The West Front Street bar is to get a facelift and interior renovations, according to plans on file. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Fixx appears set to become an outpost of Belmar’s 10th Ave. Burrito Company.
Plans approved by the borough planning office call for the West Front Street nightclub to become a 108-seat restaurant with two bars.
Gotham Lounge will have a dress code, a partner in the business said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Hoping to head off misconceptions, a partner in the Gotham Lounge, a proposed Red Bank nightclub, promises an “upscale, sophisticated” speakeasy-themed place with a dress code.
Joseph Squillaro tells redbankgreen that the Broad Street club will be respectful of local sensitivities.
“I know how important it is to the town that they not have another Chubby’s there, not another Fixx” he said, referring by the former and current names of a West Front Street bar that authorities shut down for three weeks earlier this year following two street melees within a month last fall.
The settlement of charges calls for the West Front Street bar to meet a list of conditions involving security. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank nightclub Fixx, the scene of two sprawling street melees earlier this year, will close for 20 days next month under a deal approved by the borough council Wednesday night.
When it reopens, on or after January 21, the West Front Street bar will have to beef up security, report monthly to the police chief and hand over a list of the names of banned or ejected patrons, among other measures, Mayor Pasquale Menna said shortly before the council unanimously approved the deal.
“This demonstrates the seriousness, the severity and, pardon the pun, the sobriety with which the council is looking at this,” Menna said.
A tentative deal to settle allegations arising from recent melees has tentative agreement, the mayor says. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fixx, the troubled Red Bank nightclub that was facing a license suspension hearing this week, has negotiated a tentative settlement with the borough, redbankgreen has learned.
Mayor Pasquale Menna confirmed on Monday that the deal has led to the cancellation of a trial-like hearing by the borough council that was scheduled for Tuesday evening.
A pair of melees involving Fixx patrons prompted a borough move to suspend its liquor license. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Troubled Red Bank nightclub Fixx has bought itself a little more time to work on a legal strategy to prevent a suspension of its liquor license.
Borough attorney Dan O’Hern tells redbankgreen that the bar’s lawyer has requested and been given a postponement of a hearing, originally scheduled for Wednesday night, at which the town council is to conduct a trial over charges related to a pair of closing-time melees in September and October involving the club’s patrons.
Fixx faces a possible 40-day suspension for two recent brawls. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s governing body is scheduled to decide next month whether to suspend the liquor license of the nightclub Fixx for up to 40 days for two recent closing-time melees, Mayor Pasquale Menna announced Wednesday night.
In addition, the borough was planning to notify the West Front Street bar’s owners on Thursday that they owe the town $33,000 for a tardy response to a fire code violation earlier this year, Administrator Stanley Sickels told redbankgreen.
Because the council will act as the equivalent of a jury at a hearing on alleged violations of state Alcohol and Beverage Control laws relating to brawls on September 22 and October 6, Menna and borough Attorney Dan O’Hern advised council members not to comment on the case.
But that didn’t stop neighbor Tony Busch Sr. from teeing up the bar, which has been the scene of two wide-ranging brawls in the past month. The most recent, early Sunday morning, required 25 cops from towns as far away as Keyport and Long Branch, as well as eight Red Bank cops, to quell.
“What’s going on here is tantamount to a terrorist attack,” said Busch, one of five homeowners living above the Work Out World gym next door to Fixx. “This is getting worse by the day. And it’s very tough for the town, because we’re not set up for a terrorist attack.”
A video purporting to be from the Sunday morning melee outside Red Bank’s Fixx nightclub was posted to YouTube Tuesday. WARNING: Coarse language throughout.
Mayor Pasquale Menna tells redbankgreen that the borough council is planning to take strong action against the bar Wednesday night. (Click to enlarge)
A 2009 view of the interior at Fixx. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Legal action against Red Bank nightclub Fixx could come as early as Wednesday in the aftermath of the second closing-time melee in two weeks early Sunday morning, Mayor Pasquale Menna tells redbankgreen.
Menna said he had ordered borough departments to report on “all incidents and violations” involving the West Front Street club since January 1, with an eye toward a possible announcement of legal action at Wednesday night’s bimonthly meeting of the mayor and council.
“I’m prepared to take action to ending this completely unacceptable business model,” Menna said Monday. Unruly behavior by bar patrons “is obviously being condoned” its owners, he added.
“The owners have been thumbing their noses at the municipality,” he said. “They can’t control their business. It’s time for the state to step in and control their business.”
Eatontown police joined cops from as far away as Keyport and Long Branch in backing up Red Bank’s response to the melee at Fixx. (Reader photo. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For the second time in two weeks, Red Bank nightclub Fixx was the source of a sprawling melee early Sunday, one that required the help of cops from as far away as Keyport and Long Branch to get under control, police said.
