WHERTAGO - Aunt Butchies

Hello, I am WHERTAGO - Lets talk Italin restaurants. Aunt Butchies of Brooklyn located in Staten Island and Manalapan NJ. Need to go with a family, for a celebration or just to eat great food? Have WHERTAGO tell you.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, what's up everybody? I'mGreg t You never get stuck like you
just don't know where to go toeat, you don't know what to get.
You want to go have fun witha group of your friends. If
you're ever wondering where should I go? Well, thanks for asking, I'll
tell you where to go. Ourfirst stop Aunt Butchies of Brooklyn, the

(00:25):
Italian family restaurant. So how dothree best friends living in Brooklyn get together
and create this amazing restaurant experience?I got a chance to go live and
I sat down with Pete Marcaloni,Joe Pernice. Now Frank couldn't be with
us. Frank, you missed outin a great time. But let's dive

(00:46):
into great to his neighborhood inside AuntButcher's of Brooklyn, Italian Family Restaurant.
Let's find out how this all cameto be. Tell me a little bit
about yourselves, Pete, Joe,where do you guys meet? Oh,
we grew up together. We livedactually around the corner from each other.
Relihood friends. Yep, I livelyOkay, I lived on seventy ninth and
twelfth. Yeah, he lived onseventy eight Between twelve and thirteen yep.

(01:07):
Actually our parents were friends. Heshows me pictures of us going to Disney
and Florida together. No, ifyou're listening right now, you don't know
much about Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.They are known to have the iconic historic
Christmas display lights. The entire street. It's all filled with incredible holiday lights.
Believe it or not. Pete's dadwas probably one of the first homes

(01:29):
to, you know, really celebrateDika with lights. You're kidding, Meta
Claus every year? Absolutely, yes, get out of here to how far
from that main road did you guysgrow up well within blocks with blocks,
and now it's a big tourist attraction. My father started in nineteen seventy nine
doing Christmas decorations. Really, weused to have the Italian newspaper come down

(01:51):
from Italy. Sure, come down, interview us, come into our house.
They used to take pictures because myfather not only decorated outside inside of
course, gret it inside too,and you invite your friends in, Come
on in, come on in.Everybody's welcome. Everydy's father was mister Christmas.
That's cool, mister stopcause give outthe candy canes. We had Santa
Claus outside. What a great time. It must have been growing up in

(02:12):
Dyker Heights, Brooklyn during the holidayseason. Ah so lucky guys. But
obviously building a restaurant like Aunt Butchi'sof Brooklyn, it makes you wonder,
where does the name Aunt Butchies comefrom? You know, our other partner
that's not here, Frank Santo.He started with a bakery in Dyker Heights
on Thirteenth Avenue called Aunt Butchies.Whenever the boys got in trouble or they

(02:34):
had a fight with somebody, Frank'smom used to go to break up the
fight or to go straighten out theother kids, because Frank's dad was always
working, okay, and they usedto call a butcher like she was tough,
right, Okay, she was atough woman and she still is.
Okay, Okay, she's good people. And then Pete was kind of you
know, light bulb went off andsaid, look, you know, I

(02:54):
love cooking. Let's kind of bringfood into the mix with that name.
And that's what we created here.And honestly, what they really created was
an iconic traditional Italian family restaurant,a place where we all get a chance
to actually call home. And inthat home, how many family recipes.

(03:14):
Do you think they have implemented intotheir own menus today? And where does
it all even come from? Andhad to be passed down from generation to
generation. I call him the unschooledchef. Yes, I always liked to
cook. My grandfather always used tocook. I loved his food, you
know, I used to watch him. I wanted other people to try it.
You know, I started playing aroundin the kitchen, right. I

(03:36):
didn't realize it was going to be, you know, my future. It
mused to be a part time thing, and you know a lot to be
expanded. Yeah, people love thisstuff. How many menu items that you
have today on the Ampuschi's menu areactually ingredients and dishes that your grandparents fed
you as kids. It all stemmedfrom the tomato sauce, okay, and
then you know his meatballs and stuffedadded chokes of specials. So sometimes they're

(04:01):
not on the menu. It variesabout twenty twenty items, Okay. So
I wanted to dive into it.How did three best friends really truly strike
it rich with antpuchies of Brooklyn.It's almost like a kid's dream come true.
Frank, he said, you knowwhat I always wanted to go upons
with you guys. You guys aregood guys. Let's try and do another

