What makes Di Pasquale’s so special to East Baltimore?

This Maryland Crab Cake Tour stop was long overdue but sausage led to pasta and that led to the front door of the “new” Di Pasquale’s in Canton with chef Nancy Longo joining Nestor for a full history and origin story of the city’s most famous and beloved Italian eatery. Let Joe and Domenico Di Pasquale tell you about the move from Highlandtown and the expansion of their legendary tradition.

Joe and Domenico DiPasquale discussed the expansion of their Italian deli and eatery, DePasquale’s, from Highlandtown to Canton. The new location, which tripled their space, allows for a wider variety of items and higher ceilings. They highlighted their signature sausages, made by Darren, and their unique crab cakes, which include mascarpone cheese. The move was strategic to maintain their core customer base while attracting new patrons. The deli also offers a range of sandwiches, including the popular Porcello breakfast sandwich. The DiPasquales emphasized the importance of hard work and community connections in their business success.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Italian deli, expansion, Canton, sausage, crab cakes, family business, Highland town, Maryland lottery, Baltimore, Joe DiPasquale, Dom DiPasquale, Nancy Longo, Pierpoint restaurant, Old Bay, mascarpone cheese.

SPEAKERS

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Joe Di Pasquale, Domenico Di Pasquale, Nancy Longo, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I swear I’m going to get everybody into this shot. I’m going to be out of the shop for it’s all over with. We’re down here in Canton. We’re beautiful in the heart of all the Canton crossing. I have cranes. I have a beautiful view of the plaza out here. We’re deepest squales. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery and the Maryland lottery and the Back to the Future scratch ups. I’ve already given everybody here one if you need one, we’ll see you next week. On Wednesday, we’re going to be out in Eldersburg with Mike McKelvin at 1623, and then on Friday of next week, we’re going to be in the morning at Zeke’s coffee, having delicious coffee with a whole bunch of deposed journalists, including cartoonist, Cal received Dan Rodricks, who was supposed to be here today, but I have been blessed instead with my dear lifer, friend Nancy Longo from Pierpoint restaurant, who frequents Deepa squalis. Apparently, everybody frequents deeper squales, except for me, because I moved out of the neighborhood. Karen, she’s got his sunglasses on, fresh from soccer camp at here. He’s kicking it, and Dom and Joe are here, and thank you for hosting me. My wife offered me fresh fruit this morning. Hey, you need me to pack your breakfast. I said, I’m gonna be sitting in deepest Qualis at 815 this morning. They got cooking plates and tiramisu and gelato, and I’m just reading the stuff over your shoulder. I said, I think I’ll be okay. They’ve already fed me. What did you bring me? Dom, you brought me some the Porcello. What is the Porcello? Tell everybody what a Porcello

Domenico Di Pasquale  01:27

is. It is one of our breakfast sandwiches. It has a sausage patty, roasted ham, cheddar, pancetta, and the secret sauce that the chef makes. I like the secret sauce. I

Nestor Aparicio  01:39

still always in it. Yeah? Me neither.

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Nancy Longo  01:41

It’s a secret, and if you told you, you’d have to kill you. Yeah,

Joe Di Pasquale  01:46

Joe, what’s in the sauce? They keep me out of the loop. They’ll

Nestor Aparicio  01:49

tell you anything around thanks for having like. I’ve seen you on television a million times, both of you, Nancy and I’ve known each other forever. I’ve known you, Jojo or Dan. How do I not know you guys accept that. And I think I told you this when I would come in the old little store, I knew who you were, whatever. But like, I’m there to get a sandwich. You’re there to serve a sandwich. I wasn’t about like, Hey, I’m on the radio, sponsor my show. I never did any of that with you guys. But I know the whole neighborhood, the Santoni people, everyone. I feel like I grew up in Highland town, this institution and this move here over the last five years your life, I would think that you never saw this coming, right as in your life?

Joe Di Pasquale  02:28

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No, not, not my lifetime, but it’s happening fast. There’s a lot of things going on around here, but I think, you know, I didn’t know you. You’re a lot younger than me. No, I’m not. You hung out with a different crowd, a younger crowd, and 56

Nestor Aparicio  02:44

How old are you? I’m 66 All right, 610, years, all right.

