EV Motion plans to open soon in the space last occupied by the Red Bank Family Pharmacy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Coming soon to downtown Red Bank: an electric bicycle store.
The district is also home to a new beach-themed gift shop, and about to get another crystals-based “wellness” retailer. But it’s also losing a beloved cheese shop, redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn has learned.
Read about all the latest changes below.
A serendipitous sandwich order led to an event that will feature Belgian-style brews and cheeses from the Cheese Cave at Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn this month. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
Man’s fortunate discovery of the delicious results of fermentation, e.g. beer, wine and cheese, had a lot to do with luck, good timing and happenstance.
So too, Sunday’s Beer and Cheese tasting event at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank had everything to do with good timing and a serendipitous sandwich order.
Mike Vaccaro and Stephen Catania of The Cheese Cave prepare a customer’s platter. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
For the Thanksgiving host, there’s always the question of what snacks to put out for guests while they wait for the big meal – something that won’t spoil their appetites but will keep them conscious enough to feign interest in a Lions or Cowboys game.
PieHole checked in with some cheesemongers from the Green to see if perhaps they could come up with an alternative to the ubiquitous Chex Mix or chips and veggies with sour cream and onion dip combo.
Read their recommendations here at PieHole, redbankgreen‘s food page.
Caitlin O’Neill of Sickles Market suggests some alternatives to the usual Thanksgiving Day pre-eats. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
For the Thanksgiving host, there’s always the question of what snacks to put out for the guests while they wait to sit down to the big meal – something that won’t spoil the appetite but will keep the crowd conscious enough to feign interest in a Lions or Cowboys game.
PieHole checked in with some Red Bank-area cheesemongers to see if they could come up with an alternative to the ubiquitous Chex Mix or chips and veggies with sour cream and onion dip. And cheese, they sure did.
“There are a range of cheeses that would allow you to offset the richness of the Thanksgiving dinner plate,” says Caitlin O’Neill, cheesemonger at Sickles Market, in Little Silver.
In conversation on a sweltering day a few weeks back, Steve Catania, owner of The Cheese Cave on Monmouth Street in Red Bank, casually mentioned what a nice, light, summer dinner cheese makes.
Really? Cheese for dinner, redbankgreen asked?
Stephen Catania will open the doors to The Cheese Cave Saturday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Stephen Catania says it’s a wide world of cheeses out there, and every cheese has a story: where it came from, the family or company that produced it, how it was made.
His job, as he sees it, is to introduce you to that world and tell you those stories.
Catania will do that through his latest venture, The Cheese Cave, set to open its doors in Red Bank Saturday morning.
Michelle Storey in her new Fable Creamery vegan ice cream shop on Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Recent weeks have brought a veritable groaning board of new culinary offerings to Red Bank: breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
Read all about the insane buffet in this winter-doldrums edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn. More →
Samantha Bowers-Crader with her father, John Bowers, at the Mayor’s Ball in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank RiverCenter‘s new chairperson is filling a seat held three decades ago by her father.
Glenn Carter and OceanFirst Bank’s Robin Fitzmaurice at the Mayor’s Ball at the Oyster Point Hotel in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A familiar face has been hired to run Red Bank RiverCenter, the downtown promotion organization: former borough planning director Glenn Carter.
Laura Kirkpatrick addressing the Red Bank council in March, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
For the second time in just 17 months, the downtown promotion organization Red Bank RiverCenter is losing its executive director.
After just one, pandemic-filled year, Laura Kirkpatrick has resigned as operational head of the agency that manages the borough’s special improvement district, redbankgreen has learned.
Customers dining in the sidewalk seating area of Robinson Ale House on Broad Street in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials have formed a committee to “creatively expand outdoor capacity for restaurants and retail sales” as the town embarks on a post-COVID-19 recovery.
One idea the committee is expected to chew over: use of public spaces for outdoor dining.
Laura Kirkpatrick addressing the Red Bank council Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Laura Kirkpatrick has been named executive director of Red Bank RiverCenter, the semi-autonomous agency that manages the borough’s special improvement district.
Jim Scavone, left, with Mayor Pasquale Menna and Visitors Center director Margaret Mass at the opening of RiverCenter’s offices on Broad Street in October, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Jim Scavone, who led Red Bank RiverCenter for the past six years, is leaving the downtown promotion organization.
He won’t be going far, though: he’s taking a job at Hackensack Meridian Health at Riverview Medical Center, just on the edge of special improvement district he managed.
Carrie Krasnow, with study co-author Brian Bartholomew looking on, addresses the audience at the Red Bank Primary School Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank might soon need another 220 or so parking spaces downtown, but it doesn’t need a parking garage just yet, a pair of experts say in a long-awaited study unwrapped Thursday night.
Instead, local officials first have to fix a “broken” parking management system, they said.
RiverCenter executive director Jim Scavone, left, with Mayor Pasquale Menna and Visitors Center executive director Margaret Mass at the office’s opening last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank RiverCenter embarked on a new mission last week.
The manager of the town’s special improvement district nailed down a fresh set of priorities that calls for greater emphasis on leveraging the town’s Navesink River waterfront as a draw for visitors and investors.
It also opened its new offices to Broad Street.
