 
A Staten Island-based pastry shop plans to set up shop in the former Carlo’s Bake Shop at 86 Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One pastry shop replaces another; work to transform a century-old firehouse into an interior design shop gets underway; a boutique closes; and a gourmet lunch spot in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park pulls down the shutters for the winter.
Read all about it in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
Remodeling work is underway at the former Independent Engine firehouse on Mechanic Street. Below, Madison vacated 68 Broad Street last month.  (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
• Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe of Staten Island has signed a lease for 86 Broad Street, according to Dan Himelman, of the partnership that owns the property.
That’s the space abruptly vacated in July by Carlo’s Bake Shop, owned by TV star Buddy Valastro, aka the ‘Cake Boss.’ The business was there for five years.
Anthony Campitiello, who with his brother, Vincent, is a second-generation owner of Alfonso’s, could not be reached for comment. Their father, Alfonso, started the bakery in 1970. It now has a second shop on Staten Island and one in Cranford, in Union County.
Himelman said he expects the business to be ready for opening within 60 days.
• Women’s clothing boutique Madison Boutique has vacated 68 Broad Street after four years.
• Rehab work is underway on the former Independent Engine firehouse at 32 Mechanic Street, where Jenny Glassberg of Little Silver and Kelli Suozzo of Rumson plan to open Nest, an interior design boutique.
Glassberg and her husband, David, bought the building at auction from the borough for $393,000 in 2016, and obtained zoning board approvals for the conversion last February.
Glassberg and Suozzo are shooting for a winter opening, according to a post on the Nest webpage.
• Two months after beginning regular operations with a pledge to keep going through the winter, the gourmet sandwich shop Riverside Park Jam has closed for the season at the borough-owned concession stand in Riverside Gardens Park.
The stand will be closed “until the weather pivots a bit more towards our favor,” according to post on the Park Jam Instagram account.
