Randi Garfinkel with the chocolate fountain in the newly opened Chocolate Works. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The neverending Churn of Red Bank stores and restaurants continued in recent weeks with a departure of an Italian deli on the West Side and the addition to Broad Street of two shops that take aim right at your craving for sweets.
Partners Philip Vivolo and Jill Pecoraro opened Sempre Cannoli in the Broad Street space last occupied by Pecoraro’s Kravings Frozen Yogurt shop. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
• Departing, quietly, was Delfini Gourmet Catering, at Shrewsbury Avenue and West Front Street.
Notices posted on its Facebook page on Saturday and on the front door said:
After 51 years of dedicated service to our community in New York and New Jersey, it is with a deeply saddened heart we must close our doors.
No reason was given, and Churn could not immediately reach anyone affiliated with the shop for comment.
But Delfini had endured two extended and no doubt painful closures of Hubbard’s Bridge, visible out its front door — one lasting five months earlier this year, and a second for two weeks last month.
This is from a Facebook post dated August 13:
I would like to send out a big huge Thank You to The County of Monmouth, New Jersey & The Borough of Red Bank for closing ALL entrances into our business!!!! Family owned & operated business’ cannot afford to loose business. Especially 2 weeks worth!!!!
Delfini opened in 2009, replacing Villa Eduardo.
• Randi and Craig Garfinkel of Manalapan opened Chocolate Works at 36 Broad Street in late August.
The spacious, brick-walled candy store, a franchise, features an eye-catching chocolate fountain and a back room that’s available for private parties.
The space was previously occupied by tile-art gallery Tesserae, for one year, and Reussille’s/Ballew Jewelers, for decades.
• Sempre Cannoli opened earlier this week at 90 Broad Street, taking the space vacated by Kravings Frozen Yogurt.
Jill Pecoraro, a principal in Kravings, is now in partnership with Philip Vivolo, the husband of a longtime friend who sold his retail tile store in Shrewsbury two years ago and found himself bored with golf. Business at Kravings had leveled off, he said, and he was sitting on gold: the “secret recipe” for cannolis sold in a handful of New York restaurants owned by his family.
The name means “always cannoli,” Vivolo said, and the shop sells just one product: you can guess what that might be.
Vivolo and Pecoraro profess not to be concerned by the fact that there’s a hugely popular Carlo’s Bakery, of Cake Boss fame, just two doors away, offering cannolis on its menu of cakes and other desserts.
“They do a lot of things,” Vivolo said of his neighbor. “We do one thing, and we do it good.”
• Femme by Ashley followed through on its previously reported plan to close so owner Ashley (nee Dupré) Earle could focus on motherhood. That leaves a vacancy at 15 Broad Street, with its distinctive recessed storefront.
• Opening for business Friday after a private grand opening party Thursday evening is Chikyboom.
That’s the new name for the former No Joe’s Cafe, at 51 Broad Street, which Dan Salazar, his wife, Griesele, and his sister-in-law, Adela Carrazana, acquired earlier this year.
They’ve now got another partner, Lou DiDonno; a new chef, Eduardo Bover; an overhauled interior, complete with an eight-stool service counter; and a completely new business plan that turns the coffee shop into a coffee-shop by day, Cuban and tapas restaurant.
Sisters Grisele and Adela are Cuban-born, and Dan Salazar tells Churn that the grand opening will feature a toast to the late Cuban haberdasher Larry Garmany, founder of the eponymous store on Broad Street, who died in July.
