By JOHN T. WARD

Can a Jersey Girl whose work as a 22-year-old prostitute helped derail a political career in spectacular fashion return home and remake herself as a small-town retailer?

Four years after her high-priced hotel romps with Eliot Spitzer dynamited his tenure as governor of New York and made her infamous, Ashley Dupré says she turned a page Monday with the opening of Femme by Ashley, a lingerie and swimwear boutique on the choicest block in downtown Red Bank.

The shop, Dupré told redbankgreen in an exclusive interview, “is almost like the beginning of the rest of my life.

“I made a bunch of mistakes when I was younger, and I feel like, for the first time in my life, I’m growing into an adult, and I’m really excited about that,” she said.

The Broad Street boutique features lingerie, swimsuits and Victoria  Beckham sunglasses. (Click to enlarge)

Petite and wearing eyeglasses that made her appear somewhat more studious than she did in Girls Gone Wild videos made a decade ago, 27-year-old Dupré said she agreed to redbankgreen‘s request for a sit-down only at the urging of her boyfriend, TJ Earle, who thought it was important in establishing community roots. She said it would likely be her only interview on the topic.

Off-limits were questions about the events that made her a household name. Dupré also refused to allow redbankgreen to videotape the interview or even take her photo, saying she’d been “burned” in the past by the unauthorized release of images. Instead, she supplied a commissioned portrait.

“I’m just done with it,” Dupré said of her scandal-based persona. “I’m very private. People don’t believe that, but I’m a very private person. I don’t want that life. I’m not looking to be in the press. I’m just looking to get on with my life.”

Her focus, she said, is on becoming a business owner and “me doing what I enjoy for the first time, and not caring what anyone else has to say about it.”

Dupré’s image rehab effort might be traced to her hire two years ago as a sex -and-relationship advice columnist for the New York Post, which had previously reveled in labeling her a “ho” and “trollop” at every opportunity. In bringing her on board, the newspaper wrote:

She didn’t ask for fame, but, “Now that I have it, it’s up to me to take advantage,” she said.

Under the tag “Ask Ashley,” Dupré fielded questions that at first overtly traded on her notoriety. “How do I know if my daughter may be getting into trouble?” asked “Meredith, 40, Queens,” in the debut.

But the column later morphed into questions about keeping relationships fresh and exciting, Dupré said. “I think I have moved away from how I’m viewed to ‘how do I save my relationship?’ and ‘how do I make this work?’” she said.

The Broad Street store represents a continuation of that evolution, she said – and the likely end of the column, which she said has “run it’s course.”

Other than a confessional interview with Diane Sawyer on 20/20, a raunchy one with Howard Stern and a nude spread in Playboy, what else has Dupré been up to since the Spitzer scandal broke in March, 2008?

“I’ve been in a relationship,” she said. “I’ve just started my life over.” She and Earle, a paving industry exec, have lived in the Navesink section of Middletown for the past two months. She said she considers him her best friend, and his young daughters her family.

Growing up in Wall Township, Dupré said she was a frequent visitor to Red Bank. Moving back to the Shore after seven years in Manhattan and again visiting the town, “I just fell in love with the community as a whole,” she said. “It is like a little mini SoHo, and the people here are great.”

In creating Femme by Ashley, Dupré hired Amy Manor of West Front Street to design the space. Borough-based Frame to Please supplied oversized mirror frames and Solari Creative, also of Red Bank, did the website.

“We really kept it in the community. It’s like our own little networking circle here,” Dupré said. “It’s very important to me to have that.”

The resulting shop features white walls, ceilings and flooring. Long, silver velvet drapes form a pair of dressing rooms, each equipped with a plush purple chair so shoppers and their significant others can have some intimate time during a bikini or teddy try-on.

Dupré said the boutique’s merchandise, including labels Agua Bandita, Pily Q and Jenna Leigh, reflects her own evolving fashion sense.

“I’m  a girl, and I think every girl likes to shop and explore their tastes,” she said. “Getting into this business, I kind of explored all of these designers and fell in love with them.”

The shop offers swimsuits in the $180 to $200 range as well as some “special” underthings, Dupré said.

“I really wanted this to be a place where anybody could come in and get something and be able to afford it, but also to have the luxurious items, too,” she said.

Dupré said she plans to be in the store daily, and is braced for curiosity seekers.

“Well, I’m sure I’m going to see everybody,” she says with a laugh. “I’m sure a lot of interesting people are going to walk through those doors.”

Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna met recently with Dupré and Earle at their request, and said he came away impressed by their vision for the store and their enthusiasm about the town. Only one person, the wife of a retailer, had complained to him about Dupré’s arrival, he said. “I reminded her that none of us are exemplary in every aspect of our lives.” he said.

“We are a very diverse town,” Menna said. “We welcome everyone.”

Dupré, though, doesn’t expect everyone to be welcoming. She says she’s learned to shrug off whispers, which she finds prevalent “whether you’ve been involved in a scandal or not. People always talk about other people. And it’s sad that you don’t have anything more important to talk about in your life, but that’s just the way of life. Not everybody can like you, and it’s OK. I’m OK with that.

“What am I going to do, live in the past, regretting every mistake I’ve ever made?” she said. “That’s the sign of a weak person. You need to get over it and move on.”

Kathleen Fox-Smith chats with a customer on opening day of her Little Silver shop last Friday. (Click to enlarge)

By DANIELLE TEPPER

Home Depot, Costco, PetSmart: With their enormous inventories, the big-box-stores that transformed American retailing in the 1990s destroyed innumerable small, local businesses along the way. They also forced customers to travel farther for the privilege of finding what they need at unbeatable prices.

Kathleen Fox-Smith has chafed against the tradeoff for years.

“I have three dogs, and the nearest major pet store is PetSmart on Route 36″ in Eatontown, says the Little Silver resident. “It’s not that far, but it’s just a nuisance to go over there.”

So, answering a deep desire to own an animal-related business and her belief that area pet owners are ready to again shop locally, Fox-Smith has decided to take on the giants in her own, small way.

Last Friday, Fox-Smith debuted a new shop: Pet’s General Store, in the A&P Plaza on Prospect Avenue, offering food, treats, toys and other accessories for dogs, cats, and birds.

Fox-Smith spent eight years at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, first as a pharmacy tech and later as head of the purchasing department, the latter of which she said gave her valuable inventory management experience needed to run the store.

After she left RBVH in 2006, she managed an interior design office up until last year. But during the interim, she ached to return to a job that allowed her to work, at least in some capacity, with animals, she said.

When the 1,200 square-foot space that had been the home of the Peppermint Tree, a specialty children’s clothing store, became available, “I decided to go for it,” she told redbankgreen.

While this is her first business venture, Fox-Smith said she is not intimidated.

“The unknown makes you a little nervous, but I’ve always had pets, always loved them, so I’m hoping to become a reliable place for pet owners,” she said.

Fox-Smith plans to carry some products that PetSmart doesn’t, to set her store apart. “If someone comes in and is looking for a brand of food we don’t carry, if I can get it, I’ll get it,” she said.

But she’ll also stock brands that the giants carry, because “the whole purpose here is to help people not have to make that trip,” she said.

After she gets settled in and has the place running smoothly, Fox-Smith would like to see the store become involved with animal rescue efforts.

“If I won the lottery, I would open a rescue,” she said. “If we could do something with that here, maybe help the Humane Society somehow, I would really love to do that.”

Pets General Store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday; it’s closed on Monday.

By JOHN T. WARD

Two years after losing her teaching job in a budget squeeze, a Rumson woman has reinvented herself as a squeezer of fresh fruits, wheat grass and other healthy ingredients.

Dalmedo opened Freshicas organic juice bar Friday in a corner of Fairwinds Deli in Fair Haven, where she’s blending the juice of apples, beets, kale, lemons and more into all-natural drinks that taste better than they sound.

“It’s amazing how good some things can be when you mix them together,” she told redbankgreen as curious Fairwinds customers made their way to her counter. There, behind an ice cream freezer,  Dalmedo was giving out samples of drinks with names like “Sweet Craving” (apple, cinnamon and celery) and “Emerald Garden” (apple, spinach, lemon, cucumber, celery and kale).

Freshicas was born of Dalmedo’s frustration after she lost her job as a fifth-grade teacher in Rumson due to budget cuts two years ago, and her inability to land a new job. So she decided to turn her interest in healthy living into business, her first.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to find an existing store in which she might find her footing, Dalmedo pitched the idea to Fairwinds owner Warren Abrahamson, who eagerly made space for her cutting boards, blenders and eyecatching terrarium filled with wheat grass, she said.

Now, she’s hoping Fairwinds, known for its sandwiches, will start offering more salads to attract more health-conscious moms, like herself, and others, she said.

Freshicas is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays.

By JOHN T. WARD

A prominent space on White Street in Red Bank is available for rent with the planned departure of a furniture and design store.

