Pete Genovese: Food / Features Writer
Pete Genovese stands out in this age of Google-searched and PR-fed food stories. This is inarguable—no one has written more words and logged more miles within the state’s borders to tell the story of New Jersey food than Genovese. He has gone to great lengths, and distances in his trusty Jeep, traversing the Garden State many times over for 25 years.
Avid readers of the Newark Star-Ledger and his 13 books are familiar with Genovese’s words, but this conversation will help them to become more familiar with the person behind those words. What becomes evident in talking with Genovese is that he is not just a chronicler of the state of New Jersey food and the personalities behind it, but a booster for local food journalism and the wonders of the entire state.
EDIBLE JERSEY: Good to see you again. Just to be clear, regarding the Taylor Ham//Pork Roll debate, I am not going to bring it up.
PG: I already declared the Taylor Ham/Pork Roll debate over. It’s gotten to be the stupidest food debate ever in New Jersey, maybe in the whole country.
EJ: You really cover the state like no one else. How many miles do you put in a year?
PG: I got my Jeep 10 years ago and I have 350,000 miles on it, mostly in state, so that makes it about 35,000 miles a year. I could go into great length about some of my automative problems, but the readers don’t want to hear that.
EJ: How do you stay ahead of the curve on what is happening?
PG: I guess the easiest way I stay ahead of the curve is that I am constantly driving around the state. There is just so much out there. Every time I think I’ve written my last Jersey story, something else pops up. It’s just how the state is.
I’ve lived here all my life, except for the years I was in college, so I know the state and some of my best ideas come to me when I’m just driving around on my way somewhere or on my way nowhere and some idea just pops up, or I drive by a place that catches my attention.
EJ: You joined the Ledger in 1998 and not specifically as a food writer. What were you doing before?
PG: I worked for the Home News, the New Brunswick paper, for 20 years. I was their only columnist for most of that time. Not a normal columnist—I wasn’t writing about politics or current events. I was just sort of wandering around the state looking for human interest stories, some characters. And that’s pretty much what I did, writing it three times a week.
I was born in Trenton, grew up in Ewing, but wandering all over the state looking for stories for the Home News is what really got the ball rolling.
EJ: But you weren’t writing about food there, were you?
PG: I never wrote about food. That really didn’t start until I got to the Ledger in 1998 when they had started the Munchmobile [the Ledger’s state-touring vehicle, devoted to food coverage]. The editor at the time, Jim Willse, and Mark Di Ionna, who was the features editor, started it. Mark was the driver for one year. I think that was part of the reason I was hired: to take over the Munchmobile because there was no way Mark was going to do it after the first year. So I took it over in ’99 and did it all the way to 2016, 17, 18, somewhere in there we mothballed it.
The Ledger was really my first experience with food writing. I had started a weekly column called “Eat with Pete,” focused on casual places, before I took on the Munchmobile. No fancy white-tablecloth places; we already had reviewers doing that. My first review for “Eat with Pete” was a hot dog truck in Branch Brook Park in Newark: Tony’s, specializing in Italian hot dogs. And then it went from there: pizzerias, luncheonettes, et cetera, et cetera. That was really my introduction to food writing.
EJ: You’ve written 13 books. When did that start?
PG: Around the time I started doing the Munchmobile, my first book, Jersey Diners, came out. It wasn’t strictly about food, but more about the diner culture. Interviews with a lot of the owners and the customers and the history. There was no ranking of the best diner food or deep dives into French toast or anything like that. It was the whole New Jersey diner culture, how we became the diner capital of the world. That has been, by far, my most popular book. It still sells all these years later.
I’ve started working on my 14th book, probably my project for next year, a complete guide to the Pine Barrens. I have done other guides, like one for the Jersey Shore, but I have always wanted to do this because [the Pine Barrens] hasn’t been done. Did you know it takes up about 25% of New Jersey?
Pete Genovese during Munchmobile days.
EJ: You aren’t really writing only about food. Food sometimes seems like a subtext. It’s really about people and places. Your writing is, ultimately, about the people behind the food and the incredible parts of New Jersey.
PG: The last thing I want is for any of my pieces to read like Wikipedia entries. There’s enough of that on the internet. As you know, with these “listicles” today, some of them rip me off, not subtly, and just rewrite them a little bit, but the people part is missing. There’s just too much bland, formulaic food writing out there. I think our team at the Ledger today is made up of people at the top of their game. I think we’ve come a long way, too, just in the last five or so years, in our food writing and food coverage.
But it burns me up a little bit when people depend on some of these online sources. You want a good recommendation? Don’t go to Yelp. Yelp is kind of useless. Go find the food writers, the food reporters who cover that town, that area. It’s not a hard thing to do today. See what those people are writing about. It’s more personal.