(04:24):
an Butchies part with some sandwiches andsoups and pasta. So when we opened,
originally we started selling desserts and whatnot, and then we had some sandwiches,
soups, pasta matter of fact,today's out thirteenth anniversary. Wow,
I can't believe he just said that. I was waiting for the moment to
tell him happy anniversary. Oh guys, happy anniversary. That's amazing. Yeah,

(04:46):
thirteen years of Antbuchies and we're heretoday doing this podcast. Wow.
Wow, I'm honored. I feelhonored to share this with you guys.
This wasn't even planned. We gotto do shots later. We're celebrating shots.
That's great, really really nice.Man. It really was incredible to
be able to celebrate thirteen years withAmbushers of Brooklyn right there in their establishment.
Pete and Joe married, they havechildren because now they're building up their

(05:09):
own families. You guys are bothfathers. I'm a dad telling about your
kids, your family life. What'sthat like? How hard is it to
keep a family while running a restaurant. Well, I got to start from
the beginning with family. It's theway you raise your kids. Sure,
and I'm sorry to say make themwork for everything, okay, And I'm
not saying give them something every timethey accomplish something, sure, but acknowledge

(05:31):
every time they accomplished something. Ilike that. Like my daughter when she
was growing up, she went todance. You know, we paid for
it. Yeah, but she workedright. It wasn't like, oh,
dad, i'm sick today, Idon't want to go to dance. She
really wanted to do it, gotcha. So I followed through and when she
did something good to us, shegot an award. Congratulations. You got

(05:51):
to teach your kids that not everything'sgoing to be handed to you in life.
And that's what's wrong with the worldtoday. Everybody's on their ipids.
We're all at fault for this.Sure, we spoil our kids. See
years ago when we grew up.Yeah, my mother made something. That's
what you were eating. Right.If you didn't eat it, you're not
eating for tonight, that's right.This conversation at home all the time,

(06:14):
my wife asked my kids, whatdo you want? What do you want?
What do you want? I saidit three times? You have three
kids and they all have different answers. My thing is put something on the
table and that's it, right,right, right? Yeah, But then
I hear Joe's story. One's glutenfree, you just got to make one.
One only eats pizza. Yeah,tell them, I will eat anything.

(06:34):
That's gotta be so difficult, right, how do you manage to do
all of that with people like yougot to be prepared for gluten free,
vegan, you gotta all of that. I leave that to be, but
yes, you do have to accommodate, you know, vegan and gluten free.
Yeah, very free, you knowin an Italian restaurant. Thirteen years
of Ampucies of Brooklyn, a familystyle restaurant, I'm sure there's been some

(06:58):
magical moments celebrated inside Amplechies. Mostof the customers they're coming here, they've
been coming for years. Okay,all right, so I'm sure you've had
some engagements in house. No.Yes, I actually had a couple come
in and this was about ten yearsago, and you know, they were
looking at the restaurant. They're like, oh, I want to see the
menu first, and I said,just sit down and relax, have a

(07:21):
drink, and they sat at tablefifty one. Okay, all right,
it's the first table in the diningroom. You know, at the end
of the night, they says itwas fabulous. Following year, guy Rick
calls me up and he says,Hi, can I have table fifty one?
So I didn't realize. So youknow, when people talk to you
on the phone, you don't puttheir face. Today their name walks in

(07:44):
and he goes, Pete, we'reback again. It's our anniversary following you
the same thing. Now ten yearslater. Still they're still together and every
anniversary I have to sit them attable fifty one. That's great, that's
great, and then that memory.We're not a destination spot. We're more
personable with our customers. I guessour friends and I watch a lot of

(08:09):
them from I do their communion,their confirmation and so on and so forth.
So we also do engagement parties andunfortunately I notice people so good that
people pass away and you have bereavements, and you know, we probably have
two three bereavements a week. Listen, they feel comfortable here, this is

(08:31):
their home. Yeah. I didask them about what does social media do
for restaurants today? And like,what a social media do for Inpusheres of
Brooklyn, who has been around forthirteen years without it. The new social
media is actually the old TV.There you go right and to all the
visual people get to see it.Not only not you don't have to sit
through commercials and whatnot. I cantalk about a mouth watering fourteen ounce stuffed

