Nikos Zaires and Mike Gambale in their new shop, Hot Bagels Brooklyn’s Finest. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A just-about-ready-to-open bagel shop got the green light from the Red Bank planning board Monday night.
But hearings on two other proposed new restaurants were rescheduled once again. And yet another eatery, this one with the word “eatery” in its name, opened on Broad Street Monday.
It’s all here in the latest serving of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
A new buffet-style breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant called Global Eatery opened in the former Sicilia Café space Monday. (Photo below by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
• As we reported Monday, a “miscommunication” in the process of transforming a former gas station at Broad Street and Maple Avenue into a bagel shop and deli caused owners Nikos Zaires and Mike Gambale to seek a last-minute approval for the addition of a walk-in refrigerator. They also needed variances from the borough’s complex and controversial sign ordinance.
Architect Mark Malone told the board the walk-in box would go on the east side of the building, which sits on a triangular lot just south of the Foodtown supermarket. The box would be screened off by landscaping and a fence, he said.
The board, depleted by numerous absences, granted the variance, and also allowed the shop to use internal illumination on a pole sign and to exceed the area allowed for signage on the store’s facade. Several board members praised the new owners for transforming the drab property into something appealing.
The shop has a temporary certificate of occupancy, and work to install the walk-in box was expected to begin first-thing Tuesday morning, said Zaires. Stay tuned to redbankgreen for news about the opening.
• A repeatedly-postponed hearing on a plan to convert the former Liberty Hose firehouse at 40 White Street to a restaurant was delayed again.
According to Michael Morgan Jr., whose family bought the building from the borough, planning and zoning director Glenn Carter had raised questions about whether the proposal should be heard by the planning board or the zoning board. The jurisdictional issue is expected to be decided by the zoning board on May 16.
Morgan told redbankgreen that it doesn’t make any difference to him with board hears the plan.
• A proposal to convert retail space at 132 Broad Street into a sushi restaurant called Red Lantern. was postponed again at the request of the applicants, this time until May 2.
• Two doors away, at 128 Broad, Mark Arabadjis opened his new Global Eatery Monday. The buffet-style restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m, offering dishes such as French toast and Irish oatmeal; and lunches and dinners of Korean, American, Mexican and Italian cuisines.
Arabadjis told Churn that the unusual concept is partly based on the fact that he’s got “two chefs who are both very good at multiple cuisines.” As to whether the concept will succeed, he said, “I put some skin in the game. Whether it will be socially accepted, I don’t know, but I’ve got confidence.”
Arabadjis bought the former Sicilia Café at that address last summer and closed it in December. At present, he’s using only about half the floor area of the space, which is at the corner of Peters Place.
