Spotlight New Jersey: Singer-songwriter Spencer Philip

Spotlight New Jersey: GPS Empowerment

Spotlight New Jersey: The Grapevine Mobile Bar 

Spotlight New Jersey: The Committee GNO and the S.M.A.R.T. Foundation

Spotlight New Jersey: Guided Collaboration Collective

Spotlight New Jersey: It Takes a Borough 

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News 12 Staff

420spotlightnj2_2024-04-20-10-05-06

The family behind Maria's brunch and attention are my guests today. Maria Nicholas and Ario Ruez are the owners Lucy Ruez Nicholas and Kellyanne or Kiki Ruez. Nicholas are all sitting here with me. Love having you all here in studio today. Thank you so much. We're so happy to be here too. Let's start out with this great story that you have about how this whole restaurant came about. We always like as a family, had a dream together and we were like one day we're gonna have our own place because my, my father's been a cook forever. My mom too used to cook at home. So we were like one day we have to have a little place for us because we love like cooking and doing stuff. So we uh but I just happened in the right time, the right moment because we didn't have much money as a family. It's hard to save money working and have kids. And so uh one day my friend called me and she was like, I have a right place for you, Maria. Do you wanna take it? And I was like, yes, I'll take it and she was laughing at me because she never told me she was like, I didn't even tell you how much it's gonna be. But where is the place? And I was like, if you call me is because you know that I can do this. So that's how it started. And I was like, but how much it's gonna cost? Yes. And we were, we about to talk, we want to talk to the owner and she, the first thing that she asked was like, how much money do we have? And it was like, ok, we're not gonna lie to you because we don't have, we don't have like maybe a fortune in the bank. So all we, we, we gotta do is write a letter for you telling uh like his story where we're coming from what we have done as a family and then you can decide. So I was like, we don't have nothing to lose and if we win it great, but if we don't have nothing to lose and nothing like to lose a try, right? So that's how we did it. So after like, I wanna say three weeks, I was driving from work and she called me and she was like, Maria, the place is yours. So I couldn't believe it because I was like crying. I called my husband and I called them and I was like, she gave us the place and she was like, mom, is that true? We have the place because they couldn't believe it. We all, we all like, all crying because I was like, that was so nice that she gave us as a place because we knew that many people wanted the place, especially in Mein is a great place, a great community. Uh, like everybody wants to be in Meachen. So that's how we started. What is your address? So people know your address at 140 Durham Ave em Meachen New Jersey. You all were so excited, weren't you? Yeah, we were, we were so proud of her because like it's her mom. She deserves the world and then we knew that we were going to be working on it together. So, uh my dad got involved. We were all really just happy for her. Isn't that a lovely family? So sweet and so genuine dining out can be hard when family members all have different taste coming up at noon. Maria explains how they help to make things easier.

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420spotlightnj3_2024-04-20-12-37-31

We are putting the focus on Maria's brunch in Metuchen today here on spotlight New Jersey. Maria Arlo Lucy and Kellyanne or Kiki are all talking with me. You all wanted to make sure because going out to dine as a family is hard that people could have options with their palate and what they wanted to order and eat. It was really hard as a family going out before because it was like, OK, I like lunch kind of style. My husband love eggs. My kids love pancakes, although she likes something different. So it was like, ok, going out, it was like complicated because we didn't like the same stuff. So that's why we decided um like to do like a few. No, like a v of all the stuff that we have so we can talk. Well, that yeah, so I usually wanna go out. I know it's not for everyone but I like to get a burger for, for breakfast sometimes. So, and you're not alone on our menu. We have the brunch burger which has bacon. It's a burger and it has bacon, I mean an egg and it's just like the perfect burger that I would have loved to have when we went out and they could still get everything that they wanted and it just was great. What do you like to eat for breakfast? So, I usually like to eat pancakes, like French toast and waffle types of stuff. I like all that with like some fruit on the side of it. Like, it's just something I really like and enjoy to eat. And what about you? He wants to be shy on me, but I'm not gonna let him. He usually joins me in on the cheeseburgers and the burgers for breakfast that are just the New York steak or wings, buffalo wings. You can order them at 9 a.m. in the morning. I'm with you. I'll eat them too. You like your eggs? Yes, I, I do. Uh But I like sweet stuff. I like everything. So that's why we have a lot of different place that have sweet and salty stuff. Also, we offer like gluten free stuff, uh vegan stuff if people like to, to go for, for that because we know as far as a family going out and they have no choices. So we do offer like gluten uh free stuff also that we can make uh vegan and you have a big staff that helps you make these entrees. Tell me about the people that work for you. Uh Most of them is a family like they're family. My, my cousins, my, my nephew, my niece. So they're all working with us. My husband, my father, my uncle. So we have a lot of people working for us. They're so important because I'm like I'm always said, without them, we won't be able to do anything, we won't be able to put stuff together. So there are like my big support in the back. And even if they're not blood family, relatives, I feel like a lot of people that work with us, they end up becoming family. Like when it comes to the waiters up front, we love having them as family. Anyone in the kitchen, the dishwasher, they're just all, just a big family to us and it's great to work in an environment surrounded by your family. She is absolutely right about that. And tomorrow at 6 a.m. the family talks about each of their roles at the restaurant. Just adore them. Hilda.

