In Loving Memory · For twenty-five years, Anthony Barbera was one of the most unmistakable people in Red Bank—a salesman, a builder, a believer, and the man on the bench outside 17 Broad Street who knew everybody who passed by

BY ERIK SCHONING

Anthony Barbera. Anthony Coco. Mr. Anthony.

Three names, and every one of them resonated. You never had to ask which Anthony. Reference that name anywhere in New Jersey or the surrounding area and the person across from you knew exactly who you meant, and more often than not had a story ready to share.

Anthony Barbera was a force to be reckoned with, a personality who filled any room he walked into. He was confident and opinionated and impossible to miss. He loved talking business and a good debate. After an exchange with Anthony, you would always walk away a touch wiser.

Anthony was a man of the people; he knew everyone. He was known as the unofficial mayor of Red Bank, but he made his presence known well beyond it. He engaged with people from all walks of life, treating them with the respect they deserved. And he was, above all, passionate—about Red Bank, his brands and businesses, and the people whose lives he touched through them. He shared words of wisdom and encouragement with all who crossed his path. His motto was “You can do it,” and those who knew him heard those words often, always with full passion and conviction. You believed his words, and then you believed in yourself.

Anthony Barbera was born on February 16, 1965, in Brooklyn. His family relocated to Staten Island; that was where he grew up. Staten Island in the seventies and eighties was full of people who built things—contractors, shop owners, tradesmen—and Barbera learned from them all. He showed amazing work ethic, picking up a paper route and working at Shop Rite as a young boy. Even at an early age, he always needed to be working.

In his younger years, he had a passion for bodybuilding, from which he learned great discipline. At 5 a.m., you’d find Anthony, gregarious as ever, training in the gym. Later, he went on to work the door at TJ Bentleys in Brooklyn. As a bouncer, everyone in the community knew him, and he had the great skill of reading people quickly. He saw character, and gravitated towards it.
In his early 20s, Barbera opened a successful furniture business on Staten Island, Richmond Interiors. This is where he discovered his gift for sales. He furnished the homes of his community, and with each piece that left the showroom he honed the business skills that would stay with him for life. From there, he went into the brokerage business. Here, too, he was a natural, drawing on his knowledge of the market and instinct for sales. He traded commodities especially, and he had a real feel for it—the timing, the nerve, the appetite for risk that the work demands. It was the ideal business for an energetic man who trusted his own read of a room. He became somewhat of a legend in it, and among the people he worked alongside he had a reputation as one of the best salesmen in the business, full stop.

That instinct never left him. Commodities, stocks, real estate, whatever was in front of him—he had a sixth sense for the shape of a deal and for what something was going to be worth before other people got there.

He knew what Red Bank was worth, too. By the time he had planted himself there, the town was at its lowest, and he never minded saying so. Today’s remade Red Bank has many authors. But no one worked harder or louder to rewrite its story than Anthony Barbera.

He relocated to Monmouth County after leaving the brokerage business. His next venture was a winner: Coco Parì, the famous boutique and brand. The first store was in Deal, New Jersey, and the second store became an anchor and landmark on Broad Street in Red Bank. Coco Parì shared that 10,000 square-foot, three-century-old building with Wisteria, a high-end cosmetic and skincare boutique, the brainchild of Lisa and Rick Stavola. As years progressed, Coco Parì became famous for carrying the most coveted women’s luxury brand names and lines in the world. Barbera loved fashion, and he was deeply involved in deciding which brands came into the store, and when.

The labels came, and the people followed. Coco Parì was now bringing a luxury consumer to the town of Red Bank, seven days a week. (The store was only closed two days a year.) Women visited Red Bank from Bergen County, from Staten Island, from Philadelphia, from Manhattan, driving past every mall in between to be styled by Barbera’s exceptional staff. Former employees of the store will still, to this day, tell you how it shaped their lives, of their gratitude for the lessons, experiences and work ethic that Anthony embodied and instilled in them every day.

One aspect of Coco Parì that enthralled every woman was the 50-foot shoe wall, artfully stocked with the most coveted designer shoes in the world. As years passed, Barbera ventured into mens’ shoes, too, bringing in an inventory beyond measure. He was the face of the store and brand, overseeing all aspects of the business on a daily basis.

He was, by wide agreement, one of the finest natural salesmen around. Anthony’s one-liners resonated with women across the tri-state area, often in those critical moments of retail-induced indecision, each handpicked for the moment. For the thrifty, hesitating husband: “A happy wife is a happy life.” For the woman at the register, doing girl math to justify buying the most exquisite pair of pumps: “Just buy the shoes.” To any and all: “Treat yourself.” It was a closing technique, and also—if you knew him—a small truth about how to live: sometimes, you just have to go for what you want.

It was 2000 when Brad Silber, founder and publisher of INDUSTRY, first walked into Coco Parì. Silber was in his early twenties, publishing the Staten Island edition of the magazine. Mutual friends kept telling Silber he needed to go see Anthony at Coco Parì — a New Jersey boutique, but one to which half of Staten Island was already driving. So he made the trip to deliver his sales pitch. Barbera stood there in a leather jacket and a scarf, holding a very small dog, grinning while listening to Silber. (Little did either know that they had grown up on the same street on Staten Island, fourteen years apart. That connection would be discovered later, years down the road.)