Joe Di Pasquale  02:49

But then and you’re in Dundalk, so that’s an extension of high on town. To me, that’s when people, they all came, yeah, all my neighbors were from Highland, when they wanted a yard and a bigger home. That’s where they are, like

Nestor Aparicio  03:01

I knew the Zunino family. She said zennino family was in Colgate with a zenino super at Forever Frank, Mr. Frank. I mean, it was literally a small Colgate version of your store. It had beer, it had chips, it had a deli and but that name it. But I have Italian background. My grandfather came from the old country, settled in Philadelphia, came here. My grandfather blew the bugle at the track Tommy arena, and he would, on Saturday nights, drag me out to his house in Randallstown, and he would make me pizza. He’d make the I mean, I have a real Italian thing in my background, but I think anybody that’s been to delis anywhere in the world or an Italian store, this would be what you would dream to have if you had a row house an island then, and you had more space, because you were out of space there, right? Like, literally, there were just, there was only so much you could do of eat in, eat out, carry out, and then just keeping the kind of items that you have here, this has allowed you to probably double the amount of items, or my nuts, and saying

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Joe Di Pasquale  04:04

that maybe true? Well, almost triple. Yeah. We definitely needed the space to merchandise and and to just displays. We just make it more comfortable and higher ceilings, obviously, and but we had to make the move that that store we were, it was never intended to be a deli. It was, it was a hardware store. So

Nestor Aparicio  04:23

1914 is what I see on the sign. Was that in that location, and that it feels to me like that probably came in the 20s or 30s, those buildings, right? Or Am I nuts?

Joe Di Pasquale  04:34

That’s yeah, it was. It built at 2030s but we were on 3700 Claremont originally, okay? We moved to 3700 Gulf street in 1988 which was a major move, because it tripled our size. Then we had a, we had a, what we called a warehouse then, but it’s actually a huge

Nestor Aparicio  04:52

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so you didn’t get there until 88 Yeah, so that, I mean, I was in Highland town three days a week. My parents. Never drove, so I was on a 23 bus line. So like, coming to Highland town was like, if I wanted to go anywhere, I got on the 23 every piece of clothing I had as a child came from Epstein’s. Every piece I took my guitar lessons at jaegers, across from House nurse in the second floor, you know, in the store there my parents, your store would have been a little bit like Stella’s in Highland town was Greek, yes, but you would go in there, you smell all that limb burger. You remember Stella’s. It would didn’t smell like this. It smelled a little different. It just had that head cheese kind of smell to it. But like I walked up and down Eastern Avenue a million times, but to block I grew up on Bank Street, my home, my childhood, 7900 block of Bank Street. And when I would go to Highland town as a boy, I walk over and see Bank Street, saying, that’s the same bank street we got all the way out Colgate. You know, golf Street was also a street. I had lots of friends who grew up on golf Street. 7778 79 and 8000 block of Gulf Street. You’re up here in the What were you in the 3030 730 700 right, Highland town was at lower numbers. So I guess we were five miles apart the 8000 block or 7900 block of Bank Street. I didn’t know you didn’t get there to the 80s. So when you were a part of that, then you were, you were young man at that point

Joe Di Pasquale  06:14

your life. Oh, yeah, I was, I was in my 20s. But

Nestor Aparicio  06:17

so you move that, you sort of shepherded that move, correct? Yeah, my brothers

Joe Di Pasquale  06:21

and I, we were the influence. We had the enthusiasm. My father was sort of had other businesses going on. He was only open two days a week, but my brothers and I, we decided to take it on. And then he was, what is a meat shop? Or what was it? We were everything. We were like an Italian convenience store. Actually, we sold fresh meats. We had lot. At one time they had livestock. We sold chickens and goats at the 3700

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Nestor Aparicio  06:49

See, Nancy’s even keep you on my

Nancy Longo  06:52

No, no. I mean, that’s kind of crazy. So it was a hardware store when your parents bought it,

Joe Di Pasquale  06:58

yeah, the one on golf Street, it was a hardware store, which was that building was built by

Nancy Longo  07:05

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the mid 80s, and then they turned it into the store.

Nestor Aparicio  07:07

See, I don’t remember deepest Qualis being anywhere but there, so

Joe Di Pasquale  07:12

I didn’t know that. You know, we were right next to the Orleans. You

Nestor Aparicio  07:15

spent almost 35 years there in Pompeii. Yes, that’s where I think of you. So pretend on the Baltimore Business Journal now, and I’m doing a story about the move. What’s the genesis of all of this? Because all of us remember what was here. This was a this was a warehouse district. I remember when John Wright had pro image here under the bridge, aside from Greektown, but this was not much below the bridge at Canton. Everything was up on brewers hill.

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Nancy Longo  07:44

But he can tell he can tell you why he did that, but I’m going to tell you why it succeeded. Okay, so a lot of the Italian community that lived in Little Italy moved Harford County. They’re all out there then I don’t know. They’re probably not related to you, because they were glorious with pastoris, right? So pastoris has all their little stores here and there, and then they start drying up. Meanwhile, he’s coming up when they’re drying up, you can see how, because they had a good product, they would be busted out of the seams faster than you could think. To make that store need to be in a place like this, because where was the Italian community be able to go get their stuff, especially a kid like me, who lives on brioche.