(08:54):
meatball juicy that's coming out right rightat the table now. But when you
see it right, you get thevisual. You get the visual. Pete
has managed to create recipes to diefor, seasonal recipes where you could come
to our restaurant, you know,kind of step away from the traditional Italian
menu item and get sea bass,you know, a misu glet saurce of

(09:16):
a broccoli rob special. Now I'mstarving right now, ready to go that
lot like tripe Tripe should try ourtripe. Okay, it's like homemade unbelievable.
It's funny because a lot of thenew generation they don't even know what
it is. They think it's fish. Gotcha. Tripe is the lining of
the cow stomach. We want Iknow that's each Tripe said, we have

(09:41):
unbelievable tribe. Gotcha. So he'screated some of the dishes that you know
keep you coming in. But comeon, guys, I had to know.
What is their number one sold itemat Amputches of Brooklyn. You know
the traditional entree item, chicken parmesan, right, Yeah, that's probably one
of the big sellers. We doa fantastic chicken pummige. Yeah, is

(10:03):
one of the best out there.What about your sauce? What's the ingredients?
You can tell people? Funny youshould ask, Yeah, funny you
should ask. We just finished jarringout tomato sauce. Wow, get out
of here. So hopefully it'll becoming to supermarkets near you. That's so
great. Well, well, ittook you guts so long, thirteen years
of delicious sauce too long. Doyou say sauce, You say gravy.

(10:24):
We say sauce, right, Whygravy? I don't get it. Why
gravy? It used to be aSunday thing once you put the meat in
there. Yeah, they used tocall that Sunday grave. The rest of
the week sauce. I don't know. It's an Italian American thing. How
do I make the perfect spaghetti?What is there a trick to make it
the perfect spaghetti? Cook it halfway? In the water. Yeah, strain

(10:46):
it, yeah, mix it witholive oil. Ooh yeah, I like
that, and then cook it therest of the way off in your sauce.
This way, the starch goes intoyour tomato sauce. So you're cooking
it with the sauce. You're notleaving the sauce on the side and adding
the sauce to You're cooking in thesauce. You want your stots to go
into your sauces. Sauce. Hereit is. I like this. Here

(11:07):
it is, guys. I haveit in my hand right now, a
jar of the brand new Ampuci's Marinarasauce. This is incredible, guys,
look at that. Congratulations to youguys. So now this capasita is going
to be out there on the storeshelves. We're on, you know,
on the train. Wow, I'mgoing to give you some to take home.
But you know what, you guysagain thirteen years there's something that you

(11:28):
guys know about sauce. It's overdoright, it's overdo right. You know
there is a big market out therefor sauce. Right. You notice on
the bottom it says marin Iras SauceFresh Tomato basil. I see that because
it's a cruss between Okay, alittle bit different from everybody else. Okay,
tell me it's other other companies haveMarinavus sauce. Okay, they have

(11:50):
fresh tomato basils. Okay, thisis a cross between the bolt Okay,
so it's a little lighter. ButI will let you know it the moment
I tried, I will let youknow. I promise you. I promise
you now in thirteen years at Anpuchi'sa Brooklyn. It's got to be difficult,
right, You got to think aboutthis thirteen years, how hard is
it really to run a good restaurant. Not all restaurants survive. We all

(12:11):
know that. We've been to somereally bad restaurants. It's gotta be difficult.
How do you want to even breakthis down? No? Do please?
So, so everybody wants to comeout Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
right, and everybody wants to bookat seven thirty. So we try and
do is you make some reservation seveno'clock, some eight o'clock, and you

(12:31):
try and stagger it because the restof the week a lot of people don't
come out. You know, they'rebusy with their kids. Like you know,
of course, and you know inthe restaurant, whell the weekend there
is your busiest time, right andthe weekday is you know, the juggling
act. How do you try tofulfill the restaurant Monday through Thursday. So
you know, we're involved with alot of a lot of organizations who after

(12:52):
the community. So you know thereare functions, yeah, you know that
we we have during the week.You know, we do a busy lunch
here, so we're not really justa restaurant that opens up for dinner for
a busy lunch. We do alot of catering, a lot of you
know, off premise catering for businessfunctions and all. So when the two
of those guys can't be there,who is the face of amputies of Brooklyn.

