Brand to Table · 2026-05-30 · 1h 22m
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
45 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Vinnie Mootz brings deep operational and philosophical perspective to brand-building in the competitive New Jersey food space. A self-described blue-collar operator who spent summers in Campania, Italy as a child, Mootz has built Vinny's Mutz on uncompromising sourcing - using premium curds from local Bergen County cheese manufacturers, frying exclusively in beef tallow, and making bread crumbs from whey-soaked chicken. He discusses the specific challenge of educating consumers about real food versus commodity alternatives, candidly addressing how competitors use lesser ingredients like bromated flour and bleached mozzarella, and the constant pressure to cut costs. Mootz emphasizes that social media has become essential storytelling despite the exhausting daily work it demands, while remaining skeptical of viral success mythology. His approach to product education spans in-person classes, Instagram documentation (without revealing core secrets), and increasingly, direct customer confrontation about expectations - particularly around pricing in an era of inflated tomato and utility costs. The episode speaks directly to restaurant owners and specialty food producers wrestling with authenticity versus scale, local sourcing, and how to articulate value in a market saturated with shortcuts.
Vinny sources premium curds with full milk fat and pH balance from local Bergen County cheese manufacturers, preserves the delicate milk fats most producers strip out, and uses hand-stretched techniques taught to him in Campania - versus commodity producers who use bleached, stripped curds that lose flavor and nutritional value.
Mootz treats social media as essential daily storytelling work showing his process and sourcing philosophy, but deliberately doesn't reveal specific recipes or supplier names; he posts content to prove craft happens and educate followers about real ingredients versus shortcuts, but accepts that social media alone doesn't drive revenue.
Vinnie began making mozzarella at home, selling to family and friends for holidays until his wife demanded he move the operation out; the real inflection came when two competitors questioned whether he was using 'polio' (inferior ingredients), which prompted him to commit to real sourcing and eventually get into Mutzfest.
Mootz openly tells cheap-seeking customers not to come; he refuses commodity shortcuts (two-day dough process, beef tallow frying, whey-soaked chicken) and is transparent about costs rising (tomatoes to $96, electricity burden), and he'd rather educate or lose customers than compromise quality for margin.
Mootz rejects the idea of 'making it big' and focuses on daily craft; he sees the fork-in-the-road decision to go left or right every single day, uses social media to document his authentic process, and leans into teaching people (via classes and direct conversation) why his way matters rather than chasing viral growth.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode contains valuable operational anecdotes and philosophy about authenticity, sourcing, and business integrity, but is heavily padded with tangential personal stories, rambling observations, and conversational filler that don't advance B2B learning. Insights about ingredient sourcing (high-pH curds, beef tallow costs, tomato pricing) and COVID pivoting are useful, but buried amid 82 minutes of largely non-actionable narrative.
we supply our curds with with People that know what they're doing, right? With companies, and they're right here in Bergen County
every day now. It's not monthly. It used to be like every couple of months, so we'd have a little shift or we lost a crop. Now it's every single day. Every single day
While Vinny's personal story and blue-collar Italian-American authenticity are distinctive, the episode recycles familiar restaurant industry narratives: the artisanal-vs-industrial sourcing debate, inflation/supply chain complaints, social media necessity, and the 'doing it the right way' positioning. Little contrarian or first-principles thinking emerges; mostly echo-chamber validation of premium food philosophy without systematic business insights.
we were being poisoned and we were being brainwashed
Social media has to know the story because it's the only way these days that people listen
Vinny is a hands-on operator running a real product-based business and has navigated COVID, competition, and supply-chain pressure. However, he is a small single-location artisanal maker, not a scaled operator, investor, or systems thinker. His experience is tactile and hyperlocal rather than strategic or generalizable. Valuable for restaurant culture but limited in scope for B2B learning beyond food service.
I sold insurance for twenty five years of my life
my kids used to crush curd for me before they used to go to high school in the morning
Vinny provides concrete details on ingredient costs (beef tallow $90/carton vs. $72, tomatoes $96, olive oil $107/tin, lettuce $0.37 historically vs. $92 now) and product specifics (two-day shelf life, high-pH curd, Tuscan olive oil from the north). However, he avoids specific sales figures, margins, employee counts, customer acquisition costs, and other measurable business metrics. Much is expressed as philosophy rather than quantified evidence.
My beef tallows ninety dollars. It used to be like seventy two
tomatoes went up to $96 and then came down and then went back up
Henry asks reasonable setup questions and demonstrates genuine curiosity about Vinny's story, but rarely presses back on vague claims, challenges pricing strategy, or digs into systematic business lessons. The host allows extensive tangents about childhood, hockey skates, and neighborhood friends without redirecting to actionable insight. Follow-ups are warm but lack intellectual rigor; the conversation feels more like two friends reminiscing than a structured B2B interview.
I want to I want to spend a couple minutes on the product
So how important is that to you to get out there on social and kind of show the process
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
In Episode 63 of the Brand To Table Podcast, Henry Kaminski Jr. welcomes Vinnie Morelli, the personality and operator behind Vinnie’s Mootz in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. This conversation goes far beyond mozzarella. Vinnie opens up about growing up between New Jersey and Italy, learning food traditions from his family, and why the food from Campania had such a deep impact on the way he thinks about quality, simplicity, and authenticity. Henry and Vinnie talk about what makes fresh mozzarella different, why the product has to be made with care, and why restaurant owners need to show the craft behind what they serve instead of just saying their food is fresh. Vinnie also shares the honest side of running a food business today. He talks about rising ingredient costs, the pressure of operating through difficult seasons, the role of social media, and how moments like Pizza Bowl and Dave Portnoy’s One Bite review helped put more attention on the brand. For restaurant owners and hospitality leaders, this episode is a reminder that great brands are not built on trends alone. They are built on story, consistency, family, quality, hospitality, and the willingness to keep showing up.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: What is going on, everybody? Welcome to another Brand to Table podcast episode. I'm your host, Henry Kaminsky Jr.
, your go-to for restaurant marketing and branding. And today, guys, we got an amazing guest. Local dude, been around for a long time, has a phenomenal product and brand. Everybody freaking loves him.
I want to introduce Vinny Morelli from Vinny's Mutz in Lynnhurst, New Jersey. What is going on, Vin? Vinnie Mootz: Good brother, good. All good.
Thanks for the intro, man. That was very nice. Appreciate ya. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Dude, I cannot wait to get into this story. You have such a colorful story. You have such a colorful background. You got a big personality.
I can relate to that. So I want I want restaurant owners to get this episode, download it, and be like, wow, Vinny gave me some really great insight from the heart, from the soul, from the experience that he has put into this. Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: brand of his for all these years. So that's kind of the conversation that we're gonna have today. It's gonna be very chill. You know me, it's like two dudes smoking a cigar, you know, drinking some scotch.
So let's get into the conversation because there's a couple things that you guys have that I don't see a lot of restaurants have. Okay. And I'm gonna explain those things in a in a in in in three three or four buckets. You got pro you got product that people love.
Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: You got a great story, which we'll get into in a second.
You got personality. And Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. Maybe. Probably do a film or two, yeah, sure.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ I bet you could, dude. And and and then I wanna, because I'm a big, I'm a big branding guy, I wanna, I kind of want to lean into the personality stuff a little bit more than everything else because the product speaks for itself. I've actually had it.
I've been to one of your classes before, just outstanding. but I want to get into sort of the story. So let's start here. Let take me back before Vinnie Mutz was even a thing.
And Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I want people to know kind of how the story began because let's face it. I mean, you are very popular in the northern New Jersey area, but there might be some people in South Jersey or ⁓ maybe across the country that are tuning into this that don't know who you are.
And I think your story is very inspiring. So take me back to the beginning. Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, I mean you you know the beginning is so long ago. I'm I'm fifty one years old, right, today.
I would have never thought I said that. ⁓ but I think it all boils down to tradition and we hadn't we you know, I don't wanna say I was poor. I w I wasn't poor, right? My my father was a blue collar teamster, right?
My mom was a seamstress. But we went back to Italy every other summer. We would spend two months. We'd live there.
You know, we have land, a house, plenty of family. And literally my summers were spent in a foreign country learning a different language, speaking a different language, eating different food, ⁓ different customs, different traditions, different, just different everything. How people lived, how people express themselves, how how you know, we call it an Italian buffone. You don't want to be a buffone.
You know, because that means you're so ⁓ it's so extravagant, you know. ⁓ but the way of life in Italy was just so s simple, but yet they didn't abuse the future. And so I think that's what's wrong today, right? And that's a whole nother story.
But they knew what the future was, they knew the technology, they knew the microwave existed, they knew that there was a way of you know holding water differently. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay. Vinnie Mootz: There they knew all that stuff.
But did they do it? No, because it ruined a tradition or it ruined an authenticity or it ruined something else. All right. So when I went back to Italy for the summer months, it was basically us, you know, and living that life.