Nestor Aparicio  08:35

Parking was the big issue. It was hard to just get in and get out over there at certain

Joe Di Pasquale  08:40

time, well, you’re successful with the parking becomes a struggle. You know, that’s the way it is. If it’s a lot of action, parking becomes an issue. But we came here for one of the reasons, but now this is becoming an issue. Okay? So

Nestor Aparicio  08:55

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listen, I spent last night with the Costas family, with the trianta Feliz family, and I’ve known them, I mean, 40 years, right? I didn’t know why they never expanded. And I said this to them last night. I knew the loonies guys i You mentioned past stories. Let’s talk about Pappas. Let’s talk any place, Nacho mamas, any of the places that wound up trying to have a second or third or fourth, fifth location. Amicis, my friends, they had a second location in Canada when I met you, that move from one to two, or that move to say, dela roses there. You know, they moved three times and went into the Avenue. And this is sort of a similar move for you to say, we’re going to take a corporate space and a different space in a modern area, and move a family business. That’s not something that when they come and bring you, here’s the math on it. Yeah, I’m going to dive into it. Old Italian guys must sit back and think, I got to think about this. What am I? Where do I want to move this? Do I I’m sure you could have moved to White Marsh. I’m sure you could have moved to Dundalk. You could have moved to Towson. There’s a you always. Have those opportunities, right? I mean new markets. I mean Lexington market, my friends with the faith these family, they moved to the market. They’re opening a place in over in Catonsville. I mean, for your family, and Dom You being the younger here. This is a family decision, a gigantic decision, to move down here. How did the opportunity, like all, present itself, and did you know you wanted to move let’s start with that.

Joe Di Pasquale  10:21

Well, no, I was, I’m very complacent, believe it or not, I just, I’m very comfortable where I was. I mean, we lived there, all of our family lives there, so it was convenient for me. But this presented itself because it was all built out. There was another deli here, an Italian deli. Oh, I

Nestor Aparicio  10:39

didn’t know that, right? Yeah, out of Long Island. This was a failed, okay, all right, I did not

Joe Di Pasquale  10:44

know. I think they were there ahead of the, ahead of their time, and they were sort of out of town. They didn’t have the connection. But I liked it because I wouldn’t lose a lot of my core business. So we can maintain that it would have moved too far, right?

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Nancy Longo  11:01

You know, I could say this and not and Joe knows me as I’m always if I’m eating with him here, it’s always been a lunchtime thing. But what I noticed, what I used to do when we go to the other places, most of his lunchtime business in and out were Baltimore City firemen, police officers, so the community of Baltimore that’s working in Baltimore was very connected to them. So if he would have said, I’m going to go to White Marsh, you would have cut all those people off, all the people that love you. It’s the same with like, when they go to chaps, I go in there, and they’re all like, they’re all Baltimore city workers. There’s certain things to Baltimore that, no matter how you feel about a city, or in or out of this city that you don’t want to like take away, because they support you then and they’re going to continue to support you. It’s a generational thing. One after another, they will keep

Nestor Aparicio  11:51

I’ll give you an example, GNA, you know, I’ve known him forever as well. I’ve eaten a million hot dog he’s on Eastern Avenue, so I walk my dad would get GNA Coney Island hot dogs, put him in the bag. We take the 22 bus, you know, right up Bank Street, over to Memorial. Everybody’s got their thing, right, you know. But, I mean, he decided he needed to be in White Marsh, right? So every decision, and that was a hard decision for his family as well, this decision here from day one. I mean, you guys are smiling, doing well, the place is vibrant. This may have been the best thing you ever

Joe Di Pasquale  12:22

did. Yes, until, you know, so far so good. Yes, it’s done. It’s doing very well. It’s been, it’s been successful, but it’s a lot more work, a lot

