Pizza is Synonymous with New Jersey and This Place is a Must-Try
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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until i hit the stage
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[Music]
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what is up everybody this is another
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episode of greetings from the garden
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state i'm my cam we're here in jackson
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new jersey at brooklyn square pizza with
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the one and only peter grippo peter
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welcome to the show thank you for having
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me thank you for having me this is the
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furthest full disclosure this is the
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furthest south that we've traveled as a
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north jersey guy this is you know for me
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south jersey so yeah
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south central don't worry you're gonna
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get a free pizza that's your guest mommy
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all right don't worry about it i
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appreciate that i mean that's that's
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never a problem
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yeah
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so we're here at the this is the
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headquarters location right
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this is the original out here right new
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jersey and two other locations one times
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river one in manila yeah awesome so
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let's talk about the background like
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when did you start making pizza and you
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were like i'm really good at this i
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i started in uh working for my uncle in
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brooklyn uh chicho's pizza which is on
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neighborhood i grew up putting graves in
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every on avenue graves section of
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brooklyn
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and i started uh before i got my license
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worked my way up and prepping in the
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kitchen cutting cheese cleaning floors
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work to deliver and then eventually
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learned how to make pizza and uh my
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uncle made great pizza i just tweaked it
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yeah you know i um
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i just
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when i'm then i eventually went on my
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own in 2001 and put my own flair into it
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you know start experimenting different
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products
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and uh usually
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usually if i like something nine out of
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ten people
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will like it yeah exactly and that's how
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i i started right
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with my uncle yeah yeah yeah so
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what i found interesting and i mentioned
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to this to you the first time that we
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talked on the phone so on like those
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facebook pizza groups right and i know
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you don't you try not to get involved in
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those i'm too sensitive too sensitive
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but one of the things that i did as i
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was like trying to gather some guests
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for this particular show i was like well
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i mean i'm doing a podcast about new
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jersey so obviously there has to be
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pizza places involved in this thing well
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there's a lot of pizza places oh for
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sure so i i was like why not go to the
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source where people just talk about
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pizza constantly and honestly i think
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brooklyn square and you were the one
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that people were just saying you have to
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go down and interview peter like
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hopefully all good well yeah no that's
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right they're like the pizza is great
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he's a great guy at least at least he's
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a good internet i try i mean your
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reputation to me my reputation means the
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world to me right you know i'd rather be
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known more than a good guy whatever you
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know not that i'm doing my own
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then having a good pizza but i do want
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to be known for go pizza but my
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reputation means everything to me 100
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yeah and that's why those groups are
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annoying because it doesn't matter they
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don't know me and they'll not just about
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me just in general any place we all make
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mistakes oh for sure give the guy a
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chance to make it good or right away
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they attack you or
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not for me tomorrow's drama exactly too
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much drama and that's not what we're
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here for so um you know one of the
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things that i also think is interesting
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is that you're you grew up in brooklyn
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correct and then you came here to
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jackson new jersey to kind of kick this
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off so 2015 i no no not 2015. i moved
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out here and excuse me 2005. okay
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uh
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me and my wife moved out and i was
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commuting for eight years back and forth
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from brooklyn to here yeah holy christ
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yeah and then what happened was you know
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i i moved out here in 2005 my wife was
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we just had my son my first son peter
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and uh
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eventually we had three kids later there
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were nights i would stay in brooklyn my
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wife's like this this is crazy i'm
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looking right there yeah
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with three kids you i would stay on my
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mom's instead of traveling an hour and
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they have to come home some nights and
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then she's like either we sell
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the house and go back to brooklyn or
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sell the business or do something
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and that's how i came about in 2012 i
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started looking out here to open up yeah
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but i was afraid to open up out here
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yeah it was just because you know i
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would go around to the pizzerias and
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they're mostly all the same and uh i'm a
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little different right what i mean by
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different i don't put toppings on my
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pies uh i'm strict in my recipes i don't
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modify or go off menu there's reasons
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for that
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and i'm a little pricier than the next
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person but then again my
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my but i'm i am but i'm not like in
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other words yes okay my square might be
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20 something dollars compared to someone
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else's that's 10 12. right
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but
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like i said one square pike will feed
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four guys like me and you think about
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that's five dollars each right yeah no
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that's great but anyway so my wife's
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like just do you'll do well you may you
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know you have enough friends out of you
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make uh and
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since day one thank god this place took
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off yeah and so was there a reason like
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this this location was just you were
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looking to get so
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i was looking to surround like i was
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always looking at manalapan because i
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would try to find where the most
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brooklynites are okay uh
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just so they know me and then they'll
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tell their jersey friends and so on and
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so forth but there was a lot of people
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in brooklyn in this surrounding area
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freehold howell is great jackson
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um and i wanted to be close to home
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obviously yeah you know if i'm saving an
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hour and a half commute i don't want to
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open up in north jersey yeah right i
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want to stay around here where people
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know me
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and i found this place on craigslist
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craigslist yeah i found this was right
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after hurricane irene okay oh sandy
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sandy i'm sorry i was after sandy
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and the guy unfortunately i think went
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out of business another guy took it over
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and
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i made him an off right low ball to me
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threw me out
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true story february of
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2013.