You know what I mean? And ⁓ I had to bring it back. You know, I had to I had to show my kids I I had to I had to bring it back. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm. So your family's f you're from Caserta. Vinnie Mootz: Cazerta, yep. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah, and now whereabouts is that in Italy, so for for those folks that don't know. Vinnie Mootz: So yeah, so if you draw the boot, right, and you look in Naples, the Gulf of Naples, ⁓ if you were to travel ⁓ more east, all right, you will come into something called Campania. You would just be under the volcano, right? ⁓ so mountainous above also there's a lot of flat ⁓ rain you know, but a lot of ⁓ organic volcanic soils, right?
So Henry Kaminski Jr.: Uh-huh. Vinnie Mootz: They grew my my aunts and uncles, they either owned like ⁓ orchards or farms or they had construction ⁓ like supply house. So ⁓ and you know, they were very well to do and my well other uncle was actually they call him Cavalier.
It was actually his part of his last name, but it means, you know, like the front horse, which ⁓ also meant like a politician kind of person in town. Like he wasn't Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Vinnie Mootz: and you know, maybe an you know, or voted in politician, but because he was you know, he had clout, he had clout in the city, you know, like they they knew him, you know.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. What do you remember most about the food growing up over there? Vinnie Mootz: ⁓ man, simple, simple, and simple's hard, man. Simple's not easy.
I think people think simple simple's not easy. Simple, simple leaves so much room for error. I just don't get it. And and that's what it was.
It was just simple. It was like, okay, four ingredients. Made a meal, right? ⁓ and and these guys.
See the size of these guys? All right. Henry Kaminski Jr.: The hands.
He's he's looking at it, he's pointing at his hands. Vinnie Mootz: All right, my hands, right? That's that's it's all it's what it is, about the love of doing what you do, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. Now all of the different types of food that come from Italy, you you picked Muzzarell. So I I want to get an understanding of like what grabbed your your attention to Mozzarell so so much more than everything else. Vinnie Mootz: As they do in Italian.
A lot of hand gestures in Italian, you know, hen? You know what I mean? ⁓ why wouldn't I? I'm from Campania.
I'm from the land of where La Bufalo Mozzarella, Fiore del Arte, right? It's it's known that region's known for that type of cheese. ⁓ I grew up eating sheep milk though. Yeah, that's we eat the pecorino family.
Like usually Primo Sala cheeses were on my table every every single night. It's probably what we shredded or it's grated on our pasta too. ⁓ let's talk about mutz. I mean what's not to love.
It's a basic it's a it's a white right. It's a white blank canvas, right? It it can it can help you express artistical kind of, you know, expressions. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. I can eat it I can eat it by the buff. Yep. Vinnie Mootz: It can it could be a backdrop for a a foundation of a sandwich.
It could it could be the it could be the the the top you know elegance of a chicken parm. I mean you want me to just keep going? I mean I can keep going on and on and on about mozzarella, but mozzarella by itself in definition, right? Fiore di latte, ⁓ you know, flower of milk.
This is another problem we have, right? Is we don't eat milk fats anymore. Why not? We need milk fats.
Eat the milk fats, they make you lose weight. All right. So protein, right? So that's the mozzarella is from Campania.
It's it's what I grew up eating. It's the la bufala would be fed to me as a child, it'd be put in my bottle. Besides pasta. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. No. And here you are. And here you are fifty one years later, healthy as an ox, you know?
Like people need You're definitely not going hungry, dude. Vinnie Mootz: Look at and look at looking not too shabby, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I g no no no. I'm not going hungry. ⁓ there are nights I might not eat, ⁓ but talking about this business, but yeah, there definitely I I am ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: Ha ha ha.
Yeah. So let me ask you this, dude. You you know, you you're around this, you're around this food, you're around this particular food, and it starts to become a thing, right? It starts to become a business, right?
So I wanna get a I wanna get a chance. Was there was to to ask you like, was there a moment where you were like, ooh. I need to I need to brand this because this is that good. Vinnie Mootz: You know, listen, I I don't I I'm not a man of flaunting.
I'm not I'm not I'm not I don't like that stuff. I don't th you know, I don't you know, I kinda like try not to throw stones in my own glass house. Am I perfect? No.
In life there's two ways. There's a fork in your road every day, right? And you have to decide on which way you're gonna go, left or right. It's not right or wrong.
There's no su no there's no such thing. Unless you're doing something bad, then you're con then you have a devil on your shoulder. That's something that you got the gazoo. That's something different.
Alright? We're talking about everyday life. Everyone's gotta make a turn every single day. And sometimes you make a left and it's the right one.
Sometimes you make a right and it's the right one. Sometimes you make a left and it's the wrong one. Alright? But tomorrow, guess what?
You gotta make that same decision all over again. Alright, so everybody just kept telling me and I didn't believe it. Did not believe it what so much because I am not one to take that, right? Your mozzarella is the best.
Your mozzarella is the best. Your mozzarella is the best. And then I'll remember these two gentlemen, and I won't say their name. They said to me, what does he know?
You know, we're starting off. He's probably using polio. You know what I mean? Right?
Yeah, so these two guys, I won't mention names. I hope they watch this. They said, Hey, what is he now? Just starting out, by the way.
I was just starting. He's using Palio. You know what mean? And I was.
I was. I was. Right? So you know, I took that and I was like, whoa.
Who was like, ⁓ I was like, somebody caught on to somebody caught on. This is not good. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.
Somebody's on to me. Yeah, they're on to me. Vinnie Mootz: Time to make it right, yo, time to make it right, right? Turn right, turn right.
⁓ Sal, Sal, no, bye, bye. Watermer, what you doing? ⁓ so they just kept telling me, and then I said to myself, no, and this can't be, it's not right, because they they somebody called me out, man. ⁓ I'm using what everybody else is using.
So I had to I had to rethink, right? But I kept making this mozzarella. Somebody got me into the whole book and Mutzfest one year. After selling it out of you I was just selling it out of my house.
People would just call me, Hey, Easter's coming, can you make me some mutts? Hey, Christmas is coming and you make me some mutts, hey, you know, okay, all right, you know. And then of a sudden my wife's like, Get this stuff out of my house. You're not doing this here.
You know what I mean? You're you're not doing this now. And ⁓ that's you know, led on to something else. But it was everybody it was the constant good feedback I was you know, besides my kids.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: So what did they? Vinnie Mootz: Right what I mean? Like the best thing of my life, right?
My wife, my kids, my family and my mutts, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny.
So what did the early days look like for you when you were trying to get people to understand what Vinnie Mutz's was? Like was that easier to do based on our de like based on our geographic location? Because we got a lot of Italians in the neighborhood. Vinnie Mootz: I won't say, listen, I won't discredit the fact, right?
That we live in a very populous, right, and we have tons of Italian immigrants and they've spread out, right? ⁓ but I I got I got Japanese, I got Korean, I got Indian, I got Syrian, I got everybody loves the mutts. It's not not just right. ⁓ it does help though, right?
And it also hurts, right? Because I'm surrounded by eight delis, right? And if I go to the next town over, there's another eight. And then somebody does a pop up or someone puts out a you know a sandwich and says, This is the best thing, because I put Cooper's cheese on whatever they do, you know what I mean?
And then here I am every day, taking that same road, left or right, right? Try to pick the right one. Henry Kaminski Jr.: How so?
How so? Mm. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: And then constantly trying to educate people about food.
I can't stop this. It's it's a it's a it's a sickness of mine. I've learned this over the last few years, but we were being poisoned and we were being brainwashed. Okay.
So it it there there has to be a time in that in that point I had to make a decision on am I doing. Is the area the right area? Am I gonna be saturated by surrounding talent? Am I gonna be pushed out eventually?
Yeah, it's all succession of business. This happens all day long. There's people in business for 50 years, there's people in business for one year, right? And it it it's all different.
And then I I just you just I had to find a spot. Lindhurst is the little Italy of the Meadowlands, right? I I won't I won't take full credit for that comment. That is a guy Madison comment.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: All right. But I've adapted that.
I've also I'm a South Bergen kid. I grew up, you know, trying to catch tadpoles in the creeks and seacaucus. ⁓ I fell, you know, into swamps in in, you know, the back of like the Pasak River. I tried to catch a goldfish the size of some, you know, someone's pet from thirty years.
Listen, it's all about what we did growing up as South Bergen. South Bergen kids are just different, right? South Bergen, we were just Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: We were just felt we were like the stepchild of Bergen County.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: It was the LBC. The LBC. You know?
Listen, my mother was from CrossTech, your town. So, you know, I spent many, many, many years growing up in that town. My cousins still live there. My cousin's a cop there.
You know, so it it's it's crazy. ⁓ yeah, he gets his looks from me though. Vinnie Mootz: We were the stepchild of Bergen County. I well calls that.
Yep. He's a great guy, by the way. We love Bruno. It's great.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ so was there a moment that you got kind of hit over the head where you were like, Okay, this is becoming something bigger than I expected? Vinnie Mootz: Nope, still hasn't done it. No, and I won't let it.
Nope, no thank you. ⁓ I'm just gonna go to Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. That's good.
I like how grounded and humble you are. Vinnie Mootz: I'm just gonna go to work. ⁓ you're gonna come here? ⁓ I'm I'm gonna be the guy.
⁓ Nuclear Warfare, I'll still be making mutts. ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's what that's that's what's up, man. That's what's up.
All right. So let's get into the product. I want to I want to spend a couple minutes on the product. You know, for somebody that I mean we might be talking, we might be talking to the wall here, but for somebody that hasn't had fresh mutts before, right?