Nestor Aparicio  12:38

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well, because it’s bigger. And I’ve watched you from 815 with the, you know, the apron on. Let me. Let me in the door. I haven’t seen him in three hours. He comes by. Maybe yet. No, you get all this food answer. So Nancy, I want to tell the story, because I want to talk about food with Dom. By the way, Dom is here, and Joe’s here. We’re deepest squales. Nancy Longo is here from Pierpoint as well. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. We’re getting a little more vibrant in here, as I knew we would at lunchtime month and a half ago. And I’ve been saying to my wife for a couple years, the sausages we’re getting that we’ve been getting all of our life, and I’ll leave the name out of it, but it’s not the same product. It’s just not it’s like going to get a Big Mac and it’s a whopper. It’s just not the same thing, you know? And my wife loves making sausage and lentil soup. We like sausage on the grill. I like sausage and peppers on a with a beer. On a Sunday in summertime watching a ball game. If we grill things, sausage is on the top of the thing we would like to grill. And I said to my wife, I used to get the best sausages. And I said, I know the family. And I hit Darren’s brother, because we’re linked on LinkedIn. And I said, Look, man, I think your brothers still make sausage, but I don’t know. I said, I want to get some. I want the old sauce. I want the sausage. I know that I ate for 25 years. I said, you know, when I go down to amici and I get a penne amici, they get the right sausage in it. And I remember Scott saying, maybe a couple years ago, I still get my sausages from Darren. And I’m like, Darren the sausage king. He’s like, Yeah, Darren the sausage King. So I hit Darren’s brother, and I’m like, Look, I got to get some sausage. So about a month ago, within five minutes, Darren’s, I have Darren’s number, Darren’s texting. He’s like, whatever, you know how Darren is, whatever you want, whatever you want, you know, like, all that. And I’m like, Look, man, I just want to get the whole story. I wanted four sausage last show. That’s how this app I hit Darren. Like, I just need a little six sausages to come home. I just want to make some sausage over the weekend. Darren hit me 12 times. Like, I want to make it fresh. I’m going to make it for you. I’m going to make it special you, but you got to pick it up. I talked to one Tuesday. I’m like, Well, I’m not getting down to Wednesday. Through. I said, Okay, Saturday, I’ll come Saturday. So Friday nights, I’m making your sausage right now. You got to pick it up

Nancy Longo  14:47

tomorrow. I’m like you said. You got a free fresh

Nestor Aparicio  14:50

Fred Saturday, my wife and my wife hadn’t been in here. I’ve been here one time when you open and my wife came in and she was It was like she won. To Eataly again in New York. She’s like, like this. I looked around. She’s gone. She’s in aisle two looking at the pasta, and I’m flirting with you and meeting you and taking pictures. And they brought me a box of, like, 20 sausages, and I said to Darren, I’m like, it’s just me and her. We don’t we don’t have a dog to feed. We don’t have anybody to feed this to. So I went home and we made links, and then we made sauce, and then we made more sauce, and then we made more links. And I kept taking pictures of all the ways I was making the sausages. And then we’re gonna do the show in here. So the sausage is here, Nats. Grab that. Can you grab it down there? She knows how to serve up. So Joe, tell me about the sausage King, because I’ll give him his own microphone in next segment. When I get Petey in here too. He and Peter talking World Cup back there, or whatever they’re doing. You make sausages here, don’t you? We

Joe Di Pasquale  15:46

do? Yes, we do. And Darren is the sausage maker,

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Domenico Di Pasquale  15:53

and super passionate about it every day. He’s trying to perfect something with the sausage. And we’re proud of

Nestor Aparicio  15:59

make you laugh because I came in here a month ago and I don’t know either one of you. I barely know you. Now, everybody knows you, but me. Everybody knows me but you. So it’s weird, but I came in and I saw you first, and I’m like, I’m Darren sausage guy. Oh, you’re the radio guy. Okay, and I’m thinking, I’m gonna get a little back, and he pulls out this box, and Darren’s giving me fork, and I pull that. I can’t talk when I eat Darren, so he looks at me with all the seriousness. And he looks at me, he’s like, he’s very proud of his sausage. You’re like, he’s very proud of his sausage.

Domenico Di Pasquale  16:37

He reminds me every day

Nestor Aparicio  16:40

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it’s an Italian thing. Hey, Darren, who’s got the best sausage I do, right? There you go. That’s it. So

Nancy Longo  16:46

Germans might say they’re better sausage, but I still say the Italians make better Do you know

Nestor Aparicio  16:50

the difference between these sausage, or is Darren gonna need to be involved in this? They know the difference. Oh, really, I could smell like that. One of them’s a little different. Doesn’t smell like an

Domenico Di Pasquale  16:59

Italian sauce. So we have Old Bay, Old Bay, we have the spicy and then the mild hot, hot Italian in the militant I

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Nestor Aparicio  17:05

know what the mild Italian tastes like, so this is the old bay. He was told me you’re doing something parsley. New thing. What is this gonna

Joe Di Pasquale  17:11

be? Parsley? Provolone,

Nestor Aparicio  17:13

yeah, cheese, yeah, that’s gonna be, that’s gonna have a little salt, right? Yeah. All right. Nance, have you had this before the Old Bay. You have one right there. And I’m gonna have you guys have have a piece of your own sausage here. Yeah, so let’s see here. I’ve never my wife had an old base office. Should I move you guys closer? Good. It tastes like a crab cake.

Joe Di Pasquale  17:41

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That’s our crab cake. We surprised you. We put a different form.

