Berkeley Heights

DiMaio’s Cucina, a family-owned small business restaurant in Berkeley Heights, used innovative thinking to not only remain financially afloat during the pandemic but avoided having to lay off any employees in the process. The restaurant is a COVID-19 success story and deserves to be recognized as a Union County Community Champion.

DiMaio’s, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria, was originally founded in 1978. It has been owned for over 30 years by Salvatore (Sal) Passalacqua, a 1st-generation immigrant from Sicily, and his wife Tammy. Sal and Tammy have always been active supporters of the Berkeley Heights community, and DiMaio’s boasts many “locals” who regularly dine in and/or do takeout.

The COVID-19 pandemic immediately placed DiMaio’s in a perilous situation. Sal and Tammy’s profit margin depended on revenue from its indoor seated dining rooms, and the pandemic meant this portion of the business had to close. Sal and Tammy were determined not only to keep DiMaio’s going, but to protect their employees’ jobs to the fullest extent possible. This was a high bar to clear, to say the least!

Recognizing that increased takeout capacity would be critical for short-term survival, Sal and Tammy constructed a wood and canvass extension to the restaurant, enabling them to expand their smaller takeout infrastructure to meet newfound demand. Their commitment to high-quality Italian cuisine, and the well-deserved loyalty of their customers, meant long lines of customers could soon be found snaking around the building every evening. Increasing their takeout business also enabled DiMaio’s to avoid layoffs as employees were retrained to manage a takeout-focused approach.

Sal and Tammy also saw the opportunity to transform their parking lot into an outdoor dining area. They quickly obtained high-quality tents that made the most of their limited space, allowing them to restart their seated restaurant as soon as Berkeley Heights’ government passed an ordinance enabling restaurants to do this. DiMaio’s provided diners with excellent meals al fresco while faithfully following all COVID-19 safety precautions. When colder weather arrived, Sal and Tammy installed high-quality heaters to ensure patrons could continue to eat in comfort.

When the second wave of the pandemic hit New Jersey and Berkeley Heights in the Fall, and the pandemic seemed at its worst, Sal and Tammy donated their tent space to the senior citizen community for bingo. Every Monday, seniors would gather in rain, heat or freezing temperatures to sit inside the DiMaios’ (heated) tents—100% donated by Sal and Tammy.

While DiMaio’s has seemingly emerged unscathed from the worst of the pandemic, the truth is that the Passalacquas have only made it look easy. Their hard work, dedication to quality and the well-being of the employees, and swift implementation of innovative planning, all helped keep DiMaio’s in business even as many other small, family-owned restaurants either failed to stay afloat, or simply shut down entirely. That they did so without laying off a single employee is a tribute to the community-focused vision of Sal and Tammy, and it makes them an excellent choice for a Union County Small Business Community Champion award.

The last year has been an exercise in transformation for all restaurants. Menus and business models have been completely overhauled. Problem solving in a Covid world have been reimagined. The reasons behind all survival are people: Owner’s making tough choices, employees showing up to work day after day, and community showing their support.

To keep up with the new demand for takeout we built a small extension to the restaurant to keep up orders. We had to invest in expanding outdoor dining giving up a portion of parking lot and adapted to colder weather conditions with heaters. These extra steps kept the business going and allowed us to keep our staff on board. We’re grateful for the support of our staff and loyal customers.

This has been an incredibly trying time for everyone but especially for children who don’t fully understand the gravity of what we have been dealing with. The changes in schedules, the isolation, the lack of routine, and of course the fear of getting sick, have all greatly impacted the mental health of our children. Lindsay Doris and Dana Millette immediately thought outside the box to keep their dancers engaged and to give them some sense of schedule and normalcy during this past year. When we were all in lock down they made the effort to teach online, in real time with all their students.

They learned Zoom, and they trained their faculty, some of whom were teaching from out of the country in places like Canada and Italy. All last Spring the dancers attended their classes at their normally scheduled times, perfecting dances, learning new dances and preparing for the Showcase in June, even before we knew what that would look like. In June they again thought outside the box putting together an outdoor stage and putting on the annual showcases in person so the dancers could once again dance together. Throughout that whole time and through the summer these two women outfitted their studios with hepa-filters, and kept tabs on every single health and safety requirement with the hope of opening their doors to their dancers in the fall.

Thankfully, and mostly due to their diligence, the dancers were able to take classes in the studio, wearing masks. However if anyone had to quarantine or felt unsafe dancing in person, large monitors and cameras were placed in every studio so students could continue to stay on their schedule and keep a routine. This has been such a tough time for everyone but what Dana and Lindsay did for their dancers and what they continue to do, goes above and beyond what anyone expected, and I truly believe it is what has helped so many of our kids maintain their mental and physical health throughout this pandemic.

