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Featured News

NJ Photo Contest – Free Entry – Middlesex County

Spark is looking for diverse, artistic photos of your favorite areas of Middlesex County for our ‘Discover Middlesex” tourism guide.

Images chosen for these publications will be featured with full photo credit, and the grand prize winner will appear on the cover and receive a $250 cash prize, plus an “about” photography blurb.

There will also be cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.

Photos submitted may be used in Discover Middlesex.

Photographers will get credit for any photos used along with their name and contact info/website listed in the masthead of the magazine.

Contest Rules:

  • Submit all high-resolution jpg (at least 300 dpi) photos along with your Full Name, Address, email address and Phone Number
  • Please name all files individually with your name part of the file name
  • You can submit as many photos as you like. Even if you don’t win the cover there is still a chance for 2nd or 3rd place and your photo will be inside the magazine with your photo credit.
  • Three ways to submit:
    • Share to our Google drive infosparkmybiz@gmail.com – follow up with an email with your info to colleen@sparkmybiz.com
    • Send your photos via email to colleen@sparkmybiz.com
    • Mail a flash drive or a CD to Spark Market Solutions, 65 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701

Please note that model photo releases will be needed for any children under 18 years old, recognizable appearing in the photos. Please use this Model release form: Click here

Deadline to submit photos is September 7th

Winners will be chosen for each publication and will be announced by September 30th, 2020
Categories
Latest News

NJ Photo Contest – Free Entry – Monmouth & Ocean County

Calling all professional, amateur and enthusiastic shutterbugs. Two major Jersey Shore tourism organizations, the Ocean County Department of Business Development and Tourism and Monmouth County Tourism have partnered with Spark Market Solutions, LLC of Red Bank, NJ to produce “Explore Ocean” and the “Visit Monmouth” guides.

Spark is looking for diverse, artistic photos of your favorite areas of Ocean and Monmouth County. Think beach, surf, historic locations, and family fun or what makes people come to the NJ.

Images chosen for these publications will be featured with full photo credit, and the grand prize winner will appear on the cover and receive a $250 cash prize, plus an “about” photography blurb.

There will also be cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.

Photos submitted may be used in Visit Monmouth and Explore Ocean.

Photographers will get credit for any photos used along with their name and contact info/website listed in the masthead of the magazine.

Contest Rules:

  • Submit all high resolution jpg (at least 300 dpi) photos along with your Full Name, Address, email address and Phone Number
  • Please name all files individually with your name part of the file name
  • You can submit as many photos as you like. Even if you don’t win the cover there is still a chance for 2nd or 3rd place and your photo will be inside the magazine with your photo credit.
  • Three ways to submit:
    • Share to our Google drive infosparkmybiz@gmail.com – follow up with an email with your info to colleen@sparkmybiz.com
    • Send your photos via email to: colleen@sparkmybiz.com
    • Mail a flash drive or a CD to Spark Market Solutions, 65 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701

Please note that model photo releases will be needed for any children under 18 years old, recognizable appearing in the photos. Please use this Model release form: Click here

Deadline to submit photos is November 1, 2019

First, second and third place winners will be chosen for each publication and will be announced by November 30th 2019
Categories
Latest News

NJ Photo Contest – Free Entry – Monmouth, Ocean & Middlesex County

Calling all professional, amateur and enthusiastic shutterbugs. Two major Jersey Shore tourism organizations, the Ocean County Department of Business Development and Tourism and Monmouth County Tourism have partnered with Spark Market Solutions, LLC of Red Bank, NJ to produce Explore Ocean ’19, and the 2019 issue of the Visit Monmouth Guide. And NEW this year we are introducing “Discover Middlesex” our tourism magazine for Middlesex County.

Spark Market Solutions is looking for diverse, artistic photos of your favorite areas of Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex County. Think beach, surf, historic locations, and family fun or what makes people come to the NJ.

 

Images chosen for these publications will be featured with full photo credit, and the grand prize winner will appear on the cover and receive a $250 cash prize, plus an “about” photography blurb.

There will also be cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.

Photos submitted may be used in Visit Monmouth, Explore Ocean and Discover Middlesex.

Photographers will get credit for any photos used along with their name and contact info/website listed in the front of the magazine.

 

Contest Rules:

FREE to enter

Please note that model photo releases will be needed for any children under 18 recognizable appearing in the photos. Please use this form: Photo_model_release18

Submit all high resolution jpg (at least 300 dpi) photos along with you Full Name, Address and Phone Number.

