Sibling Revelry
Posted by estiator at 14 October, at 19 : 59 PM Print
COVER STORY
With Skopos Hospitality, Thomas and Dean Maroulakos find a winning formula in celebrating New Jersey.
By Michael Kaminer
If Dean and Thomas Maroulakos had just opened restaurants, their success story would seem impressive enough. After working in Manhattan bars and clubs for years, the brothers opened their first venue, Cowan’s Public, in 2015.Today, under their Skopos Hospitality brand, they operate six smash-hit New Jersey eateries, with a seventh set to open next month. The name of their company comes from the Greek σκοπός, meaning “purpose.”
But there’s a side of the business most of their customers don’t see. The brothers launched a hugely successful catering operation in 2022, aimed at enhancing the canteen offerings for New Jersey’s growing number of film, television, and commercial productions.
If that wasn’t enough, the enterprising pair also owns a design consultancy that creates the environments for their own restaurants—and works on corporate cafeterias, gyms, and other hospitality venues. “We both talk over ideas for each concept, research the history of the site, and explore the heritage of the area,” Dean says.
While they’re now established entrepreneurs in New Jersey, neither brother set out to open their own businesses. A decade ago, Dean was “doing costume design between acting jobs,” he says. “The costume shop where I worked was opening a second store, and I helped with the design. Once the store opened, and I saw how people reacted to it, I realized what a cool creative outlet design could be―you see it every day, and it affects people so much.”
For his part, Thomas was plying his trade at a craft brewery in New Jersey. “At the time, the craft-beer renaissance was just starting to unfold, and there were not too many breweries,” he says.
“We were exposing people to something a little different, and a bit outside their com-fort zone―people at the time were just drinking beer without thinking about it. But we would put a lot of care into our product, and I got so much joy from seeing the faces and reactions guests had to trying something new. That continues to fuel me.”
In 2015, with both brothers contemplating their next chapters, they came across a dive bar for sale in their home-town of Nutley, New Jersey. A light bulb went off. Dean could flex his creative muscles designing the space; Thomas could envision the food and beverage. Once they took over the bar, they named it Cowan’s Public after John Cowan, the bar’s longtime owner and a Maroulakos family friend.
Cowan’s Public turned to provide a kind of template for Skopos Hospitality’s success. “Dean brings talents and skill sets from a design stand-point,” Thomas says.“I try to bring great food and beverage that matches the expectations created by that great design. But we’re never pretentious or esoteric. It’s about great food that’s not the generic fare that customers might get from corporate chains.”
Built in 1920, and operating as a bar since the repeal of Prohibition, the space came with huge historical character and the patina that comes from decades of serving beloved customers. Rather than renovate, the brothers preserved much of the interior, and leveraged the bar’s century-old story to create an environment that transports customers for the hour or two they spend on lunch, dinner, or a drink.
“The thread that runs through all of our restaurants is really great food and beverage, and especially cocktails, that help you escape, and maybe help you forget your day or the outside world for a bit,” Dean says.“Not everyone can take vacations four or five times a year, but they can go out to eat and spend an hour or three with friends, and that’s the experience we want to enhance.”
The menu offers cheffy comfort food from deviled eggs, fried pickles, and wings to lobster mac‘n’cheese, demi-braised lamb shank, and steak frites. Signature cocktails include the Disco Inferno―Espolon Reposado, mintamaro, and grilled pineapple―and the Yellow Jacket, with gin, demerara, honey, tiki bitters, and mango.
The main room at Cowan’s Public features a curved Art Deco bar with custom stained glass,a roaring fireplace, and ample seating for groups, dates, or couples. The brothers created a Cabinets of Curiosity with relics from the Prohibition days through the Great Depression; it’s become a huge hit with patrons. Dean and Thomas also created an intimate space off the main bar, called Nouveau Lounge, with upholstered walls, restored tin ceiling and deco chandeliers. The space also functions as a party and banquet space.
For their second project, the Maroulakos brothers took on The Barrow House, a Colonial-era farmhouse in Clifton, New Jersey. “The original structure was a working farm,” Dean says. “We did research on the area and learned that produce from there was transported all over.”
