TV Restaurants

What Happened to Marie's Italian Specialties? (Chatham, NJ)

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Season 16 Chatham, New Jersey

Current status

Closed

As of October 2026, Marie's Italian Specialties has closed — confirmed via Yelp, July 2026.

What the source shows: A 2026 Yelp listing marks the restaurant permanently closed, and a September 2019 Patch article confirms co-owner Carl Ruiz's death; a Foursquare listing for the same address is also tagged as now closed. How we decide a status →

What happened after Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives visited this Chatham restaurant on the January 21, 2013 episode "Hometown Haunts," showcasing housemade pastas, meatballs, and other from-scratch Italian dishes served in a small storefront dining room typical of the area's family-run Italian delis. The restaurant opened in 2011 on Shunpike Road and was co-owned by Food Network personality Carl Ruiz and his then-wife, Marie Riccio. A Yelp business page, updated 2026-07, marks the restaurant as permanently closed at that address; the listing does not give an exact closure date. Patch reported in 2019-09 that Ruiz, who went on to co-host Food Network's Triple D Nation, had died at age 44. A Foursquare listing for the same Shunpike Road address is also tagged as now closed, corroborating the Yelp listing.

The episode Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Season 16

Episode 6
Aired
Title: Hometown Haunts · What was featured: housemade pastas, meatballs, and from-scratch Italian dishes
How Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurants have fared: 27% closed →

Also in Season 16 Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

Season 16: 11 of 29 still open · 4 renamed, moved or under new owners

All 13 Season 16 episodes →

Nearest open restaurants By distance from 641 Shunpike Rd

All 148 TV restaurants in New Jersey →

Before you go: Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources we checked 3 references

  1. Yelp https://www.yelp.com/biz/maries-italian-specialties-chatham
  2. patch.com https://patch.com/new-jersey/chatham/food-network-star-nj-native-carl-ruiz-dies-44
  3. Foursquare https://foursquare.com/v/maries-italian-specialties/4eb57ac19adfc687126b40f5
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Record ddd-0578 · checked by Cal Marchetti.