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by april 2013 i guess he wasn't getting
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any nibble
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he called me up i didn't recognize his
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number but i answered because it was a
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732 number so maybe it's my wife who
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knows right
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and the guy he was just broken and she
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said all right mr pete uh you have a
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deal i'm like who is this you know a
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deal for what until what he told me who
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was like oh wow yeah i said wow okay i
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should really have to think about this
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now i went home i told my wife she's
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like if you don't take it i'm we're
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getting divorced right just take it i
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literally lived five minutes from here
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yeah
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and i said you know what let's do it and
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i in brooklyn i was known as pita pizza
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because that was my nickname okay
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so why did i change the brooklyn square
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my square pies are mostly that's what
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i'm known for
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i make great round pies i make a great i
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think i'm phenomenal around pie the mud
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home even my regular pie
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um but i'm known for my squares i'm from
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brooklyn i said you know brooklynites
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are weird if you throw brooklyn on your
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name if you're not living up to it
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they'll let you know it yeah right so i
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was prepared for that yeah so you know
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what i'm going to name myself brooklyn
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scrub my wife goes name whatever you
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want
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open up out of there yes i sorry we'll
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go to brooklyn square
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that attracted brooklynites like i said
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told their jersey friendship you know at
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the end of the day if something's good
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whether you're jersey new york oh it
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doesn't matter yeah they're going to
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like it right if it's good it's good and
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it was a hit yeah thank god it was a hit
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from day one and uh
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here i am yeah eight years later yeah so
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when we're talking square pizza is that
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like a sicilian pie here's the thing
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it's here's the running joke of this
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place i don't call it sicilian okay my
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my parents my heritage of it in italy is
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we're from salerno okay which is uh
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right below naples its own city
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so that's another thing i joke around my
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customers i'm not sicilian so i'm not
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going to call my pizzas
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yeah right yes square party really
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everybody so when people come in they
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say hey cover sis silly pie right away i
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go square pie yeah
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uh and they get all freaked out
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exactly but but it's yes it's yeah in
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its essence
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it has similarities similarities we
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won't say the same we'll say similar
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similar correct right so um also like
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you mentioned how you're they're just
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different you know what i mean so like i
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know the the upside down i think is the
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one that's the most that's my signature
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signature you know
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what makes it upside down so
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so we would experiment experimenting in
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brooklyn years ago uh
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you know making different squares
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uh playing around with recipes actually
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it started in italy my family has a
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place in italy anyway
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we uh we figured if you put the cheese
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first on top of the dough right and then
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the sauce on top and we like to we like
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to bake refreshments at all that
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freshmen sit out
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in any oven that's why you see like
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these neapolitan that minute and a half
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they're done yeah just like any longer
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it'll burn right so with the sauce on
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top of the fresh mozzarella we only use
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fresh mozzarella uh it won't burn and
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then it melts into the dough okay vice
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versa it will burn or when you put sauce
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on top of dough and i don't pre-bake or