The made the right way, made the Vinny way, right? How would you explain the difference? Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, man. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So You know, everybody says the same crap, okay?
I got the best pizza, I got the best mutz, I got the best this, I got the best this. This is what I say about that. Fangula Mamada, okay? Because it's all a preference, it's all a preference.
What the who the hell am I to tell you what kind of pizza you like? What kind of cheese do you like? Who am I? Who am I?
Who am I? Who am I? No. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: So here's the thing, right?
The Mutz, right? There's a way to make mozzarella. I was taught in campagna, okay? And you know, and I I was taught as a young child to make cheese.
My fa they make primo sala. They used to do this all the time. They because they wouldn't have a really hard rennet. They would use the pecorino milk.
And it's a soft cheese. It's actually delicious. If I I I store I have it here all the time. Primo sala is one of my favorite cheeses in the world, right?
But when the Buffalo Mozzarella, a lot of companies today, right, they strip all the good stuff out to make other products. Right? So who would have thunk I'd take a little bit more cream out. I could leave enough cream to make curd, but I could take some more cream out and I could make rigota or I could make something mascapone or I can make something else, right?
Without, you know, bringing in more produ more supply. Right. So we we supply our curds with with Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: People that know what they're doing, right? With companies, and they're right here in Bergen County.
That's the that's the sickest part. We have cheese manufacturers right here within the five miles of my place. Cheese manufacturers, people that make some of the best vigotta in the world, right? Come right here in Jersey, right?
And ⁓ the the curds that we buy. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.
Vinnie Mootz: Are more difficult. This is what I mean about simple being hard. Okay. This is the part, right?
Because the curds that we use still has its milk, still has its fat, still has its waste, it has everything, right? It has a high pH balance, it's meant to keep the butter fat. But for a DIYer. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: for ⁓ I'm just gonna open up a pizzeria, make my own mozzarella. ⁓ look at my cheese is the best, right? You can't make cheese with my curd because you don't know how.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Thank you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Vinnie Mootz: You don't know how, right? So we took listen, it took a while. It took friends. It took people, you know, networking.
It took it took a little bit to figure this out because and you know, you walk into a supermarket or a large warehouse food cash and carry or whatever, right? And you start look and this is what maybe I don't know what the number is, forty percent of what pizzeria do today is they just Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ no. Vinnie Mootz: Open up a bag, pour it out, right?
Put it in a dish, right? Or you know, you want to start with the whole bleach and bromated, you know, saga that's going on now, right? Let's talk about you know, you the same thing about the mutts, right? You wanna use that crab flour?
Yeah, you're gonna make great pizza. People are gonna like it, people are gonna eat it, but what are you doing to yourself, right? Yeah, you can make great cheese with the curd you could right down the block, right? But is it the best cheese?
What else are they putting in there? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Exactly. Right.
Vinnie Mootz: Why is it so white? Why is it so white? Please somebody tell me why is that mud so white? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: Alright, so I'm done. I'm done.
I'm fed up. I've I've I've hit a plateau. I'm fifty I'm not doing this again. All right.
So if you want to eat good food, you wanna eat real food, all right? You wanna eat cheap food, don't come here. Please. I'm I'm sorry.
Don't do not. Don't even insult me. Don't don't write me a post on TikTok that your pizza fell and it's the piece of shit because you put five toppings on it and then you're gonna tell me my piece of shit. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: That's that's that's not that's not how this works. All right? On an apron, come on down, I'll show you what all my team does while we go through in a day to make the most delicious food with stuff that people don't even know I'm using.
That's the problem. Who fries in a hundred percent beef tallow? Nobody. Who makes their own bread crumb and soaks chicken in whey milk?
Nobody. You want me to just keep going on and on? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right.
Yeah. Ha ha ha. Vinnie Mootz: My fifty seven dollars a bag. I use two types of flowers to make my dough.
It takes two days. It takes three people to make pizza here. I'm done. You don't want to eat good food, go somewhere else.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's it, you know? And it's funny because you bring me right to my next question. And that is, you know, a lot of pe a lot of restaurants are barking from, you know, the the the the high, you know, the the the the mountaintops going, you know, my stuff is fresh.
And but now there's a lot of proving going on. People want, all right, you're so fresh, like prove it. How important is it for your guests to actually see the craft? Because you do a really good job on social media, I'm not gonna lie.
Showcasing the steps and showcasing, but you don't give away the secrets, which I like too. You gotta keep something close to the heart, right? So how important is that to you to get out there on social and kind of show the process and let people know that this is ⁓ how we're different? Vinnie Mootz: Yeah.
So social media, I right, you know, love it or hate it, you gotta embrace it. It is what it is. It's the same thing as DoorDash Uber Eats, right? You you gotta love it or hate it, you gotta embrace it.
You know, nobody's gonna give you the secret recipe, right? You just you gotta figure it out, right? ⁓ but you know, at the end of the day, right? ⁓ when you start to look at all that stuff, like social media I I'm not gonna say is is a hundred percent Vinnie Mutz, right?
Like ⁓ but I can't tell you it's not a hundred percent Vinnie Mutz, right? I can't I c can't tell you either way. I'm not gonna again it can't it's never gonna be a hundred percent because it does require work, people. All right.
So you young kids out there that think I'm gonna post something on social media and then tomorrow I'm a millionaire. This is my mother used to do. You made it on money, go pff, right? So it's not gonna work.
All right. So so it takes hard work, number one. Number two, content. Like ⁓ you gotta come up with stuff every day.
It's a job. It's a job. It's a freaking job, right? Number three.
I don't know how society is grasping everyday social media. So Is it a hundred percent of their daily activity? Is it thirty percent? Is it twenty percent?
Just people that only there's some people that don't even look on social media. I got people that say I don't have Facebook, sorry. I don't have Instagram, sorry. ⁓ I don't use TikTok, but I am on Facebook.
Well, when I'm not on Instagram and TikTok or Facebook, but I'm on I don't know, whatever, right? I'm I'm on some dating site, totally different conversation. But social media is important because I have to tell my story. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Okay. Uh-huh. Vinnie Mootz: They these people don't understand my story. I'm a blue collar.
I want to cry. I'm a blue collar, hard working, don't know anything else to do but to work. That's all I know. I don't know anything else.
I know how to love, I know how to hate, I know how to work. And I know how to work on my hands, right? ⁓ this business has it's taken from me, it's stolen from me, it's given back, it's It's got wounds. It's got some that never heal.
I have some that maybe will heal eventually. ⁓ but everybody thinks that you know ⁓ you must be doing wonderful. You know, you you're s you're amazing. You're you're on fa you I see you all day.
You're coming up organically. That's the stuff I like to hear. When I hear people tell me I come up organically on social media, you know. But then I hear, ⁓ you you're killing it.
You're this, you're that. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: Hey buddy, you wanna see my books?
You wanna come in? You wanna see the tomatoes went up to $96 and then came down and then went back up? You wanna see long hots? You wanna see what it costs to run the electricity out of this place?
I'm fed up. I'm fed up, right? So social media has to know the story because it's the only way these days that people listen. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: I know it's crazy, right? It's and it's everybody's highlight reel. You know, people you hear that a lot too. Everybody puts the best of the best out there, you know, and and and they don't they're scared because they don't want to feel Vinnie Mootz: Or they're telling you that, they're telling you that, they're feeding you a bunch of shit and they're telling you it's the best because you have you been there?
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right. Exactly. Vinnie Mootz: Right?
I mean, have you w what did you see it? You know? Did you visually did somebody sign off on that saying that that's exactly what happened? No.
You see it on social media, you think it looks true. Ooh, it makes your message better. So let me just let me just spit it out as if it's real and you're telling lies. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Exactly.
To a T. I mean it Vinnie Mootz: Did I s did I sum it up? I summed it up. Right.
So I'm here to tell you a real story. You know, do I struggle every month? Yeah. We still trying to make things work?
Yeah. We still trying to figure it out? Yeah. Are we making money?
Yeah. Are we flipping food? Yeah. We got fresh stuff.
There's a truck here every single day. I still gotta do my day job. So I could work and make enough money to survive every inflation driven ⁓ catastrophes, right? So if you look within the last five years that I've been in business, I've been through more turmoil in a restaurant than some business owners that have had it for fifty years.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right. Right. Right.
Cause you g you came you know, COVID just kinda just Vinnie Mootz: COVID, I'm I must almost I was dead. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right, right. Vinnie Mootz: I had no vinny mutts.
There was nothing. It was dead. It was it was cut. It was it was literally cut.
It was I was done. There was no more. There was no Vinnie Mutz. I didn't Henry Kaminski Jr.
: So how did you how did you re resurface? How did you where did you find that strength to come back? Vinnie Mootz: I was sick and tired of watching CNN, Fox, ⁓ Channel 2, Channel 4, Channel 7, watching our president, watching, you know, somebody telling me I gotta get a shot, somebody I gotta gotta do this, somebody I gotta I gotta, you know, I gotta use this, and then all of a sudden, Instacart gets born. DoorDash goes crazy, ⁓ my friend's pizza restaurants blowing up.