Nancy Longo  17:45

Okay, so here’s the test that. This is why it’s a good sausage, crumbly. It’s been sitting. This is seriously, this is me talking to Chef, just sitting for a while. It’s not ice cold and it’s not screaming hot, but it’s still juicy. And that’s the problem with people that make sausages. They don’t know the differential between the fat and the natural protein that they’re using. Make bad sausages. He used to sell me rabbits. Well, you know, I make rabbit sausage because I want to make musk, but it’s, still really juicy. You can see that it is and, and, and that Miss. Now

Nestor Aparicio  18:24

I’m gonna do some right here that you guys are gonna have to do radio if I it. I don’t eat a lot of spicy All right? He already told me this is a seven, one to 10. So that’s like three peppers. Yeah, my nose clean. And I got Joe brought me some water over here. So this is not a hot sausage. I better have the water ready for me. Here’s coffee or something. Darren, if this makes my if this forces me into a bad situation tomorrow morning with my constitutional, we’re gonna have a problem here. So

Joe Di Pasquale  18:57

for Darren, it’s a seven. Oh, if you like it hot, it’s a five, yeah, yeah, it’s a five or six to me on

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Nestor Aparicio  19:08

because it’s heat always comes later. You guys do crab cakes here too. Yeah, tell me about you. Diana, whose recipe on a crab cake. It’s

Joe Di Pasquale  19:21

a combination of all of us. We all had a little group

Nancy Longo  19:27

effort. No, it’s not, is that

Nestor Aparicio  19:29

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the best way to do food, or is it? Is it better to be yes, so it’s, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a community crab cake recipes. It is

Joe Di Pasquale  19:38

with it well, within the family. We tweaked it. This

Nestor Aparicio  19:41

would be what the crab cake tour should look like, right here. That’s a crab cake tour. You got limes on there. I’ve never seen a crab cake serve with lime. Look at that. That’s new. That’s different, like limes. You know, Italians like wine. I’m Hispanic. Man. We put lime on tacos or whatever. We were

Nancy Longo  20:00

kids. My father used to make us eat drink lime Slurpees with no sugar in them. I was, like, very healthy, yeah. What the hell was that? Joe? Okay, so we all grew up, you know what? We all drink a lot of tequila now, because the only thing we ever knew was anything with lime. You know, lime is actually, it’s good for it

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Joe Di Pasquale  20:22

is. And we’re just, we’re just discovering, all right, this is

Nestor Aparicio  20:26

the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. I’m at an Italian Dell. This is I knew when I did this crab cake tour, everyone has crab cake in this town, and that’s why I did it, because I thought there’d be very few places I’ll go where they don’t have a crab cake. Like I was with my friends at the Missoni family. Greg Missoni, he’s got his Italian restaurant up in Perry Hall and Nicole. I’ve known Greg. Greg’s on dog guy known early administration, all deal. And I said to him, I want to do the crap. He says, we don’t always have a crab cake on the menu. And I’m like, put one on the menu. I know I’ve been in there, they’ve had crab toast. Crab toast is another thing. You never see that on menu anymore. Crab toast. I got a good one. I

Nancy Longo  21:06

love crab toast. So you know, you’re gonna come out of this thing.

Nestor Aparicio  21:09

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When I was over Coco’s about two months ago, her meat tastes identical to the meat that Berks would put on their crab melt. Now that’s an extra sharp cheddar cheese over the crab on top of an English muffin, toasted, nice and brown on that cheese, like a pizza cheese, kind of crusty. Oh, with some coleslaw and some fries. So I like crab cakes, any way you make them. What’s in this? You gonna tell me? Or is it a secret sauce? Like a secret sauce

Joe Di Pasquale  21:40

was a little touch of mascarpone cheese in there, really?

Nestor Aparicio  21:44

Yeah, who came up with that?

Joe Di Pasquale  21:48

We had to do something different. We had to put an Italian twist. Well, that’s sweet. That’s

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Nestor Aparicio  21:51

gonna add a little little state. It’s not hold on. You can have a bite of this. Have you had a crab cake here before? No,

Nancy Longo  22:00

I told you I come here to eat pizza, sandwiches.