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par bake any of my pies
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so the cheese melts into the sauce it's
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like you know it's almost soupy that way
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it's still good there are places that do
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that delicious yeah but not my my recipe
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so that's how we named it upside down
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because the cheese is on the bottom
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sauce on top
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those are the two main reasons right
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which i think is interesting and like
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when i first heard about it i think it
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might have been like the bar stool thing
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which is like one of the like the yes
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like i know that he came here and he did
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the whole review and all that and um i
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think the upside down 8.9 right 8.9
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highest rated squares ever given yeah
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8.9 so now 8.9 is i think yeah i'm
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blessed it's a pretty great number
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considering he's a thin round very thin
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cross now my square is thick yeah
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and uh yeah and he gave he was a
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gentleman dave dave was a gentleman uh
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he gave me a great number even give me a
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great number on my round yeah you gave
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me a seven eight if you didn't like the
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siege it would have been an eight one
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that's a great number in itself right
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but the square pie is what i'm known for
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that's why he and him and his cameraman
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frank borrelli loved it he actually
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turned the camera on frank was one of
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the first i think one of the first
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interviews he's ever on camera yeah
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and uh yeah i'm blessed he liked it he
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gave me 13 minutes so he was a gentleman
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yeah he started hitting my wife i had to
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tell hey stay away from my wife yeah
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right right
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yeah so i think that that's fantastic
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and then you know like as you kind of
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progressed and opening up more locations
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was just because you saw success you
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know here and then it just kind of
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expanded yeah so but look besides dave
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which dave did give me let's go back i
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got to really uh honor or mention uh uh
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pete genovese okay from nj.com yeah i
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was always been
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always uh busy from day one but in 2017
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i won uh number one peach in the state
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of new jersey pete genovese he really
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think put me on the map yeah for the
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whole state right you know everybody
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knew of me dave just okay maybe took
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another pete genovese from nj.com really
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he i was blessed i'm number one and i'm
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still
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run in the running with a lot of stuff
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that he does
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uh what was the other question
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just kind of like as you you know stall
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that okay so
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i have employees that you know that are
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calling co-workers and my cousins from
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brooklyn uh
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that worked here loved it out here and
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they said let's expand maybe to expand
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so
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what happened was in june 11 2016 i was
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diagnosed with lymphoma actually today
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is my father's 25th anniversary my dad
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passed away right so
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it's not a question that i don't like
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money we all like money but i did it
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i opened up monopoly my second show
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after this
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to
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give me believe it or not energy to
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fight my disease is as crazy as it
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sounds because it gave me
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all i thought about was work like a
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purpose a purpose something other than
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what you're going yes not think about my
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sickness not laying back give me purpose
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get up let's go get
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move and i had a great uh co-worker
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great a great partner my uh joe who's
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running that store and uh
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that's why i did it yeah you know and
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then the same three same thing
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in times river i had a great uh