And then here I am in front of a TV. ⁓ my God, what's happening next? ⁓ my God. ⁓ my God.
⁓ my God. ⁓ my God. You know what I said? I said to myself, is this what I'm is this how I'm going out?
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Vinnie Mootz: Just how I'm going out. I didn't even create this problem.
Usually I'm 100% of the problem. Not this time. I didn't make COVID. You know, I am You know, I make some earthquakes once in a while when I gotta fart, but I don't make COVID.
Right? So like it's not this one's not my fault. I looked at my wife, I said, You can't blame me for this one. I didn't I did not do this one.
So I gotta I gotta figure this out. And Henry Kaminski Jr.: my god. You're pissing.
Vinnie Mootz: I put my big boy pants on and I did what everybody else did. I mashed up because I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know who was gonna die, what was it, who was gonna kill you, who nobody knew. Now you can say all the big shots come out.
⁓ I knew that. I knew that you didn't know shit. Okay? Alright?
So we didn't know. I mashed up. Gloves. I go to restaurant depot.
I stand in line with a hundred other people. I bought a bag of chicken. I bought. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Ha ha ha.
Vinnie Mootz: a piece of ham to cut. I called my friend over at the bakery. I said, send me some bread. I went to the store.
Instead of watching the news, I started making mutts and I put out a piece of bread and my fr and some friends would come and hang out or someone would buy a ball of mutts. And then all of a sudden I was putting ham inside the mutts. I was putting prosciutto stuffed in the mutts. I was selling a piece of bread.
So you can come into my store on a Sunday, you know, grab a ball of muds, grab a piece of bread now, you know, through COVID, masked up, plexiglass, ⁓ like the COVID's not gonna go around it, right? Whatever, right? And then all, you know, six feet tape on the floor, right? stupidity.
But anyway, right. And then anyway, ⁓ and then I would wash, I'd clean, and I would I would try to do I had no stove, so I c really couldn't cook much in my first store. I hadn't I had electric Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
⁓ God. Yeah, sure. Vinnie Mootz: That's I had no gas. I boil water in an electric urn for coffee, right?
⁓ and that's how I was making mutts. I was literally making mutts out of electric urn that I plugged in. ⁓ and I would just I would just put out a couple of balls of mutts and hopefully use social media to just say, Hey, I know everyone's freaked out, you know, I'll I'll I'll put it in a bag, I'll put a mask, I'll I'll hand it to you, I'll you know, but you still need to eat. Just because there's, you know.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Wow. Right. Vinnie Mootz: E everybody's gotta eat, you gotta eat good stuff.
You can't be going to Burger King, McDonald's just because, you know, they were able to push a marketing campaign worth millions of dollars that I don't have to offer you a five dollar whopper or you know, I I again I don't I don't wanna be like stereotypical to a different, you know, to a specific, you know, company, but I'm just saying like that's what marketing does, right? So if you have that money, the marketing then pushes people's ideologies to change. So Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: You know, one thing I learned in my in my business, my first b my real job, right, is is sales, right? It's number one, people don't people lie, numbers don't. That's number one, right?
And number two is how do you change someone's behavior, their mental behavior? How do you do that? It's the most difficult thing to do. You could tell someone, no, don't don't turn left there, turn right because you gotta go down Stuyvesant Avenue, right?
Okay. But try to teach somebody Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Mm.
Vinnie Mootz: Now tomorrow, I know you wake up at seven and eat Cheerios by eight thirty and you're up. But I just want you to change what you do. Go ahead, see how that works. It doesn't work.
You know, so you have to learn how to change people's behavior. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Not gonna happen. No.
So let's get into that because I wanna I wanna start looking at the bright side because you did have some some some highlights and some magical moments that change I would say I would say shifted some of the attention towards you. So let's talk about the pizza bowl. You know, winning that that that competition is a big deal. Like what did that do for the brand?
Vinnie Mootz: Big deal, my d ⁓ man, big deal, you know. Just puts it well puts you on the map, you know, 'cause people are like, wait, what is this place? Like and here's the best thing, right? You can hashtag this one, Henria, right?
I'm not a pizzeria. Pizzeria. I'm not a pizzeria. I am not a pizzeria.
I'm not even a deli. I'm an eatery. You come and eat, right? So pizza bowl, right?
This is the funniest thing ever, but also one of the most I would say a very big highlight for me. Because, you know, you it's a it's a popularity competition up front up front. And then there's a contest, you know, with tasting, you know. ⁓ so like I didn't even I'd be honest with you, really didn't take it serious.
I just thought it was gonna be another cool day, exciting day to hang out. Number one is Doug Palsey, my friend who owns Reds. I've known him my whole life, right? So, well most of my life, right?
So that was I'm like, hey, I'm in Carlstadt, cool, you know. I'm hanging out with some of the best pizzeria's in all of New Jersey. Hello, right? ⁓ how can I network with these guys, right?
And I started building camaraderie with these people and like, you know, we started like, Hey, let me get your number. You know what I mean? So like, you know, it was more than ⁓ my God, Vinny, you won as I'm getting the phone call on the way back 'cause I had to go to work. I had to go make I had to go make mutts.
And then I had to come back and I actually missed but I kinda come back and you know there won and what happened afterwards was this you know, guy Madison, you know Whoever, again, people have all different types of opinions, right? But I don't know what what is he doing this for? I don't even know what he's I don't know what he's getting out of this. I really don't.
I just think he likes to do this for people. He likes to help, you know. And you know, people have different opinions about different people, and that's your that's your prerogative, right? And I ha and I have mine.
But the guy doesn't have to do this, right? So he brings me to Channel Eleven News. He right? He I'm in front of Ernie and Asta.
I mean, who right? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: I mean, I'm up I'm making mutts.
I've sold insurance for twenty five years of my life. I never got in front of Ernie and Nasta. I make up all the mutts. I'm in front of Ernie and Nasta, right?
So I I'm on Cloud Nine, right? I'm I'm in the planet, the Hollywood Planet building. Like I this is this is cool shit, right? I'm on one ⁓ one point five with with with those guys.
Like, hello. And then like now, even a couple years later, it's like, hey, that's many mutts, man. That's twenty twenty three Pizza Bowl four champ, you know, three champ, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Ha ha ha. Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: poor, right? So ⁓ and i it helped.
But just like Dave Portnoy, right? Just like just like right so they're all spurts. They give you that quick bump, right? And then then you're on it's now it's ⁓ now it's your fault because if you mess up ⁓ I went to the Pizza Bowl champion yesterday and his pizza shit.
You know, it's like come on, bro. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Vinnie Mootz: I put fresh mozzarella on my pizza. I don't even cook my sauce. It's two types of tomatoes.
I use olive oil and salt and basil in my tomato sauce, right? You're gonna tell me my sauce is shit. Well then you're telling me and the whole rest of the company that buys these com these tomatoes that are fifty dollars a case, which cost more than you're buying and ⁓ wherever else, right? You can't that's that's that's not.
What it is is is the changing of the behavior. Because they're so People have a budget. This is the fucked up thing, right? People have a budget.
People can't spend X amount of dollars per month. The thing that they should be really focusing on is food. But unfortunately, in this country, we destroy food, then bring it back, charge you less money after we destroyed it. It was probably better off you didn't destroy it, left it at the same price, and we would have paid it anyway.
And then we bring the food back and then we tell you to eat it, and then we get cancer. Right? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: Or we get we get gluten problems or we get dirigitalitis or osteratic colitis or we got Crohn's disease, right? It's because of your diet. Right.
It's sixty to seventy five percent of diet. It's diet, diet, diet, diet, right? So you have to change I have to change these people's thinking. I this is this is what I'm doing this for.
I have to change how people think about how they eat today. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Well, the good news is I'm noticing because this is my business, right? How do I market? How do I help restaurants market themselves?
Right. And I'm noticing that the generation that's coming up is very health conscious. They are. They're very health.
So that is actually a really good sign that, you know, your lift may not be as heavy as it is right now. So that is that is definitely helping us. Now, let me ask you this. Vinnie Mootz: They are.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Let me ask you this. No. Vinnie Mootz: These these kids don't drink, they don't they don't smoke, they don't they don't even like smoking weed half of them.
I mean it's it's just Henry Kaminski Jr.: I yeah, I don't know what they're doing. I I mean I know I know what they're doing. Vinnie Mootz: Yeah.
I ⁓ I mean I think smoking a little bit of ganja's okay, you know, drinking the labiba could really get you messed up and you gotta watch your liver and stuff, but you know, taking a little side, I don't care what you do, I mean something to just take you back for a little bit and put you in a different state of mind. But, you know, you have to come back to reality sometimes, right? So Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ you do, which I do, which I you mentioned something here that we cannot just glaze over, Vin, because this is this is a big deal.
Portnoy gave you a 7.9 score on the one bite challenge. Like that, I've heard him closing pizzeria because of his score, and I heard him blowing pizzeria. I'm not gonna call you pizzeria, but blowing spots up because of his scores.
So like Vinnie Mootz: What's that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Let's let's just let's just sit I wanna bake in this for just a couple of minutes. Like what was that?