Nestor Aparicio  22:03

Pizza. Giordano says, Get the meatballs. Darren will not. He would disown me if I don’t have sausage when I’m here, right? I want the cannoli. I got trapped out of your bathroom for a few minutes, so I went through the case and I’m like soup, sausage and lentil soup. Folks sitting here all sworn by different sandwich. So I don’t know what to tell people. What is your is your favorite thing

Joe Di Pasquale  22:24

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here? Well, I like originally, I like the Santino, which is very simple, prosciutto, mozzarella, fresh tomato and basil, very simple as my travel sandwich. No meat. There is, I don’t eat it anymore. All right, that was my All right, but stay healthy. Yeah, yeah, I laid off the meat, so All right, but what’s

Domenico Di Pasquale  22:42

your favorite thing but yourself? Cheesesteak, that’s my

Nestor Aparicio  22:46

favorite. You see a cheese stick? I have BUTCHER So cheese,

Domenico Di Pasquale  22:49

peppers, onion, American cheese. So we have our freshly sliced beef. Brown top right? Yes, and well, and hot peppers,

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Nestor Aparicio  23:02

no mascarpone

Nancy Longo  23:04

in you know, I think that’s an interesting point about that mascarpone. Because, again, what is the one thing that everybody in Baltimore hates about crab cakes, if it’s got too much bread in it, but because, in its natural form, before you do anything to it, it’s pretty thick, right? If you mix that in with the crab meat, you’re going to be able to use less threading and filler, because it’s going to pull the stuff together. Because it’s not loose,

Nestor Aparicio  23:30

it holds things together, correct? It’s a bite. A really good idea. She’s

Joe Di Pasquale  23:34

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giving us a professional

Nestor Aparicio  23:39

version. Tasted good. I

Nancy Longo  23:40

did. I used to do some consulting, right?

Nestor Aparicio  23:44

Well, this goes back to the last segment I have where Andrew Zimmern, bougie, chef to the stars, who we both know. Zimmerman came on my show in like, 2018 or 19, and I told him I was thinking about doing this crab cake tour, because he would get me to meet new people. It would bring kerinji and Darren and the people together. And this was during the plague, when I was trying to bring people together. We were all trying to keep business together. And Andrew Zimmer came on and sat on my show at the Super Bowl. He’s like, there’s only one way to make a crap. This guy from out of town, only one way to make a crab cake. That’s it. That’s the only way. That’s that. And I’m like, Man, you ain’t been to Baltimore. She makes free she talks smoked crab cakes with me and all this stuff. This is a legitimately, and I’ve had hundreds of crab cakes in hundreds of places. This is a uniquely, I’ve never had one like this. This has got, like the East Baltimore Old Bay thing like this. It’s salty. It’s got some salt going on in it. If you would have told me what was in it, I’d be like, it’s got a strange flavor in it that I’ve never had before, and it’s mush, Caponi cheese. Where have you ever heard anybody else? No,

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Nancy Longo  24:53

but I think it’s a great idea. Yeah, because it’s very it’s. Very non distinct, you know, it doesn’t have a lot of flavor until people buy the stuff you go to make the

Nestor Aparicio  25:07

word I would use, right? So you start

Nancy Longo  25:09

adding sugar and all this other stuff to it. It’s, it’s, you know, I mean, listen, people who don’t know any better and don’t spend any money, we’ll go get the cream cheese, right? Not us. We ain’t doing that. It ain’t happening. I said, Well, I used to say when my grandmother was going like this, that meant whatever. Renzo said, You better not come back with any cheap, any cheaper you’re gonna get your block knocked off.

Nestor Aparicio  25:32

8

This is crazy. I’ve had a million crab cakes everywhere I’ve ever been. My one observation the first summer, everywhere I went, they offered me tartar sauce. And I, I’m from Dundalk. I don’t tartar was for fish sticks.

Nancy Longo  25:46

Oh, I love Tartars, right? So. But you know, you never had my tartar sauce. I

Nestor Aparicio  25:50

went to a lot of bougie restaurants the first year. I mean, all over the side, to 24 counties. I mean, I had crab cakes, everywhere you could have a crab cake, and almost everywhere they brought me tartar in some places cocktail. But I thought, who would dump that white pickled nonsense on a crap like it just doesn’t it doesn’t equate to me.

Nancy Longo  26:12

You gotta make it,

8

Joe Di Pasquale  26:13

right? Yeah, they’re trying to mask something, probably.

Nancy Longo  26:16

So I make tartar sauce, but I make it where I take the mayonnaise and cut it with olive oil, and then it gets roasted peppers in it and capers and smashed up corner shots in it, and lemon juice.

Nestor Aparicio  26:32

I had two or three tartar sauces that I’ve liked. I tried them all because I was on the I didn’t want to beat this. I don’t dislike tartar sauce. It’s benign. I just wouldn’t put it on a crab cake. I would never have put a lime slice on a crab cake ever. And I just squeezed lime on a crab cake for the first time in my life, and it brings me this Baja California Fish Taco that I love, like it’s got a it’s got a brightness. That’s why people put lime on tacos and stuff. So that last squeeze you go to Clavel and get a taco, which I’m going to do next month, squeeze the lime on anything Mexican that has almost got a Mexican it makes me want, like, a Corona with it, like, you know, like, literally, on a hot day, lime squirt on a crab cake, by the way, is that pimento in there? What we got going on in there? What is that? Bell pepper? Bell pepper, just straight bell pepper. I told her, already roasted pepper. It’s a roasted bell

Joe Di Pasquale  27:29

8

Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  27:31

and parsley, the

Joe Di Pasquale  27:33

parsley, yes, all right, Italian

Nancy Longo  27:35

parsley. Well, look, this is,

8

Nestor Aparicio  27:38

well, it’s got bell pepper. And I want to show that you know what, it’s delicious.