We at Pure Movement Dance Center are so proud to be recognized as a Union County Small Business Community Champion. The past 16 months have been filled with many challenges, from figuring out how to shift from in-person to online learning, to managing exposures once we did return to in-person training.

Our first task was to shift the training of our 280 young dancers from over 100 classes a week in 4 large studios to training at home during lockdown. Our entire faculty and staff worked to adapt our entire syllabus to accommodate dancers at home in vastly different conditions. From space constraints, different levels of internet connections, to siblings or family members in the background there were many challenges to remote dance instruction. We had to reimagine our entire classroom experience, including launching a “Virtual Classroom” on our website that dancers of all ages could easily navigate themselves. In addition to maintaining most of our regular weekly schedule live via Zoom, we prepared digital content and provided additional subscription classes with well-known master teachers to our dancers. Our dancers at home rose to the challenge by getting creative with items they found at home, such as chairs or the stools to use as ballet barres or pillows to help during stretching or leap training.

Once the lockdown was lifted, but still prevented from performing in a theater, we were thrilled to celebrate the hard work of our dancers and faculty with an outdoor dance recital in our own parking lot. We were rewarded with the joy of our dancers being reunited in person. Our number one goal during this time was to ensure that the dancers got to finish what they had started before Covid-19 was even a thought. We worked to ensure that their training continued and progressed, and to provide them with a constant in their lives that had been turned upside down. There was a triumphant feeling to have made it over that first hurdle.

Then came the second major obstacle: how to re-open, in-person, safely and responsibly. In September 2020 we were allowed to be back in our space with our students but still with restrictions that made it far from the normal we were used to. We again reformatted our classes to follow social distancing guidelines, adjusted class schedules to stay under occupancy limits and adapted to dancing and teaching in masks. Touchless hand sanitizer stations and medical grade hepa filters were installed in every room. We performed daily temperature checks and created a new entrance/exit plan to minimize exposures in high traffic areas.

Additionally, every live class was made available in the virtual classroom for the families who weren’t ready to join us in person again or, in the event of a quarantine, there was an option for those dancers to still have a training experience from the comfort of home. Each studio was equipped with a new virtual setup that included music integration, wireless headsets for the teachers, webcams and large screen tvs so that the teachers could clearly see the virtual students and give constructive feedback.
During the course of the year we had to navigate quarantines and exposures, making sure we communicated protocol information with our staff and clientele effectively. Each week brought additional challenges that our faculty and staff had to overcome and for us as owners to learn from.

We are so proud that we were able to survive and thrive during such a difficult time. We capped off this unique year with a triumphant Showcase of our young dancers at Governor Livingston High School. There is nothing we are more proud of than seeing our dancers succeed. Be it the small successes in learning a new step, supporting your fellow dancer in need, or achievements on stage. But, this year, seeing our faculty, staff, dancers and parents show their resilience and overcome all of these obstacles was truly remarkable.

This is one business that surely deserves recognition in so many ways. They are called Shock Room Fitness located in Berkeley Heights, NJ. They are the very first wireless EMS Workout (Electro Muscle Stimulation) in all of NJ!! They had just opened 3 months before the pandemic shut them down.

I became a client right when they opened and was amazed at what this technology was capable of doing for me. I had broke my ankle and was not able to do my normal workout anymore and this was when someone told me about them. I looked into it and read the suit you wear contracts your muscles for you. So it’s a full workout, without lifting any weights or putting pressure on any part of your body with more effective results. Sounds so crazy right?? I thought the same thing but they offered a free trial so I had nothing to lose and being upset that I wasn’t able to workout for a while, I really felt the need to try it. Boy can I tell you, this is one thing in my life I am so happy I did!!

Then all of a sudden they got shut down. The owner Richard Maggio, MD was totally devastated the pandemic completely stopped his brand new business from flourishing. We spoke a few times about the sadness and stress this was having on him, (and of course all of us) but he then informed me if he doesn’t figure out a different plan ASAP, he most likely would not be able to continue. Owning a closed facility and having to pay full rent and tons of expenses especially from opening a new business, he could not last much longer. The Fitness Industry was really getting hit one of the hardest. I am absolutely amazed at the resilience this small business owner strived for. He gave his all not to lose everything. In order to survive he had to create a completely different business plan, so that’s what he did. His new program involved giving his suits to trainers and gyms for free so they could earn money with this new technology. It’s a wireless suit so the trainers could take it anywhere, socially distanced and still keep business and his suits would now be located in so many more places.

