we call him Nicki. 

Mike Ham [36:18 - 36:41]: That's. Yeah, that's. I mean, a classic. But it, to me, it's. It. The community aspect is right there. You know, people like that want to feel connected to Nanina's, even though it wasn't a. A day to day type restaurant. But then also just on a branding level, it's just, you know, a great way to get the name and continue to put it in people's faces, like, all the, all the time. Which is amazing, actually. 

Vito Cucci [36:41 - 36:43]: And I just want to throw in. 

Mike Ham [36:43 - 36:43]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [36:44 - 36:47]: My. My brother Sergio now. 

Joe Maurillo [36:47 - 36:47]: Oh, yes. 

Vito Cucci [36:47 - 36:50]: Runs the company and he does a great job. 

Barry Maurillo [36:50 - 36:52]: You know, Sergio's amazing. Yes. 

Joe Maurillo [36:52 - 36:53]: Sergio does more of the family. 

Vito Cucci [36:53 - 36:54]: Yeah, more family. 

Mike Ham [36:54 - 37:54]: Yeah, more family. So as we. We're gonna close out with this question. So this Was one that came in from Karen and she said that this. One of the things that she talked about on the phone with. With me, with you guys is that you're. You run a hospitality business, primarily weddings. You're all still married to your first wives. That's correct. Right, Correct. Can we. I think that that's. I mean, that doesn't always happen, especially nowadays, But I feel like that's some good. You know, there's some good mojo there for people that are coming through these spaces. And you had mentioned before, like, always thinking about work, but kind of having that support system. That's gotta be a really big piece of it to have support like that. But then also, you know, knowing, like, what goes into, like that special day and, like, how important that could be for however many years you are married. Right. So could we just give some shout outs to the. To the families and all that? I think that would be great. 

Barry Maurillo [37:54 - 37:56]: Shout out to all our wives. 

Mike Ham [37:56 - 37:56]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [37:56 - 38:00]: Me and Vito are 42 years. Joey, I believe, is 40. 

Joe Maurillo [38:00 - 38:02]: I'll be 40 in six weeks. 

Mike Ham [38:02 - 38:03]: Amazing. 

Vito Cucci [38:03 - 38:04]: It's pretty cool, huh? 

Mike Ham [38:04 - 38:05]: Yeah, that is really amazing. 

Joe Maurillo [38:05 - 38:07]: And. And that is the key to our success. 

Mike Ham [38:07 - 38:08]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [38:08 - 38:11]: We have a great foundation, a great support system at home. 

Mike Ham [38:11 - 38:12]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [38:12 - 38:19]: Even with. When their kids were growing up, we were still able to put our hours in at work. And they really. 

Barry Maurillo [38:19 - 38:32]: Our wives backed us for a weekend business and weren't home on many weekends, but so they kept the love. We kept our love, and everything just fell into place. 

Joe Maurillo [38:32 - 38:33]: Thank God for that. 

Barry Maurillo [38:33 - 38:36]: We're over 120 years between us. 

Mike Ham [38:36 - 38:37]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [38:38 - 38:42]: With the same wife. And it will be as long as we live. 

Joe Maurillo [38:43 - 38:48]: So we're four boys, and we're over 170 years between our four brothers. 

Mike Ham [38:48 - 38:49]: Wow. 

Vito Cucci [38:49 - 38:49]: Yeah. 

Barry Maurillo [38:49 - 38:50]: The maurillo brothers. 

Joe Maurillo [38:50 - 38:52]: They're all on 170 years. 

Mike Ham [38:52 - 38:52]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [38:52 - 38:57]: So our parents collectively gave us a good foundation of values. 

Mike Ham [38:57 - 38:58]: Right. 

Joe Maurillo [38:58 - 39:04]: We have good values, family values, charitable values, work ethics. 

Vito Cucci [39:05 - 39:05]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [39:05 - 39:06]: So. 

Barry Maurillo [39:06 - 39:07]: And a lot of love. 

Mike Ham [39:07 - 39:08]: Yeah. For sure. 

Joe Maurillo [39:08 - 39:12]: And I think Nutley has that same foundation. 

Mike Ham [39:12 - 39:12]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [39:12 - 39:13]: If you look at that. 

Mike Ham [39:13 - 39:14]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [39:14 - 39:17]: How many people are successful in Nutley? It's amazing. 

Mike Ham [39:17 - 39:17]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [39:18 - 39:35]: And it's all because Nutley had really good values. We still have my eight best friends from high school that we get together with all the time. We are all doing fairly well, thank God. Have beautiful families, work hard, and that's. 

Mike Ham [39:37 - 39:38]: It's great. 

Joe Maurillo [39:38 - 39:39]: A fortunate thing. 

Mike Ham [39:39 - 39:52]: Yeah. My grandparents almost have you guys. Or they're getting close, but they're in their 90s. They've been together for over 70 years. They got married when they were, like, 16, 17 years old. 

Barry Maurillo [39:52 - 39:53]: Oh, man. 

