{"id":216,"date":"2008-05-08T11:42:11","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=216"},"modified":"2008-05-12T08:12:27","modified_gmt":"2008-05-12T15:12:27","slug":"good-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=216","title":{"rendered":"Good Taste"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Alan Meinster \u201986<\/strong>, owner\/operator of Marsilio\u2019s restaurant in Trenton, and wife <strong>Denise Didonato \u201986<\/strong> now chew the fat with Mercer County\u2019s top businesses. That\u2019s because their restaurant, a local landmark and hotspot for the political crowd, has been enshrined in the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageframe alignleft\" style=\"width:300px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment wp-att-218\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/alumni-alanmeinster.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Meinster \u203286\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"imagecaption\"><em>Alan Meinster \u203286<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Marsilio\u2019s is the first restaurant to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, according to Meinster. The restaurant has also received top reviews from The New York Times, The Times of Trenton, the Star-Ledger, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Zagat. Author Janet Evanovich even mentions Marsilio\u2019s in her series of books set in the Trenton area.<\/p>\n<p>What does it take to get such recognition? \u201cDon\u2019t pick your head up,\u201d said Meinster, who has been the owner of Marsilio\u2019s since October 15, 1986, just after his graduation. \u201cKeep working hard, and eventually someone will come and tap you on the shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meinster decided to return to his roots after college\u2014working in the restaurant business. While growing up in Freehold, and during his time at the College, Meinster worked for several restaurants and loved the experience. Fortunately, Meinster \u2019s father-in-law, a real estate broker, was able to help Meinster get his foot into the restaurant business and bought Marsilio \u2019s, which was established in 1951. Meinster is now chef\/owner of the restaurant, and, along with Denise, hosts alumni events at Marsilio\u2019s while both serve as alumni class agents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s enjoyable and fulfilling to associate and participate with an institution that heightens your career, \u201d said Meinster. \u201cIt\u2019s important to always respect the opportunities that are afforded us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Melanie Weiss \u201907<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Addendum<\/h3>\n<p>After the spring magazine had gone to press, we learned that Marsilio&#8217;s restaurant is scheduled to close in fall 2007, although Meinster plans to run a catering business from the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/alumni-alanmeinster1.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Meinster \u203286\" width=\"75\" height=\"56\" class=\"attachment wp-att-220 alignleft\" \/>Alan Meinster \u201986, owner\/operator of Marsilio\u2019s restaurant in Trenton, and wife Denise Didonato \u201986 now chew the fat with Mercer County\u2019s top businesses. That\u2019s because their restaurant, a local landmark and hotspot for the political crowd, has been enshrined in the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-spring-2007"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}