ABOUT US

My family came to live in Cape May Court House, NJ, in 1991, and I was nine years old. Spending my teens living in south Jersey, I had many different types of employment. I spent summers working as a lifeguard, doing odd jobs, and each summer brought various opportunities at the Jersey shore. When I was 15, I began working at Mara Bella’s restaurant in Stone Harbor. After working there one summer in their kitchen,  I knew cooking was something I loved. The way they spoke to me about the restaurant business and food made me love it even more. They inspired me, which made working there all the better. I loved working in that kitchen.  Because of my experience there from then on, my dream at 18 years old was to own my restaurant.

I went to school locally at Atlantic Cape Community College for culinary arts and have studied a variety of industry practices. After years of working in the restaurant business, my love for food and the company has only grown. 

I met my first wife, Rosa, in 2004 in a restaurant in Avalon. She was a hostess, and I was a cook. She was always very supportive of my dreams to one day own a restaurant and was supportive of my career. We were married in 2005, and we welcomed our baby boy Quinn in October of 2006.  A few months later, we discovered we were pregnant with our second baby. In August of 2007, our family was devastated by losing my wife and unborn baby to a terrible tragedy. My whole world came crashing down. I was mentally distraught and devastated. I had decided to leave NJ a few years later to work on my mental health and quality of life. After moving to Florida, I started a small consulting business to revive failing restaurants and turn them around to help them thrive. With this new experience, I decided it was time to come back home to New Jersey to be with family and heal from my trauma. 

I moved back to NJ, back to my son, and back to my family in 2013. 

In 2014 I met my now wife Sarah, born and raised here in Cape May County. Her family has owned a real estate business in Wildwood for over 35 years. 

Sarah and I met online on plentyoffish.com, and when we met in person, we were instantly inseparable. After being together for a short while, we knew we were meant for each other.  In 2015 we got engaged on Christmas and were married in June 2017. 

When we met, Sarah also worked at a local restaurant in Wildwood as a server. She had been in the hospitality and food service business for 15 years. Sarah and I share the same love of food and passion for having a family business of our own that we could build together.  We both love restaurant life and understand the energy, the hours, and what it takes to be in the industry and make it.

Working in the business for over 30 years, I found real love in cooking breakfast. Over the years, I have experienced the true hustle and bustle of working from open to close at the Jersey shore but  my ultimate goal has always been to be done work in the afternoon to spend more time with my family. 

We decided our first year married that we wanted to try to open a restaurant. While searching for a location, we found out we were pregnant with our first child. We decided to put our plans on hold to focus on our new son, Declan. We knew the amount of time and effort an endeavor like this required and chose to focus on our new family. When Declan was born, we knew it would be a little while before we could try again to open a business of our own. Through trial and error over the next year, we found that a brick-and-mortar establishment was just not possible for us. 

During this time, we also discovered we were pregnant with our second child. At that point, we realized we would have to postpone owning our restaurant a little longer so we could focus on our new baby.

Fast forward to my wife being 6 months pregnant and March 2020.  The pandemic hits. All of the money that we had saved to try for our business in the next few years, we now had to use to ensure that we could survive through the pandemic. In May 2020, our son Pierce was born a month early.  He had several complications at birth and, unfortunately, was taken to St Christopher’s hospital in Philadelphia for 36 days. We are grateful for the excellent care and attention he received while he was there. My wife and I spent weeks driving back and forth to Philadelphia to see our new son and care for our older son. 

When Pierce came home from the hospital, he was on oxygen for the first six months of his life. Once or twice a week, we were driving back-and-forth to Philadelphia for his doctors' appointments.  Living through this and the pandemic has been difficult financially, and finally, after years and years of trying, we can create a business of our own.

After much consideration and an uprising in food truck entrepreneurship, we decided that a mobile restaurant would be better financially and allow us to serve the community in a whole new way!

Our goal is to one day own a cafe of our own to pass down to Quinn, Declan, and Pierce, but for right now, we love that we can offer a cafe experience on the go to our whole community. 

We both have the passion and drive for this business. Fate and circumstance have led us down this road, and we are grateful that this dream has come true. 

Our name is a dedication to my father, Patrick Maguire. Patrick was in the Coast Guard for 25 years and acquired the nickname Mac ( through a common misspelling where people always assumed our last name is spelled MACguire). People have called me Mac over the years as well as my father. My father has always supported everything I have wanted to do in life. They made sure I received an excellent education and have helped us so much through getting this business. Mac’s Cafe is a dedication to my father, Patrick Maguire, and his dedication to our country.