Horse racing season is tastier than ever at Costas inside Timonium racetrack grandstand

We still love the OG Dundalk location of Costas Inn but coming up on the first anniversary of the “new” Timonium location we sidled up to the bar inside the racetrack grandstand and adjacent to the OTB to discuss the upcoming horse racing Triple Crown season and all of the things that Pete Triantafilos has learned in expanding his father and family’s vision for the hospitality that has made the name “Costas” legendary in Baltimore seafood circles.

Nestor Aparicio and Pete Triantafilos discuss the upcoming events at Costas Inn and Timonium, including horse racing and crab cakes. Pete shares the history of his family’s involvement in horse racing, mentioning his father’s legacy and recent renovations at Timonium, such as new ceilings and flooring. They talk about the confusion between their two locations, Dundalk and Timonium, and the popularity of their crab cakes. Pete highlights the upcoming Preakness events, including outside bars and food, and the importance of maintaining Maryland’s horse racing tradition. Nestor also mentions various sponsors and community initiatives, such as GBMC’s Safe Program and Farnham and Dermer’s AC and plumbing services.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Coordinate and execute the upcoming radio segment appearances at Koco’s next Thursday, Pizza John’s in Essex on May 1, Planet Fitness in Timonium on May 7, and Faith Leads at Lexington Market on May 13.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange for a visit by Gerardi (and potentially Mike Marlowe) to Costas in Timonium for a proper crab cake experience.
• [ ] Oversee completion of the Timonium restaurant renovation, including building out the new upstairs and downstairs outside grandstand with fresh ceilings, flooring, and wrapped concrete and metal to create a welcoming lounge atmosphere.
• [ ] Plan and host Preakness-weekend events at the Timonium facility, including organizing bars and food service in the outdoor common area and arranging a special pre-Preakness activity for fans.
• [ ] Follow up on securing a spot for Pete to appear on the DC radio show around May 28.

Welcome to Costas Inn and Upcoming Events

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to WNST AM 1570 and mentions the upcoming segments at various locations, including Koco’s, Pizza John’s, Planet Fitness, and Faith Leads.
• Nestor highlights Pete Triantafilos’ connection to horse racing, mentioning his father’s involvement in the sport.
• Nestor and Pete discuss the confusion between the two locations of Casas, with some customers picking up orders from the wrong place.
• Pete reassures listeners that the Timonium location has been open since June and has been well-received by the community.

Renovations and Expansion at Timonium

• Pete Triantafilos discusses the ongoing renovations at Timonium, including the construction of a new grandstand with updated ceilings and flooring.
• Nestor and Pete talk about the history of the location, including its previous use as an OTB and the potential for future developments.
• Pete mentions the upcoming events at Timonium, including the Preakness and the Belmont, and the increased space available for events.
• Nestor reminisces about the past use of the location as a boutique track, similar to Saratoga, and the community’s affection for it.

Horse Racing and Family Legacy

• Nestor and Pete discuss the family’s long-standing involvement in horse racing, with Pete’s father owning and breeding horses.
• Pete shares memories of his father’s early investments in horses, including the purchase of a horse named Blue Carrot.
• Nestor and Pete talk about the challenges and rewards of horse racing, including the emotional impact of losing horses.
• Pete mentions the trainers who have worked with the family over the years, including Dale Capua, and the recent loss of trainer Graham Motion.

Community and Sponsorship

• Nestor expresses gratitude for Pete’s family’s support and sponsorship, highlighting their contributions to the community.
• Pete and Nestor discuss the importance of maintaining the tradition of horse racing in Maryland and the impact of recent changes in the industry.
• Nestor mentions the various sponsors and partners that support the show, including GBMC, Farnham and Dermer, and the Maryland Lottery.
• Pete and Nestor talk about the upcoming events at Timonium, including the Preakness and the Belmont, and the community’s excitement for these events.