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421spotlightnj4_2024-04-21-08-16-33

Look at this lovely group with me this morning. They are the family members with Maria's brunch in Metuchen. And I wanna talk about the role that each of you play in the restaurant. Ok. So I'm in charge of the front. Um Basically just uh welcoming the the customers in charge of all like paperwork and stuff like that and taking orders and bringing orders in and uh Kiki. Um so I help make coffee sometimes when my sister is like busy and I also just like to be there to support my mom and my family. Oh, that's so sweet of you. And then I uh I'm also just there to support my family there whenever they need it wherever I'm needed, I'll go help. Um I also focus on mainly the graphic design aspect of the restaurant and Instagram post logos at menus, anything like that. How special are the customers to you and what's your attitude in treating everybody? Our customers are like a family like I'm always say to people, it makes me so happy when I see them coming back when I see them sharing like family stuff because I love to see little kids growing up like I have a few customers, little kids that they love to see me and I love to see them and they become a family. Uh They're all like a family. I said, if you are coming to a place, you are like treating as a family act. Like I say to the to the people who work that was like the waiter or waitress. I said one request that I always ask is you treat the people nicely because there is no need enable to be nasty or rude. I said kindness is the world is the world need in this at this time. So that's why I said anybody who comes to a place, they become a family and that's how we treat them. You all have an anniversary coming up this summer. Yes, we're gonna uh be there two years. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. How has it been these past two years? Because I know it's not easy getting a restaurant off the ground and then maintaining it, it hasn't been easy. But again, we love to be there. We love what we're doing. So as like family, I said, it's not, it's hard. We there seven days a week but we have the afternoon. So we close early and we have the afternoon together to enjoy some time like at home. But I said, um we're so happy to be there because we still enjoy as a family and we give people what, like we, we like, what are your hours? We open seven days a week from 7 to 3 every single day. So, you're there now? What's it like when you all, are you there at seven o'clock in the morning? I am there with my mother. What's it like having to start that early as a teenager? It's actually a lot of fun. I know that over the summer she tells me to open up and it's, it's always fun. It's family, this restaurant would have gone by a different name if Maria's daughters hadn't stepped in that story at nine.

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421spotlightnjpart5_2024-04-21-09-34-46