Nancy Longo  27:42

Curly parsley is nasty. Yes, there’s a nasty flavor to it. And if you dry it and try to use it, it’s even worse. Yeah, so I only buy the Italian parsley because I like the flat leaves. It’s easier to chop, and if you dry it, it stays really green, and it doesn’t smell like wet mode, like if you’re a chef, after all, smells and things will, like, turn you off. I don’t want to cook with that, because it’s, like, it stinks. So I’m really weird at parsley. That’s

Nestor Aparicio  28:09

why I felt when I went to Stella’s back in the day. I’m like, Mom, I’m standing outside, you know, Epstein, you know? Yeah, Joe is here. Tom’s here, the DOM, Joe’s your dog’s here, Nancy’s here. I’m gonna let you guys go, because it’s getting busy. I can tell you, you get antsy when you get pulled out away from work. You like work.

Joe Di Pasquale  28:28

8

It’s therapeutic for me,

Nancy Longo  28:30

where I told you, it’s like restaurant business, just like a drug. It pulls you in and you it’s a way of life. People don’t understand our lives, that except for each other. We can talk to each other, like when Kenny came in here, and like, Kenny will tell me, I’m running through someone. He goes, You know, I kind of miss it, and I was really sad about all I think managers, you know, just like,

Nestor Aparicio  28:50

but so she’s known everybody in here. So you go, okay,

Nancy Longo  28:53

but people don’t understand it. And then when it starts to get busy, you do get antsy, because you’re like, some ever being being taken care of properly. Do they get what they need? Moving fast enough, you know.

8

Nestor Aparicio  29:05

So Bobby Flay opened his Bobby B bistro in the Towson east that failed years ago. My wife had just beaten cancer. Was the first day she went out. Don molar, Kevin Kamenetz was alive, and we went out. And they’re like, come early, meet Bobby Flay, take a picture. My wife was bald and she was sick, and went out there early. There was nobody there, and all the media was her media day, right? And Bobby flays there early. Here’s Bobby Flay television, chop chef, all that world beats Bobby Flay. Did you compete with him? Did you

Nancy Longo  29:36

lose that? No, no, no. I one year we went to the Super Bowl. I had made 5000 crab tamales, and FedEx lost them, and Bobby Flay was coming to the kitchen while I was giving one of my half Scottish, half Italian. And Bobby looks at me, goes, I’m gonna make tamales with you. And I went, that’s the only guy in this room I know would know how to make a tamale. Right?

Nestor Aparicio  29:58

To make tamales. So. That speaks to his worker. And this reminds me of you, and this is the highest compliment, because I’m an operator too. Anybody messes with my radio show? I don’t like it much. I went in, Bobby flays there, and he shook my hand, took a picture, was whatever, and from the minute he left me, he wasn’t interested in anything but the operation. Like when I looked at him, he was checking the salt shakers. He was checking the curtains. He was just checking stuff. But like, you when I got you’re just busting things because, like, you’re acting rolling, you know, out of your nature. I heard Springsteen say this this summer, and he said, basically, like, Why are you out on a tour? Money, this fame, adulation make people he said, I’m a better man when I’m working. I’m not a good man when I’m not working. That was his admission to himself, to say, idle time is not good for me. It’s not good for my soul. It’s just not who I am.

Joe Di Pasquale  30:55

8

We use that for my wife. All right, use that. I want to use that line. I’m a better man when I’m working. All right, are you I feel? I feel like I am. Can

Nestor Aparicio  31:07

you what’s the most amount of time you’ve ever taken off two weeks? It

Joe Di Pasquale  31:10

was 10 days pre pre, pre COVID. We went to Italy. That was it. Pre COVID. That’s it. That’s it. Well, on

Nestor Aparicio  31:17

day nine, you couldn’t wait to get home, right? Yeah, how many times did he check in on the store?