The high-end, highly approachable menu ranges from staples like cornbread, sliders, and crispy Brussels sprouts to filet mignon, poached halibut, and chicken Milanese, along with a range of meal-sized salads. While Barrow House’s cocktail program reflects Thomas’s zeal for artisan beverages, another highlight is a 100-bottle wine list―and one of the area’s longest menus of craft beers.
Managing the runaway success of two popular restaurants became all-consuming. But in2019, their growing hospitality group opened two projects. In August of that year, they unveiled The Vanguard, a1940s factory utilized for the wartime effort that honors the industrial past of Harrison, New Jersey. Almost immediately after that, they debuted Franklin Social Tavern & Garden, an American eatery whose “nods to our Founding Father” include a “con-temporary twist on colonial inspired food and beverage.”Concealed above Franklin Social is The Junto, a “hidden cocktail bar” inspired by Ben Franklin’s social club of the same name. After a fire in early 2024, Franklin Social reopened in September. The Vanguard closed permanently in January 2024, a rare retreat for the Maroulakos brothers; the Bergen Record newspaper reported that locals were “mourning” the restaurant’s loss.
But Dean and Thomas kept looking forward. In July 2021, they launched Gus’ Last Word in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. Inspired by their grandparents’1950’s cellar bar, “this neighborhood hang tips its hat to that great era of home entertaining,” its site says. And in April2022, The Parkside Social opened its doors as a “classic American tavern with modern touches that draws inspiration from nearby Verona Park,” also in New Jersey.
In the midst of it all, Skopos Catering launched in 2022. “It’s in a separate facility I oversee,” Thomas says. “We started on a small scale, but television and film production is growing fast in New Jersey, and we’ve grown just as quickly. We’ve handled dozens and dozens of productions this year, large-scale filming but also commercials and smaller productions. We’re about to do a week-long Lowe’s commercial shoot.” Skopos Catering clients have also included Tow, starring Rose Byrne and Demi Moore, and HBO series Fantasmas. “It’s crazy hours, just like the restaurant business, so it’s all kindred spirits,” Thomas says.”
“What was in that area was just subpar. We wanted to elevate it without getting too foreign or high-end.”
For their next chapter, the brothers are looking south of the border. Nomada, set to open in November, will be “our first foray into non-American cuisine,” Dean says. Adjacent to Parkside Social in Verona―and operating under the same liquor license―Nomada will introduce a Mexican-American menu in an aesthetic of “Tulum meets Acapulco in the 1980s, lively and vibrant, with beach vibes and pops of color,” Dean says. Cocktails will have “a heavy focus on agave, and the menu will fun,” Thomas says, with tacos, guacamole, and ceviches with a twist. The big thing will be the freshness and quality of ingredients. We’re even working with different masa suppliers. It’s going to be as authentic as it can be in New Jersey.”
The brothers are also about as authentically New Jersey as they come. Their paternal grandfather oversaw foodservices for Prudential Insurance’s corporate headquarters in New-ark. When he retired, he didn’t retreat; he became maître d’ at a fine-dining restaurant in Nutley. “He’d come over in his tux from there to see us,” Dean remembers. “My grandmother made the cheesecakes for that restaurant.”Their paternal grandfather was born in Monemvasia, in the southeastern Peloponnese; their maternal grandmother hails from Nafpaktos, a port city on the Corinthian Gulf.
Both Thomas and Dean attended Montclair State University, in their home state. “We’ve been invited a few times to speak to business students about our industry,” Thomas says. “It’s a cliché for us to tell them, ‘You’re crazy; don’t do it’, but you really do have to be built for it. Creating the food and beverage is the easy part. You have to train people to make the same dish over and over. You have to understand how the business operates, from design to marketing to hiring to the numbers. You have to love it all, because it’s not about a payday or a big ego boost.”
And the brothers have no plans to slow down. “We have a great team behind us,” Dean says. “Every time we think we’re taking a pause, something comes up,” Thomas says, laughing. “We can be reactive about opportunities. But we’ve had so many people reach out to us about restaurant possibilities, which is a great recognition of the kinds of spaces we’ve created.”
