New pop-up food vendor opens on Asbury boardwalk
'Hoagitos' offers five gourmet-style sandwiches
A new pop-up sandwich vendor on the Asbury Park boardwalk is now open.
Hoagitos, which opened June 30, sells gourmet miniature sandwiches. The name comes from a play on words, pairing “hoagie” with a Spanish suffix meaning small.
Mark Spagnuolo, his wife Emma and his brother-in-law Terence McGill [above left to right] own and operate the business. All three live in Belmar.
The idea stemmed from McGill, who wanted to open up a gourmet sandwich shop after his senior year in college.
“I always wondered, how do you get foot traffic into a gourmet sandwich shop?” Spagnuolo said.
After the Spagnuolo’s honeymoon in Spain, the idea for a tapas-style gourmet sandwich shop on the boardwalk was born, he said.
Menu selections include roast beef, turkey, pork, sopressata, veggie and nutella sandwiches. All of the sandwiches are $4 each.
Most of the meat is cooked on-premises and the bread is specially made by a nearby bakery.
“We cook all of the meat ourselves except for the sopresatta and the ham that goes in the pork sandwich,” said Spagnuolo. “The bread for the sandwiches comes from Del Ponte’s Bakery in Bradley Beach. They make the bread special for us,” he said.
Spagnuolo is pleased with how the business is running so far, he said. “We’re seeing a lot of return customers and every day just seems to be getting better and better.”
Hoagitos, located just north of the Asbury Eighteen miniature golf course, is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
————————————————————
Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook and Twitter.