And stay tuned for some possible changes just down the block at Clearview Cinemas, which is up for sale with the rest of the arthouse chain, according to reports.

Cablevision has put its Clearview chain of arthouse theaters on the block. (Click to enlarge)

Both properties are under the ownership umbrella of Philip J. Bowers & Company, based in Tinton Falls.

At 24 White, Space Interiors is planning to relocate to Deal, having been the sole tenant of the refurbished corner of English Plaza for 14 years, owner Briggi Brandner tells redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

“We’re not going out of business, we’re just moving,” Brandner said. She’s already shut down a second store at Pier Village in Long Branch for consolidation at the Deal location, which she said is three times as large as the Red Bank one.

Landlord John Bowers said there’s 2,000 square feet of space with display frontage on two sides. He says Space still has a lease and will remain until he finds a new tenant or the lease runs out. Brandner said that could mean Space sticks around for months more.

Bowers wasn’t aware until we told him that the 49-theater Clearview chain was on the block, as reported recently by Variety and other publications. But he’s not worried about losing the theater as a tenant.

“It’s one of the most successful in the chain, and I would imagine whoever bought it would keep the most successful ones,” he said.

By JOHN T. WARD

In a contentious exchange that appeared to foreshadow a lawsuit to come, a lawyer for a Red Bank convenience store challenged the rationale for a new local law that banned all-night businesses Wednesday night.

Squaring off against three lawyers sitting on the council dais, store attorney Philip San Filippo said a revision to a noise ordinance passed by the governing body just moments later was overly broad in scope and designed solely to torpedo his client’s plans, now pending at the borough planning board, to convert the store to a 24-hour 7-Eleven.

The law, cast as an amendment to a noise ordinance, was “absolutely” designed with his client’s plans in mind, San Filippo told reporters afterward.

“It absolutely was not,” insisted Councilman Mike DuPont, even as he touted the hastily enacted law as a “creative” response to a problem.

Welsh Farms owner Dina Enterprises is scheduled to return to the planning board on May 21 for what is expected to be a vote on its proposal, which calls for a small expansion and changes in signage.

The plan, however, has met fierce opposition by neighbors. They say allowing the store, which now closes at 10 p.m., to operate all night raises security and quality-of-life issues.

At the council’s April 26 session, Mayor Pasquale Menna, who is an attorney and a member of the planning board, introduced the noise ordinance amendment. The item was not on the agenda, and no written copies were available. Afterward, asked why the council was acting in such a rush, Menna told redbankgreen: “Get it done now.”

The law doesn’t affect existing businesses, only those within 100 feet of a residential zone that are not already open after 11 p.m. Restaurants and bars are also exempted.

Now, though, even if Dina Enterprises is successful at the planning board, the Welsh Farms would be barred from opening all night. San Filippo said he would consult with his client about the possibility of filing suit against the council.

That prospect was already in DuPont’s mind when the public comment portion of the meeting opened and San Filippo began asking questions about police department data cited at the April 26 introduction. That data purported to show a pattern of disturbances requiring police intervention at convenience stores late at night.

DuPont, a lawyer whose office is next door to SanFilippo’s on Broad Street, repeatedly cut off San Filippo.

“Your asking questions which I find to be alluding to or insinuating that the statistical date didn’t support the vote,” he said. “It’s kind of disappointing. It was a creative way to protect our neighborhoods from all-night establishments that had never been there before.”

San Filippo, though, argued that the kinds of disturbances cited in the data are already against the law, whereas the amendment seeks to curtail land use without going through the process of vetting the change against the town’s Master Plan and land-use bodies.

“If you’re really concerned with noise associated with businesses located in proximity to residences, then let’s deal with the activity that generates the noise,” he said.

Menna and borough Attorney Dan O’Hern defended the change as supported by court precedent. O’Hern also said the change reflected “common sense. If you put a 24-hour operation within 100 feet of residences, that’s going to interfere with the peace, quiet and solitude of the residents nearby.”

Here’s the ordinance: 2012-8001

Works by Kathy Polenberg, above, and other local artists are showcased as part of the rejuvenated Red Bank Art Walk event on Friday.  

It looked for a while as if it might never regain its footing — but after sitting out the past couple of years, the Red Bank Art Walk makes its return this Friday, hot on the heels of the borough’s selection (by Smithsonian Magazine) as one of the top three Best Small Towns in the USA for culture and quality of life.

