The first time I was in Long Island was over two years ago. My wife (fiancé at the time) Megin and I went on our initial audition for “My Big Friggin’ Wedding” at The Inn At New Hyde Park. I haven’t been back since this month—and I visited three times over the past three weeks! For some reason, I feel myself drawn there, maybe it will indeed be the first area in New York where I will expand my brand out of the Garden State.

I suppose the connection was always subliminally present, I mean “My Big Friggin’ Wedding” was made by 495 Productions (after the 495 Expressway which I got stuck on yesterday, but I will get into that in a moment). I took a drive to Hampton Bays on Monday and spent some time on the beach which was absolutely beautiful. It was a real quaint little town with nice shops and eateries. Again I’ll repeat—the beach was the best part. It was good to have a few minutes to myself to just look out at the water to think about things. It’s been a real hectic week…

Then on the ride home, my meatball box truck had a tire blowout. That added an hour and a half of waiting for a tow driver to come and change it—which put me right into rush hour traffic—thus adding another good hour to the commute back to Jersey. But that didn’t spoil my day or my positive feelings about the island. Or, “Strong Island” as I have heard it called.

I talked last week about my great experience at author Alysia Stern’s birthday party in Levittown on the 7^th and then this past Saturday she invited me back. I went on her talk show “Rendezvous with Alysia” with her and Karin Murphy Caro which was filmed at the Mad House Studios in West Islip. The 495 has seen a lot of me lately! You can see footage from both the birthday party (click here: http://vimeo.com/45772884) and also the talk show (click here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23985958).

Alongside me on the Rendezvous set was Jim Savalli, the publisher of Village Connection Magazine who definitely feels that I should start doing some events in L.I.  and is going to help steer me in the right direction. The other guests were Nancy Knapp, an NFL photographer and importer of German products, as well as Richard “Big Daddy” Salgado who insures professional athletes and entertainers (and hopefully me someday). Big Daddy has an enormous amount of connections and is also a guy who I learned a lot from on that couch—specifically “expanding the brand.”

Between last summer and this year, I have done close to 100 events with and without the meatball cart…all in New Jersey with the exception of one in Pennsylvania. People have been saying for a while that I should make it a point to do some more appearances and events in New York. But I have been pulled into many different directions and unsure of where to go. Some say Little Italy Manhattan, others say Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, Staten Island, and then others say I should go upstate towards Rockland County. Long Island may be the place. We are already affiliated with a great bunch of cooks out of Brooklyn where our meatballs are now going to be produced, so little by little we will get to all the boroughs, upstate and beyond! No matter what though, I will never neglect my New Jersey roots.

Speaking of which, come MEAT me tomorrow in Jersey where I have a HUGE event in Bergen County scheduled. I will be at The Landmark (Route 17, East Rutherford) from 6pm-9pm for the annual “B2B Mixer.” This is a must-attend event for anyone in the food and entertainment industry to network at, featuring celebrity guests and members of the media. I will have a table set-up handing out promotional materials and free meatball samples. There will also be a meatball “throwdown” against a secret competitor! For more information, click here: http://njweddingb2bmixer.eventbrite.com/