IV Vitamin Therapy in Lyndhurst, NJ

Pizza Gaina, also known as Pizza Rustica, is an incredible Italian pie made for the Easter season. Last year, Muriales Trattoria and Italian Delicacies in Lyndhurst was voted best Pizza Gaina and Pizza Rustica in North Jersey by Jersey Sandwich Joints, which has over 50,000 Facebook followers.

Julia Muriale brought some to our New Jersey 101.5 studios, and I can definitely see why:

It’s our original family recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation. We stay true to the original ingredients which consist of fresh imported Italian provisions directly from Italy.

My mom, dad, brother and I came to the US from Camini, Calabria, in 1977. My parents were always amazing cooks and bakers, and they taught my brother and me all of the family traditions and recipes. We literally learned from the best. I worked in the corporate world until 2017, and I always felt something was missing. It was always my dream to have my own Italian specialty store and bakery. With the support of my family, I made the decision to take a leap of faith to open up Muriale’s in November of 2017.

Muriale’s is a family-owned and operated business. Whenever you come into our home away from home, you will be greeted by any one of our family members. Our entire family is involved in the business in some way, and each plays an integral role in our success.

We have a reputation for being consistent with our products. We only serve the freshest imported meats and cheeses. All of our food is made fresh daily, on-site from traditional family recipes. I believe our customers feel at home when they come into Muriale’s, and they know they will get the best and finest food and freshly baked items.

Imported Italian meats and cheeses. Traditional Italian cookies and desserts are baked fresh every day. 16 different homemade hot food selections are made every morning. Delicious homemade soups, salads, and sandwiches. Fresh mozzarella made each morning by Nonna herself. Tiramisu, carrot cake, American and Italian cheesecake as well as a variety of other cakes and dessert selections.

Each holiday we feature all of the traditional Italian specialties associated with that holiday. For instance Pizza Rustica at Easter LOL, struffoli (honey balls) at Christmas and for St. Josephs's Day we make San Giuseppe Sfinge and Zeppole, just to name a few.

We also do specialty and custom orders to suit each customer’s needs. We have a full catering menu to make any event special and delicious, from holidays to Christenings, communions, birthdays, baby and bridal showers, the Superbowl or any other event you can think of! We also do dessert tables for any occasion.

There are too many to name! But for sure Nonna Nina’s Traditional Italian Cookies and Desserts. Everyone goes crazy for our eggplant parmigiana; which is off the hook! Any of our specialty sandwiches, and, of course Nonna Caterina Fresh Mozzarella!

Every business and family has its challenges, and we have had our share of ours, for sure. We lost our father, Francesco in 2019. He was the patriarch of our family and was so proud of Muriale.

Then of course, COVID-19 took a toll on everyone. Just when we were starting to get back on our feet after that, a major flood that resulted in a total loss of the original deli closed us down for three months!!!

Our family pulled together, and with the help of my brother Joe and sister-in-law Angela, my niece, Isabel, and nephews Anthony, Joey and Jonathan, and, of course, our dedicated employees, we were able to reopen in record time- and better than ever!

And of course, our AMAZING customers and friends that believed in us and have offered their patronage and support for all of these years.

It is our hope that the traditions and love for the business will be carried onto the next generation through my niece and nephews and their future generations.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise only. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

You can now listen to Steve Trevelise — On Demand! Discover more about New Jersey’s personalities and what makes the Garden State interesting. Download the Steve Trevelise show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

Scenes from Jersey Pizza Joint's Pizza Bowl III

LOOK: Food and Personal Care Shortages We Could See In 2023

Learn about the 13 potential shortages that could impact stores in 2023, from produce and meat to snacks and beverages.

They are calling it a “miracle on Mulberry Street.”

On March 1, Alleva Dairy, the oldest cheese shop in America, closed its doors in Little Italy, where it peddled homemade Italian delicacies since 1892.

However, on that same morning, as its iconic signage was being taken down from its storefront on the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets, owner Karen King stood in front of the shop and announced that she is relocating the business to Lyndhurst, N.J. in August.