Please name all files individually with your name part of the file name

Three ways to submit:

Share to our Google drive infosparkmybiz@gmail.com (also follow up with an email with your info to colleen@sparkmybiz.com)

 

Send your photos via email to: colleen@sparkmybiz.com

 

Mail a flash drive or a CD to Spark Market Solutions 

Spark Market Solutions

65 Monmouth Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

Attn: Colleen Leslie

 

Deadline to submit photos is NOW October 31st 2018

First, second and third place winners will be chosen for each publication and will be announced by November 30th
Categories
Latest News

Food Truck Stories with Tacoholics

Photo by Tacoholics

Tell us all about your food truck, what makes you special?
Our food truck is a very simple huge matte black truck that pops with the big Tacoholics logo written in orange. What differentiates us from the rest of the taco trucks around is our homemade specialty sauces, like Crack BBQ sauce and variations of tacos made with fresh ingredients. We are always creating new fun, flavors that go a little outside of the box of the traditional taco everyone is used too. To us presentation is everything and we pride ourselves on always serving the most eye opening tacos. If it looks great, it tastes even better!

 

Why did you decide to open a food truck?

When the three of us (Nick DeAngelo, Rob Bruno and Lou Raccuglia) took a trip to Florida after we graduated college, we realized that the only food we were eating were tacos. Literally every meal we had for the five day trip seemed to be tacos. With that inspiration and the popularity of the food truck scene we figured that if we serve the food that we enjoy eating, then everyone else would love it too. Turns out that was the right decision. Everyone loves tacos!

 

What’s your most popular menu item?
Hands down the Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos, it is a creamy sweet Thai chili sauce on top of fried shrimp with pico de gallo, lettuce, and cheese. In our own words the sauce is “Out of this World”

 

Tell us about a favorite or memorable event you’ve participated in?
It’s very hard to pick just one event that was our favorite and most memorable. One of our very first events was the Atlantic City Food Truck Festival. We prepped for two days and sold out of everything in one day. Our line seemed to be endless, and that was when we realized how many people loved our food. It was that moment that we realized that our decision to start a food truck was the right one. Taking part in the Monmouth Racetrack Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival was another huge goal of ours. We were lucky enough to have the chance to participate in May of 2017. Our line seemed never ending, and we had the pleasure of meeting many other food trucks that we had never met before.

 

What’s the best part about having a food truck?
This is another hard question to answer. First of all, the best food we have ever eaten has come from food trucks. I don’t know what some of these other trucks are doing with their ingredients, but my mouth waters over their dishes. At every event we all trade food, and it’s priceless when another vendor grabs some tacos for their staff. Another thing we really love is the positivity towards each other that all the food trucks bring. You can’t beat the feeling of the family atmosphere among the food truck owners. Every single event we attend, we are all rooting for each other to do well. We all want to help each other, not necessarily compete with each other.

 

Do you do weddings and/or catering?
We’re always up for weddings and catering. With just one truck, it sometimes difficult to do, but with our new restaurant were always looking forward to doing more.

 

Where can we find you on the street or do you have restaurant?
On November 25th we opened our doors to our first restaurant in our own hometown!
The Tacoholics Grill
1820 Lanes Mill Rd.
Brick, NJ 08724

Come stop by, show us some love, and crush some tacos!

Gift certificates make great stocking stuffers.

Follow us on…
Facebook: facebook.com/tacoholicsnj
Twitter: @tacoholicsnj
Instagram: @tacoholicsnj
tacoholicsnj.com
#tacoholicsnj

 

Categories
News

Food Truck Stories with Cheech A’ Cini’s

 

Tell us all about your food truck, what makes you special?
Cheech A’ Cini’s is a family business. We are a husband and wife team that works diligently to provide the best quality of food and service wherever we bring our truck. We are a proud small business that loves to work with other small businesses in the area. When you eat a Cheech A’ Cini’s, you are helping us honor our family members who taught us how to cook. We pride ourselves in using our family recipes as the foundation of our food.

