Centrada? Cerrada. (Photo by Brian Donohue Click to enlarge)
By Brian Donohue
Centrada Cocina & Cocktails has been closed down and sold, while an NYC chef with a long resume prepares to open a new market in the former Citarella’s space on the east side of town.
If that’s not enough churn for ya, well, hold on, it gets churnier.
Also in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn, the national clothing retailer Brooks Brothers opens its doors. Another vape shop opens up in town, while the building housing a beloved pizza shop sells for a saucy $1.1 million.
Read about the new businesses arriving like the Great Pumpkin and those turning to ghosts in this pre-Halloween edition of Churn.
Centrada Cocina & Cocktails was a flip-flop free zone. (Photo by Brian Donohue Click to enlarge.)
• Centrada Cocina & Cocktails, the Latin-fusion restaurant at 8 West Front Street, closed to the public in late September and was being used as just a special events-only space, a spokesman for the owners told Churn in September. Shortly after this post went live, he replied to a more recent message of ours saying the place was “closed and sold.” Info on the buyer was not available.
Kyle Richardson, director of guest relations with the Esperto Hospitality Group, says the company is focusing on their other downtown holdings, including Catezza, a year-old Italian eatery at 19 Broad Street, and Cafe Pari, a wine bar/cafe with a tapas menu set to open up soon two doors north on Broad Street.
The move is part of a shift of focus toward the aforementioned Red Bank spot and new restaurants Esperto is opening, including one in Marlboro and another in the former Woody’s site in Tinton Falls, Richardson said. Esperto’s president is John Dileo, who purchased the 8 West Front Street building that formerly housed the Downtown restaurant and night club in 2020. Centrada opened there in 2022.
The video/stereo/home theater Hi Def has moved out of the storefront at 47 Broad Street, creating a vacancy in that space.
• There’s a new market/catering business getting ready to open in the former home of Citarella’s Meats & Deli at the corner of Prospect Avenue and McClaren Street. (Photo below)
Bryan Noury, a New York City chef with more than two decades of experience and a Michelin Star on his resume, says construction should begin this week on his planned Cornerstone Gourmet Provisions and Catering at 57-59 Prospect Avenue.
Noury and his wife, a Monmouth County native, moved from Brooklyn Shrewsbury during the pandemic, he said. Now father of a five-year-old, he’s looking to avoid the endless BQE commutes to places like Madre and other acclaimed NYC kitchens he’s run for 15 years.
The new business should mean a shorter commute both for him, and residents of the east side looking for coffee and a pastry, a sandwich or something to cook for dinner.
“We’re putting in a gourmet market, but we want to make sure we take really good care of locals as well – that’s really really important,” he told Churn.
Noury described a market with high-quality meats and fish, along with grab and go salads, and gourmet sandwiches. He will also run a catering business out of the location. Churn hopes to get the first look – and taste – inside when things get up and running.
Citarella’s closed in 2022 after 121 years in operation. The spot was briefly home to another caterer Salt & Smoke, which went up in the latter without explanation last year.
•Speaking of culinary institutions, 10 Monmouth Street, the building that houses Mr. Pizza Slice has been sold.
The corporation Sorelle LLC purchased the building for $1.1 million, according to a July 9 deed on file with Monmouth County. The sale continues the trend of out-of-town investors plopping down eye-popping sums for downtown commercial properties.
Hopefully, it doesn’t also result in the sometimes ensuing rent increases that drew the ire of Mr. Pizza Slice’s previous owner as he closed up several businesses and bolted from town.
Sorelle LLC is registered in Jersey City, with Vitangelo and Stephanie Parente of Staten Island listed on state ownership documents as members. The sellers are listed on the deed as Carter Schwartz and Charles La Rue. Mr. Pizza Slice owner Victor Carillo says he doesn’t see any changes forthcoming.
• There’s another tobacco/smoke/vape shop in town, recently opened at 19 East Front Street. It appears to be the fifth one operating in town – not counting cigar shops – although it’s getting tricky to keep track through the haze of it all.
Smoke N Convenience makes smokin’ even more convenient than it was when we only had four of these places. (Photo by Brian Donohue.)
It’s called Smoke N Convience, not to be confused with Monmouth Smoke & Convenience already operating at 22 Monmouth Street.
• Once you’ve picked up a new bong at one of the five smoke shops, you’ll likely need a new smoking jacket. Lucky for you, Brooks Brothers officially opened its doors Saturday in a large space at 32-34 Broad Street. 
The arrival of the national retailer fills a gaping hole in the downtown streetscape created when Chase Bank closed its doors at the location in 2020.
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