“Today marks a new chapter in the history of my beloved cheese store,” said King, at the impromptu press conference on the last day the store was open in Little Italy. “Thanks to the vision, generosity and commitment of businessman and developer, Jack Morris, President and CEO, of Edgewood Properties, Alleva Dairy will be opening a 3700-square-foot store at 9 Polito Avenue in Lyndhurst, NJ.

When King and her husband, actor John ‘Cha Cha’ Ciarcia, who was lovingly referred to as the “Unofficial Mayor of Little Italy,” bought Alleva in 2014, the couple knew they were “saving a piece of history.”

“We were so thrilled. We put benches out there to just look at this corner and were in awe of it,” King, a native of Whitestone, Queens, told Straus News a week ago.

Ciarcia’s lineage traces back to Benevento, Italy, where the Allevas hail from, and the two families considered themselves cousins.

“Somehow my husband’s cousins were maybe related to the Alleva family,” she said. “Even if maybe they were cousins, they weren’t, they always say they’re cousins when you’re friends. It’s like that Italian thing.”

The husband-and-wife duo purchased the business from Robert Alleva, whose family’s fifth generation was not interested in inheriting it.

Sadly, Ciarcia passed away a year later, leaving King to keep their beloved store going, which she did, until her landlord was able to take away its 10-year lease after she fell behind in rent payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once news of the impending closure got out, she was flooded with visits from customers, who shared their fond memories with her.

“I’ve had people come in from all over the country. They have stories that their grandmother was here; they came here with their father,” she said.

Celebrity fans include Chazz Palminteri, Vincent Pastore, Michael Imperioli, Vin Diesel, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who came there as a child with his father, and Sebastian Maniscalco, who loves Alleva’s sausage and peppers sandwiches.

Their sausage and peppers are a hit during the Feast of San Gennaro, which has been celebrated in Little Italy since 1926. A year after Ciarcia’s death, the feast instituted an event in his honor, a meatball eating contest, where 12 competitors assemble, each with 30 meatballs on a platter in front of them. Every year, Alleva makes 500 meatballs in preparation, and thousands of people gather to watch.

King, a professional singer, met Ciarcia, a Little Italy native, through a mutual friend in 1995, and quickly fell in love with him and his tight-knit neighborhood.

“I got to know what my husband loved about this community and the relationship that he had with everybody,” she said. “He grew up with all these people, all the owners, that have been here for many, many years. Of course, a lot of people moved away, but the people that did stay, were here for the lifetime.”

She proposed to Ciarcia at his café Cha Cha’s, which he operated at 113 Mulberry Street for 37 years, ordering all the eatery’s mozzarella and ricotta homemade from Alleva.

The pair tied the knot the following year, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with 550 guests in attendance, with Danny DeVito serving as their best man.

Ciarcia, who is known for his roles in “The Sopranos” and “Goodfellas,” had other New York Italians from the industry as groomsmen, such as Tony Danza and Danny Aiello.

“He said, ‘Do you want my friends that I grew up with or you want all our actor friends?’” she recalled. “And me being a professional singer and artist, said, ‘Put all your actor friends in it. It would be fun.’”

Danza, Ciarcia’s best friend, was once a silent partner in Alleva. “He’s doing two television shows, “Sex and the City” ... he doesn’t really have time for this, but I would have welcomed him back,” King said.

During the pandemic, with no tourists coming in, King had to pivot her business model, and began selling groceries like bread, butter and eggs, so locals had a place to buy food staples.

Since the restaurants in the area were closed, she called upon her chef, Danny Paulucci, who prepared takeout containers full of dishes like homemade meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, which became a bestseller, broccoli rabe with bowtie pasta and chicken marsala.

“He came in three times a week and he made all the food and we sold it to all the local people. That’s how we were able to stay in business for the past three years,” she said.

There were 18 Italian heroes on Alleva’s menu, with the most popular being “The Godfather,” whose ingredients included chicken cutlets, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and roasted peppers.

“Our chicken cutlets are freshly made and with the prosciutto, the blend of the tastes is dynamite,” she said. “It’s a taste in your mouth that is to die for.”

Said King. “One thing is certain, Alleva Dairy will continue and will be bigger and better than before.”