Why did you decide to open a food truck?
We decided to open a food truck because Frank, our chef and my husband missed being in the kitchen. Frank is a CIA graduate with tons of kitchen experience. We decided that having a food truck would be a great way to get our food out there in many different locations. Owning a food truck, you can be your own boss and create dishes to your liking. We wanted to add our own twists to some Italian Street Fair. We also wanted to share with everyone our family recipes that we grew up on. Frank and I grew up in NY and NJ, so Italian Food in these areas are extremely popular. Everyone has their own version of how they do things. Owning a family business like this helps us pay tribute to our roots. We strive on bringing people together when they come to eat at our truck or get catering from us. Cheech A’ Cini’s tries to give you the experience of “Sunday Dinner” every time you visit us.

What’s your most popular menu item?
Our Most Popular Menu Item is the Pastacini! (Pass-tah chee-knee) A Pastacini is a family recipe that was passed down from our Nanny Rae. She would make a special pasta dish using all types of Italian Cheeses, macaroni and dried sausage. Nanny would mix it together and bake it. We called it Pastird and it was only around Easter time that she made this dish. Chef Cheech loved it so much that he took the recipe, modified it and created the Pastacini. Everyone that tries the Pastacini is honoring our late grandmother’s legacy.

Tell us about a favorite or memorable event you’ve participated in?
Our Most Memorable event was our 1st event. We were a mystery truck, we didn’t have our signs up yet but people saw a line forming so everyone had to come see what the fuss was all about. Then we watched those same people come back on line to get more food from us to bring home. That is when we realized we were on to something. To this day, those same people are still our loyal customers.

What’s the best part about having a food truck?
We can travel place to place and share our food with everyone. Being mobile gives us a better reach for the tri-state area.

Do you do weddings and/or catering?
Yes, we cater weddings and wedding after parties. We have a great holiday catering menu. Give us a call to get the details 347-973-9754

Where can we find you on the street or do you have restaurant?
Our Food Truck is currently closed for the winter season and we just focus on catering. We have a holiday catering menu out now. We also have our Pastacini’s in the deli case of Top Tomato in the Travis Section of Staten Island (3579 Victory Blvd SI NY 10314)

 

www.facebook.com/cheechacinis
Twitter: @cheech_a_cinis
Instagram: @cheech_a_cinis
#pastacinilove

347-973-9754

 

Categories
News

Food Truck Stories with Shore Good Eats N Treats

Tell us all about your food truck, what makes you special?
We started out catering and doing festivals and events under a tent. A few summers ago, we were doing an event on the bay in Manahawkin, and it rained both days. After two days of the wind blowing the rain sideways while we tried to hold down the tent and cover all of our equipment, I looked at my wife and said, “if we don’t have a truck by next season, we are done with this $#!%.”
We began researching different options and quickly realized how much more we could do if we had a truck. As luck would have it, we saw a trailer in a parking lot with a for sale sign on it that was identical to the one we were considering. After wrapping it with our Shore-themed logo and adding some personal touches, Shore Good Eats N Treats was born in May of 2016. Our concept born from our love of the Shore: serve shore eats and treats all year round. Our first event was in Bradley Beach, and the truck design and the lifeguard stand that serves as our menu were a huge hit. We became a quick success because everything we serve is made from scratch in reasonably-priced huge portions.

What’s your most popular menu item?
People absolutely love our enormous servings of butterfly fries with cheesy bacon ranch topping. Our mac & cheese egg rolls are a close second.

Tell us about a favorite or memorable event you’ve participated in?
We have a few favorite events each year but our most memorable event was when a group of festival attendees came to our truck three separate times for food. At their final visit they said, “There are 40 food trucks here, and your food is the best by far!” Since we were relatively new, that was such a huge compliment – especially since there are many great trucks out there and we love eating their food! It was validation for our hard work and high-quality product.

What’s the best part about having a food truck?
Being a part of food truck events, definitely. Food truckers are like a big family. You would think that because we are all in competition to earn business from customers that the truckers would keep to themselves and not be friendly, but it’s actually just the opposite. We all help each other, look out for each other and share great friendships. It’s rewarding to make connections and develop a following among our customers. It’s very gratifying to have people come to our truck event after event: we learn about their families and their interests, and they learn about ours. We recently even had a wedding proposal at our truck! It’s also very heartwarming to develop relationships with event promoters who think enough of our business and product to reach out to us and invite us to their events. We are humbled every time we are asked to participate in an event.