EJ: What’s changed since you started covering food?
PG: There are more people. More New Yorkers moving into North Jersey. More North Jerseyans moving into Central and South Jersey.
As for the food, it has gotten more complex, diverse. We’ve always been a diverse state, all these different nationalities, but I think there’s just more of everything, and the diversity has gotten stronger. There are more fancy restaurants, more casual divey places, and more places in between. So, the more the better.
EJ: Any changes for the worse?
PG: Obviously, with the pandemic a lot of restaurants closed, some really popular ones, some well-known ones closing just in the last year or so. The owners just want to retire, or somebody made them an offer they couldn’t refuse for the property. Their kids don’t want to get into the business.
EJ: It happens on the grower side too. There is now a lot of farmland but not a lot of farmers. Restaurants and farms are tough businesses, and the American dream was to succeed and not have your children work such jobs.
PG: There’ll always be places in New Jersey selling classic Jersey food. But me, I mourn when I see a legend closing up for good like Ward’s Pastry in Ocean City. Or Twisties, one of the best bars in the state, in Strathmere. Al Capone used to eat there. It hasn’t closed, but it’s for sale, so its future is uncertain. It seems like every week we hear news of another one closing. I even mourn when a Wawa goes out of business. Gotta have my Wawa.
EJ: Wait a second. You don’t write about chains, although Wawa sort of transcends chain into the realm of cultural significance. And you did a pretty amusing Wawa project at one time.
PG: In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Wawa, about 10 years ago, I decided to go to 50 Wawas in 24 hours. No GPS; I printed out directions to all the ones I knew. Made it with two hours to spare.
EJ: Your current project is similar in scope. You are e traveling the entirety of Bergenline Avenue in Hudson soon County.
PG: It is the longest commercial avenue in the state, cutting through four towns, with over 300 businesses and restaurants representing 30 different nationalities.
EJ: What do you think needs to be improved in the state, statte, from a food perspective?
PG: I think the number one thing we need to have in the state is more of a collective open mind in general. To North Jerseyans, South Jersey may as well be Bora Bora. But I don’t mean to pick on North Jerseyans. South Jersey, except in some areas, lacks the restaurant diversity of the North, but has better access to local food sources. We need to open our horizons, try other foods. Don’t keep going to the same restaurant every week.
EJ: I agree. People move to the state from Brooklyn or Manhattan and lament they don’t have food options. They s. They have plenty of them, but don’t seek them out as much.
PG: It is not just about food, either, but about the entire state. Explore the state: Maybe you won’t go to Camden, although there are certainly places to try there, but go to Gloucester County or Cumberland County, the most underappreciated county in the state. Just wander around. Maybe your cell phone doesn’t work. Maybe that’s not the worst thing to happen.
— PETE’S PICKS —
What was supposed to be a lightning round of responses to glean some of Pete’s favorite foods and more in the state became more of an extension of the conversation. Here it is in condensed form. —H. Zona
Favorite Jersey Icon on / Hot Dog:
“Rutt’s Hut (Clift on) has it all. The atmosphere, the tradition, the history, it’s one of a kind.”
Favorite Pizza:
“BLVD in Surf City. I am waiting for Santillo’s Brick Oven (Elizabeth) to reopen. [Note: Al Santillo may be one of the greatest food personalities in New Jersey.] I will throw in a third: Coniglio’s in Morristown.”
Favorite Bakery:
“Averso’s in Brigantine. The best rolls down the shore and the absolute best sticky buns anywhere. I am a sticky bun stickler. I love sticky buns.”
Favorite Taylor Ham / Pork Roll Egg and Cheese Sandwich:
“My number one is right in your neighborhood (Maplewood): True Salvage Café.”
Best Food Town:
“Jersey City. You name the cuisine, Jersey City has it. It’s in a class of its own.”
Most Underrated Food Town:
“Point Pleasant Beach. Nice variety, compact, easy to park.”
Favorite Burger:
“I’ll give you a couple. Burger Barr in Sewell. It was just the freshest-tasting meat. Like it just came from the cow. And, of course, Krug’s Tavern in Newark.”
Favorite Ice Cream:
“Holsten’s in Bloomfield. Nicholas Creamery in Atlantic Highlands.”
Favorite Breweries:
“Kane, Carton, and Cape May. Those are the Big Three and they don’t make any bad beers but there are a lot of good smaller ones all over.”
Favorite Diner:
“Earlier this year, I went to all the 24-hour diners in the state. There are 16. My favorite is the Clinton Station Diner in Clinton, with a 1920s railroad car they use as a dining room. Mustache Bill’s Diner in Barnegat Light. It’s been for sale for a year and I don’t know what will become of it, but it will always have a soft spot in my heart.”
So will the entire state, Pete.