Parking consultants Carrie Krasnow and Brian Bartholomew listen to restaurateur George Lyristis at the Red Bank Middle School Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Like visitors circling the White Street lot in search of a spot, Red Bank merchants and residents took another spin at solving downtown parking issues Monday night.
In the same auditorium where a similar forum was held 14 months ago, about 50 participants showed up at the borough middle school to advocate for improvements, many of them echoes of long-standing complaints and suggestions.
Bill Fontana speaking at the Two River Theater Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After four months of public meetings, Red Bank RiverCenter‘s effort to redefine its vision began coming into focus Monday night.
Topping a list of six priorities that the downtown promotion agency should focus on is a “reimagined, redeveloped and reinvigorated riverfront,” a consultant told several dozen business owners and borough residents at the Two River Theater.
Attendees filling out questionnaires at the RiverCenter strategy session at the Oyster Point Hotel Monday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Amid intensifying competition regionally for business investment and shoppers, Red Bank RiverCenter kicked off a four-month effort to redefine its vision for the downtown Monday night.
About 70 people, most of them merchants, gathered in a ballroom at the Oyster Point Hotel to hear from a consultant on how to determine “what you want this place to look like in 10 years,” as he put it.
The downtown promotion agency RiverCenter kicks off a mission review next week, and is seeking public input, its officials say. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Through his Monmouth Street store, the Cheese Cave, Steve Catania has been doing business in Red Bank for seven years. And for much of that time, he’s been involved in efforts to advance the interests of downtown retailers like himself.
But if you ask them, most probably couldn’t tell you what Red Bank RiverCenter‘s job really is, says Catania. And that’s a problem, given that it’s supposed to be their advocate.
The redevelopment plan for the White Street parking lot, outlined in red above, will be rescinded in an effort to end a lawsuit and address concerns about building size, borough officials said. (Image by Google Maps. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s search for a downtown parking solution took a U-turn Wednesday night, when the borough council put in motion a plan to derail a pending lawsuit by former councilwoman Cindy Burnham that members say has impeded progress.
In what was also described as a “compromise” between Republicans and Democrats over proposed building sizes , the council agreed to scrap a contentious nine-month-old redevelopment plan for the White Street parking lot.
At the same time, it knocked out, without much explanation, three of the five developers vying to build a parking deck, and more, on the 2.3-acre site.
A public hearing on a key measure in the push for a possible garage at the White Street lot, above, is slated for December 14. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Argument over a potential parking garage for downtown Red Bank dominated the first post-election meeting of the borough council Wednesday night.
No action related to the gradually advancing proposal was on the agenda. But the brief debate may have been an early taste of what’s to come next month, when the council holds a public hearing on a key step in the process.
A redevelopment plan for the White Street parking lot now goes to the planning board for review. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Merchants, and at least one elected official, were jubilant after the Red Bank council’s latest move toward possible construction of a downtown parking deck Wednesday night.
By a 6-0 vote, the governing body agreed to introduce an ordinance that could result in the adoption of a redevelopment plan for the White Street municipal lot.
What’s in the 10-page plan? Only insiders knew, but to advocates for a large-scale solution to the parking shortage downtown, that didn’t matter. More →
The Pig and Fig sandwich from the Cheese Cave. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Four and a half years after opening on Monmouth Street in Red Bank, the Cheese Cave, a boutique cheese shop, is often swamped for takeout at lunch time. Whether you call ahead or order when you get there, you may have to wait in line.
If you have the time though, you should consider eating inside. The atmosphere is woodsy and calm. Sandwiches are served on bread boards instead of plates, adding an old-world rustic touch.
But it’s the sandwich combinations — or “sanwicheeses,” as they say here — that pack ’em in.
More →
William Alexander (second from right) tells PieHole that eaters need to head to the West Side to find something besides pizza and bar food in Red Bank. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
It was a dark and stormy cocktail that kicked off our dinner at Red Bank’s new B2 Bistro with a bang.
The bartender flipped opened the swing-top bottle of housemade ginger beer and it popped with a raucous expolosion that turned heads and captured the vibe of pent-up excitement that surrounded this West Side bistro’s opening.
Susan Haugenes — pictured here jamming with hyperlocal luminaries The Haven — entertains during a Tuesday night Wine Tasting Benefit for the Red Bank Public Library. (Photo by Kim Levin)
It was about a year ago that the nonprofit Foundation for the Red Bank Public Library — in an effort to re-stabilize the beleaguered biblioteque during a challenging interlude in its long history — uncorked a fundraising vehicle of rare and winning vintage: a Wine Tasting Benefit that paired the holiday-season recommendations of Rumson’s own “Cork Maven” Kristi Nero with the complementary curd suggestions of Cheese Cave proprietor Stephen Catania.
On Tuesday, November 11, the festive sounds of popping and pouring will reverberate throughout the normally hushed corners of the historic Eisner Library building, when the Wine Tasting event returns for a second annual edition. Scheduled to run between 7 and 9:30 pm, the event will spotlight a selection of Faustini Wines from the winery’s Red Bank tasting room, in happy partnership with artisanal cheeses from the borough-based Cave. Also on hand will be hors d’oeuvres, sweets, a 50/50 raffle and locally sourced live music.