This past Saturday and Sunday was a very busy and interesting weekend. The forecast for both days looked really grim...heavy rain on the radar for both days. How much would we get?

Only God would know. We had our second event of the young season booked for both days in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. This was the Arts & Crafts Fair on Urban Farms Field. But we actually ended up doing two different events. Here's how it all came about...

My wife, besides being the Meatball Queen & CEO of The Johnny Meatballs Empire, is also the official events coordinator. She's been doing a fantastic job in that department. Me and my partner, Ray were totally on board with doing this craft fair in Franklin Lakes, not only because it was held in a great neighborhood in a large field, but mainly because a portion of the vendor application fees were supposed to go the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation. We especially love getting involved in organizations that give back to such great causes. That's not exactly what this was, but I'll get more into that later. Saturday began with sun and then there were indeed passing showers. A downpour came at one point and then more spotty drizzle. And then sun. And then more spotty drizzle. But even though the conditions weren't ideal, we actually had a really good day.

The event featured artists, photographers, sculptors, jewelry and many handcrafted items. There was supposed to be a full field of vendors but only about a quarter of the massive park had booths. We found ourselves once again as "the place to be" for food with the only other vendor selling--you guessed it--hot dogs. There was also kettle corn which was fantastic! And I know my popcorn as a former Dale & Thomas Popcorn sales executive! (Did not try the hot dogs.) My former St. Michael's classmate Heather Bella--our newest "Meat & Greet" team member worked the event with us and did an awesome job helping out. We really needed her too, as there were several large rushes of people lining up at the cart. My grandmother even lent a hand, making us a gorgeous Italian gift basket to display to promote our new gift basket service--Nana Meatballs Gift Baskets.

I also broke out my new Guy Fieri chef knife for the first time and man, that blade is sharp! "Off the hook," as Guy would say! My favorite Italian Chick--Maryann "Boom Boom" Maisano showed up and we hooked her up with her own black "Got Balls" t-shirt. Kim G. of Bravo's "Real Housewives of New Jersey" was scheduled to show up but did not attend. Despite the rough weather, there were bright spots and a reporter from the Franklin Lakes Patch even featured us in their story about the event...


Sunday was a bit different. We got to Franklin Lakes at 9am, ready to brave more winds and soggy socks but had a few bumps in the road. The only thing that made me scratch my head about this event on Saturday was the collection booth for the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation manned by a group of volunteers seeking donations. I gladly dropped a few bucks in their box but the company that organized this event had told us that the foundation would be getting their donations from them direct. See, I have no problem donating to charity when I can, but I did wonder if the foundation was actually getting a portion of the vendor application fees as we thought.

One thing Megin and I learned is that many of these events are coordinated and controlled by outside companies unrelated to the town that the event is held in and are outside promotional organizations who make their money booking vendors. I am not going to name any names or businesses here, I'll just say "Company X" to refer to the one that we dealt with for this Franklin Lakes fair. When we arrived on Sunday, "Company X" told us to go home because the day was "rained out." We were stunned, especially considering we had paid for both days and were told that festivities were on "rain or shine."

We have a 9-foot umbrella encompassing the meatball cart and also had a huge tent with tables for folks to come and eat under. Yet we were told to leave. We inquired about receiving reimbursement for the lost day and were rudely laughed at. And this cost us a pretty penny. Megin, Ray and myself hung out there for about an hour trying to figure out what to do with all of our meatballs and asked "Company X" if we could at least come to a future event for no fee. Again, we were laughed at. She then told us to "take up any complaints with the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation." That comment really shocked us.

About a half hour later, a real sweet lady from the foundation actually showed up ready to set up her booth. We came to find out that her being granted a space to set-up a donation stand was actually her only connection with "Company X." Just as we all suspected, every last dime that each and every vendor paid to get in went directly into the pockets of "Company X" and they were just using the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation to promote this event as a charitable one. In reality, what they did was use these good-hearted volunteers to capitalize on the cause to attract vendors and customers. And then they unbelievably used them as a scapegoat for their own decision to suddenly cancel the entire day. It didn't matter to "Company X," since they already got their money.


The reason I am sharing this is on behalf of all the unhappy vendors who were turned away on Sunday despite the "rain or shine" promise and who were duped into thinking that there was actually a percentage of the large entry fee going to those suffering from cancer. I will certainly not be involved with "Company X" ever again and advise anyone in my business to do their research on all these event promotions companies. If someone wasn't satisfied with one of my meatballs, I'd do all I could to make sure he or she became happy. Again, "Company X" just wanted us to leave on Sunday and gave us no reason to stay or work with them in the future. So we left as the dreary drizzle arrived.

We packed up our gear and got in our cars, taking off for Route 208. I had remembered that the Hasbrouck Heights Street Fair was also going on and we figured we'd take a shot and see if there was any spaces for us to set up the cart. Just as we pulled off of Route 17 and exited onto the Boulevard in Heights, the sun came out. We saw the street blocked off at the corner of Kipp Avenue and hundreds of people setting up tents. It looked like the fair was on...but would we be able to get in or would our day still be a total wash?

I decided to jump out of the car and go try and find the organizer of the fair. I knew it was done through Cliffhanger Productions from a wonderful street fair we did last year in East Rutherford, so I went to locate Cliff Witmyer (Cliffhanger president) to see if there was any chance we could get a space for the cart. It's remarkable how different two event promotions organizations can differ so much in how they operate. While "Company X" was breaking down the craft fair up in Franklin Lakes, Cliff's crew was blowing up the giant dinosaur trampoline and directing all the vendors on where to set up.


I located Cliff zipping around on his golf cart, walkie-talkie in hand, and explained my situation. He was so accommodating and made me feel very welcome. In minutes, his workers moved a whole bunch of traffic cones and opened up the street as if they were rolling out the red carpet for our arrival. Within a half hour, we were all set up and ready to go. It was so kind of Cliff to allow us in as a last minute entry like that and the best part was, our only fee for the day was to serve his crew meatball sandwiches which we were happy to do. Cliffhanger is one company that I can't wait to team up with again in the future.

It was a little before eleven o'clock when we were all ready to start serving the hungry crowd. What a crowd there was! This was a topnotch street fair with antiques, collectibles, live music, rides, amusements, the boy scouts were there, along with lots of other great clubs and activities for our youth...it was part carnival, part flea market, part circus...something for every member of the family. There was probably triple the amount of vendors as in Franklin Lakes and quadruple the amount of people. The sky got dark at certain times throughout the day and there were some scattered storms as predicted. But for the most part, the sun was shining and it was a perfect 72 degrees with no wind at all.


We had so much fun...met some friends, made some new ones and sold out every last ball just like we did in Haworth on May 1st. My #1 fan, Kat, visited us along with Louis Azzollini of the Fort Lee Film Commission and GiGi with all her clown friends from my big friggin' wedding who were there painting faces for the kids. The early morning drama in Franklin Lakes with "Company X" turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Had we just given up and called it a day we would have not only been in the red, we would have probably lost all of our meatballs. And wasting food is a sin to me. I know things are not going to go 100% smoothly all the time, but I always look at the positive perspective, and this was overall a very positive weekend.

I'd like to thank everyone who came out and visited us at the meatball cart and I can't wait to be dishing out more sandwiches again--rain or shine. We'll be announcing our next venue real soon!!! Till next week everyone...