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uh manager to start it up he runs it and
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uh
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that's why i expanded yeah and i'm still
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going i think i'm still going to expand
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even more but if
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there's employees if people come back to
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work
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that's another i guess another segment
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right we'll get into that in a little
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bit but um all right so that was an
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awesome first segment so we're going to
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take a short break sure this is the
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greetings from the garden state podcast
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we're down here in jackson new jersey at
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brooklyn square pizza with the one and
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only peter pizza peter grippo uh we'll
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be right back
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it is time for today in new jersey
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history on november 15 1931 the bayonne
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bridge opened connecting staten island
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new york with bayonne new jersey across
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the kill vancouver it is the sixth
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longest steel arch bridge in the world
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and it was the longest in the world at
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the time of its completion and that is
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today in new jersey history
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[Music]
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all right what's up everybody we're back
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here on the greetings from the garden
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study podcast i'm mike ham we have peter
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grippo here at brooklyn square pizza in
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jackson new jersey so peter in the first
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segment here we did kind of your
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background yes uh the background of
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brooklyn square kind of how you started
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here what makes your pizza better than
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everybody else's honestly
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but
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well you know modesty you could say that
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right i could say that i could say
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whatever i want it's nice exactly yeah
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so um so obviously like you know one of
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the things that we'd like to talk about
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with the businesses and people that
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we've had on the show so far is kind of
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what they've been going through over
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maybe like the last year and a half like
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those
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yeah right so obviously that's been a
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thing you know i mean it's been a big
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thing and it's affected a lot of people
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in a lot of ways and even now
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right we're recording this in october
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this episode episode's gonna post middle
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of november and even still like the dust
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has not settled on a lot of this stuff
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so kind of you know maybe you could take
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us through something like as you kind of
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progress through it and different ways
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that you maybe try to combat it
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obviously we followed all the science
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whatever uh the laws of of this
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particular state in the beginning are
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aware of them my employees are what mask
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i mean
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the washing of the hands and all that i
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mean if you're in the restaurant
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business we did that anyway right the
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sanitizing that was the no-brainer 99.99
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of any food establishment right
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uh so we were always kept everything
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clean and
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follow the department of health laws
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uh covert okay the mask we tried to do a
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little more sanitizing blocking things
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that uh
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and we got we got throw it i mean we had
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no dining room at zero so dining room
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was big in here yeah i lost you know the
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whole dining room
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um
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it was mostly take out and deliver and
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it was it was it was it was hard
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because so now all the people that
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wanted to come out and eat or couldn't
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go eat anywhere else because although
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establishment was closed unfortunately
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there's a lot of people that got hurt
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yeah so put more stress
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on uh pizzerias because who else
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even though we were kind let's face it
14:39
we pizzeries were built for uh pandemic