8

Joe Di Pasquale  31:22

Well, that was the old store, all right. Stores a different animal. Yeah, yes. Hold it, the old store. I had some more family members that stayed behind it, but that was a little more comfortable. But now this is too big for just a family anymore. That’s that’s somebody

Nestor Aparicio  31:36

taking that Ocean City for the weekend. I can’t do that with you right now. You won’t be comfortable day and

Joe Di Pasquale  31:41

a half. I was just, I just got back day and a half, and then you’ve

Nestor Aparicio  31:46

8

never seen him take five days off ever, right? Only

Domenico Di Pasquale  31:49

that one time when you were sick. Remember that

Joe Di Pasquale  31:53

when see

Domenico Di Pasquale  31:55

you were so sick you stopped drinking too, you’re complete, like you must have

8

Joe Di Pasquale  31:59

realized, yeah, completely blacked out. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  32:09

crazy. Respect for that, and even more so for your son, because, like, it does rub off my huh? And my dad’s been dead 33 years. This week, my dad died, July 11. Are We There Yet we’re getting there. It’ll be 33 years. My dad would his source of my dad was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Came down to work on the bombers in Martin Mariette in 1940s met my mom. They got married at Mount Carmel, settled in Essex, worked at the point all that, right? Joe Giordano was here talking about the point my dad used the word scratch. My dad would say, I never scratch. I never take a scratch. That was the word scratch. So no, my dad didn’t know nothing about

Nancy Longo  32:49

horse racing at all, but he would say, I won’t scratch.

Nestor Aparicio  32:53

8

But he would say, I never scratch a day. So my dad would never, I never saw my dad take a day off, like he just signed to work. He went to work. Yeah, I’m that way. And my wife’s married into it. I own a radio station. It never stops. Well, right on the back it is, we never stop talking. We never stop talking like so it I feel that, and I feel that in other people, and I sense you’re they you gotta go, you gotta work.

Nancy Longo  33:19

They say this in some, most cases, a lot of people that live longer because they work longer, they they do live healthier.

Nestor Aparicio  33:28

Oh, I talk about Mr. Costas losing him. I was at their place last night. I’ll be back there again on Thursday. Steve rouse is coming thursday and doing the show business, Mr. We have a real radio host here that day. And I talked to them last night. I did it without crying, so I don’t want to do it here, but 86 behind the but ever, I never went in there when he wasn’t there. And the one time the boys got took him to the playoff game year and a half ago, when the Orioles 101 games, right? They were who they lose to that year. I don’t know who that with two years

Joe Di Pasquale  34:00

Kansas City. It’s always Kansas

8

Nestor Aparicio  34:02

City. Last year’s Texas. It was the year they won 101 two years ago, they played the game, and I was in the bar and all the boys like, yeah, we’re taking dad to the playoff game. We’re taking and I’m like, God, great. That day I went in to the bar, and I’m in there watching the playoff game, and in the seventh inning. Costas just get me a beer. I’m like, Well, what are you doing in here? He’s like, ah, you know, I go to the game. I stay five innings. I got work to do, man, I got work to do. And that’s what that’s Mr. You know. God bless him, you know. But he was 84 at the time baseball. I got work to do. I gotta come in and work. So I think that

Joe Di Pasquale  34:41

might be you. Yeah, I get out of baseball games early. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  34:45

I just gave you Springsteen’s line. So for the rest of your life, you get to use that people come in here. When you get to be an old fart, you’re really walking around struggling. What’s Joe doing here? I didn’t DOM throw him out. You can say I’m a better man when I’m working. That’s it. So I just gave you that Joe DiPasquale Dom’s here. Nancy’s here from Pierpoint. Crab cakes are here. Sausage is here. The Roma sausage King, I’m gonna have Darren and Pete come together. We’ll talk some more sauce. We’re gonna talk Highland town hooligan soccer action. And my first crab cake that I know of that had marched a pony in it. And the first crack pick, I definitely know that I squirted a little bit of lime on Don’t knock it if out there, try it. Come on down here and but the crab, nobody’s gonna come here and order crab cake. They’re gonna get the meatballs. They’re gonna get options. That’s what the problem is here, right? You don’t serve a lot of these, right? No, we do. You do, yeah, Darren, you gotta

Joe Di Pasquale  35:36

8

leave. I’m gonna keep a squalid sausage cake.

Nestor Aparicio  35:38

I know that the old day, that’s the old day, did I? Did I call him the Roman I’ve said that on the air once I was nasty Nestor, nobody calls me that anymore, except you. Well, Pete, I maybe have you saved

Domenico Di Pasquale  35:56

on my phone like that till nasty Nestor,

Nancy Longo  35:58

that’s the only people have known you a long time.

Nestor Aparicio  36:01

Is that love? Yeah, I love you too. Yeah, I do love her. Nancy Longo from Pierpoint, Joe and Tom are here. Darren’s gonna come back. We’re gonna talk sausage, more crab cakes. Somebody’s gonna come and help me eat all this meat. It’s all brought to you by the mayor of the lottery. I am Nestor. We are see it. This is this? How quick either they’re not even just, just here, drop the mic. Just do it like this. Boom, there we go. We’re back out Baltimore, positive. Stay with us. You.