Gaetano Carl Tripiciano was born in Nasco, Sicily around 1887. He came to America with his father, Nicholas Tripiciano, when he was two years old. His brothers and sisters were all born in America thereafter. Of native Sicilian heritage, inherently G. Carl Tripiciano was experienced in the usage of almonds in the fashioning of Italian pastries.
His father, Nicholas, it has been told, purchased the original boardwalk property with the use of an intermediary. In those times, the early 1900's, Italians were unwelcome on the boardwalks of Atlantic City. G. Carl dropped the 'o' from his last name in order to disguise his native heritage, gain acceptance amongst other merchants, and improve his potential as a merchant himself.
G. Carl Tripician founded the original macaroon store on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in the year 1910. He features homemade taffy, fudge, coconut macaroons, and the infamous original almond macaroon. The almond macaroon recipe, as it is told, stemmed from an Italian marzipan recipe. Thus, his two stores at Connecticut and Kentucky Avenues flourished and rooted an Atlantic City tradition still known today.
In 1979, with the advent of casinos in Atlantic City, the original store locations were forced from the boardwalk and onto the mainland. Phyllis Douglas, a niece of G. Carl Tripician, then bought the store to an Absecon location, not far from its location today. The business then left the hands of the family when Phyllis sold the store to a longtime employee around 1990. From then it was sold to Diane Waite, a Port Republic Confectioner in 1995. Mrs. Waite boasts the recipe still remains unchanged. The chewy, never gooey cookie-like macaroon is still made by hand and sold in Atlantic City by the Steel's Fudge shops, and in Ocean City by Steel's, as well as specialty candy shops in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
As can be attested by G. Carl Tripician's most recent owners, Cindy and Mark Sabino of Absecon, the original "Luscious Macaroons" are still an Atlantic City and Jersey Shore tradition with a notable nation-wide mail order business. Cindy, a cousin six times removed to G. Carl himself, found she was drawn to the business by her sister, a nine-year veteran to the Tripician macaroon legacy. She considers it fate and says she gets goose bumps just thinking that the two-story building the business exists in today was the same building in which her very own father and grandfather seasonally operated an engine repair company during the years 1955 to 1957. The Sabino's truly believe G. Carl Tripician's legacy is just meant to go on.
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