Crab Business and Future Plans

• Pete updates listeners on the crab business, mentioning the start of the crab season and the delivery of crabs from Texas.
• Nestor and Pete discuss the popularity of crab cakes and the unique spinach dish served at Costas.
• Pete mentions the upcoming events at Timonium, including the spring sale of foals and the opportunity to watch horses on the track.
• Nestor and Pete talk about the future plans for the location, including potential expansions and improvements.

Personal Reflections and Community Support

• Nestor shares personal anecdotes about his experiences at Costas, including his love for the spinach and crab cakes.
• Pete and Nestor discuss the importance of community support and the role of local businesses in maintaining the tradition of horse racing.
• Nestor mentions the upcoming events and sponsorships, including the Maryland Lottery and Farnham and Dermer.
• Pete and Nestor express gratitude for the support from the community and the importance of maintaining the tradition of horse racing in Maryland.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

horse racing, Timonium, Preakness, crab cakes, Costas Inn, Dundalk, renovations, OTB, sponsors, GBMC, sexual assault awareness, Maryland lottery, Farnham and Dermer, Orange Crush, spinach

8

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1, Pete Triantafilos

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W N st AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re positively doing our last segment, I swear, here at Costas and Timonium. We’re going to be at Koco’s next Thursday. We’re going to be on May 1. We’re gonna be pizza John’s in Essex. May 7, we return across the street to Planet Fitness and Timonium here, and then we’re on May 13 will be at faith leads at Lexington market, doing the crab races, because it’s Preakness week. This guy here, no stranger to the Preakness and to the ponies. His dad bet on him, bet against him, owned him, bred him, trained him, and put the pictures on the wall, on Dundalk, Pete tree, on tifalo. How do you say in the Greek that’s it. There you go. I’m just trying to get, let my booty grow and get all my my Greek holidays together. Are you a horse racing as a teak boardwalk in Ocean City, which you never get to go to because you work too much, Bay Bridge, which you never cross because you work too much, and birds and animals. This is, this has a crab on. I’m gonna give you the crap. Our partners at GBMC right down the road down walking a mile in their shoes on Friday for their safe program and their sexual assault awareness program that’s on Friday, as well as foreign and Dermer. And it’s people like Pete and his family and his brother and his dad and his sister who keep us in business by sponsoring us. We’re always proud to be here in Timonium, prouder to be in Dundalk. So your sister tells me there’s a problem with the CASAS family that people call Timonium and then they want to go to Dundalk and pick up their meal, or they call Dundalk and they come to Timonium to pick up their carry out. So first things first, the two locations, crabs there, crab cakes here. And make sure when you’re ordering carry out, you go to right.

Pete Triantafilos  01:42

You go to right place. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There’s been a little crossover there. It’s a learning curve, but we’ve been open since June. Everything’s been great, and folks have been wonderful. And a lot of, lot of the folks that go to Dundalk, they live in this area. They live up in Timonium.

Nestor Aparicio  01:55

8

It’s me. I’m a dunno, guy that lives in

Pete Triantafilos  01:56

Towson, yeah. So the you know, recognize the name and come up and check it out. Nick’s pissed at me

Nestor Aparicio  02:00

when I come down there and there’s where you been, where you been, yeah, Christine and cheating on him. Well, the thing is, is, like, I used to come to your play. Oh yeah, you saw me all time. Now, on a night when, like, we’re home and my wife’s hungry and we’re in the mood, we’re like, eight minutes from here, you know what I mean? Like, we get it really quick. So it just becomes, like, easier for us to come here than it is in Dundalk, but the same thing, I love you Dundalk. You know I’m coming.

Pete Triantafilos  02:26

We love Dundalk, for sure. That’s our home, all right. So I get true story to be here in Timonium to year, a year in June, right? A year in June.

8

Nestor Aparicio  02:34

Feels like you’ve been here forever, though. Does it feel more a lot longer? Is it more normalized for you?

Pete Triantafilos  02:39

Oh, it’s, it’s just like second nature. It really is.