“One thing is certain, Alleva Dairy will continue and will be bigger and better than before.” Karen King, owner of Alleva Dairy as the iconic Little Italy shop relocates to NJ.

LYNDHURST — Work has begun on a $31 million ADA-accessible train station that will replace a 107-year-old station.

The new station, on NJ Transit's Main Line, will be at the intersection of Delafield and Court avenues, closer to the commuter parking lot than the station it is replacing a few hundred yards north.

"I am thrilled that our long-standing efforts and lobbying with NJ Transit have come to fruition,” Lyndhurst Mayor Robert Giangeruso said. “This new train station is critical in building smart growth infrastructure and is key to ensuring a prosperous future for Lyndhurst while also enhancing the quality of life of our residents.”

The station is designed to blend in with the Lyndhurst neighborhood and will include ADA-accessible platforms, four elevators and stairs, lighting, canopies, communications technology and closed-circuit TV.

The ADA-compliant parking lot will be next to the new station on property owned by the township under a lease agreement between Lyndhurst and NJ Transit.

The $30.9 million for the project was provided by the state's partners at the Federal Transit Administration.

NJ Transit’s board of directors approved a construction contract for $18.5 million for the project in September, awarding it to Anselmi & Decicco Inc. of Maplewood.

NJ TRANSIT:Newly graduated train engineers push NJ Transit to a milestone: a full roster

LYNDHURST:NJ students and their peers in Italy drawn together to help a fragile city

The station, pre-COVID 19, served an average of about 1,000 weekday passengers.

"We celebrate the beginning of construction work on a new rail station that will not only enhance accessibility, mobility and the customer experience for Bergen County residents who use Lyndhurst Station, it will support the state’s economic recovery and drive economic growth as we come out of the pandemic,” NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin S. Corbett said. The groundbreaking ceremony was last week.

The project is one of many station enhancements under a five-year capital plan that includes ongoing work at Newark Penn Station, Hoboken Terminal, Elizabeth Station, and stations in Perth Amboy, New Brunswick and North Brunswick, Corbett said.

Kristie Cattafi is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: [email protected]

A private auditing firm is expected to release findings on Monday that may explain why the Lyndhurst school district has a nearly $5 million deficit.

The deficit was revealed last January, when the former superintendent of schools said failure to issue the proper approval for expenditures and faulty bookkeeping were to blame for the shortfall, originally thought to be $1.1 million.

A review of five years' worth of district documents by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey shows that the district's business office accepted invoices from vendors for work that had already been completed, but which had not been authorized through proper procedures. The documents were acquired through a public records request.

Purchase orders, invoices and payment vouchers for plumbing and electrical work between the district and two local contractors were examined and showed that invoices seeking payment for completed work preceded purchase orders.

The district, the documents show, regularly accepted invoices for electrical and plumbing work completed by contractors throughout district schools before purchase orders for the repairs were done.

The proper procedure calls for purchase orders to be filed and approved by the district before any work can be completed, said former Superintendent Shauna DeMarco. The purchase orders also set a general price for the work.

One year ago, DeMarco attributed the financial woes to a mistake with purchase orders and the "re-classification" of funds. She said district administrators took costs absorbed in one year and transferred them to the another year's budget.

"The re-classification caused significant overspending in terms of quantities and amounts," DeMarco said in a statement last January.

The cause of the failure to issue purchase orders was never explained, nor were specifics as to what expenditures were missing approved orders.

Crime:Lyndhurst teacher pleads guilty to sexually assaulting student

Football:Mike Teel steps down as Don Bosco football coach

Book:Chris Christie has a book coming out. Does anyone in New Jersey want to read it?

"Business administrators in public schools are to have purchase orders in place prior to services being rendered," DeMarco wrote in an email in November. "Payments should be remitted following board approval [...] via resolution."

But this was not the case. Multiple bills were commingled on retroactive purchase orders that include such specific information as corresponding invoice numbers.

Of more than 60 invoices submitted by one contractor between 2015 and 2016, two purchase orders for the same period retroactively approved 12 individual invoices. Another purchase order retroactively approved nine.