Due to his new business plan, determination and not giving up, this has led him to a huge manufacturing deal and becoming the only distributor in the entire US with this revolutionary technology.

Now what he did next was the real reason I am writing to you. Besides making the most out of this horrific pandemic and actually trying to rebuild his business, he also created and is offering FREE Women & Teens Self Defense classes!! It just shows you the kind of person he is and why having small businesses are still so important to our community’s. Rich reached out to our local Union County Police Departments, Berkeley Heights and Summit to see if they would be interested in participating and they absolutely loved the idea of helping to teach classes with him as well!!

They started in June and with just a few classes they have officially taught almost 100 Women and their teens already!! Not only is the self-defense class Free but Shock Room Fitness gives each attendee a Free Strengthening Class as an extra gift along with a little goody bag with some great stuff to use!! This is coming from a business that just suffered through the worst of the pandemic. So each participant learns awareness, techniques and will achieve strength and power for their mind and body like they have never experienced before. One small business can change the world when you have someone that truly cares.

Giving this business any kind of recognition would be so greatly appreciated. It would show them how much they truly deserve for all their hard work and efforts they have put into changing and being resilient through the toughest of times and now they can teach us how to be tough and resilient as well. They have so much to offer. Giving them the recognition will let our neighbors know about these Free Classes and it’s a very nice way to also thank the Union County Police for their support in this program as well.

I do believe this recognition would go to a small business that has not only shown significant changes it made through the pandemic, surviving it, creating new jobs, helping people like me with injuries, bringing brand new technology to the US, thanking our Union County Police Departments and most importantly creating a Free program that is here to help save lives!!

Now if this isn’t a business that worked endlessly to make good from one of the worst times of our lives…I don’t know many others that could have achieved all of this.

Shockroom Fitness was opened in December 2019 as the only wireless EMS studio in New Jersey and only one of a handful in the United States. Popular in Europe, Electro Muscle Stimulation (EMS) suits are worn by individuals and the electrodes in each training suit allow the user to experience up to 28,000 muscle contractions in over 300 muscle groups during a single 20-minute workout. These contractions cause the engagement of all muscle fibers, including those that are not used during a traditional workout. Thus a 20-minute EMS session is equivalent to a 3-hour conventional workout.

Our suits are wireless and Bluetooth connected so they can be used indoors or outdoors and up to ten suits can be controlled by a single tablet.

We began getting the word out and in January began to see our class enrollment grow. Then in March of 2020 the lock-down started and we were forced to shut our doors. With no clients we were forced to change our plan. With such an amazing technology that we felt so strongly about we got a manufacturing contract and now market to gyms and training facilities as well as having our headquarters in Berkeley Heights where we train clients in our facility.

Because of the kidnapping that occurred in Summit and with our doors being closed, several months ago I decided what better way to give back to the community then to offer free women’s self-defense classes as well as a free session with Shockroom Fitness. During such a devastating time for our community, our “Shock Your Attacker” self-defense classes have been extremely successful and are offered on a monthly basis at our studio in Berkeley Heights. Because of its success we will also be offering self-defense courses beginning in September.

Shockroom Fitness was opened in December 2019 as the only wireless EMS studio in New Jersey and only one of a handful in the United States. Popular in Europe, Electro Muscle Stimulation (EMS) suits are worn by individuals and the electrodes in each training suit allow the user to experience up to 28,000 muscle contractions in over 300 muscle groups during a single 20-minute workout. These contractions cause the engagement of all muscle fibers, including those that are not used during a traditional workout. Thus a 20-minute EMS session is equivalent to a 3-hour conventional workout.

Our suits are wireless and Bluetooth connected so they can be used indoors or outdoors and up to ten suits can be controlled by a single tablet.

We began getting the word out and in January began to see our class enrollment grow. Then in March of 2020 the lock-down started and we were forced to shut our doors. With no clients we were forced to change our plan. With such an amazing technology that we felt so strongly about we got a manufacturing contract and now market to gyms and training facilities as well as having our headquarters in Berkeley Heights where we train clients in our facility.

Because of the kidnapping that occurred in Summit and with our doors being closed, several months ago I decided what better way to give back to the community then to offer free women’s self-defense classes as well as a free session with Shockroom Fitness. During such a devastating time for our community, our “Shock Your Attacker” self-defense classes have been extremely successful and are offered on a monthly basis at our studio in Berkeley Heights. Because of its success we will also be offering self-defense courses beginning in September.