Nestor Aparicio  02:43

Well, you got to build a little bit of a dream kitchen here. You got to build out something you didn’t really ever get to build out. And Dundalk, it was sort of like built on to what your dad built in 1971

02:53

8

add on, out on. Yeah. And

Nestor Aparicio  02:55

so I got to ask you honestly, I came out today. I haven’t peed here all winter because it’s cold out there, and I pee before I come. And then I don’t drink too much when I’m here as you get one Orange Crush and of water. And I’m usually leaving yoga, so I don’t have to pee because I’m all sweated out. So I’ve been to the bathroom, and five minutes before I started the show, I’m like, I better go pee. And I expected, like, I’m in short, I’m in like, shorts. I’m wearing my pink shorts here. And I’m like, it’s all it’s 85 degrees. And I’m like, I’m a pee on an 85 degree day outside, and I walk out and there’s like, a construction project. What’s going on? If anybody’s been at Costa since Timonium, the last year it’s it’s been rattling here today.

Pete Triantafilos  03:33

Things are happening. Things are happening here in Timonium. Come up and check it out. Renovations are being underway here. So we’re under construction new the outside grandstand, so the upstairs and downstairs of the grandstand, the outside space of the restaurants, which we do host parties and events, is going to get all new ceiling flooring. It’s going to get a whole facelift. It’s going to really be nice. So all the concrete and metal is going to be wrapped and it’s going to be a really lounge atmosphere, really welcoming. It’s going to really have a nice effect when you come into the grants. Did you know about all this

Nestor Aparicio  04:09

year ago when you got involved? Oh, these

8

Pete Triantafilos  04:11

were things that were talked about, but you know now it’s actually happening. It’s like, wow, it’s here. You know, you never really realize it’s going to be happening until you see it. And it’s it the fair working together, and we’re kind of partners. And you know, it’s all working together. And people knew of Nick’s

Nestor Aparicio  04:28

here and the OTB here, and it was, it’s always a little vacant in regard to, there’s just this empty race track that you’re in, right? So you come OTB, and I remember talking to Tommy here years ago, and it was like, this was thought that maybe this would become like a betting import, like a casino, a real casino, whole casino at one point that’s long since move with gambling going really online. Yeah, it’s all so when I saw this, I’m like, I know year. Ago, it had been talked about as making it a bigger, different kind of OTP. But I did wonder when it’s over, and I thought to myself, what he’s not getting crabs and Timonium, so don’t ask him, and I’m not going to ask him, but, but you will have more space back here. And you’ve got, I mean, have you been on a weight here? I mean, it’s a big space.

Pete Triantafilos  05:16

Oh yeah, we are Saturday nights. I mean, we’ve had weights on Friday, Saturday nights and the weekends and, yeah, it’s been fantastic. I mean, it is a big space, but it fills up. And now you got the Preakness in the Derby and the Belmont and the races coming up, fall sale of the May. Sorry, the spring sale and may is coming up, the foals. So, yeah, so the two year olds will be on sale. So they’ll have 600 horses here. They’ll be breezing out here. It’s anybody can come and watch them in the

Nestor Aparicio  05:41

8

morning to do that a bunch of times. I’ve never done it, yeah? Oh, it’s,

Pete Triantafilos  05:45

it’s, it’s amazing. It’s absolutely amazing. They start five o’clock in the morning and come and see the horses on the track, and then, and then you got the seven days of racing, of course, in late August, early September. But with the Preakness, we’re gonna have events outside. We’ll have bars and food outside of the common area. Previous day is gonna be a thing. It’s a thing. Yeah? Because, you know, Preakness is going to be at Laurel, so they’re only doing 5000 folks out there. So this is the other people are going to be. Yeah, you can bet. And come out and enjoy some

Nestor Aparicio  06:10

great food. You better order some crab cakes.

Pete Triantafilos  06:12

It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be a fun day. So we’ll have inside outside the OTB will be full, so people will be here, and we’ll be enjoying you.