"They clearly took the bill and used it to create the purchase order," said Bill Morrison, a forensic accountant with WithumSmith+Brown, as he looked over invoices and orders from multiple school years.

"A purchase order should be more general," he said, referring to orders that contained nearly narrative explanations of repairs, such as one line item written in the past tense: "Roosevelt School — Removed existing slop sink and faucet in boiler room and installed new sink and faucet with all necessary piping."

In another case, a plumber who was approved by a Board of Education resolution for $1,611 of work during the 2016-17 school year received $18,764 in payment.

Documents showed that close to $15,000 of those repairs were completed after September 2017 and through spring 2018. But those payments are included on a check registry for the 2016-17 school year.

The district has been undergoing a financial audit by the firm Lerch, Vinci and Higgins. Its auditor, Jeffrey Bliss, will deliver his report at a public meeting of the Board of Education on Monday night. This presentation was offered to the board’s finance committee last week, but officials said they could not comment on Bliss' findings until his report was made public.

Although Bliss was hired by school officials, the state Department of Education assigned a financial monitor to the district after the deficit was first announced in January 2018.

That monitor, Tom Egan, dropped a bombshell on the Township Commission last week, stating that a 2016 school renovation project was so poorly handled that the district bonded about $5 million dollars less than the project would cost, calling the process a "disaster."

Asked whether Bliss found the same problematic bookkeeping practices, Egan said he could not comment until after Monday's presentation. Scott Bisig, the district business administrator, said the same thing.

Bliss and the district's former business administrator, David DiPisa, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. DiPisa left Lyndhurst for a similar position within the Bergenfield district in August 2017, before the deficit was made public.

LYNDHURST — The school board is soliciting residents interested in filling a vacant seat, to end a two-month impasse due to the premature resignation of a member-elect.

Any resident who meets the requirements of board membership can apply for the vacant seat, said Thomas Egan, a financial monitor brought in by the state Education Department to examine a $5 million deficit.

The board and its secretary will revue all applications and board members will vote on a replacement at the next meeting.

"The goal is that the new person will be hopefully appointed on January 28, so that there is not a big gap," Egan said during the board's organizational meeting on Monday.

Resident Vincent Tunnero won one of three board seats in November's election. Soon after, news broke that he had been arrested on Oct. 25 in Seaside Heights on charges that he had kept thousands of dollars for remodeling jobs he had not completed.

As word spread, he announced his intention to resign, though he was rejecting a seat that what was not yet his to reject, causing confusion among education and election officials from Lyndhurst, the county and the state.

On Monday, with the departure of three sitting members and the swearing in of their replacements, Tunnero's absence from the ceremony created an official vacancy, which the district may now fill.

Meanwhile, Frank Ferrandino and Richard Pizzuti Jr. took their seats as the two newest members. Outgoing members are Ron Grillo, Sheri Jarvis and Josephine Malaniak. Of those three, only Jarvis sought re-election.

Jarvis said she had not made up her mind whether she would apply to fill the vacancy and reclaim her old seat.

"I don’t know if I want to be up on the stage or in the audience," she said Tuesday.

She said nothing is out of the question but conceded, "It feels good to be on the other side."

The election of three newcomers is the latest turn in the story of a district facing insurmountable financial woes and exodus of administrative brass, including former Superintendent Shauna DeMarco, who left in June after only one year of her five-year contract, and Business Administrator David DiPisa, who departed the district in 2017.

Education:NJ doubles security funding for religious and private schools

ICYMI:Days before swearing in, Lyndhurst school board not sure how to deal with vacancy

As outgoing member Ron Grillo accepted a proclamation in honor of his nine consecutive terms on the dais, he referenced the money concerns plaguing the district.

"I’ve always tried to think of the children, that was my first priority," he told the audience. "It wasn’t money, obviously, because we have some problems with money. Money never concerned me that much."

Some board members, he said, put money first.

He wished Ferrandino and Pizzuti well, and advised them to remember they are there for the students.

It was revealed last year that the district discovered a $1.1 million deficit on its books, which may now be as high as $5 million, according to Egan.

The state Department of Education is expected to present Egan's findings at the Jan. 28 board meeting.