Our Story
About Us
Nicole and Omar Maldonado, business partners, husband and wife, and best friends, recently began a second career as restaurant owners.
They purchased The S.S. Wreck & Galley Grill in 2021, and then created and opened two pizza shops, Coast To Coast Pizza Company in Marathon, FL and in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Before restaurant ownership, Omar served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Bad Tolez, Germany as a parachute rigger for the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. He then obtained an MBA and started his career in sales for about twenty-four years, where he started in Detroit, moved to Southern California, Orlando, and finished his sales career with Keurig Dr Pepper as director of sales for the West Coast out of Los Angeles.
Nicole is a lawyer and started her practice in private criminal defense in San Diego, then moved and clerked for a federal judge in Detroit, served the indigent as an assistant public defender in Orlando, and was partner at a firm in Los Angeles where she handled mass tort litigation against pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
Restaurant ownership for Omar and Nicole is fairly new, but it has been a dream for them since their early days where they met in 1993 while waiting tables at Steak n Ale in Tampa, Florida.
To grow the pizza business, Omar and Nicole plan to open more of their own shops, and also want to partner with companies that help veterans transition out of the military. This will help pave a path to ownership for them. It is not just creating a job, Omar and Nicole want veterans to become entrepreneurs, owners.
They have done the same with the pizza shop, using their vision of better food, better choices, which leads to a better way forward.
Both pizza shops use the New York Water Maker, a filtration system that uses the water to mimic that of New York’s water.
They also use flour that is non-bleached, non-bromated from regenerative farmers.
All pizza sauce is made using the best and freshest canned tomatoes from California, cheese is blended and shredded in house, fresh toppings are prepared daily, all dressings are made from scratch, and they even pickle their own jalapeños and slice and core fresh pineapple for toppings.
To grow the pizza business, Omar and Nicole plan to open more of their own shops, and also want to partner with companies that help veterans transition out of the military. This will help pave a path to ownership for them. It is not just creating a job, Omar and Nicole want veterans to become entrepreneurs, owners.
They have done the same with the pizza shop, using their vision of better food, better choices, which leads to a better way forward.
Both pizza shops use the New York Water Maker, a filtration system that uses the water to mimic that of New York’s water.
They also use flour that is non-bleached, non-bromated from regenerative farmers.
All pizza sauce is made using the best and freshest canned tomatoes from California, cheese is blended and shredded in house, fresh toppings are prepared daily, all dressings are made from scratch, and they even pickle their own jalapeños and slice and core fresh pineapple for toppings.
Nicole grew up in Marathon, and as a local female and veteran owned business, Nicole and Omar strive to foster community connections and build relationships by actively participating in local initiatives and important causes. They have purchased environmentally friendly items for their restaurants, donated and cooked for The Wounded Warriers, fed the homeless, given gift cards and free meals to local events, businesses, schools, churches and fundraisers all over the Keys and Fort Lauderdale.
Nicole and Omar believe that one of the best things about restaurant ownership is being able to work and spend more time with their children, Omar III and Madison. Omar III currently runs operations at the pizza shop in Ft. Lauderdale, and is quickly moving up the family ladder to run operations at a higher level. Before working in the family business, Omar graduated college with a BA, then was scouted and signed to play professional baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, and also for the Mexican Baseball League. Madison assists in the family business part-time administratively while working as a regional sales manager for Vita Coco. She graduated in 2024 with a BA in Psychology and wants to go back to school for a master’s degree.
William Roberts IV is the general manager at The Wreck and has kitchen management experience for over 20 years.
Kymberly Mariner serves as assistant manager and bar manager at The Wreck.
Lester Salazar works as kitchen manager and oversees vendor orders at the Marathon pizza shop.
Together with the leadership, Nicole and Omar’s goals of growing and being better in all aspects of the restaurant arena are becoming a reality.
The journey has by no means been an easy one; but as the saying goes, “If it were easy, everyone would do it. You must first learn to walk before you run.”
“Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.” ― Gordon Ramsey