8

Nestor Aparicio  06:20

Last year. You kind of got opened right around that time this place was jumping last year on Derby Day. I came out on Derby Day and saw you. You were selling crab cakes out

Pete Triantafilos  06:29

of we were open outside, outside, yeah, outside with the food truck. And then we weren’t open here yet, so we did everything outside. But this year it’s going to be but it was buzzing with people. It was packed. It was packed. It was packed. We had bars outside, food outside, and it was fantastic. But now that we have the inside, it’s going to be really, really a memorable day. We got a lot of reservations. People were coming in. So it’s, I think

Nestor Aparicio  06:50

you’re already on one of the oldest. He’s not that old, but he’s been doing it longer. We worked together News America, 1984 he’s been the long time Philadelphia Daily News horse racing. He’s, he’s a legend in horse racing. He always, he’s from here, from originally. He’s delight, or Rogers Forge, excuse me. And he always called this the spa. They call it Timonium spa. Is what he called, really, I’ve never heard it called that. So, so I’m giving you free, free. You Fran, everybody out here call it the spa, the Timonium spa. You know the spa, the spa? Well, I think he called it that because it was, it had some relationship to Saratoga in it being a little bit of a boutique track, like a smaller boutique track, because this isn’t like Laurel or like biblical was never that bad.

Pete Triantafilos  07:34

8

Saratoga is nice and open, beautiful.

Nestor Aparicio  07:37

I let my hair down for the young kids are here. So if you’re y’all want to make fun of my long hair. Have at it here today. Pete triotiflost is here. He, of course, in his family owned Casas. You know, I don’t want to get teary eyed, because I already got upset earlier in the show, and I talked about my friend Frank Vanek leaving us, but your dad and the tragedy and everything that’s happened, I see the picture on the wall. There’s never a time I come in here, I’ll think about him. But you’ve had a couple of anniversaries His death and His birthday. You’re coming up on your anniversary being here. This whole thing happened because of him, right? Yeah, he would never would have been into this demon.

Speaker 1  08:06

Thank you for work for dad, right? He put me here,

Nestor Aparicio  08:11

yep, yep. Gave you the

8

Pete Triantafilos  08:12

challenge of being here, yes, but it’s great, you know, he would love it, yeah, he passed three weeks before we opened, and he’d be, he’d be in His glory. It would have been a great, you know, chapter for him.

Nestor Aparicio  08:23

You don’t ever remember him

Pete Triantafilos  08:25

not loving a horse. Been horse family for, you know, over 30 years, and we’ve been at the track, we’ve won several races on Timonium here. And you know, when you were a little

Nestor Aparicio  08:34

8

boy, do you remember the first horse he bought? Or was he always because he came from the old country with nothing in his pocket, right? He tells that story and five bucks, five bars. That’s why he always give people $5 give the kids five I should have taken that second. Yeah, I should have done that. But the notion that he fell in with horses, like, what, at what point in the 70s, that that, that he become vested in it, other than just being a guy went after the

Pete Triantafilos  09:01

track and bet the horses. No was actually in the 80s, like 1984 Wow.

Nestor Aparicio  09:06

So you were, like a you were teenager,

Pete Triantafilos  09:09

yeah, 1516, yeah, 16 and a friend of his, Steve Dallas, okay. Michaels, so we were neighbors down at North Point, because they had gales we had cost us, and I didn’t feel came over Yes, yes, oh my God, for 35 years, yeah. And then they moved up to the fairground, to the fairground in and he had blue carrot, and he wanted to, he wanted out, and said, Hey, carrot was there. First bought it for $25,000 I remember that like yes, allowance horse turned out to be a lounge horse, and we bred her and 38 carat and had some offspring, and had a really good, really good run with blue carrot. It was a great start to get in the racing. But it’s a double edged sword. You win, you think you’re gonna win. All the time. It doesn’t work

8

Nestor Aparicio  10:01

out like that, right? Who was your trainers in the early days? Oh, well,

Pete Triantafilos  10:05

valora Testerman. Then we had Scott Reagan, but then we landed with Dale. So we were Dale caboodle, Dale Capua forever, right? Yeah. So we

Nestor Aparicio  10:13

just lost leatherbury recently.