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pickup and delivery right and we only
14:43
had allowed one person and we did
14:45
everything as best we can
14:47
and but it was hard it was it was hard
14:49
then as they opened up the dining rooms
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for me it hasn't come back not to the
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way i used to be i you know yeah
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uh maybe i'm a small room
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and then employees you know i think the
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employees i think i think are two big
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factors what happened with colvin
15:05
for a lot of employees that did work in
15:07
hospitality right hotel restaurant bars
15:10
clubs whatever i don't think they want
15:13
to work till 12 1 o'clock in the morning
15:14
anywhere 10 o'clock at night anymore
15:16
right they got used to staying home six
15:18
months wow this is what it feels like to
15:20
be home at
15:21
five o'clock yeah right
15:23
with that and then you have the apps
15:26
you have uh uber
15:28
yeah lyft
15:29
instacart uh doordash scrub seamless uh
15:33
ubereats
15:35
so now
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you have all these apps
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that uh
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like right now we could be talking your
15:40
phone goes off you obviously you can't
15:42
take it you're interviewing me wherever
15:44
but if you weren't you you take it you
15:46
take you don't want to take you don't
15:47
take it and you're not stuck at a job
15:49
for eight hours you're not sitting in
15:51
the room you take it at your convenience
15:53
yeah so i think that's the other
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struggle we're having right now with
15:55
employees and some people really don't
15:57
want to work and some people don't want
15:59
to get vaccinated i'm blessed most of my
16:01
staff
16:02
i think they're all vaccinated they all
16:04
did it for me right uh they're like oh i
16:06
don't want to do it but i'll do it for
16:07
you i never i'm not going to force
16:08
anybody sure
16:10
uh i'm vaccinated
16:12
um
16:13
was that something that you also had to
16:14
contend with too because of you know
16:16
kind of what you're going through it
16:17
like with i was afraid to work in the
16:19
beginning i'm not going to lie right the
16:20
way they made it sound it was the end of
16:22
the world in the beginning right let's
16:23
go back to march and april 2020. you
16:25
know i mean it really really and it was
16:28
i think they just uh
16:30
might not say
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misdiagnosed in the beginning i think
16:33
they attacked it wrong in a big i don't
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know i'm not in the health care
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professional right right i'm just
16:38
because i'm not seeing a lot of people
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have died i have friends that die i
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don't believe the disease is real but a
16:43
person like me with an underlying issue
16:44
i stood away stood home i took extra
16:46
precautions you know we i just couldn't
16:49
close i mean a lot of places had to a
16:51
lot of businesses different businesses
16:52
and but
16:53
we all have bills
16:55
you know and i don't think it's healthy
16:56
to close think about it stay home people
16:58
went crazy yeah right i would love to
17:00
know what the divorce rate is uh right
17:02
because i think it went a lot higher
17:04
yeah i think so
17:05
you know everybody i need you got to
17:07
work
17:08
uh that's
17:09
for me anyway but um but it was it was
17:12
hard this last year and it's still hard
17:14
yeah i mean now you got the delta
17:15
variant
17:18
the world is so
17:19
screwed up it's so it's so divided i
17:22
wish we just had a leader just really
17:24
get us all back together i don't think
17:25
it's that odd no i really don't think
17:28
get a guy up there and just speak to
17:29
everybody of course as a one you know uh
17:32
i'm vaccinated i mean
17:36
i look at it like this i've i've been
17:38
around so much garbage in my life anyway
17:40
and all the drugs are legal drugs that
17:42
i've been on anyway yeah what's another
17:43
drug i'm gonna grow a horn i don't care
17:45
i'm alive you know right what's one
17:47
heart you know i just whatever but then
17:49
i respect the people who don't want to
17:51
take the vaccine sure but the way did i
17:53
think the majority of why the people
17:55
aren't taking a vaccine
17:57
it's just like telling underage drinkers
17:59
not to drink the more you tell people
18:01
not to do something right they're not
18:03
going to do it and vice versa right yeah
18:05
right and then the other thing too if
18:07
they came out and said the vaccine will
18:08
100
18:10
um
18:12
you know keep you safe then everybody
18:14
would take it but me i i think everybody
18:15
should just take it but that's my
18:16
opinion i don't care sure right whatever
18:18
right but colvin in business was hard it
18:21
still is hard right and then you know
18:23
especially now too like you were talking
18:25
about with like the labor shortage and
18:26
everything like how is that i know that
18:28
you said that you kind of
18:29
so we're short-handed right you know
18:31
instead of having two people work we
18:32
have one yeah you know we have you know
18:34
we have multiple shifts here it's just
18:36
it's stress it's hard yeah but i know
18:38
like when you said in the first segment
18:40
that you kind of you opened up those
18:41
other locations to kind of like keep it
18:43
going but that was that was and that was
18:45
in normal times
18:46
right normal times and they're going
18:48
through the same stresses like me and
18:49
every other right i mean you i'm look
18:51
you drive you walk you look you look
18:53
around everywhere you look there's help
18:54
wanted every industry yeah
18:56
so i don't i don't know people say it's
18:58
the unemployment i i i can't i don't
19:01
know is it the unemployment
19:03
or is it people uh
19:05
maybe it is till it runs out i mean or
19:06
maybe they're just waiting to see to get
19:08
a job that they want sure like i said i
19:10
don't think people want to work from
19:12
five to one in the morning anymore yeah
19:13
well it's not an easy way those are
19:15
weird hours
19:17
and if
19:18
and if you were doing that your whole
19:19
life but not for six months you weren't
19:20
like wow
19:22
i don't mind getting up at eight in the
19:23
morning they're trying to find other
19:24
jobs or or
19:26
people just left the area yeah
19:28
right
19:29
you went somewhere else yep you know
19:31
yeah so you also were there things and
19:34
you know maybe there wasn't maybe kind
19:35
of like kept the business you know
19:37
moving with the same type of uh the same
19:39
the same type of way but were there any
19:41
things that maybe you tried over the
19:42
last year and a half like hey what if we
19:44
did this no and like you just kept it
19:46
status quo if it's not broke don't fix
19:48
it i left it as is yeah i wasn't gonna
19:50
start to run spot i just kept it as is
19:52
and ran the dice you know i i paid
19:55
everybody even if i didn't get paid
19:57
as long as the bills were paid i made
19:58
sure all that i was paid before i paid
20:00
myself
20:01
and uh i just no i didn't i don't
20:04
believe no i didn't have to go to that
20:07
extreme right like i'm sure some places
20:09
i had to you know try and like uh i know
20:11
some places i had to close a day a week
20:13
now yeah just because you can't burn out
20:15
your staff they don't have right seven
20:16
days a week three chefs yeah yeah right
20:19