Vinnie Mootz: Dude, what a cool dude. You know, I again I I know you you started off this segment saying how everyone loves me, but there's people that hate me too, probably. ⁓ I may be a a butt of an easygoing guy, you know, but ⁓ I think everyone needs to be loved. I I I I I'm ba listen, I I everybody needs to be loved.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Ha ha. Yeah, I agree. I agree.
Vinnie Mootz: There's also rules and laws that we have to abide by, right? And certain things, like even in your family laws. Yeah, you have your own family rules, right? So, but I do think everyone needs to be loved, right?
So if you if I was a professor, right, I would give everybody in my class an A on day one. And I would say it's your issue to keep that A. It's your job, it's your requirement. And it's you you also that can make this an F.
So when you look at Portnoy, and this is again how I look at it, right? Self-made man, right? People there's some people that hate him. They think he's no good.
⁓ he destroys businesses. ⁓ he did this, he did that. But this is no different than we just had Johnny Drinks here. I don't know if you know Johnny Drinks.
What? Listen, stand out. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
Yep, yep, yep, yep. Vinnie Mootz: Just what a standout guy. Like amazing, him, Roger from the Parkwood. When I tell you about guys that don't mind giving love to people, okay, but you you mess with them or you do something, you're done, right?
But these are the guys you want the love from because you're not gonna turn your back on these guys ever because they never do it to you. That's Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ huh. Vinnie Mootz: He it's so huge.
Okay. Dave Portnoy is one of those guys. Okay? But when you just like when we have Johnny Drinks here, okay?
Million followers, right? He puts a post up, right? We get all this great feedback, and then there's a couple of jerk offs that think they're funny. Right?
They gotta comment something. And this and this is that's the same thing, right? So Dave came. Dave did exactly what he said he was gonna do.
He came to do a review. He's no different than the review we just had yesterday. I won't mention names because I don't want to burst their bubbles. They're about to put it out today.
It should be it should be a funny one, all right? Right? But it's no different, right? They're giving you their opinion.
They're giving you their what they like, what they would like to see, what they think makes a sandwich, what they feel mozzarella should taste like. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: Dave is doing the same thing.
Do I agree with his ⁓ you know his his ⁓ interpretation of what real pizza is? No, I don't at all. I I I don't. I I think he's he's a little far freshed.
He's a little far off, but that's him. That's what he likes. This guy's also bailed out. They bailed out a restaurant right here locally during COVID.
He bailed him out. He didn't ask for the money back. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm.
Vinnie Mootz: Right? He didn't say, ⁓ I gave you all that money. Now you owe me this. Right?
So he didn't have to do that. He doesn't have to get on private plane and go try to make four appointments in a day to get to Lynnhurst and then try to get back to Massachusetts. Like, no, he just have to do that. Okay?
So now I don't have to make mutz the way I make mutz either. But I do. Right? But we also have to be paid for it.
What's right is right here. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm. Vinnie Mootz: Okay.
So Dave Pointnoy is giving you his opinion of his what he thinks a pizza should taste like. He's got fan, he's got fuel, he's got money, right? And he could he's got a great company, he drives this marketing, he knows how to do it. He's got Jersey Jerry, another great guy, right?
So like a local New Jersey guy, right? So like that score we were slamming. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Correct.
Correct. Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: Right? And it happens to everybody.
You get that Dave Pointer effect that happens for a few weeks. And then it kind of just, you know, evens out a little bit. But I'm not a pizzeria. See, that's what people are not understanding.
Like, not a pizzeria. So like seven nine to me, my God, you imagine Dan doesn't even like fresh mozzarella. I tried to hand him a ball. He wouldn't take it.
He's like, I don't like it. I said, give it to the pilot. Give it to one of your people. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm-hmm. Right. Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, he doesn't even like fresh mozzarella. So imagine getting a 7-9 when I was facing probably the most difficult task.
So I wanted him there because I wanted the band-aid pulled off, but I also didn't want him there because I was afraid of him saying, This is not my type of pizza. So what if he gave me a seven two? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm.
Right. Hm. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then you gotta battle that.
Vinnie Mootz: She's anything less than a seven six and you're in that like danger land, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Vinnie Mootz: And he's he's had owners chase him out of his place too.
And he what does he do? What does he do? He gets up the next day, he takes that left and right again. He I'm not understanding this, right?
So all great listen, even yesterday's review, it's it's you the marketing and you know what I love the best? I love I love marketing guys like you, Henry, right? That have like twelve hundred followers. You're not.
Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Well well you wanna laugh. I had a hundred and eighty seven thousand one day and Instagram would shut me down.
But yeah, but I I look like a small cat, but I've been around a long time. But go ahead, finish your thought. Finish your thought. Vinnie Mootz: I'm sure.
Shut you down, right? So and that was a joke. Yeah, that was a joke, right? But like right, but a guy like you, you're not doing this for reasons just for the money.
Right? Right. So you you're not doing this. This is why I enjoy giving time to people like you.
It's because you're not just doing this. ⁓ I gotta get followers. Like, ⁓ minimum get me on the map. ⁓ but no, no.
I've heard that fourteen million times over from people that I thought would do really, really good for me and then did shit, right? I'm doing this for the same reason why you're doing this and why we should be doing this. And that's to educate and give these people the truth. The goddamn truth.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. True.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let me let me switch gears a little bit because ⁓ I'm I'm very conscious of your time too.
I know you got a busy day. It's Friday. let me let me I I always wanna I always wanna ask, I always ask my guests this question because I just love the unique responses. So I wanna get into hospitality because you're neatery, you know.
Vinnie Mootz: A yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: And I want to know what hospitality means to you because you could be a pizza shopper, you could be Fiorentini, you could be, you know, Lunello and or you could be, you know, Reds, right? Where's what does hospitality mean to you?
Vinnie Mootz: This is this is like hospitality, right? It I think it should be in its own like it's definitely its own job cycle. It should be is it hospitality, you know, construction, right? You start talking, right?
Hospitality, right? Do you do you need a bedside manner for construction? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Really?
⁓ Vinnie Mootz: Okay. Do you I do you do you need to be, you know, artistic enough and compassionate to create a product that looks good as much as it tastes good? you know, do you does that happen when you're in the car wash business? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Right. Right. Vinnie Mootz: It goes through a machine, it comes out the same way every time, right? Guys gonna wipe it down, next, right?
We are not a next business. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Right. Right.
Vinnie Mootz: It's not a who's next when you're getting up online. Who's next? ⁓ it's how can I help you? How can I help you?
What can I do for you? You imagine saying that to about 180 orders today? When I reach 200 orders today, and I've said, How can I help you? So 75% of those people that walked in this door, what are we doing?
Right? So Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ Vinnie Mootz: Anybody that looks at this industry and says it's easy. ⁓ you just gotta be nice to people.
⁓ yeah, just no, just go just do this and put this and put a little sauce on it and just tell them that you'd made an extra special. Did you? Really? You know what?
People come into my store, they say, You don't have specials. I go, everything's special. What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?
Everything's special. Come on. They don't get it. My beef tallow is ninety something dollars a carton.
You can go buy creamy shortening across the street for thirty three dollars. And you could fry in that stuff for seven days straight. All right? You could do creamy shortening, soybean oil.
Cool shortening this canola oil, right? Did you do you know what canola oil is? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm.
Vinnie Mootz: You a man-made product that they use for engine parts in Canada. Look it up. It was actually engineered for engine parts because it has a high high smoke point. Okay.
So that's well, how else hospitality is not just about let me put food on a plate and let me tell the customer this is the best the chef could do. No. Here's what they're doing. They're looking at a price point.
And this is why I'm broke. Henry Kaminski Jr.: No, I don't. Vinnie Mootz: I look at a price point, right?
Right? I should be raising my prices. My my sandwiches should be the way I stuff them, they should be over $20. I have a fucking conscience.
I have a conscience. Okay? Because the problem is I like to stuff your face. My when I went to my Nona's house, that she stuffed your face.
When I went to my aunt's house, she'd stuff your face till you puked. Okay? And then if you puked, she would yell at you for spawning the food. Okay?
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: Alright, I had one aunt that she cut prosciuto for us, right? And if we didn't eat every single piece that she cut, she would start yelling at us that we're we're we're wasting food.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah. That's that generation. That's my father's generation.
⁓ yeah. Vinnie Mootz: So I think everybody in the hospitality business you talk about Fiorentini, listen, what a great my God, two nice nicest people. I I was blessed to be with them and the Peruvian restaurant, El Gordo, if you've never had Peruvian food, I could tell you every good food, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Salt of the earth. Vinnie Mootz: But I I've I've had the pleasure of being on a show called Beyond the Plate T V with Christina Fiorentini. and ⁓ anyway, with the Fiorentini people and the Og Ogordos. And I I got to see, right, true artists in the hospitality business putting on products that make people feel good, right?
At the same point showing their authenticity to their nation and to their country and then how they grew up. So That's what this is about, Henry. This is about me sharing what I used to eat, you know, at six years old, five years old, ten years old, twelve years old. You know how many times I've been to Italy?
I've been to Italy probably twenty three times. Okay? And I've lived there for two months. I used to forget the English language and then try to come back to school.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: You imagine the second grade and I'm going back to school saying, My signori, what your manjaio pasta fajol She's going, No, you gotta do math.