A three-hour, self-guided tour through the downtown Green and points west, the Art Walk is both rejuvenated and reconfigured in its 2012 incarnation, with a new cast of participants joined by several “non-traditional spaces” where Art Happens, from restaurants and retail stores to at least one transformed place of worship.

Going on between the hours of 6pm and 9pm, this first in a projected new series of events is being spearheaded by a relatively recent arrival to town — Gallery U and Boutique, the rather Unique and Unorthodox artspace that opened its doors at 80 Broad Street last year.

Jon Fried and Deena Shoshkes of  legendary NJ band The Cucumbers make a rare Red Bank appearance at Gallery U on May 11, during the Red Bank Art Walk.  

A companion to an existing Gallery U in Montclair, the Red Bank space is managed by Robert Langdon and operated by Livingston-based Universal Institute Medical Rehab Therapy Center, a facility specializing in the treatment of patients with brain and spinal cord injuries. UI established the two galleries as part of their vocational training program for adults with traumatic brain injuries, and quickly generated buzz that centered around the success of the program’s therapeutic aspects, as well as the high quality of the art featured in such well-received group shows as Awakenings — a recent exhibit that incorporated pieces created by the Institute’s disabled clients.

That show was curated by Ben Danzi of Rumson, and featured contributions from Eileen Kennedy of Red Bank, as well as Long Branch-based Kathy Polenberg — herself a former head injury patient, and a seemingly tireless creator of indoor/outdoor art, theatrical scenery, residential flourishes and other amazing stuff in evidence throughout the greater Green and beyond. The artist known as “Polekat” returns to Gallery U for Promenade, an event that boasts a live musical performance (and super-rare Red Bank appearance) by Deena Shoshkes and Jon Fried, co-founders of The Cucumbers — a reborn combo familiar to fans of the 1980s Hoboken scene, as well as listeners of the late and lamented WHTG-FM.

Also featured in Promenade are works by Alexandra Alger, Lisa Budd, Jill Caporlingua, Bill Cohen, Lauren Curtis, John Darvey, Karissa Harvey, Kathleen Heron, Jonathan Hernandez, Robert Langdon, Marci Shrewsbury Lopez, Adena Macri, Onix Mora, Marilyn Rose, Kristian Sacca, Randy Schaeffer, and Erik von Ploennes.

Elsewhere on the Art Walk, Bolivia-born “action painter” David Banegas offers live demonstrations of his specialty at his Banegas Fine Art Gallery (43 Broad Street), while Gallery 135 inside Monmouth Street’s Red Bank Community Church presents a first look at one of Red Bank’s best kept secrets: a newly rebranded exhibit space curated by associate pastor and contemporary artist Reverend Gerda Liebmann. Up at  McKay Imaging Gallery , an exhibit of “New and Unknown” works by Red Bank legend Evelyn Leavens is open for public perusal (see redbankgreen‘s feature on that ongoing installation, LEAVENS GETS LINEAR).

Also on the tour will be such long-established borough spaces as The Art Alliance of Monmouth County and Beacon Fine Arts Gallery on Monmouth Street, as well as Chetkin Gallery on Wharf Avenue. They’ll be joined for the Art Walk by such art-friendly restaurants as Front Street Trattoria, No Joe’s Cafe, Good Karma Cafe, and Jon Bon Jovi’s nonprofit JBJ Soul Kitchen. In fact, all participants in the Red Bank Art Walk are encouraged to contribute non-perishable food items to donation boxes set up at various venues on the Walk, with a collective donation being made to Foodbank of Monmouth & Ocean following the event.

Strolling art aficionados can pick up free street maps of Red Bank along the route, highlighting Art Walk locations, and, as an additional mark of distinction, each venue will also be displaying red balloons outside their doors.

By MARY ANN BOURBEAU

Looking to form a pickup hoops or softball game, but don’t have enough friends? Try Joinagame, a new social network for pickup sports based right here on the Green.

Launching today, Joinagame was built by Corey Wagner of Rumson and Patrick Finan of Fair Haven to handle all the pesky details, such as finding and reserving an available field or court.

But it also addresses a bigger hurdle: not knowing enough people who might be game for a game.

“Once you leave college, you lose your sports network,” said Wagner.

Wagner and Finan work with the recreation directors in Fair Haven, Little Silver, Red Bank, Rumson, Sea Bright and Shrewsbury, as well as Atlantic Highlands and Oceanport, to monitor availability of facilities. Once a person registers at Joinagame, he or she can sign up to play a game already formed online or start their own.

Sports offered are basketball, flag football, kickball, soccer, softball, tennis, Ultimate Frisbee and volleyball.