you can work so many hours
20:21
for so long
20:23
you know yeah and then you're going to
20:25
get burnt out and then what yeah well
20:27
it's funny because we you know uh we're
20:29
talking to tushar patel who owns harvest
20:31
bistro in madison new jersey on an
20:33
earlier episode and one of the things
20:34
that he was talking about is he has
20:35
three employees including himself so
20:37
three people and they have a restaurant
20:39
they do catering they might have like 20
20:41
something catering gigs per week and
20:43
he's like they're trying to coordinate
20:45
where they go when they go when the
20:46
restaurant's open all that kind of stuff
20:48
and it's you know it's just something
20:49
that people just got to contend with so
20:51
as we kind of like look forward to uh do
20:54
you have like visions of maybe like
20:57
you have like goals kind of like what
20:58
you want to accomplish with something i
20:59
can open up i can expand tomorrow
21:02
i have a location
21:04
uh
21:06
in another township
21:07
uh i told this person please wait yeah
21:12
um
21:14
i'm
21:17
i'm afraid i don't want it's not that i
21:19
can't work anymore i do work yeah i'm
21:22
here obviously right now
21:24
i just can't work pre-sickness meaning i
21:27
get tired yeah i do get fatigued and
21:31
you know
21:32
so i just so if i take something over
21:34
it's got to be where i'm i can't i'm not
21:36
i'm not going to beat one disease and
21:38
then get killed by another right so i'm
21:40
waiting uh to see if things change i
21:43
don't see it changing yeah still a
21:45
little touch and go right now yeah yeah
21:47
i mean uh
21:49
uh yeah i mean you talk to you know i
21:52
don't want to say competitors i think i
21:53
call my competition friends i'm not into
21:55
i don't believe i think there's enough
21:57
to go around for everybody
21:58
uh but i speak to other people in other
22:00
restaurants and and just other and
22:03
they're saying it might be like this
22:05
until next year yeah middle of the
22:07
summer next i'm like wow really
22:09
so
22:11
i don't know we'll see yeah i mean uh
22:13
you you know how you
22:15
so pretty pandemic people used to come
22:18
in all the time looking for a job you
22:19
know right or you i would put on my
22:21
facebook
22:23
jobs at
22:24
i'm on indeed right now i'm on
22:26
craigslist
22:28
i don't have
22:29
and i got a big following i got 16 000
22:31
people on uh instagram i'll put out i
22:33
need a a delivery guy please right away
22:36
right
22:36
higher on the spot yeah no one calls
22:38
yeah how could that be it's 16 000
22:40
people that's a lot of people 20 000
22:42
people fit no one calls yeah it boggles
22:45
my mind right i put it on my story it
22:47
gets shared
22:49
it's just i i don't have the answer so
22:51
i'm afraid of expanding for that reason
22:53
right because there's just so many
22:54
unknowns it's impo so like i said
22:57
electrician needs his tools the carpet
22:58
my tools are employees
23:00
and then you have to respect them and
23:02
that's why my staff loves me i respect
23:04
them
23:04
and treat them all all stores like
23:07
family you know i do it to write they
23:08
anything they need i'm here
23:10
so but like without them i can't
23:13
prep a pizza make a pizza cut a pizza
23:16
box it deliver it it's impossible right
23:18
you just you're just one guy i'm not a
23:20
food truck exactly it's different i mean
23:22
so with that being said uh
23:26
i don't know i don't know what the
23:28
answer is either yeah
23:29
you know i don't know uh
23:31
i was watching cnbc this morning and uh
23:35
one of the uh
23:36
the commentators are like
23:38
there's eight million job openings
23:40
across the
23:41
where where are these people right like
23:43
where where do they go to get that work
23:45
that now they're you know it and it's
23:46
everything you hear trucking so my my
23:49
kids don't even have school busing
23:51
really i have no school bus for mike i
23:53
have to drive my boys to school and my
23:55
daughter
23:56
uh to school right now because there's
23:57
no busing this year
23:59
so then we did there's an ad there's an
24:01
app called ride along it's almost like
24:03
an uber for school busing
24:05
so then when murphy
24:07
initiated uh a mandate everybody has to
24:10
be vaccinated they lost 25 of their
24:13
right they're drivers i don't have that
24:15
either right now they're working on
24:16
people getting vaccinated
24:19
so i i don't know i don't know it's
24:21
it's like a bad movie yeah it's not a
24:23
very bad movie yeah all right so uh that
24:26
was very interesting because i'm always
24:29
interested to kind of hear like what you
24:30
know what people are going through and
24:32
like how they're kind of trying to
24:34
combat it and it seems like you have
24:35
kind of like the vision of what you want
24:37
it to be and you're kind of maintaining
24:38
the status quo and you know
24:41
we're we're here we're here we're doing
24:42
this interview so something must be
24:44
working yes you know and i think that
24:46
that like i said i'm an owner that works
24:48
exactly i'm not going to say all owners
24:50
but a lot owners don't get back into the
24:52
mix anymore right and i think that's why
24:54
my staff respects me
24:56
through my through my i would they were
24:57
like go home i'm like no i'm here i'm in
24:59
the trenches with you guys right you
25:01
know as much as i can without getting
25:03
myself sick like i would have cannot the
25:05
k95 mag stealing face max
25:08
but uh
25:10
i don't know let's hope it gets better
25:12
yeah well let's hope so yeah for
25:13
everybody right exactly all right let's
25:15
let's end it on that you know positive
25:17
yeah it's gotta get it could only get
25:19
better right i think so it you know it
25:21
definitely can't get much worse i don't
25:22
think we've seen it worse for sure um
25:25
but uh but yeah sorry we're gonna take
25:26
our second break our last break of this
25:28
episode um then we're gonna get into
25:29
kind of more community stuff here coming
25:31
up so this is the greetings from the
25:32
garden state podcast i'm mike ham we're
25:34
down here in jackson new jersey at
25:35
brooklyn square pizza with peter grippo
25:38
and we'll be right back
25:44
it is time for your new jersey fun fact
25:46
of the day did you know that new jersey
25:48
was the first state to sign the bill of
25:49
rights and that is your new jersey fun
25:52
fact of the day
25:55
what's up everybody uh this is the
25:57
greetings for the garden state podcast
25:58
i'm mike ham we're here here in jackson
26:00
new jersey at brooklyn square pizza with
26:01
peter grippo uh so one of the things
26:04
we've talked about the background of the
26:05
business we talked about your background
26:06
um we talked about kind of some things
26:08
you've been having to combat over the
26:10
last year and a half um but we're gonna
26:12
end this episode kind of like the way we
26:14
do all of our episodes on the community
26:16
aspect of it so this is a podcast that's
26:18
focused on new jersey businesses in new
26:20
jersey people in new jersey and i think
26:22
it's been very cool to see over the
26:24
first few episodes that we've recorded
26:26
the kind of connection that a lot of
26:27
these businesses have with those
26:29
communities and i feel like this
26:31
business your business and you are no
26:34
different right so the back of your
26:35
shirt the slogan i guess of brooklyn
26:37
square pizza i love spread love it's the
26:39
brooklyn way which you said is a biggie
26:40
smalls
26:42
yeah so talk to me about the importance
26:43
of that was that just like something
26:45
that you knew from the very beginning
26:46
you wanted to make sure that you were
26:47
part of that community and interjecting
26:49
yourself into it
26:50
to spread love yes but it's ready right
26:53
you come in here we love you yeah i mean
26:55
