hi I'm Jeff Pillet I'm a reporter with New Jersey Spotlight News at Meloni's Butcher Block which is a third generation butcher which has the distinction of having a vegan store right next door to it which is the latest generation of the Meloni family we're just going to go in and we're going to show you around [Music] So this story is run by my nephew Joe, Taste Plant-Based so let's see who's uh who's hanging out a Taste today and what do you what do you get I'm vegetarians so so for me I usually get two soups and a salad and uh whatever else I see.

Sometimes I get the stuffed peppers I told the meatballs, the eggplant meatballs are really good?

yes yes do you ever get over to the meat side of the operation?

I have no business or interest in whatever he's got in there.

It's not for me.

I was here in November of 2021, we had started doing the eggplant meatballs at Meloni's in the summer of 2019 so I was doing that a couple dishes over there for a couple years and then this spot here was kind of near the making I think it took about a year from the time that I just first told my dad this is my plan a lot of remodeling in here I'm very privileged to be in the situation that I am uh it's great for him because he he knows that I'm doing something that I enjoy and I'm passionate about and I'm still like close to him I'm right next door I think you always want better for your kids yeah you don't want to work as hard as you work and I you know I thought he was going to do his thing whatever he was going to do but then as time went on and he worked here helping us you know in the meat business even though he was vegan yeah he you know he kind of gravitated towards him he wanted to do it and I was like well maybe you should come here and Brian brought up maybe you should do some vegan stuff in here because people like it you know and he did he did some vegan stuff in here before he opened the plant-based store sort of felt like I wanted to do more with it it was like like I'm proud that I was kind of putting my own stamp on things but I felt like and I was grateful that I had the chance to do it at my next door but at the same time I felt like I couldn't really reach the potential of it with her shop because just people if you don't eat meat you're probably not thinking like you might not you would never know our grandfather he had he had started on 9th Street the Italian market before depression probably probably 29 yeah he's working working as a you know like an apprentice he was the oldest of like say six children and his father came to him he was in sixth grade and told him listen you can't go to school anymore you got to go get a job and help me with these kids the bonus was that the owner of the shop gave him a big bag of meat to take home to his family and when he came home and gave his mom the meat he says mom cook this meat because he said we couldn't afford eggs to make pasta he said I'll never not be in the meat business that was his his promise to himself he knew that story and he said he would never disrespect the meat business because he knew everything that was possible you know the life that he had grown up knowing and his college education and everything else it was paid for by the meat business [Music]