Pete Curran has turned his backyard hobby into a second career.
Last July, the recently retired Manalapan Police Officer and his wife Carol Moscarello decided the timing was right to turn their successful catering business into a restaurant. The result was Smoke N Grill, a barbecue restaurant located on Whitehorse-Hamilton Square Road between Nottingham Way and Route 33, near the Hamilton Square Shop Rite.
“We outgrew our commercial kitchen,” Curran said. “When I retired from the police department, this was our game plan. We knew catering needed its own storefront. The catering side supports our business. The restaurant is extra.”
Curran credits the Food Network with the growing popularity of barbecue. When he started catering four years ago, no one knew what a brisket was, he said. Brisket is now his most popular meat, selling about 300 pounds of it a week. Curran originally kept the prices for the different types of meats the same while educating the local population about BBQ, thus eliminating price from their decision. With increases in the cost of brisket, that had to change. But he still sells it by the bunch.
Curran got hooked on barbecue in the 1990s when he bought a smoker and started cooking for friends and family. He was already very comfortable in the kitchen, working as a short order cook. In college, he cooked for his friends, while his roommates washed the dishes.
“I’m a full contact cook,” he said, meaning he used every dish in their kitchen.
He discovered barbecue while working as a police officer in Washington, D.C. He met with BBQ pit masters in Georgia in order to hone his craft. He started making pulled pork for his friends and family. Then, came the catering business, and now the restaurant.
“People started asking for our stuff,” Curran said. “One party led to another.”
His repertoire expanded to Baltimore pit beef, smoked top round, medium rare roast beef, Texas brisket, Memphis and dry rub ribs, baby backs and St. Louis ribs. Not only does Curran enjoy making a wide range of barbecue styles, he also enjoys talking about the differences in meat textures and levels of tenderness.
In addition to making Texas, Memphis Ranch and Carolina Classic barbecue, Curran also makes and bottles three kinds of sauces on a daily basis. Customers can mix and match with the meats according to their taste. Curran said the vinegar-based East Carolina is the most popular sauce in New Jersey; their sweet sauce is the Memphis, a tomato based sauce with molasses, coffee, and jalapenos; and the Texas is hottest sauce he makes, though he considers it “middle of the road,” in terms of spiciness. Smoke N Grill goes through more than a gallon of each sauce every day.
Curran’s favorite combination is the Texas hot sauce with brisket, but adds “the Memphis goes great with wings.”
Smoke N Grill caters all over New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.
As a retired police officer, patriotism is important to Curran. Smoke N Grill offers a 10 percent discount to “anyone who wears a uniform”—police officers, fire fighters, first responders and members of the military only have to identify themselves as such in order to receive the discount. Curran also donates a dollar per patch to Wounded Warriors, on top of his normal support.
While Curran moved to this area 15 years ago, he married into a family with deep roots in Hamilton. His wife Carol, a McCorristin High School alumna, grew up in Hamilton. Carol’s grandfather, Joseph Jansen, was the mayor of Hamilton in 1957, and founded St. Gregory the Great School in the 1960s. The entrance road to St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church off of Mario Drive is named after him.
The couple feels right at home at the restaurant in the heart in Hamilton Square, as do their three children, Cate, Shaylin and Riley.
Smoke N Grill is located 2611 Whitehorse-Hamilton Square Road. Phone: (609) 838-9114. www.thesmokengrill.com.
Chef Doug Morrissey, Cate Curran, Scott Santiago, Shaylin Curran, Sarah Vizzini, Brian Marion, Sorcha McCabe, Riley Curran and owners Carol Moscarello and Pete Curran all can be found at Smoke N Grill.,