It's two plus two equals four. I said, No, Signora, I want a basta fajol. You know what I mean? Right.
Right. ⁓ You know, Vincent, you're gonna be ⁓ held back this year if you don't, you know, change we we have to have a parent teacher conference. I'm like, give me the piece of paper. Give it to me, give it to me.
I run home. Hey Ma, this is a true story, by the way. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vinnie Mootz: My mom's dead twenty something years now. God rest her soul, let me tell you.
She couldn't hear. She became deaf after fifty. she had a lot of health problems and she got cancer and passed away. but there was one thing she would do, right?
If she thought something was right, she would literally take you by the hand and force you through that door. She's no, this is your right path. Boom. You know what I mean?
Right. So I ⁓ I was gonna get left back in the second grade. And I I I'll get my cousin's ex wife. She's the one that used to translate for us because my cousin came here eighteen years old and i from Italy with not not knowing a a lick of English, right?
Not not having a job. We literally raised him, right? And ⁓ he started dating this ⁓ Greek woman and ⁓ she'll she'll watch this and she'll she'll laugh when I when I say it, but she, you know, spoke good English, went to college, right? So she'd be like a Like a a buffer.
My godmother was also one of those buffers that would come to school with us, or you know, if there was a parent teacher conference or something that we had to go do when we needed English speaking people, right? My parents were not, right? So and ⁓ so they're like, Vincent, you gotta bring this this letter home to your parents. We need them here.
I'm like, Okay, go home. Ma, ma. I'm gonna win an award at school. You gotta make your cream puffs, okay?
I mean, you gotta make these cream puffs. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: Mom, not like your normal cream puffs.
I want you to make these cream puffs like my head, all right? She's like, ⁓ my god, ⁓ my god. I make it the best of cream puffs in the world, right? Go to the parent parent teacher conference.
I'm carrying two plates of cream puffs like this. She goes, Vincent. She goes, Vincent, you know you're here for failing, right? I said, Yes.
My parents don't speak English though. She goes, have a seat. So my mom. feeding them like trying to stuff the cream puff in her mouth while she's trying to tell, you know, like your son is failing, like he's not gonna make it out of the second grade.
Like you gotta do something. And my mom's like eat, eat, munch, you gotta munch. I made a dispuff an hour ago. You gotta munch.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Alright, the deal. Ha ha ha. ⁓ that's a great story.
That is such a great story. Hard to fail somebody with some delicious cream puffs getting stuffed down your throat. ⁓ there you go. There you go.
⁓ well, there you go. Like, okay, you have you have such amazing Jersey energy. You got that Italian soul. You got an you got a neighborhood feel to you.
You know, how do you protect this, Vin, as the business grows? Vinnie Mootz: I passed I passed the second grade. I passed the second grade. Well, you know, it's it's growth is a very interesting kind of concept, right?
So there's there's a couple of different ways to grow. All right. You can grow internally without going outside of your four walls, right? You can grow personally.
So maybe per something personally that I want to do with this business. ⁓ you know, maybe ⁓ maybe affecting children with cancer or being some kind of spokesperson for you know, ⁓ some kind of something that would make my heart fell, right? Or using the mutz as a catalyst to bring awareness to like domestic abuse or, you know, or anything that maybe this journey can help ⁓ somebody, something, right? Other than us, right?
We're gonna we're we we're doing the work, so we need to get paid, right? That's how this works. That's what we do. That's how the family, that's how everybody eats, okay?
So don't don't say, ⁓ he just did it because you get the money. Yeah, okay, no shit. That's why you go to work nine to five, all right? But when you say journey, that's why that's why my mind flipped, okay?
So we talk about journey. There's Vinnie Mutz is more than just let's just make mutts. Vinnie mutz should be a catalyst. It should be a Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Shaw. Vinnie Mootz: a a a road. It should be a highway. It should be something that connects dots and something that helps, you know, facilitate a different message or a different, you know, ⁓ value that I that should be done.
Right. But then when you look at growth, like is this the only Vinny's Mutz? Like is should this be the only Vinny's Mutz? ⁓ so I have ideas I and I'm I'm not letting the cat out of the bag just yet, but yeah, there there needs to be growth in all three of those categories.
So we're gonna do it as a as all three. We're not just gonna do one type of growth because that that doesn't work. Okay. ⁓ not today it doesn't.
Maybe back in the day you had a model Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: You make pizza with bleach bromated flour.
You could buy the same bag of flour for $22 and then open up a pizzeria and do the same thing all over again. So, you know, what's that called? That's called smack, schmear, and sell, right? No, we know I'm not I'm not doing that.
Right. So the next growth has to be in line with those three pillars. Okay. How do I grow personally?
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: With all my family, we need to grow personally. That's number one.
Everybody here needs to grow. I don't care what it is. Right. And then two is how do we grow or you know, organically, right?
With with our internal, right? How do we grow business inside of here? And then the fourth one is where's the next Phoenix months? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm-hmm. Okay. I love the focus. I really do.
I I think that's a great trifecta too, to to because if you're not doing those three things, minus the third one, because some people just like to stay s on the smaller side, one location, and that's fine. Blow it out. Make it the best you can, right? But yeah.
But I love the personal growth. I think that sort of fuels everything else. I'm a big like Vinnie Mootz: Okay. Maybe that's maybe that's us too.
I don't know. I'm I'm just saying, right? Henry Kaminski Jr.: What's the word?
Like spiritual guy. And I do a lot of self-help stuff, you know? ⁓ every morning I have these very traditions with my dog and with myself, just because that's if I can't start my day like that, my day ain't gonna go well. I know it, right?
So I'm a big guy like that. And I think like that mindset is if you can focus on internal growth, because the world outside doesn't change until the world inside changes. That's a big philosophy of mine. So if you can and I see that that's where your head's at.
So I I think, you know, the world is just your oyster. And I think there's a lot of amazing things that are gonna happen for you over the next couple of years. You got your son in the game, you know, listen. Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, both of them, right?
Both of my kids, I mean ⁓ They're they're everything. I mean, they're right. I mean, I my kids used to crush curd for me before they used to go to high school in the morning. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Right? Yeah, they've been in it from day one, man. You know, th it it's one of those things. Vinnie Mootz: Right.
You know, my my kids are I don't think Vinnie Mutz would be Vinnie Mutz without my two sons. I I just don't I I listen, we're s we're so invested in ourselves here, right? My sister in law, right? My wife, my mother in law, my father who eats here, right?
I have to feed him every day. My cousin who's now my I'm his guardian, right? So ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: I believe that.
Being Vinnie Mootz: You know, I have to feed so many people before the day starts anyway. So I just figured I might as well feed everybody else, right? Yeah, but Henry Kaminski Jr.: I love that attitude.
I listen, I don't want to run out of time. I got some rapid fire questions for you that it's like real, real punchy. Let's go. I gotta get I gotta get you back to work at some point today, you know?
Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, go for it. Go ahead. Yeah. That's overrated.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: All right. Rapid fire now. It's like yes, no, keep it rocking, right?
square pie around. Okay. Best sandwich on your menu. Vinnie Mootz: Rapid fire.
Uh-huh. Square. ⁓ man, anything with mootz on Henry Kaminski Jr.: Most underrated item on the Vinnie Mutz's menu.
Vinnie Mootz: My mozzarella. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay. One Italian dish you could eat every day.
Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: Jesus Christmas, man.
A it's a room temperature, it's it's a version of pasta fagioli that was made for me in Verona, Italy. It was made table side, but it's made as a appetizer, but it wasn't warm, it was actually pasty and cold. I can't explain it. But if I could eat pasta fagioli every day, I would.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: All right. ⁓ biggest restaurant pet peeve. Vinnie Mootz: Wow.
Biggest restaurant pet thief Dirty Dirtiness. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yep. I'm with you on that one. And that seems to be the the the the that's the most popular answer. ⁓ most overrated restaurant trends.
Vinnie Mootz: Overrated restaurant trend. Haha ⁓ I don't know, I don't do too many trends, I just state it myself. So like if I was to think outside of the box, is a restaurant trend, if somebody would say, ⁓ Yeah. I am trying to think like over and over what I see somebody do in a pizzeria.
⁓ maybe some of those skits, you know, that they're doing now, but ⁓ well, I you know what? How about the dollar slice? I think that's that to me that's Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
Think social media, V. Think social media. What what you see over and over. Vinnie Mootz: Like that trend is over, like you dollar ninety nine slice.
Dollar ninety nine slice. ⁓ dollar ninety nine slice. These people are finding dollar ninety nine slice. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Y yeah, you're you're paying them to eat your food at that point. what makes a sandwich unforgettable? Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, really. ⁓ man.
There has to be like this. I think if the i it just like a person so if you were to go I and I I know you meant a rapid fire, but just just do my process really quick, right? If you're Yeah, yeah, listen, if you're a single guy, right? And we'll just take with guys.
It'll be girl, whatever. If you're a single guy, okay? And you got thrown into a room with fifty women. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Go ahead. Listen, I got the time if you got the time. Vinnie Mootz: You think you're gonna kiss every single one of them? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Ha ha ha Vinnie Mootz: Are you gonna like every single one of them? How are you gonna find that out? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Wait.
There there you go. I like it. Vinnie Mootz: There's the answer, right? There it is.
