EATONTOWN - Growing up in Paterson, Sal Martorana loved the restaurant industry and had a passion for providing customers with great meals and service. And he successfully combined his desire to deliver an outstanding customer experience with his love of the Shore area when he launched Rise N Shine Diner in Eatontown in 1987.

“Even as a kid, I loved serving everyone at family gatherings and throughout my life I always enjoyed working in restaurants," said Martorana, 63, an Eatontown resident. After working for several family-owned restaurants, including a number of Greek diners, he opened his own "sweet shop" in Wood-Ridge in the early 1980s.

“It was a tiny place called Sal’s and had a soda fountain and a pinball machine and offered items like bagels, iced tea and penny candy,” Martorana recalled. “I saw it as a first step on the path to restaurant ownership.”

Though Martorana ended up selling that business after a year and went back to work at another restaurant, an opportunity soon came his way that he couldn’t ignore.

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“A family friend told me about a little breakfast place in Eatontown that had been there for years but was struggling and needed to be revived,” he said. “I’d always wanted to be near the Shore so that I could go fishing and crabbing and enjoy the water and the concept of a water lifestyle in a nice community appealed to my wife and kids, so it seemed like a great fit.”

In 1987, he moved his family to Eatontown and bought the diner, which had changed hands many times over the decades and was then called Mr. Mike’s.

“My brother Albert and I wanted to change the name to something that was upbeat and cheerful and we came up with Rise N Shine Diner,” Martorana said. “It’s fun to say and automatically puts you in a good mood.”

“I opened the diner with Albert, and with hard work, we brought it back,” said Martorana, who’s since become the sole owner (though Albert still works there). While it represented a big leap of faith, “I was pretty calm about buying the business and felt confident that we’d be successful,” he said.

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Cool, retro feel

Today, in the 1,000-square-foot space that seats 50 people, “we have a cool counter with 17 swiveling stools, an old retro look and feel, and an open kitchen so that people can see their toast going into the toaster,” Martorana said. “The place didn’t need a lot of renovating when I bought it — it was in pretty good shape and ready to be rejuvenated. I knew that I just needed to do a good job day after day to earn the community’s trust.”

For 35 years, Martorana and his team have done just that.

“We strive to give our customers a nice breakfast in a fast and friendly way,” he said. “We don’t reinvent the wheel — we have a limited menu and focus on doing a few things very well. For example, our egg and omelet dishes are excellent, our pancakes have been voted among the best in Monmouth County according to 94.3 The Point, and we’re known for our large portions.”

According to Martorana, “our most signature dish is our biscuits and sausage gravy, which we offer for $8.95 on its own or $10.25 with eggs,” he said.

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A hearty, flavorful, dense sausage gravy with an Italian twist that’s poured over homemade biscuits, “there are pictures of it all over social media and people have enjoyed it from all over the country; in fact, many say that it’s the best they’ve ever had, even people from the South,” Martorana said.  “It really put us on the map — literally.

“We also offer a few lunch items, like a burger, grilled cheese sandwich and BLT, but, given the fact that our hours are from 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we’re really all about breakfast,” he said. “Our most popular sellers are our pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich, which we sell for $6.25, our biscuits and sausage gravy, and our egg platters with toast and potatoes.”

Martorana said that the diner’s customer base has evolved over the years and has been significantly — and surprisingly — impacted by the internet.

“We’ve always had a core group of local customers and families, but today, two-thirds of our business is from people either visiting, vacationing, attending a special event like a wedding or doing things in our area (such as going to the MVC or a doctor’s appointment or attending a sports tournament or music festival); they then find us by Googling where to have breakfast,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a state in America that hasn’t been represented by a customer in the last few years and we even see people from overseas," Martorana said. "We get packed when people come to local events here because there are a lot of hotels in our area.”

Among trends, Martorana confirmed that “people love breakfast and want that ‘Jersey experience,’ not a cold, generic chain restaurant,” but also said that the local business landscape gave him pause for concern some years back.

“We have a steady customer base, but with the loss of thousands of workers in the area when nearby Fort Monmouth closed a decade ago and the pandemic more recently, I didn’t think we’d still be here today,” he said. “The internet saved us because people review us and then share their experience with others.”

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Franchises can't compete

While a team of seven to eight employees help manage the flow of customers on busy summer weekends when the local population swells, Martorana operates like a one-man band during the week.

“I do everything here and often run things myself on weekdays — from making coffee to flipping pancakes — and have gotten it down to a science,” Martorana said. “On the weekends, our additional staff members help free me up so that I can serve coffee and talk to customers.”

Along with his son James and brother Albert, who both help out on weekends, “our crew is unbelievable and our waitresses are like my daughters,” he said. “A franchise can never compete with a place like ours and the care you’ll get here.”

Like so many other businesses, Martorana said that rising food prices have been a challenge. “I’ve had to increase prices as our costs keep going up and it’s a tricky balance between what we can charge and what people will realistically pay,” he said. “I’ve never seen inflation like this.”

Despite that, running Rise N Shine Diner — which now stands among the longest solo owner-run businesses in Eatontown — is a labor of love.

“I’m blown away by the gestures people make, the sentiments they share, and their incredible generosity during the pandemic, with so many customers willing us to make it through,” said Martorana, whose work schedule has ironically left him little time for the water activities he originally moved there to enjoy.

“Hearing people from all walks of life reminiscing about our diner and finding out what we mean to them is really touching,'" he said. "It blows me away to see the impact we have on people’s lives, especially the longer our business goes on.

“Ultimately,” he concluded of his mission, “we’re proud to offer people a little place where they’ll be treated well, enjoy themselves, and have a wonderful visit.”

Rise N Shine Diner

Location: 14 Main St., Eatontown

Phone: 732-542-8042

Owner: Sal Martorana

Opened: 1987

Website: riseandshinediner.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rise N Shine Diner in Eatontown NJ going strong after 35 years