If you're looking for a great place to eat. Maria's brunch in Metuchen is one spot. You have to check out Maria. I wanna ask you, how did this name come about? Your daughters are gonna chime in too? Yes, it was a vibe because I wanted to combine my kid's name and I was like, ok, I'm gonna call it, we're gonna call it lucky because it's Lucy and Kiki together. So we were gonna combine it. But then they, they didn't want me to do that because we were looking at how hard it would be to find the place and just like logistically, it wasn't gonna be great. So we said that it should be something surrounding my mother because at the end of the day, it's gonna be, she's going to be up there. She's going to be in the front and it's going to be her thing. So we said Maria's brunch took weeks and weeks of talking about it for her to finally agree and every time we brought it up, she'd just be like, no, we have to make it lucky. It has to be lucky. And we just think that it's, it's Great. Maria's brunch is a great name because we have plates under it that just again coming back to family, it's Kiki's cakes and Lucy's omelets and Tio's toast. And it's just all of these things that make her, her family and she gets to put them out on the menu. Speaking of which, what does Lucy mean? Lucy. It's from our native language tacu and it means hummingbird in our language. It's beautiful. Thank you. I love that. Now, you wanted to add something about this conversation of where the name came from. Yes. So as l she said, it took a lot of time to convince my mom to get her to choose this name and we thought it would just be easier for people to find it for them just to like say it because if you think about it lucky, it's like they pronounce it wrong like a lot and brunch came from because we wanted to like have lunch and breakfast like all the time. So like all day and like that. So we combined like lunch and breakfast and we it was brunch because like a lot of teenagers said it so like it is perfect. Yeah, I see you laughing. You like the name too. So you just said, let the ladies have what they want. Maria. It's all yours. See, it worked out perfectly, right? How do you feel about it now? I'm I'm happy now with everything because people are happy too. And you'd like to use the restaurant to get back too. We do because like, like you said, I'm so happy if everybody is happy who are coming to a place that makes me happier. So that's why I said to people in a community, uh, Mein is a great community but local community, they can come to us. And like, I'm always tell them they come sometimes for, uh, like asking for help, for school, for any like organization that they, they need. I told them, I said, if you need anything, we is here for you. If you need a plate of food, we give it to you. But I said, I, we, I'm not like saying to, to just for people to think that we wanted to give a customers. It's just because we feel, we feel from our hearts that we're gonna give back to them at noon. We'll chat about the family's future plans for the restaurant.

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421spotlightnj6_2024-04-21-13-45-47

The family that is behind running. Maria's brunch and Metuchen. They're here with me today on spotlight New Jersey. Maria Nicholas and Ario Ruez. They're the owners Lucy Ruez Nicholas and Kellyanne or Kiki Ruez Nicholas are all sitting right here. You all have a saying on the website about your restaurant. I wanna hear it in unison. I Mi Casa the casa. I love that one more time. Is the casa and why is it important for people to know that your customer so important because it's in Spanish? But if you translate it, it's like Mi Casa is my house, is your house. So that's why I, like we said, we as this is family and you are our family. So if you here is our family for you, for anybody who wants to come, like everybody is here. But we have um like one thing that we really want to emphasize to people because like I always said, I wanted people to know that if you come to our place, you're gonna be treated as anybody else. You is no, nobody is better than anybody in our place. Like everybody's gonna be treated the same way as we like to be traded. And I feel that when I walk in and I love that, what's future plans? Do you have uh future plans that we have is that we wanted, we would love to have a bigger place because people sometimes say I like you gonna open a second place and in our plans is not to open a second place because like we always said, we don't have the same two people to just split it and go to a different place because we, what we really want is just to give the great service, the good food that we have to people. So that way they can just feel like too happy in a place because if we open a second, but it will be the same because we won't be able to do two places at the same time and you wanna maintain that kind of care with your customers. Why is this restaurant so special to you? Young ladies? You see a business in action here at a tender age? Yeah. Um, I think that the place is just incredible. I've invited so many of my friends over and they've come over and they've really enjoyed it and I know that they might be slightly biased as my friends, but I really do think that they're genuine about it. They keep on coming back and it's because they say themselves that they feel at home and they feel like the coziness of the environment and just the family and the warm and again, coming to work is not difficult because I'm with my family. So it's just, it's really a great time. Do you feel the same way? Yeah, I feel the same way. So I have like friends that also love to just go and eat. Um, one of my best friends, she says that the waffles are the, they're her favorite waffles like ever. And I just think that it's important for everyone to feel welcome. And I think we, we're good like we're doing that one more time. You're saying Casa Lucas? Thank you.

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In this week's Spotlight New Jersey, News 12’s Della Crews spoke to the family that owns Maria's Brunch.

Spotlight New Jersey: Maria's Brunch in Metuchen

In this week's Spotlight New Jersey, News 12’s Della Crews spoke to the family that owns Maria's Brunch.

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