I grew up lucky. Not wealthy lucky — South Jersey lucky. And part of what made it lucky was the food.
My mom was a first-generation Sicilian-American. So were her two sisters. Between the three of them, our family table had it all — marinara, meatballs, sausage, every pasta imaginable, and my mom’s legendary braciole. And nobody — nobody — made pasta e fagioli like my grandma. I can still smell it.
But here’s the thing about growing up with great Italian home cooks in your family: the one place that could actually compete with your own kitchen was Joe Italiano’s Maplewood. For this South Jersey kid, that wasn’t just a restaurant. It’s a landmark, and what a story!
A South Jersey institution since 1945
The story of Joe Italiano’s Maplewood begins in 1945, when Joseph Italiano Sr. — a town constable in Hammonton — noticed a property for sale on the White Horse Pike known as the Maplewood Bus Stop, named for a large maple tree in the driveway. He purchased it, acquired a liquor license, and started serving spaghetti and pizza on Friday nights. Meatball sandwiches. Pepper sandwiches. The kind of food that made people come back…