at the end of the day without you
26:56
there's no meat there's no us exactly
26:58
right so we do spread love
27:00
some people get us because of uh you
27:02
know in all three of my stories i tell
27:03
my staff and my crew here and especially
27:05
on there
27:06
we like to kid around with the customer
27:09
you know but it's always customer first
27:10
i truly believe i mean whether people
27:12
say some customer is like oh
27:15
i've called i always try to do the right
27:17
thing but also with keep in mind you
27:20
have to respect me too
27:22
yeah there's a way to go about it
27:24
did we burn a pie i apologize but if
27:26
you're gonna call up cursing me out
27:27
right away not giving me even a chance
27:29
to breed i'm gonna i'm gonna
27:31
the brooklyn and me is gonna come out
27:33
exactly and it's over you call me hey
27:35
i'll always fix it yeah i'll never not
27:37
fix it right
27:38
so when spread love is when the
27:40
customers come in you know like we you
27:42
know we browse i flirt i don't you know
27:44
i browse i don't buy my wife knows you
27:46
know i love my wife yeah we kid around
27:48
and uh we spread love and uh to the
27:51
whole
27:51
whatever community i'm in and to my
27:53
extended community yeah and to talk to i
27:55
mean was that something that was kind of
27:57
like just the way that you were back in
27:59
brooklyn like that that's that's just
28:00
that yeah where i grew up that's how we
28:03
were you know
28:04
uh
28:05
we weren't uh
28:07
we didn't wait for the olive branch to
28:09
be extended we were always cool and nice
28:10
yeah it was vice versa if you're rude
28:13
then you're out yeah you know both
28:14
that's just always the way i was
28:16
me my friends my family we spread love
28:18
yeah it's easier it's free to be nice
28:20
think about it it's it takes more work
28:22
to be angry yeah than just
28:25
i let it go especially now after i got
28:27
sick i don't care yeah right i just
28:29
you know yeah yes i do get angry moments
28:31
but i let it call it like it's right
28:33
it's just too short it's free nice it
28:35
don't cost nothing yeah so talk to me
28:37
also about you know like maybe ways that
28:40
you kind of either are there ways that
28:42
you kind of interact with the community
28:43
whether it's anytime any community
28:45
whether it's the police department
28:47
schools high schools any they come to me
28:49
anything i can help and i keep it under
28:51
the radar yeah meaning
28:53
i was always taught
28:55
uh if you do something do from the heart
29:00
[Music]
29:11
within my means uh
29:12
uh i do i just had b.j young he's an mma
29:15
fighter approach me say hey you think
29:17
you sponsor me as a jackson boy yeah
29:19
let's make it affordable if i can why
29:21
not let's help the next generation the
29:22
next kid why not yeah right as a young
29:24
kid
29:25
right i'd rather help that and then see
29:27
them in the streets
29:29
when people sometimes you get you you
29:31
know let's face it there is a drug
29:32
epidemic in this state right yeah i'll
29:34
get some drug addicts that come in i
29:36
will never give i'll feed you you want
29:38
something to eat yeah i'm not giving you
29:39
money right you want a slice of pizza
29:41
you want something to eat i'll do that
29:43
uh and back to the community hospitals
29:45
anything i could do during the pandemic
29:47
people i got to tell you man
29:50
that's how i know people are still good
29:51
they're still good people as well yeah
29:53
people like hey pete i got 200 i got 250
29:55
uh
29:58
donate pizzas to anybody to the police
29:59
department to the hospitals people came
30:01
out in droves paid me and i would
30:03
deliver for them you know
30:05
and
30:06
so other than that and then the other
30:07
thing i uh
30:11
without the church anything anybody who
30:13
approaches me if i can do it i will in
30:15
all three of my stores right and i i
30:17
definitely think that's something true
30:18
too because like so i mentioned to you
30:20
before we started like my girlfriend's a
30:21
nurse up in hackensack she's an oncology
30:23
nurse but then had to work for a year
30:25
and a half basically and was like one of
30:27
the last floors in hackensack to come
30:29
off of cover and go back to her normal
30:30
job um and it was just like one of those
30:32
things where she would just show up to
30:33
work every day and it was just like just
30:35
food and whatever they needed because it
30:37
was just you know why not exactly they
30:39
should be they were they would have
30:41
flown front line right right there
30:43
soldiers that say when we were right
30:45
there why not i mean
30:47
you know uh same with the police and
30:49
fire department right there's good and
30:50
bad in everybody oh for sure you know
30:54
and at the end of the day these are
30:57
they're they're keeping us safe i mean
31:00
you're gonna have one two bad people
31:02
they're like there's one two bad pizza
31:03
guys well interviewers you know what i
31:05
mean yeah exactly no industry no
31:07
employment is perfect right i like when
31:09
you pointed to me when you said bad
31:11
interviewers no why not no you're a good
31:12
guy you're a good dude yeah um all right
31:15
so maybe what are some other ways that
31:16
you try like uh maybe foundations that
31:18
are important to you that you kind of
31:19
try to take care of me lymphoma
31:21
obviously right i mean like i said
31:23
unfortunately but i don't want nobody to
31:25
feel bad for him doing well right yeah
31:26
exactly um
31:28
i uh for me like when i first got ill
31:31
like friends of mine like oh do you want
31:33
to start a gofundme pad i'm like no yeah
31:35
i have good health insurance i think i'm
31:37
paying
31:38
i just i'm over paying for it
31:41
uh
31:42
but i'm financially okay there's other
31:44
people that need a way more than i do
31:46
believe me when i go to ruckus cancer
31:48
tune in new jersey and i see the
31:50
patients in there you know who needs to
31:52
get uh
31:54
what's that van called uh
31:56
accessorize whatever so
31:59
i i i said no so what i
32:01
want well not one i always and i have i
32:04
have a link in my uh and my instagram as
32:07
leukemia lymphoma society you know they
32:09
don't only help obviously trying to get
32:10
the cure which one day hopefully it will
32:13
be right but people
32:15
also there's other people who struggle
32:17
to get to the
32:18
yeah to their facility right they're uh
32:21
you know outpatient whatever to the
32:23
hospital so leukemia lymphoma society
32:25
does a lot
32:26
uh that's my uh i have a team i uh walk
32:30
the night team it's all in my instagram
32:32
a link in my bio
32:34
uh
32:35
because you know yeah i mean covert is
32:38
but
32:39
cancer and there's other a lot of
32:40
diseases that have been around then
32:42
and uh they need help also
32:45
yeah so is that something that like you
32:47
know as you kind of
32:49
are around people and you know working
32:51
in that community is that like like
32:53
what does that feel like to know that
32:55
like you're you're dealing with it which
32:56
i know that you don't want to feel bad
32:57
for you but like also working with those
32:59
people that also do it you want to know
33:01
the truth honestly two weeks ago i was
33:03
up in uh
33:07
am i i got a ruckus cancer tuning i had
33:09
to go for my poor flush and
33:14
i had to go for my port flush
33:16
and uh
33:18
treatment whatever and
33:20
that
33:21
three weeks ago it hit me a little bit
33:22
different right yeah
33:24
because the other day if you didn't know
33:25
i was sick i don't look sick no i'm
33:27
blessed i'm
33:28
250 pounds i'm fat
33:31
my color is good my got my hair yeah and
33:34
here i am walking into uh
33:37
you know an affusement center of all
33:39
sick people
33:41
and i got i got to tell you this time i
33:42
got the heebie-jeebies a little bit i
33:44
got i got i got anxiety and i had to
33:46
wait usually i'm in and out or whatever