Do you do weddings and/or catering?
We have a full line catering business and do weddings and corporate events. You can see our catering and wedding menu on our shoregoodeats.com

Where can we find you on the street or do you have restaurant?
We are at festivals and events all over the tri-state area along with private and corporate events and we’re opening our first café in December. Shore Good Eats N Treats t is located at 120 West Sylvania Avenue in Neptune City. We have a lot of specialty foods on the menu but we will also have a “From the Truck” section where you can order items that you would get from the food truck.

Facebook: Shore Good Eats N Treats
Twitter: @realshoregood
Instagram: @realshoregood
shoregoodeats.com
#realshoregood

 

Categories
Latest News

Explore Ocean 2018 Photo Winners

 

1st Place – Castles in the Sand by Scott Kern
2nd Place – Lighthouse by Bob Cuthbert
3rd Place – LBI Girl by Claire McCarthy
There were so many wonderful photos and we would like to thank all who entered. A lot of the contestants photos will be featured in the magazine, due out January 2018

Categories
Featured News

Visit Monmouth 2018 Photo Winners

 

1st Place – Belmar Kite Festival – by Nancy Orlowski

2nd Place – Belmar Gazebo at Night – By Michael J. Colarusso

3rd Place – Crab – By Walter Bilotta

There were so many wonderful photos and we would like to thank all who entered. A lot of the contestants photos will be featured in the magazine, due out January 2018

 

Categories
Latest News

Food Truck Stories with House of Cupcakes

Founders, Ruthie and Ron Bzdewka tell us all about House of Cupcakes

Tell us all about your food truck, what makes you special? 

We were on the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” and won. In addition to award winning cupcakes we also serve cookies, and doughnuts, all baked fresh daily.

 

Why did you decide to open a food truck? 

We have three brick and mortar stores and customers would always ask us about opening in other locations.

 

What’s your most popular menu item?

All of our cupcakes are popular – But Red Velvet is #1.

Our autumn favorites are Pumpkin Spice, Carmel Apple and Maple walnut

Other favorites include…

Vanilla Riot – Named after our son Riot, this vanilla cupcake is topped with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with white chocolate vermicelli.

Chocolate Rage – named after our son, Rage, this chocolate cupcake is topped with milk chocolate buttercream, sprinkled with dark chocolate truffle vermicelli

Tell us about a favorite or memorable event you’ve participated in?

“Cupcake Wars” on the Food Network.

 

What’s the best part about having a food truck?

Meeting all the fun people at the events we participate in.

 

Do you do weddings and/or catering?

Yes. And new this year, you can order on our website and we will deliver overnight right to your house.

 

Where can we find you on the street or do you have store location?

You can follow us on our social media sites for what events we will be participating in.

And we have three store locations

PRINCETON, NJ, 34 Witherspoon Street, (609) 924-0085

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ, 593 Route 18 South, (732) 955-6026

CLIFTON, NJ, 700 Route 3 West, Unit #8, (862) 225-9536

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHouseCupcakes/

Twitter: @house_cupcakes
Instagram:  @houseofcupcakes.official
Website: www.houseofcupcakes.com
#houseofcupcakes

 

 

Categories
Latest News

NJ Photo Contest – Free Entry – Monmouth & Ocean County

Calling all professional, amateur and enthusiastic shutterbugs. Two major Jersey Shore tourism organizations, the Ocean County Department of Business Development and Tourism and Monmouth County Tourism have partnered with Spark Market Solutions, LLC of Red Bank, NJ to produce Explore Ocean ’18, and the 2018 issue of the Visit Monmouth Guide. These two power house high-end travel and tourism guides will highlight both regions as vacation destinations. Spark Market Solutions is looking for diverse, artistic photos of your favorite areas of Ocean & Monmouth Counties. Think beach, surf, family fun or what makes people come to the Jersey Shore. Please remember releases will be needed for children.

Images chosen for these publications will be featured with full photo credit, and the grand prize winner will appear on the cover and receive a $250 cash prize, plus an “about” photography blurb.

There will also be cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd place.

Photos submitted may be used in Visit Monmouth and Explore Ocean.

Photographers will get credit for any photos used along with their name and contact info/website listed in the front of the magazine.

Contest Rules

FREE to enter

Please note that model photo releases will be needed for any children under 18 recognizable appearing in the photos. CLICK HERE

Submit all high resolution (at least 300 dpi) photos via email to: colleen@sparkmybiz.com

Please name all files individually with your name part of the file name

For a lot you images, you may mail a flash drive or a CD to

Spark Market Solutions

65 Monmouth Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

Attn: Colleen Leslie