10:15

8

That’s a big loss. See, I can talk

Nestor Aparicio  10:17

horse racing with anybody, because I’ve been all these preaknesses and having Nikki Zito on the show over the years, and my relationship with Bob Baffert, who comes on the show all the time, I want it to thrive. And I get angry like at them making the Preakness smaller and moving into law Maryland racing

Pete Triantafilos  10:35

has just been iconic throughout the whole country. And you know, you want to keep that thrive? Well, this is

Nestor Aparicio  10:41

Tommy to get people interested in it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, the derby two weeks out the previous gonna be here. I believe they’re gonna move the Preakness to that Memorial Day weekend so they get the horses. The industry needs to get self in order. And I know you’re in the middle of it here with the OTB, but you still feel it every single day. I feel it every time I come out here. I mean, if you look behind me on the TVs. There’s horse race. I mean, horse racing, ear horse racing. Year every track in the country. I got Keeneland. I got turf paradise, I got Meadows. I got Aqua duck up here. I got golf stream here. Like, literally, yeah,

8

Pete Triantafilos  11:13

we have Charlestown coming up later.

Nestor Aparicio  11:14

Yeah, you bet on horses. I used to

Pete Triantafilos  11:21

convenient I get a hunch once in a while, of course, you know, get a little, little hunch on a horse there and put it. But you know, for the most part, I’m a spectator.

Nestor Aparicio  11:31

8

I’m bringing Gerardi in here at some point for proper crab cake. He and Mike Marlowe too. We’ve been working on this. My old friends and I told Girardi places I go where I still see the form. And every time I come here, I got guys with their glasses out, and they’re looking at the form, and that reminds me Charlie Eckman and Chris Thomas and the good days. They love the horses.

Pete Triantafilos  11:49

You got the guys coming up here, and they’re at it every day. They do

Nestor Aparicio  11:52

pretty well. No one. I hear him screaming over here in the corner track at the track. We’re here at timoni, and Peters here, Costas, come on out. At any point, you’re always welcome out here. Just not welcome to order crabs and timoni, you got to do that in Dundalk. I’m not going to go through a million reasons and all that. How’s crab business? Man, we get crabs.

Pete Triantafilos  12:12

We’re getting into season. Yeah, we’re rolling them out of Texas. So we’re starting to get deliveries every day.

8

Nestor Aparicio  12:19

Yeah, you know, I’m thinking, while there’s my hands just healed up, I’m ready to cut them

Pete Triantafilos  12:24

all up. It’s getting to be crab season. Yeah, all right, yeah. I gotta

Nestor Aparicio  12:27

go to Dundalk Nico, make room for me down there. Always got a spot, you know, I invited the first spring scene show Minnesota. You tell you this? Yes, he turned me down. I can’t believe it. Can’t believe it. You guys got to get the real you’re going to DC show.

Pete Triantafilos  12:39

8

Got to, have to work that. So if you’re looking for

Nestor Aparicio  12:43

Pete on the 28th of May, he’ll be in DC, don’t come and find him here. But they’re renovating here in Timonium. I want to make sure everybody knows that, and they’re still iconic and wonderful in Dundalk, even though the Dundalk kid has sort of adopted the Timonium place is my home base here, but I’ll be back at Dundalk this summer, doing the show. Thanks for everything you do. Thanks for partnership, for your family pleasure, for the beauty of this family and the restaurant. Everything you guys do here, I don’t kiss my sponsors butt much. I don’t have them on much, but you know, I

Pete Triantafilos  13:08

appreciate you, likewise with every Orange Crush at the point. Thank you, my pleasure.

Nestor Aparicio  13:12

And I’m trying to think of something that. So I came in a week ago. People know me about the Oysters Rockefeller. People said you kept that out there. Well, your spinach is amazing. And like, I think it’s the only place in the world I’ve ever had spinach the way you make it. It’s unique. It’s different. If you haven’t gotten it, get it. Get it on the oysters, Rockefeller. But people saw my Jen and I came out, we ordered a whole bunch of food last week, way over, ordered before she went to Italy, and I took a picture of it. And people were commenting, Oh, I love the mushroom the mushroom caps, which I do too, but I said, Don’t sleep on the spinach here. That’s always my public service address. Thank you. Announcement for you, I appreciate those crab cakes are great. Yeah, I had a fried and

8

Pete Triantafilos  13:51

a broiled last week. You did? I said, this has got to be for Nestor. I saw it come out of the kitchen.

