RED BANK CHURN: VEGAN TAKEOUT OPENS

 Good Karma Café’s new takeout shop, Karma 2 Go, at the West Side Lofts. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

retail churn smallA vegan mecca opens a new takeout shop, a framing business consolidates, and a party-services business holds a moving sale…

Read all about all three Red Bank businesses in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

A sandwich board outside Flipping Fun touts a moving sale. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)

•  Good Karma Café plans to open its new takeout-only restaurant, called Karma 2 Go, today at the West Side Lofts.

The building is at the corner of West Front Street and Bridge Avenue, but Karma 2 Go is on the Edmund Wilson Boulevard side of the structure, in a previously unoccupied space facing the Two River Theater.

The opening will take some pressure off Good Karma’s tiny dining room at 17 East Front Street, where seated customers and those picking up takeout orders are often squeezed for space. Owners Gail Doherty and Tiffany Betts won borough planning board approval in December, 2016 to expand into space vacated by Creative Kitchens at 21 East Front, but were unable to come to terms with neighboring Red Rock Tap + Grill over rear access issues.

Managed by Greg Koodish, Karma 2 Go is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, there’s still radio silence from Triumph Brewing Company owner Adam Rechnitz on when the brewpub, located just doors away from Karma 2 Go in the lofts building, plans to open. The restaurant has been under construction for several years.

• Speaking of Red Rock, retail space is now available across the street from the restaurant at 5B Wharf Avenue, where Chetkin Custom Framing has long had adjoining storefronts.

The framing business has now been consolidated into one storefront, at 5A, says Carol Lynn Chetkin, who with her husband, Don, owns the shop, along with Chetkin Gallery at 9 Wharf.

A listing by Resources Real Estate puts the rent at $2,000 per month for the 900-square-foot space.

Flipping Fun, a creator of instant flipbooks, is having a “moving sale” at its home of six years, 23 East Front Street.

There’s no indication on the business’s website or Facebook page of a new address, and the principals of the business could not immediately be reached for comment.