“So you’re gonna show me how to advertise?” Barbera said. Then, without missing a beat: “Guess what, kid. I’m gonna show you how to advertise.”

They went for coffee and talked business, marketing, fashion, and life. Barbera signed with Silber to run ads for Coco Parì in the Staten Island edition of INDUSTRY Magazine. Their working relationship turned into a friendship that lasted the rest of his life.

As the years passed, Anthony’s passion for the town of Red Bank and Broad Street grew apace. Barbera and business partner Rick Stavola helped cultivate the landscape of Red Bank by purchasing multiple buildings in town and helping new tenants and businesses put down strong roots.

Through those years of revitalization in Red Bank, Barbera could often be found on the bench in front of Coco Parì. He’d step out day and night with a cigar to take a call, keep an eye on the block, and greet whoever came by. People re-routed their walks to pass by Anthony’s bench on a daily basis, just to share a hello or a conversation. Friends would turn up daily for conversation and one-on-one time with Barbera. The bench was many things: an office, if you needed free business consulting; a therapist’s couch, if you were having a tough day; a comedy club, if you needed a laugh. He was what his friends needed him to be, always.

At some point, people started calling Anthony the unofficial mayor of Red Bank, and even the elected mayors throughout the years had to laugh and agree.

Anthony was always passionate and unapologetic about the things he loved. A good cigar, always. He had a known passion for not only business and sales, but cigars, cars, fine dining and wine, bourbon, and spending time at his beloved Due Process. Wherever you found him, he always had a speaker with him, playing the music he loved: Studio 54, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra.

In 2012, Barbera and Silber partnered to launch a New Jersey edition of INDUSTRY Magazine, with Barbera as its New Jersey partner and chief operating officer. It fit him exactly. He had spent two and a half decades arguing that New Jersey residents didn’t need to defer to Manhattan for anything, that Red Bank and Monmouth County were the genuine article, packed with fine dining, theaters and luxury shopping aplenty. The real show was here, not elsewhere, and the magazine gave him a far bigger stage to prove it.

Barbera and Andrea Agin, VP of sales, traveled New Jersey, promoting INDUSTRY as New Jersey’s premier luxury lifestyle authority. Barbera loved integrating the magazine into his portfolio. It gave him an opportunity to be out and about on a daily basis, fighting for what he believed in: Red Bank, Coco Parì, his magazine, and the principles of sales and marketing that drove him back in the Staten Island days. With the magazine, Barbera now had a vehicle to help people throughout New York and New Jersey grow their businesses, and to join the luxury network that Barbera and Agin cultivated through ad sales. He told his partners: “You can do it.” And he meant it.

He never stopped working. Silber remembers the phone going off at three in the morning, years into their partnership. Barbera would be calling to share a new idea, whether it was a business venture, how to cross-promote INDUSTRY’s advertiser’s businesses, or something new for the town of Red Bank. Barbera was known to barely sleep. His mind never stopped with business ideas. Way after the closing bell, he was awake trading overseas markets as soon as they opened.

That relentless thinking and creativity left a major impact in not only his community, but throughout New Jersey and beyond. In 2012, the same year that INDUSTRY New Jersey launched, thanks in part to Barbera’s passion and diligence, Smithsonian named Red Bank the third-best small town in America. It was a point of pride for a man who had been so instrumental in restoring the town from “Dead Bank” back to Red Bank.

Barbera’s passion for giving back was an important part of his everyday life. He was deeply involved with the Tigger Stavola Foundation, established by Lisa and Rick Stavola after losing their son, Richard “Tigger” Stavola, Jr., in 2013 at the age at twenty-five. The foundation brings drug education prevention into schools across the state of New Jersey. Barbera loved Tigger deeply, and Barbera stood by the Stavola family and their cause for over a decade. In 2017, the foundation honored Barbera at their gala. He brought the house down with what is remembered as a sincere and moving speech, bringing in record donations to the foundation that year. Barbera and Andrea Agin partnered with Lou Maschi and the team at Patrizia’s Restaurant in Red Bank to organize and host charity events for the Children’s Specialized Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network for years as well, coordinating events and helping raise money for both.

Anthony Barbera passed away at home in Red Bank on June 4, 2026, at sixty-one. He leaves so much behind. His legacy will live through the many lives he touched, the thousands of friends and associates he made throughout the years, the employees he oversaw, the lives he touched, and in the continued presence that INDUSTRY has in the state and beyond.

In recent years, the town has eliminated some of the Broad Street benches, including Anthony’s beloved perch. Life partner Andrea Agin, along with friends and business associates of Barbera, look forward to establishing a new bench in Barbera’s honor. The memorial bench will be an everlasting place for Red Bank’s honorary mayor to preside over the town he loved. A place for residents of the town to visit, to share a laugh, a cigar or a cocktail. A place to remember Barbera for all he did with love and kindness, forever.

Donations in memory of Anthony Barbera can be made to the Tigger Stavola Foundation — Text “IMOAnthony” to 41444