MARINI FAMILY USHERS HISTORIC COMPANY THROUGH PANDEMIC
Legacy continues that has delighted customers for years
SANTA CRUZ >> Possibly the only thing as iconic on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk as the Giant Dipper roller coaster is the Marini’s saltwater taffy puller near the arcade. During the pandemic, Joe Marini III channeled his father and grandfather in order to keep what that icon represents alive — four generations of candy making on the coastline.
“I was thinking, ‘Jesus, what did you guys do during the Great Depression?’ ” he said while sitting at a picnic table across from Marini’s flagship spot on an unseasonably warm day for November.
Marini said he met with Seaside Co. President Karl Rice, also an inheritor of a renowned family business, on a Boardwalk bench the month COVID-19 emerged in Santa Cruz County. The world had stopped in many ways, but they were not ready to stop.
“We were trying to strategize about some things, trying to figure out what the future would look like. We both looked at each other and said, ‘Not on our watch is it going to shut down,’ ” Marini said of the legacies the duo sought to protect.
Marini’s was founded by Marini III’s grandfather, Italian immigrant Victor A. Marini, in 1915 after he accepted a customer offer for his popcorn. He bought a stand and expanded the operation into a shop that sold saltwater taffy, caramel corn and candy apples — all original recipes. Today, the brand — or at least its taffy puller — is recognizable all over the world and makes sales across the country. It gives to local community initiatives, such as school programs, and to federal causes, such as U.S. soldiers stationed abroad.
“The one good thing about taffy is that it ships really well… We get letters back about how nice it was to experience a piece of home,” Marini said.
Joseph Marini Sr. started working for his father at the age of 10, a tradition that continues in the Marini family today. Marini said that his days as a kid were spent visiting his father, Joe Marini Jr., until he was old enough to be an employee himself.
“Growing up in it you don’t really know any (different),” he said. “It was fun, we got to come down and visit my father… We’d come down and spend days here at the beach and have dinner with him and go home. Some of my fondest young memories were down here at the Boardwalk.”
With each generation came new products and ambitious pursuits. Joe Marini Jr. and his wife, Josephine, oversaw the era of hand-dipped nut clusters and caramels, turtles, English toffee, rocky road, chocolate-dipped strawberries and more. It was, intentionally, a candy tour meant to take you around the world. Joseph Marini Sr.’s sons opened a downtown Santa Cruz location and managed a warehouse on Mission Street — both of which have since been shuttered in an effort to pivot the business toward other needs.
The option to come back
Marini III, who owns and operates the Marini’s Boardwalk locations, has time to make his mark on the business as it progresses. He calls himself a “steward,” a family member that will pass on the responsibilities to the children of his sister and his cousins if they so choose.
“I’m just a steward in time, a steward of the business as I try to keep it moving forward and keep it relevant and keep it fresh,” he said.
Marini’s sister is not affiliated with candy making, while his cousins manage the Marini’s wharf store and Westside locations. Both paths were acceptable to the matriarchs and patriarchs that came before them, Marini said.
“I went away to college, was encouraged to do other things … Some of us came home sooner and some waited,” he said. “It’s hard resenting what you’re doing. I think my parents were forward-thinking enough to know you need to love what you’re doing in order to keep doing it.”
In fact, Marini did not intend to be the one to keep the family business running. He intended, of all professions, to pursue becoming a dentist.
“I got my biology degree and was looking at schools and then I came back home and worked a summer here … You get involved and they throw a little money at you and you think, ‘This isn’t so bad,’” he explained.
Now, Marini enjoys working with employees, some of whom had parents or grandparents that worked for the Marini family as their first summer job.
“It’s fun to be around… it definitely keeps you young to be around them,” he said of the teenage seasonal workers.
Marini also likes visiting with multi-generational customers that remember elements of the shop that have remained the same. For example, in a shot of Marini’s grandfather leaning over the glass case at the main Boardwalk location in 1973, one might notice that the cases displaying taffy look nearly identical to the cases that display dozens of kinds of candy today.
“I think it’s about trying to keep up with the times and not being stuck an old-fashioned candy store. The boardwalk celebrated 100 years a few years ago and they have a great term around here called ‘relevant nostalgia.’ … you’ve got to keep it nostalgic but at the same time moving forward,” he said.