Nestor Aparicio  13:57

Nailed it. Did you put extra? You didn’t Jack me up, did

14:00

you made made it special.

Nestor Aparicio  14:02

8

It tasted special. I thought. I thought he knew somehow, because the fried one I didn’t eat. I took it home, and I took half my mashed potatoes, I took half my Greek salad home, and I had it for lunch the next day. And the fried crab cake, I took it out and it got a little room temperature. Nancy taught me that faith leaves you eat at room temperature. You don’t want crab cake too hot. It tastes better. It does. It tastes better when it’s just not hot, when it’s just warm, you get more flavor. And I put it my toaster, roaster, oven there, and I did about six eight minutes, and it came out crispy. My mom would have eaten it. That’s how delicious

Pete Triantafilos  14:37

it was there. They’re our main staple. You come in and you can get an eight ounce crab cake with two sides on Monday night under 30 bucks. I watch,

Nestor Aparicio  14:45

well, I didn’t. I came on Sunday, so I didn’t get the discount, but I came in to watch the Masters Sunday night. I ordered the two crab cakes in my in my cream spinach, and I My eyes were too big for my stomach. I I said the worst part of my wife being in Italy. Alone, or the worst part of it being run of South America’s, I can’t eat a platter anywhere, not pub myself. I need help, yeah? Or I need a GO Box.

Pete Triantafilos  15:09

And they’re generous portions too, so

8

Nestor Aparicio  15:11

you’re great, yeah? I mean, come on, man, they’ve been trying to feed me since I came in. You got to fill the plate, yeah? All right, well, come on out. Support our friends at Costas, great family. We’ve had a great show here. I’ve had Republicans, I’ve had Democrats, I’ve had sports editors, I’ve had I 95 publishers and and I cried even we had charity. We did OJ brig ans. And I got to talking about OJ and my friend Frank Vanek, and ALS. You came up and talked to drew three days ago now, about losing a friend with ALS, and

15:39

it’s a terrible disease. We’re all in this together.

Nestor Aparicio  15:41

Man, it’s a great community show today. My thanks to all of our people, our sponsors, the Maryland lottery for hook and Pete up with I gave Pete the crab. You can add the paper. I keep calling the Key Bridge at bay bridge. We got to get the key bridge open for the boardwalk, which is open for business, and the horses of Assateague, these are the Maryland treasures. My friends are GBMC and I’m walking a mile in their shoes on Friday for the Safe Program, as well as last but not least, and most importantly, our friends at foreign and dermo, our newest sponsors, sponsored all of our sports coverage if you need AC HVAC, and everybody needs it when it gets to be this hot outside, as well as plumbing. Our friends at foreign and dermo, they are the comfort guys. We’ve sprung a leak two Wednesdays ago, seven it’s the morning I was in Minnesota. Oh, my wife called me 6am Central. My phone’s ringing with my wife’s number, and I know that’s an emergency. I’m like, Hey, are you all right? She’s like, got a leak, got a leak. Call far in the derby got a leak, got a leak. And I’m like, well, she woke me up. I’m like, can you call? I’m up to my ass in water. Call Farnham and Dermer. So I called them, and they came out an hour and a half, and I had, like, he said it was a soft spot in a pipe, really. And I’m like, well, the pipes are 43 years old. The building 8083, 84 Oh, wow.

Pete Triantafilos  16:54

8

So you gotta have, you got the right folks on it? Well, you

Nestor Aparicio  16:57

had the right folks building this kitchen back here and all this stuff out here, Costa Simone. Come see him. Get a crab cake. Bet the ponies. Come on out for Preakness. Come on out for derby. Or just like my wife and I, come anytime watch a ball game. It’s all here, and they make a hell of an Orange Crush here. Back for more from Costa sin right after this, stay with us.