(13:13):
You gotta have somebody important. Wehave the one of the best managers
Angelo, I'm sure. I'm sureit's been in the industry for forty years.
He is the face of our restaurants, seating all our customers, dealing
with issues day to day. Comeon, say a few words, please
come here, the manager here heis. I like that. That's great,

(13:37):
that's right. This place can't runwithout him. Yes, and how
you doing well. I'm very happyto be with this family. Nice.
I engage with them about thirteen yearsago, and today's today's thirteen anniversary.
Yeah, yeah, God bless heysolo to thank you for all I've seen

(13:58):
many things, beautiful things. Yeahyeah. Number one Yeah, now place
is our customers. Sure sure,without them, we won't be here today.
You're absolutely correct, and we thinkall of them. Hey, that's
it takes thirteen years. How manyrestaurants open up on day one and like
thirty days later they're closed. Right, you can't do it, you thirteen
years. They've got to be doingsomething right. That's right. That's the

(14:20):
trick. That's right. To dosomething right, that's right. That means
the customer keeps coming back, youknow, reads out for us. I
really do believe that it's the combination, you know, of us as a
whole, as a team. Youknow, he has his Forte in the
kitchen, sure, Angelo with thefront end, that's right. It's got
to be a fine tune machine.You know, you can't operate with a

(14:41):
flat tire. No, absolutely no, you're right. And I don't think
every restaurant, what business in thatsense, is fortunate enough to have you
know a team that balances everything?Funny story? Tell me, because I'm
the you know, the invisible partnerhere. Okay, I walked in,
you know, maybe ten years ago. I walk in the door, and

(15:03):
we we have a hostess at thefront to greet you, and she goes,
how many are you gonna be tonight? And he said too please,
Well, Joe takes care of allthe back end right right, and then
I take care of the kitchen,showing and so forth. Sure, you
know, if you guys stay outof each other's lanes. Oh yeah,
I mean listen, Being childhood friendsnow being business owners together, it's gotta
be rough metimes. It's yang,you know, like it's it's, you

(15:28):
know, worse than a marriage becauseyou're with your that's your work partner,
that's right, more than you areat home. I get it. I
get it. That's why I hadto wish him a happy anniversary this morning.
That's for not my anniversary. Mostrestaurants live and die by the reviews
that people leave. What's it likewhen an owner gets a review? What
do you think about the reviews thatpeople follow on Google Google reviews or a

(15:50):
got or open table? How doyou feel about those reviews. Are they
true? Are they not true?What's behind a review? Do you want
my opinion? No? No?I do you take that? Please?
I do? After thirteen years.Do you go out to dinner? Of
course I did. Okay, you'rea normal guy. Yep, you go
out to dinner. Yeah. Ifyou don't like something, right, you're
to grab the way or to manageyou. Yep, you're gonna tell them.
Listen, right, this doesn't meetmy standards. Can I have something

(16:14):
else? I still don't understand whypeople wait to leave to make a report
on the internet for the whole worldto see. Why do you want to
destroy somebody's life? That's right ofone little mistake? Right? I agree?
You know you're right. There's peoplethat overreact not saying it. You
know what their issue isn't justified.But you know, grab a manager,

(16:37):
bring it to someone's attention, don'tjust you know, hold it back.
And then, as Pete said,unleash on the on the establishment. It's
a great restaurant that you guys have, and the food is delicious. I
came upon this one review. Okay, I'm not gonna give this guy any
credit or anything. Okay, butthis is the weird thing about this review.
Definitely a family environment, he says. He says, energetic and laugh

(17:00):
not a bad thing. Right,food was good, stuffed arto choke,
delicious, highly recommended, ready forthis. We had to wait a lot
longer than they thought. Gave youthree stars. He had to wait a
little bit longer. The food wasdelicious. Telling people how good the food
was. He gave you three stars. He liked these stuffed auto choke,
right, loves everything, right,but three that's that is insulting that that

(17:22):
is so wrong to do when youare you know, based upon a lot
of reviews. Am I right?That's not really a bad reveal, Right,
it's not. But why give youthree three stars? Then the food
is to listen to the restaurant,it's about If he didn't wait, it
would have went to four or five. How ridiculous. Right, It's so
silly the way people leave reviews.I mean, I would think if a

(17:44):
lot of people were there, therestaurant's doing something great. And again,
after thirteen years of being in therestaurant business and Butchi's of Brooklyn, the
family Italian restaurant, it just continuesto live on and celebrate more anniversaries,
and yes we did indulge just alittle bit. Oh by the way,
thirteenth anniversary, boy, there werecelebrate. We got a little bit of