33:48
they take care of me right away not
33:49
because it's me just in general yeah so
33:51
i had a waiter now in the waiting room
33:53
and i was not because of co just looking
33:54
around you know
33:56
it felt sad and here's a guy i like to
33:59
i have personality i like to play around
34:01
yeah i like the kid around
34:03
you know i bring food when i go yeah uh
34:07
so here i am and then when my doctor
34:08
came out
34:10
i feel weird yeah
34:11
you know don't be just keep doing what
34:13
you're doing right you know i mean it is
34:15
what it is yeah
34:17
so it um
34:19
it was weird but what i try to do is i
34:21
try to bring
34:22
some sort of i'll talk to you like this
34:24
i'll talk to the old guy next to me and
34:26
start laughing yeah just change the
34:28
subject exactly what do you have oh you
34:30
have oh you look great i go yeah just
34:32
keep how'd you do it yeah i put my
34:33
blinders on right didn't think about it
34:35
yeah
34:37
so anybody
34:38
my phone is always open my direct
34:40
message is over anybody wants to reach
34:41
out to me uh
34:43
i'm at that place where i don't want to
34:44
say i'm good but i i can talk about it
34:47
yeah you need sometimes people just need
34:48
to hear from someone that's going
34:50
through the same thing right you know
34:52
yeah like that and i'm here for you guys
34:54
anybody with leukemia lymphoma
34:55
especially lymphoma i have follicular
34:57
non-hodgkin's lymphoma
34:59
you need hey you know and i'll tell you
35:00
what regimen i used
35:02
you know people like oh did you give up
35:04
sugar i didn't do no i went i went back
35:06
to be in my old ways yeah yeah i eat a
35:08
slice of pizza every day yeah right am i
35:10
going to lie yeah
35:11
i wish i didn't but anyway yeah
35:14
it's so good be like right i tried to
35:16
grill chicken salad i mean i can't i i'm
35:18
not that's not me right no i totally get
35:20
that yeah no right but the leukemia
35:22
lymphoma society uh
35:25
is my uh
35:27
that's that's why i tell people to
35:28
donate right and that's one thing too
35:30
that i will say on this show on the
35:32
record because we are recording this so
35:34
one of the things that i thought was so
35:35
cool was like you don't know me from
35:37
adam like i am i am like a north jersey
35:39
guy i've never even eaten here just
35:41
before i just wanted to come down
35:42
because i saw so many people that like
35:44
knew you knew your story knew your
35:46
product all that kind of stuff and i
35:47
just i commented on a post and you're
35:49
like yeah dm me and you're like yeah
35:51
here's my cell phone and then like talk
35:52
it and text and and i'm like this guy's
35:54
awesome touch touch spread love exactly
35:56
if i could help you why not or you
35:58
helped me we'll help each other in
36:00
general why not as long as you keep
36:01
politics and religion out of it we're
36:03
good right that's it's like yankee mets
36:05
you can't you're not gonna win right but
36:07
uh why not i mean uh i love this state i
36:10
feel i'm a new jersey guy now yeah
36:12
people say i you know my
36:14
brooklyn is my roots i grew up i love
36:15
brooklyn i don't know but it's not the
36:17
brooklyn i grew up with anymore i love
36:19
the state yeah
36:20
and there's a lot of good people left in
36:22
this world there oh it really really is
36:24
right you know 100 you might not see it
36:26
in the media and uh you know newspapers
36:30
whatever on facebook in it but there's
36:32
so many good people out there 100 you
36:34
know and it doesn't matter the color
36:36
your skin or your religion everybody i
36:38
see people from everywhere in here yeah
36:40
and they're great yeah everybody's great
36:42
everybody kids around there we all get
36:43
along
36:44
like i said earlier in the interview if
36:46
we can just get a leader
36:48
instead of dividing this just
36:51
but i guess division wins i guess right
36:53
i guess that's right on the extremes you
36:55
know what i mean but that's another one
36:56
that's not interesting let's keep it to
36:58
pizza
37:00
all right so back to the pizza so um
37:02
this is the brooklyn square location uh
37:04
our brooklyn square location the jackson
37:05
location of brooklyn square
37:07
let's hit them where the other locations
37:09
are just the people that are listening
37:10
know where to go 73 wilson avenue in
37:13
manola new jersey
37:14
if anybody familiar with the english
37:16
town flea market were right across the
37:17
street
37:19
great staff great crude smaller store no
37:21
dining room more of an express right
37:24
excuse me uh same as my toms river store
37:27
1898 hines road it's on church and hoopa
37:32
no dining room but this seats for about
37:33
15 20 people but you can sit outside i
37:36
got a table or two great staff there as
37:38
well
37:39
uh i know everybody says this place is
37:41
the best the tastes different i tried
37:44
i'm the only one that makes the sauce i
37:46
try to do everything in all three stores
37:48
i think it tastes the same is it going
37:50
to be a little different if i'm not
37:51
there maybe you know maybe something i'd
37:53
say don't send it out they do
37:56
i control it here i i like to be here
37:58
because the dining room's here i like to
38:00
entertain my guests sure
38:02
and i'm blessed man every one of my
38:04
customers if before they even say hello
38:06
they're all right out of as they they
38:08
ask me how you feeling no matter where i
38:09
go right how are you feeling i could be
38:12
we were
38:13
i was in aruba i saw somebody in an
38:14
airport hey
38:16
brooklyn square how you feeling yeah
38:18
right away yeah come on i tell people i
38:20
got more people praying for me than the
38:22
pope right you know it's i'm blessed my
38:24
wife's like my god
38:26
but i am blessed i'm blessed in business
38:27
i'm blessed with my family my wife susan
38:29
my three kids
38:30
peter john and eva
38:32
they're not perfect but who is right
38:34
nobody you know this is actually you
38:35
know i don't claim to be we argue we
38:37
fight we get along then tonight we love
38:39
each other right spread love baby that's
38:41
it yeah and then the website is
38:44
brooklynsquarenj.com and the instagram
38:46
which was already square
38:48
twitter brooklyn square uh facebook
38:50
brooklyn square pizza they're all what
38:52
else but tic tac is
38:53
this is a new thing i'm getting to i
38:55
highlight a pizza every sunday and uh
38:57
it's fun
38:58
i get tick tock is the crazy comments
39:00
man
39:01
of all yeah out of all those social
39:03
medias whoo
39:05
people are nuts that's a different world
39:07
i haven't really like forayed social
39:08
media i mean it helps but oh yeah for
39:11
sure yeah it's great yeah and uh and
39:15
you're a great interviewer thank you
39:16
thank you i appreciate it it's my second
39:18
ever podcast so well i'm another uh
39:21
another one i did was joe feed yourself
39:22
great guy joe greater the guys guys are
39:24
good you guys know what you're doing
39:26
yeah well this is my second show so
39:28
hopefully like i have kind of getting it
39:29
gotten it figured out all right awesome
39:31
you're doing a great job awesome i
39:32
appreciate that so uh again this is
39:34
brooklyn square pizza uh and we're at
39:36
the headquarters here in jackson new
39:38
jersey this was peter grippo nice to
39:40
meet everyone nice to have you on the
39:41
show um
39:43
this is the greetings from the garden
39:44
state podcast i'm mike hamm everybody uh
39:46
peter thank you so much for watching now
39:48
we're gonna go eat now we're gonna go
39:49
eat i gotta make sure i told you i got
39:50
to take something of course yeah happy
39:52
wife's a happy life exactly um and
39:54
everybody else thank you for listening
39:55
and we will catch you next time
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[Applause]
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you