Right? Ha how? How do I know? You gotta try.
You just gotta try, right? You gotta go for a good try. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Favorite part of running your business? Vinnie Mootz: ⁓ the people. My family.
I get to work with my family every single day. I don't know. I don't I don't that's it. My family and my kids and these people that come in and that love Vinnie Mootz It's what it's about, man.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: What's the hardest part about running a business? Vinnie Mootz: PSE and G. ⁓ you know, tomatoes going to like ninety six dollars.
You know, long hops were seventy eight. ⁓ I just bought a box of romaine lettuce, it was ninety two dollars. We used to pay like Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yep.
Vinnie Mootz: Thirty cents. You know, like we used to get a head of lettuce for like thirty seven cents, you know. You know, like we used to buy tomatoes, you know, maybe it'd be like twenty five pounds for twenty two dollars, twenty three dollars, you know, you know, about a dollar a pound, you know. ⁓ no more, man, no more.
My beef tallows ninety dollars. It used to be like seventy two. Those are all that's all tariff driven, but that's again, it's just ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
Vinnie Mootz: You know, ⁓ that's the hardest part, man. It's just that every day now. It's not monthly. It used to be like every couple of months, so we'd have a little shift or we lost a crop.
Now it's every single day. Every single day. This is the biggest one, okay? Every single day I gotta look at the bill and I gotta say, what did we just pay for chicken?
What did we just pay for meat? What did we just buy that olive oil for? Do you know I now I'm getting sick. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Ha ha ha Vinnie Mootz: I bring it, listen to me what I do for you. I bring in this olive oil from Tuscany. It's not from the south. It's from the north.
Okay. It's the most delicious olive oil I've ever tasted in my life. It actually tastes like butter. It doesn't have a pungent taste to it like the southern olives do.
It has a more milder flavor because it's from the north, but it tastes like butter. It costs a hundred. Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ Vinnie Mootz: And seven dollars a tin.
I bring that in just to wipe the crust on my pizza. Do you understand that? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah.
I love you, Vin. Yep. Yep. That's what's up.
No, you don't. Yep. It's that. I love it.
I love it. Best advice you ever received. Vinnie Mootz: I don't have to do that. Right.
But I do. I but I do. But I do. ⁓ numbers don't lie, peoples do.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay. Worst advice you ever ignored. Vinnie Mootz: I was once told by an old man that But it's n are you saying worse like this because something happened from it?
Are you just saying like because what's worse advice? Like advice is somebody thinks that you should get this information because it might help you. And then you act upon it, but that's your decision to act upon it. So you made the decision to act upon it.
So you took the advice, but it's not the advice that's the problem. It's just the action of the advice. It wasn't the right time. So you did it though, right?
So is it bad advice? Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Okay.
I see. Vinnie Mootz: Or was it just bad timing and you shouldn't maybe you should have thought of it a little bit ⁓ more, right? ⁓ right. I mean, it's not bad advice if someone's being, you know, truthful in the fact that maybe they're looking at you I'll I'll tell you, I I once got advice from ⁓ a manager that I was only gonna recruit people that were like me.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: That's the answer. That's the answer. Right there.
Hmm. Yeah, interesting. Vinnie Mootz: Do you think that's bad advice or do you think that's like what's so bad about that? Like, okay, I'm just gonna f fill the room with a bunch of me's.
okay, we might go fist and cuff, but eventually we'll get along and love each other and smoke a bone and maybe drink a beer. I don't know. But like I I didn't know what to say after that. I was like I was I was really dumbfound.
I was like ⁓ okay. All right. Okay. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah, that's true. Right. right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Vinnie Mootz: ⁓ yeah, I've been told lots of advice. Some I took, some I didn't. Some was great, some was some sucked. I mean ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. Fair. Fair. All right, finish this sentence.
If the mutz ain't fresh. Ha ha ha. Vinnie Mootz: You know Mutz has a two day shelf life? Henry Kaminski Jr.
: That's it, huh? Vinnie Mootz: You know, mutz has a two day shelf life, like you don't have to refrigerate it. Like real mozzarella with the real fat should be active like butter. So if the milz ain't fresh, why are you eating it?
Let me ask you a question. If the mutz ain't fresh, this is what you should say to yourself first. If the mutz ain't fresh, why are you even buying it? Okay, so you want to make Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Ha ha ha. You go. Vinnie Mootz: Chicken palm or whatever, then buy the mutts that's refrigerated, no problem. But do not, this is the biggest pet beef I have, actually, besides the restaurant being, you know, I always think it has to be cleaned, but it's it's not dirty, it's just it's used, right?
But if you have to refrigerate mozzarella, it's not fresh, okay? So you're buying refrigerated mozzarella when you go to the supermarket. ⁓ it's only $6.99.
Yeah, but there's a reason it's only $6.99. And by the way, I'm the ch I'm still the cheapest. I I I just I don't I'm just I'm gonna be a poor man my whole life.
I don't care, okay? I still I'm the cheapest when it comes to selling mozzarella made by hands every day, every hour. We don't stop making mozzarella some nights until like seven o'clock at night. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: ⁓ my goodness. Jesus. All right, I got two more questions. Ready?
What's your message to anybody who still hasn't been mutzed yet? Vinnie Mootz: What are you waiting for? Henry Kaminski Jr.: There you go.
I knew that was it. Okay, last question. You know, you built this from nothing, Vin. Okay.
What's the biggest thing you feel that the business needs next? Is it more awareness? Is it better systems? Is it better catering?
Is it more of what is it? Vinnie Mootz: Yeah. You know, the business doesn't need anything. You know, the business the business is not should not be the receiver of the reward.
The business should not be reaping the reward. We should. The people that put the business forward. The people that come to work every day.
The people that come here and say, I believe in Vinny. I believe in what he's trying to do. I believe in his products. I believe what he buys.
I believe what he says. I believe what he puts out. And then when somebody walks in here and eats And then they say the same thing. That's really the way it should be.
The business doesn't need anything. The business is only a prototype of your doing, right? It is only the the end result of what action you put in front of it. So no, the business should not does not need anything.
The doors are gonna open because people need to eat and they want good food. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: Right.
But we need stuff. Us, the people. We need self-help. We need awareness.
We need things that keep us happy. We need the feedback. We need the people to come in. We need the people to come and try the food.
We need the people that get mutzed. Shame on you if you haven't. We need that. The business does not.
The business never needs anything. The business, you know what the business needs? Capital. The business needs supplies.
The business needs a new refrigerator. The business needs you know, right? But but that's what's what is that? You know what?
Let me ask you a question, Henry. What is that? What is those things? What are those things?
Henry Kaminski Jr.: It's material. It's right. Vinnie Mootz: What did what did the what's the difference if I buy it from, you know, iCooler down the block or I call, you know, s ream or I call, you know, Hobart, or I call, you know, whatever you wanna say, you know.
What's the difference? What's the difference? It's machine that does an operation that's gonna turn out a product that you're gonna go out and sell. All right.
So you could take AI, you could take social media, you could take robots, you wrap them all up and you can shove them right up your ass, okay? Not yours, Henry, but you could shove ⁓ up your ass, okay? Because if people don't go to work, if people like me and you don't turn on the radio, open up the fridge. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. Ha ha ha. Vinnie Mootz: Walk to that deli, walk to that coffee shop, go buy that coffee. Treat yourself.
There's nothing wrong with treating yourself. You know what you should do? You know what these people should start doing? Stop putting shit in your freezer.
You wanna do yourself a freezer free you want to do yourself a really big favor? Stop putting shit in your freezer. We don't live in a third world country. Go to shop right every day and buy your stuff and cook it.
You wanna eat healthy? There you go. There's the answer. 'Cause that's what we do.
That's what we do. We get trucks every day. This product is being dropped off daily here. Daily daily.
That means we turn it over. Okay? So that's that's what it's about. No more Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Mm. I love it. There was one other thing I wanted to share with you. So one of my buddies, ⁓ I met him, so our sons play soccer together.
And he's a North Arlington cop. Vinnie Mootz: Right. We love NA Cops, yeah. We have ⁓ all.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Okay. So he comes, he so I tell him you're coming on the show. And he goes, I freaking love.
Yeah. So so he goes, he ⁓ he goes, got a funny story for you about that place. I says, what? He says, you know, if somebody orders an order from them and it goes they don't it goes orphan, like nobody comes and gets it.
Vinnie Mootz: Big big Leo supporter. You know that, right, Henry? We're big Leo supporters. Big Leo.
Yeah. Okay. Henry Kaminski Jr.: They'll call the department, the police, our police department, and tell them, come up, we got a bunch of food for you.
And he and he's and I said, That's Vinny. I mean, I I don't know him as well as my cousins do. I said, but that is the Vinny that I know that that comes across social media and comes across with that. I said, that does not surprise me at all.
And then he said the one day he came in and he tried to pay you. And he goes, and you go, No, I don't need I don't, I don't, I'm not gonna take your money. So he went to the fridge to try to get a soda. And just the you wouldn't let him pay for it.
He was trying to figure out how to give you the 20 bucks. And he said, nah, that that's okay. I don't, I don't, I don't need it. You're okay.