(18:06):
whiskey. There were drinking. That'sgood, very nice. Oh it's beautiful
nice. Well, congratulations again onthirteen years. Guys. You guys can't
see this right now, but weare celebrating. We have a couple of
drinks here and it's really in anice, gentlemanly way to celebrate thirteen years
here at Ambuchi graduations. And I'mstill waiting for a back door so I

(18:26):
could see it and at it tothe back. If you had to make
a decision, McDonald's burger came Wendy's. Where are you guys going for a
quick meal? In order? Inorder? I got three kids, okay.
My son is seventeen, yep.My middle daughter is fourteen, okay,
freshman in high school. He's asenior in high school. Okay.
My youngest is a sixth grade inmiddle school. I gotta go to her

(18:47):
dance tonight at as seven. Okay, But because she has Celiac, we
go to Chick fil A because ahgotcha anything about that free fries? Okay?
Right right. They do a grilledchicken nuggets. Gotcha? Gotcha?
So you canna mess with you?I got a Chick fil A. That's
fine, Okay, give it tome. Pete. What do you got
if you had to go? One, two, three, McDonald's, Burking,

(19:07):
one more, white Castle, whiteCastle? You're right, all right?
My my fu favorite is gonna bewhite Castle's number one? Yes,
it would be Wendy's, Yes,shake shack and then McDonald's. That's great.
That's good to know from. Youcan't go along with a big mac
either, you cannot. You're absolutelycorrect, guys. And after thirteen years
in the business, any aspiring chefsout there, you're gonna want to get

(19:29):
some advice from people that have beenthere, done it, and understand the
business. What would be some ofyour advice if there was somebody today that
was listening to this podcast, They'regone, Man, I really have a
dream and open up my own restaurant. Would this be something you'd want to
do all over again? Well?You know again? I I for for
me personally. I mean Pete hada passion to, uh, you know,

(19:51):
create dishes and make the food forme. I kind of fell into
it. Okay, but I Ialways tell people when you're when you're passionate
about something, whether it be cooking, you know, or it could be
another industry, you know, successwill follow, gotcha. You know.

(20:11):
I know the cliche everybody says,if you do something you love, you
know, for work, it's notlike you're working every day, right,
you know, which is true.But you know, I do believe if
you're you're doing something where you havea passion with and you're not really thinking
of the reward, the reward willcome. You know, You'll you'll have
success in life. Sure. Andas my interview came to an end,

(20:33):
I really and truly felt like Iwas part of their family. Aunt Butcher's
of Brooklyn. It's almost like theyjust do it naturally. You become part
of their family. You're in theirhome, all right. I would like
to wrap up with saying I reallydo feel like I'm part of your family.
I want to say to you guys, thank you very much for letting
me be a part of your dayand your family and be in your house
today. Aunt Butcher's. It reallyhas a place in my heart for me.

(20:56):
Thank you for we appreciate you comingdown and you know, I know
you're a Jersey's Brooklyn, New Jersey, that it would be nice come visit
us in Staten Island. You knowwhat, I might. My in laws
live in Long Island, so onthe way, when I'm sitting in traffic,
I'm coming. Ant Butcher's right,no problem. Is funny when we
have reunions. Yeah, we hostreunions people that live in Jersey, Long
Island. This is the meeting point. I love it. It's really great.

(21:18):
Thank you guys, Thank you verymuch. Pete, thank you.
I just want to leave off bysaying they never forget where you came from.
Because the people that you see onyour way up, you're gonna find
them on your way down. Socheck them out. Ant Butchies of Brooklyn
two locations in Staten Island and ofcourse in manalap In, New Jersey on
Route nine. So check them out. For any family occasion or maybe something

(21:41):
in your office is going on youwant to celebrate it, you gotta go
down to Antpuchi's. And always remember, if you're looking for a good Italian
family restaurant, I'll tell you whereto go. Thanks guys. I wouldn't
be in this business if I didn'tlove people you know. I love people
I meet, you know, peoplefrom all walks of life. Where I
go, where I go, lether go, leett I go, leett

(22:03):
her go where I go, leetI go, Where I go, Where
I go, Where I go,Where I go, Where I go,
Where I go, Where I go,