Pictured: Pork Roll Pete's offers a taste of New Jersey with its homemade bagels and breakfast sandwiches. Photo by Cecilia Marty.

The brand-new Pork Roll Pete’s in Bradenton is bringing a taste of New Jersey down to Florida. Owner Pete Ferraro, who moved from New Jersey six years ago, says he was always looking for a deli with the same food and atmosphere of his home state. When he couldn’t find one in the Bradenton area, Ferraro decided it was time to start his own breakfast and bagel shop. “I found some places in Florida that were good, but just didn’t have the hometown feel of an eatery or the same camaraderie of the locals and regulars,” he says.

With his business partners, AJ Altes and Chuck Casagrande, Ferraro established Pork Roll Pete’s, their shop offering breakfast sandwiches—including offerings with the classic New Jersey pork roll—and a broad lunch menu. “Every place in New Jersey that serves any type of breakfast or lunch, you can get a pork roll sandwich. But in Florida, it's very rare. So seeing that and the amount of potential customers that would really enjoy this type of concept, we decided to jump into it,” Ferraro says. The shop’s traditional breakfast offering, “The PRP Special,” featuring a pork roll, egg and cheese on your choice of bagel, brings that classic Jersey breakfast Ferraro had been looking for to Florida.

Ferraro took his time opening the shop, making sure to source only high-quality ingredients and learning how to be the best in the bagel business. All of the bagels are made from scratch, in-house, and Ferraro has even invested in a New York City water maker. “It's a filtration system that creates, on a molecular level, the composition of New York City water,” he says. “We're able to ionize, filter and send water through a brine tank that then matches what makes New York City and New Jersey bagels the best in the country.”

Looking ahead, Ferraro and his business partners plan to continue bringing the Jersey taste and feel down to Florida, for both customers who are long-time fans of the pork roll and those who are intrigued to try it for the very first time. “We want to provide an experience that when customers walk through the door, they feel like they've just flown a couple hundred miles north and are at a deli in New Jersey, and they're able to sit down and enjoy an amazing plate of food. If you're not from New Jersey, we want you to experience it,” he says.

Pictured: Pork Roll Pete's offers a taste of New Jersey with its homemade bagels and breakfast sandwiches. Photo by Cecilia Marty.