And he goes, I'll never, you know, I'll never forget that. And I go, you know what? You're not. And I said, he does not have to do that at all, but he does at the kindness of his heart.
Vinnie Mootz: And I wouldn't let ⁓ pay for it. Henry Kaminski Jr.: And I think that's branding. And that's where I just want I want to mention that story, not to not to blow you up, but to also talk about how branding is so important.
Nobody taught you that, Vin. You did that on your own. That's you saying, thank you for your service. This is how I want to appreciate you.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Some people don't do that at all. Some people just are takers. We talked about that before, right?
Like Yeah, I I I think that that is just a a very stand up thing to do. I wanted to mention it today on the show. I'm definitely gonna pop this in in a in a clip or two because I think that is just such a really nice thing. And and my buddy Jay was like, Yeah, man, that's my that's my spot, you know?
So and he doesn't Vinnie Mootz: Thank you. We didn't have much growing up, Henry. Right? We didn't have much.
And my you know, I wasn't the guy wearing Nike sneakers. Listen, I got made fun of because the there was a very nice man, ⁓ he worked for D P. W and ⁓ Shaw was his last name, Mr Shaw, his two sons, ⁓ Eric and Sean. Sean ended up passing away but young age.
Really sad story, but anyway, Mr. Shaw, ⁓ you know, we were all big hockey kids back back in my day. Like in my l early eighties, we were big hockey kids. Big, big besides soccer, right?
We play a lot of hockey. Street hockey, ice hockey. We play every hockey we know in the man. But D PW, right, this man from D PW, Mr.
Shaw, he would come right before the winter freeze and he'd fill up our basketball court that was concave. ⁓ and it was made just for that. It was it was concave basketball courts with raised ⁓ hoops so you can still play, but the concave part was for the water. And they would ⁓ the fire hydrant was right on top of ⁓ Washington Street and he'd hook up the hose and he and he'd start filling up our ice rink.
And within a couple of days it would freeze. And I can't tell you how many kids, man. ⁓ my God. ⁓ yeah.
There's a couple of guys I could call right now, I betcha, and they'd be like, ⁓ remember when I smashed the kids headed up yeah. Anyway, so I want I wanted to play so bad, right? So just this is a funny story again, you know. So just picture this, okay?
I go home, I'm like, Ma, ma like these kids have these C C ⁓ hockey skates, like they're like they're professional, they're great, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And go to my father, he's like, He no need that. You know what I mean? I just kept trying every week, right?
So we're at Kmart. Anybody remember Kmart? Best man. He's the best hot dog.
Anyway, I go to Kmart and I see hot I see skates. But they're not hockey they're not they're not hockey skates. They're goddamn figure skates. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: I never came right. Vinnie Mootz: And I convinced my mother, Ma, all these kids have ice skates, I don't have them, I can't skate, I'm skating on my sneakers, yeah. And we bought ⁓ I put ⁓ on. I went down to the ice rink.
And they just kept making fun of me, fun of me, fun of me, make fun of me, and just keep making fun of. Eventually I just ran home, I threw my skates, my father yelled at me 'cause he spent nine dollars or whatever it was. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Mm.
Vinnie Mootz: And ⁓ yeah, I went to go back playing hockey on my sneakers. So I never got those skates, you know what I mean? ⁓ I don't know, man, maybe that's what it maybe that's what it was. Just you know, always knowing what what bottom felt like, you know what I mean?
Like Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. Listen, so listen, you don't want to I always say this, and we're gonna get it.
I don't want to get I don't want to go down this rabbit hole, but I I say this like when I was going through some rough business stuff, probably going back 2000 and ⁓ probably 20 and a little twelve. Okay, I was going, I was, I was rock bottom with my business. Couple couple wrong turns, right? Didn't have the capital to Vinnie Mootz: Yeah.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Bail myself out, had to figure it out. So I hired this business coach, old guy, really old guy. I said, if this guy, this guy is gonna have the wisdom I need.
And I was bitching about him. I was bitching to him about something. And he said, Time out. He said, Let's just get something straight here.
He says, You know the rear view mirrors and cars, right? You know why they're so small. Because you're not going that way. You're going forward.
That's why your windshield is so much bigger. So he said, stop looking in the rear view mirror every day and start looking out your windshield because it's bright. And I was, that was it for me, Vin. I put all the bullshit away.
I stopped making excuses. I stopped saying what was me. And I said, Get to fucking work. And that was it.
I pulled myself out. We did a crazy numbers the next two years that I'm still spending money on. And I said to myself, okay, if I could come out of that, I could come out of anything. And I, you know, and that's sort of where I come from.
You know, I I didn't come from a lot of money either. And my father was a teamster. He worked for UPS for 33 years as a mechanic. My wife, my my wife, my mom never really worked.
You know, so like it ⁓ and I and I come from these crazy worlds where I have ⁓ wealthy uncles and really I wouldn't say we're we were poor, we always had food on the table, but like it was like the lifestyle of rich and famous, and then you come back to reality. And like every time you would go to visit, I would I would get frustrated because I was like. Vinnie Mootz: That's not us. Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Right, right, right, right. And finally it was like, okay, well, you can make your own world. You can make your own life. And as I started to get older, I did.
And and and now, like, you know, my wife makes fun of me, like, you live in your own world. And I said, I do. And I love it. Like I I do it because I'm only getting I'm only we're only getting older, you know?
And I say, why not appreciate it? Why not appreciate it? Why not love it? So Vinnie Mootz: Yeah.
Yeah, I mean at this point, yeah. Yeah. Henry Kaminski Jr.: But Vin, I did not think we were gonna go 90 minutes here.
Holy shit. And I so appreciate your time. That was awesome. ⁓ yeah.
⁓ absolutely. And next time I'm down visiting my Aunt Mo, I'm definitely popping in. Yeah, we come, we we're down there all the time. I got I'm going to the World Cup game.
I don't know how the hell I got these tickets, but ⁓ we'll be we'll be down. We'll we'll pop in on the way home for sure. ⁓ but ⁓ Sparta. Vinnie Mootz: No problem, brother.
My pleasure. I enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me tell my story, yeah. You could You bring something back to ⁓ Aunt you bring something back to Aunt Maureen, yeah.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah, I'll bring s yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ she still lives in Woodridge. She still lives in Woodridge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Vinnie Mootz: Wow. Wow. Tracy, Tracy, ⁓ my god, you're probably my two years younger than me or a year no, my age I think.
Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yeah. I think she is your age, yeah. I think she they're both they both got their doctorates, Vin.
They both got their they're very Vinnie Mootz: Yeah, crazy, man. Crazy. Yeah, we used to have fun. Me, Tracy, and then it was ⁓ it was me Tracy lived on a corner and then Lilienthal lived two houses down.
So I used to hang out with ⁓ Dave Lilienthal ended up marrying this woman from Maine and these two kids came from high school. But anyway, prior to that, ⁓ Gomez lived on the corner. So and ⁓ I had this friend that lived on the opposite corner, Russell Novell. I wonder if Tracy would remember him 'cause Henry Kaminski Jr.
: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Vinnie Mootz: They were literally on two opposites corner of the same block, you know, one on division and one on ⁓ central. But ⁓ Russell Novell, yeah, and he had a he had the house that where the new house is was built.
She'll she'll probably remember him. And then a Yeah, and Sudol was across the street, man. We had we had great, great upbringings. ⁓ Crawlstadt was even though it was small, it had a lot of talent, it had a lot of value.
Mark DeRosa, I mean I grew up with Mark. Henry Kaminski Jr.: I'll ask her. Yeah, yeah.
Right. Right. I'll I'll text her, I'll see if she remembers. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Vinnie Mootz: My quarterback, right? Mark DeRozo's quarter I was tight end, he was quarterback. We went to Florida.
Mr. Rizzo. Mr. Rizzo was probably the best man ever I've ever met in my life.
That guy died way too young. Carlstadt's got a lot of good stuff, man. Henry Kaminski Jr.: ⁓ It does, man.
You know, and and it was it was so great coming up to visit my cousins, you know, at the time and just experiencing their friends and the hustle. A lot of hustle. You know, that that's what I loved. Yeah.
There's a lot of hustle. And I think Vinnie Mootz: It's a hustle town. It's a blue collar town. That's what it is where works.
Everybody worked, man. It's great. Henry Kaminski Jr.: Yep.
And that that's in my soul. I I I tell I tell everybody that, you know, my my mom's side of the family and my father's side of the family. They're hardworking people. And there's there's nothing that that you can't take away from them.
You know, you can't take away from that tribe. Right. Well, that too. You could just be be the example.
Just be the example. Vinny, such a pleasure, man. Hang on one second because I want to make sure this damn thing downloads. Vinnie Mootz: I've broken things.
Every day. For it. No, no, no, no. ⁓ Henry Kaminski Jr.
: So don't don't hang up right away. There you have it, guys. Another episode in the books. I hope you enjoyed this one.
Make sure you follow Vinny's Mutz all over social media. Make sure if you're in the Lower Bergen County area, Lynnhurst, go check out the shop. It is phenomenal. Just you heard it from the man himself.
I hope you appreciated this episode, guys, as much as I did. Love you. I'll catch you on the next episode real soon. Vinnie Mootz: Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
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