Local Resident Nourishes Love of Meatballs

South Orange resident Daniel Mancini grew tired of the rat race in 2007 following a 30-year career in the fashion industry.

Needing a new start, he fondly remembered his childhood memories of sitting around the family dinner table in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn each Sunday, sharing his grandmother’s home-cooked meatballs and kicked around the idea of starting his own meatball business, he recently told The Huffington Post. Mancini was previously profiled in South Orange Patch in March 2009 and again in March 2012 as part of National Meatball Day.

He launched his company, MamaMancini's, and sold frozen meatballs online and in about 200 grocery store outlets across New Jersey. Today, his meatballs are sold in 12,000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, Publix and Costco. As a result, Mancini has transformed his small family business into a highly successful million-dollar company that recently went public.

Last year, Mancini opened his first "walk up" window in New York City called Meatball Obsession where meatball lovers can literally walk up and order a "meatball in a cup" with Mancini's sauce and bread.