Teresa Giudice has something big in the works amid the ongoing hiatus for “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
In an October 2024 interview with The Daily Dish, the Bravo OG revealed that she is “actively looking” for a space in New Jersey to open an Italian restaurant with her four daughters.
Giudice, who has written multiple cookbooks, shared that the upcoming eatery will feature some of her family’s best recipes, many from her late mother Antonia. “I’ve always wanted to open up a restaurant and finally now, I’m like, you know what, I’m gonna do it,” she said. “Gia will be helping,” she added of her eldest daughter. “She would want to work there also and help me. And the girls, too. So it’d be like, me and the girls.”
Giudice also confirmed that her husband, Luis Ruelas, would also be involved in operating the restaurant. “I’m hoping to lock it in before the end of the year, but I’m working on it,” she added.
On October 26, TMZ caught Giudice and her daughter Gia getting ready to tour a restaurant space. “We’re checking out a restaurant,” Gia told the outlet.
Giudice added, “It’s going to be ours. We’re going to run it to keep our family legacy going.”
“Hold on to the family tradition,” Gia added. “She has three cookbooks, lots of recipes so we want to use this for the restaurant.”
Teresa Giudice Previously Co-Owned a Pizza Restaurant With her Now Estranged Brother & Sister-in-Law
GettyTeresa Giudice & Joe and Melissa Gorga
This won’t be Giudice’s first foray into the restaurant world. In 2017 she was involved in a short-lived pizza place with her now-estranged brother Joe Gorga and his wife Melissa.
Joe Gorga told People magazine that the family opened the restaurant in their mother’s honor. “My mother loved to cook; it was like her drug,” Gorga said. “I always told her I was gonna open up a restaurant for her. Then I got busy. While I signed a contract on this place we lost her. So this is for her.”
Gorga’s Homemade Pasta & Pizza was featured during the 8th season of RHONJ. It was in operation for less than one year.
In early 2018, the family’s attorney James J. Leonard told Page Six the family shut down the restaurant in East Hanover, NJ, because they wanted to expand to a bigger space. At the time, a source told the outlet that Giudice’s involvement in the restaurant “was more for the cameras than anything else.”
“She has not been involved with whatever has happened since filming,” the insider claimed. “Teresa had in essence no involvement in the running or managing of the restaurant.”
Teresa Giudice Hopes to Return to RHONJ for Season 15
BravoRachel Fuda, Margaret Josephs, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, Teresa Giudice, Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral.
While Giudice is hoping to have a new business to focus on, she is not losing sight of her main role on RHONJ. She is the only original cast member still on the show since 2009.
Speaking with Us Weekly in October 2024, Giudice said she hopes to return to the Bravo reality show should it return for a 15th season. “I hope it continues,” she said of the show. “I mean, you know, obviously it can’t stay the way it is so we’ll see what Bravo decides.”
“Oh yes, [I] definitely [want to return],” she added. “Listen, I feel like there’s a lot of life still left in us a lot of stories to still be told, So I think you know we could have a good time.”
When asked for her status by TMZ, Giudice said, “You’ll have to ask Bravo.”
