Small Bites Radio Episode 202 - Happy Place Homemade Founder Tyler Gerber and Perry "Rocco" Spinelli of Festa Italiana Charlotte: An Italian Food & Wine Festival

About this episode

This episode features Tyler Gerber discussing his donut shop and Perry Spinelli sharing insights about the Festa Italiana Charlotte festival.

🎙️ Small Bites Radio — Latest Episode ✨ Guests: Tyler Gerber (Founder of Happy Place Homemade) & Perry “Rocco” Spinelli (Festa Italiana Charlotte board member) 🍩☕🍷 Get ready for a delicious and inspiring new episode of Small Bites Radio! 🎧 This week we sat down with Tyler Gerber, the visionary founder behind Happy Place Homemade, Medford, NJ’s newest sweet destination where scratch-made donuts, premium soft serve, and specialty coffee come together to create a “new-nostalgia” treat experience 🍩🍦☕. Tyler shared the story behind building a community gathering spot with fresh cake donuts from a custom “donut robot,” local-milk from Burlington County for their soft serve in rotating creative flavors, and exclusive La Colombe coffee blends. It's a modern twist on classic treat shop culture that’s already starting to delight locals and visitors alike in South Jersey. And then we changed gears with Perry “Rocco” Spinelli, a board member of Festa Italiana Charlotte, one of the Southeast’s premier Italian food and wine festivals🍷🍝. Rocco gave us a behind-the-scenes look at this all-inclusive Italian celebration happening Sunday, May 17th, 2026 in Uptown Charlotte’s Gateway Village…

People in this episode

Host: Small Bites Radio

Guests: Tyler Gerber, Perry “Rocco” Spinelli

Topics covered

• Italian food
• wine festival
• community gathering
• desserts
• local culture

Keywords

• Happy Place Homemade
• Festa Italiana
• Italian food festival
• donuts
• soft serve
• community events
• local cuisine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Happy Place Homemade, Festa Italiana Charlotte

Places: Medford, NJ, South Jersey, Uptown Charlotte’s Gateway Village Promenade

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