Mike Ham [39:53 - 40:01]: Yeah, for sure. Oh, my God. Yeah. So we're very excited to have them at our wedding in October just because, I mean. 

Vito Cucci [40:01 - 40:06]: So what was their secret? I'll be asking you a question. 

Mike Ham [40:06 - 40:28]: He ran. He ran his own printing business. Business out in Long Island. They. My grandma's from Formia in Italy. He was, you know, just like an Italian kid in. In Brooklyn. They met when she came over right after World War II, and that was it. Like, they never looked back. They moved to Long island eventually. He ran a printing business out there. She was, you know, she. 

Vito Cucci [40:28 - 40:29]: A homemaker. 

Mike Ham [40:29 - 40:42]: She was a homemaker, but also had jobs and stuff when they had to make ends meet and all that. But they just, like they said, worked hard, you know, eventually. They live in Jersey now, and we just saw them on Easter and all that, and it's just, you know, they're. They're the. 

Vito Cucci [40:42 - 40:43]: Yeah, they're the foundation. 

Mike Ham [40:43 - 40:50]: Exactly. But you, like, you look at that, and you're just like, oh, this is, you know, so amazing years. Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [40:50 - 41:01]: God bless them. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. I could say. I think. You know what? I think that me being in the business all those years, and, I mean, when we. Up until Covid. 

Mike Ham [41:01 - 41:01]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [41:02 - 41:08]: I mean, we were so still active at our age. We were putting. How many hours? 

Joe Maurillo [41:08 - 41:08]: Six days a week. 

Vito Cucci [41:08 - 41:25]: We were six days a week, you know, working hard. And I think part of the reason why marriage has lasted long was actually in the beginning of our marriage, we didn't see each other that much. She was a teacher. 

Mike Ham [41:25 - 41:25]: Yep. 

Vito Cucci [41:25 - 41:59]: Okay. And I worked in the hospitality business, which meant late nights, you know, and you know what? We kind of late. You know, we spoke about the horses earlier. My wife has a love of the beach. Okay. Her mother was a teacher. They always spent the summers at the Jersey shore. So it was like we had a discussion when we were thinking about getting married, and, you know, we talked about what we liked, what we didn't like, and, you know, the things that were just not up for conversation. 

Mike Ham [41:59 - 42:00]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [42:00 - 42:13]: Like her summers at the Jersey. I just want to let you. I just want to make you understand that I go down the shore with my mother for the whole summer, and I was like, okay, Claire, I'm fine with that. 

Mike Ham [42:13 - 42:13]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [42:13 - 42:28]: And then my thing is, was, listen, I just want to let you know I have a love of horses. I love horses, and I got a racetrack a lot, and I travel to see my horses and whatnot. And she's like, okay, I'm okay with that. 

Mike Ham [42:28 - 42:29]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [42:29 - 42:39]: So Just a little advice to the couples that are thinking about getting married. Have that conversation. 

Mike Ham [42:39 - 42:39]: Yeah. 

Vito Cucci [42:39 - 42:39]: Okay. 

Mike Ham [42:39 - 42:40]: No surprises. 

Vito Cucci [42:41 - 42:52]: Yeah, exactly. Just lay it on the line what you like, what you don't like, and, you know, hopefully it equates into a long, happy marriage. 

Mike Ham [42:52 - 42:53]: Yeah. 100. 

Vito Cucci [42:53 - 42:54]: Any suggestions? 

Joe Maurillo [42:55 - 42:56]: No, I think that's. 

Mike Ham [42:56 - 43:08]: I think that was, well, well said for sure. Yeah. Well, this has been great, and I really appreciate your time. I know you're three busy guys and, you know, meeting up with me, recording this, this has been phenomenal. I really appreciate you guys. 

Vito Cucci [43:08 - 43:09]: Thank you. 

Mike Ham [43:09 - 43:09]: Yeah. 

Joe Maurillo [43:09 - 43:10]: All right. Thank you. 

Mike Ham [43:11 - 43:31]: Before we let everybody go, we'll make sure that we put all the links to both the charities and all the businesses in the show notes. So people just go click them, check them out. If you were thinking of getting married, it might as. You might as well just come and see one of the properties and see, you know, if it fits the vision and all that. But, yeah, come visit. 

Joe Maurillo [43:32 - 43:33]: We'll make your dream come true. 

Mike Ham [43:33 - 43:34]: Amazing. 

Joe Maurillo [43:34 - 43:35]: That's what we do. 

Mike Ham [43:36 - 43:54]: Yeah, that's perfect. So all the links will be in the show notes along with Greetings for the garden of state.com, where you can get all the rest of our episodes that we. We've released this year. So this has been the Greetings for the Garden podcast, powered by the New Jersey Lottery. I'm Mike Ham. We were at the Park, Chateau Estates and Gardens with Joe, Barry, and Veto. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time. 

Vito Cucci [44:07 - 44:33]: Know you don't want to sa.