Joinagame is free, though some towns offer players the option of reserving a field for $40, which all the players would split via online payments. Joinagame takes care of all the paperwork, insurance and payments, making it a win-win for the players and the municipalities. The site will soon offer referees for hire, too.

“It’s free to register and we hope to keep it that way, covering our costs with advertising from sports merchandise stores or bars,” said Wagner.

Finan, 22, earned a finance degree from Providence College in Rhode Island, where he played intramural tennis, soccer, hockey and softball.

“Sports are a huge passion of mine,” he said.

But Joinagame isn’t just for the freshly minted grads. “I’ve seen a lot of parents who bring their kids to practice and say they miss being out there themselves,” he said.

Wagner, a 25-year-old construction worker, and Finan, who is currently waiting tables, met four years ago when Wagner began dating Finan’s sister Jennifer. They’ve spent the last five months creating the site.

Wagner says Joinagame works as well for avid players as it does for those who can only squeeze in a game or two a season.

“A pickup game is nice, because you can show up once,” he said. “You don’t have to commit to a league, and if you don’t mesh with the guys, you can get a whole different group next time.”

The key challenge to their roll-out, they said, is getting enough players on board from the outset so that games have enough players to commence. They spent a full day last week putting up fliers in area coffee shops, salons and other high-traffic businesses, and were pleased to find a lot of interest.

“I was surprised how quickly people picked up on the concept,” said Wagner. “We’re starting local to see how it goes, but we would like to do it for every town in the area.”

The Broad Street salon gave 50 $7 children’s haircuts in four hours to raise funds for the medical care of Duwayne Powell, a 9-year-old Red Bank Primary School student suffering from a heart ailment. (Photo by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)

The former home of Love Lane Tuxedos is one of downtown Red Bank’s most persistent large vacancies. (Click to enlarge)

By MIKE BARON

Where’s the love for the old Love Lane building?

The prominent storefront on West Front Street, with its distinctive retro signage, has remained stubbornly vacant for eight years, and the exterior is showing its age.

Now, amid  many signs of resurgence on the block, the address is starting to stand out as an eyesore, neighbors say.

Love Lane Tuxedos, which occupied the property for three decades, relocated to 66 Broad Street in 2004. Frank Cannarozzo of Holmdel bought the structure in June, 2007 for $1.75 million, paying nearly a million dollars more than the seller, 17 Broad Street LLC, paid just three years earlier, Monmouth County records indicate. He also took out a $1.435 million mortgage.

Then the financial crisis hit. An art gallery that was said to be planned for the building never materialized.

Public records show that PNC Bank began foreclosure proceedings on the property in July, 2009, but the status of that action is unclear. A call to Dilworth Paxson LLP, a Cherry Hill law firm representing PNC in the foreclosure process, wasn’t returned.

Attempts to reach Cannarozzo were also unsuccessful.

Sitar Company has a listing on the building now, and it’s being offered for sale at a “price reduced” $850,000. There’s also the option to lease all or part of the 6,200-square-foot structure, which Sitar says has “been gutted and is ready for construction.” The first floor features 3,500 SF and 14-foot ceilings.

The property also comes with “approved plans for renovation and expansion (to 7,100 square feet) for retail use,” according to Sitar, which adds that the addition of a third floor is possible.

But people familiar with the building say it is rife with problems, including termite damage, a dirt-floor basement and a need for costly upgrades to meet fire code and other requirements.

Meanwhile, the Love Lane structure appears more unloved than ever, a drag on a strip of West Front Street that has come back strongly in recent months, with new businesses joining mainstays Front Street Trattoria, Wayne’s Market, Fixx and the Downtown nightclub

Newcomers include Jonathan Erdelyi, a 30-year-old national biking champion who recently rolled out Red Bicycle Studio at 27 West Front, and Lucky Break Billiards and Café, at 14 West Front. In the works is Jr’s West End, the Long Branch late-night hamburger and sandwich restaurant that plans to expand into the former home of Zuleyka’s Kitchen at 17 West Front.

Harry Whittom, a manager at Wayne’s, Love Lane’s neighbor at 21 Front Street, said things are mostly quiet next door.

“You see a couple of people going in and out of there from time to time but not a whole lot of activity,” he said. “My feeling is the building probably needs a lot of work inside.”

Asked what business he’d like to see established in the spot, Whittom was at a loss, noting it was hard to picture any new venture setting up shop given the building’s current state.

“I don’t know what would work there now,” he said. “What we don’t need is another Italian restaurant or jewelry store.”