Fights that began inside the troubled West Front Street club spilled out into the street at about 1:30 a.m. and spread, said Captain Darren McConnell.
RBPD called in help from numerous northern Monmouth County towns, with about 25 officers from as far away as Keyport and Long Branch racing into town to help the Red Bank force quell the violence, he said.
By JOHN T. WARD
Three suspects and two Red Bank cops wound up in the emergency room early Sunday morning as a result of another closing-time brawl among patrons of the nightclub Fixx, police said Tuesday.
Multiple fights, which occurred during a downpour around 2 a.m., yielded a host of criminal charges.
Among them: escaping custody, for suspect who fled with his hands cuffed behind him.
Music at Fixx will be cut off at 1:30 a.m. for the next three months under a deal worked out with the borough council. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With its liquor license on the line, Red Bank’s most problematic bar reached a temporary compromise with borough leaders Wednesday night that will give it time to prove it has gotten its chronic problems under control.
Mike Gilson, owner of Fixx on West Front Street, agreed to implement more than a dozen fixes he negotiated with police Chief Steve McCarthy over the past two months in an effort to reduce the need for police presence at closing time. Many of the changes, including beefed-up security Thursday through Saturday nights, have already been implemented, Gilson said.
But one change McCarthy insisted on led to a stalemate: he wanted Gilson to shut off the music at 1:15 a.m. in order to encourage a peaceable wind-down to a 2 a.m. closing. Gilson refused, saying it would kill his business.
“It seems like a small matter to the average person, but we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think that was a very, very important aspect of our ability to function in this economy,” Gilson’s lawyer, Rob Williams, told the council.
Fixx must go to the state if it wants to keep serving booze, Red Bank officials have decided. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Just like its predecessor, Fixx on West Front Street is in hot water with the borough government.
The council, citing “problems” and “public safety” issues, tabled a rubber-stamp resolution Wednesday night to renew the night club’s liquor license, which expires at the end of the month.
If Fixx wants to keep serving, it has to get a temporary license from the state Alcohol Beverage Control division, Mayor Pasquale Menna said.
Beyond that, the club, which more often than not draws a college-age crowd for live music and drinks in plastic Silo cups, must prove to the borough that it will operate at a more acceptable level.
Red Bank nightclub Fixx was the scene for the Red Carpet Fashion show last Thursday night, hosted by downtown boutique Bella Mystique.
Lensman Peter Lindner was there for redbankgreen to get a fix on the runway action, which saw 46 models strutting the latest in men’s and women’s styling, including footwear from White Street’s Rare Breed.
Today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit takes a look at The Fixx, the reborn and rebranded successor to Chubby’s Waterside Grill on West Front Street in Red Bank. Among the attractions at the “more lounge-y” nightspot on the Navesink is a Tuesday Original Music Night that’s already in full swing, with upcoming guest performers including Same Mistake Twice, a band fronted by American Idol Season 7 contestant Alisha Dixon (pictured).
There’s more than one way for Tuesday night music clubbers to get their fixx, as it turns out we’ll also clue you in on a new Two Dollar Tuesday summer series that starts this week at Asbury Park’s Wonder Bar. Then we’ll take it right across the street to Tim McLoones Supper Club, where radio broadcast legend Joan Hamburg will be doing her show live this Wednesday afternoon and we’ll drop you back off in Red Bank, where soft-rock survivors America take to the Basie with a crucial assist from indie-credentialed Fountains of Wayne.
It’s all waiting for you, and only from your designated driver of discerning taste Red Bank oRBit!
Instead of razing and rebuilding, Chubby’s will get a sprucing-up aimed at attracting a more mature crowd.
Chubby’s Waterside Café, the increasingly trouble-plagued Red Bank night spot that has been stymied by the economy in its plans for a wholesale makeover, is opting for an interim solution, owner Mike Gilson tells redbankgreen.
The West Front Street dance club for teens and young adults will shut down on Mother’s Day, undergo interior renovations, and open about three weeks later as The Fixx, Gilson says.
“We’ll renovate, clean it up, bring in a new concept” anchored in part on ’80s-themed dance nights, he says.
The change was not entirely prompted by the passage of a recent ordinance banning a mainstay of his business so called ‘college nights,’ Gilson says. Young crowds drawn to the bar have led to dozens of calls to police over a recent one-year span, and in one incident triggered a donnybrook involving cops from several towns.
Rather, the ban “forced the issue” of modest changes even though Gilson and his investors have approval for an upscale restaurant and catering facility to replace the club, he says.
“I never liked to do the 18-to-21 thing,” he says. “I always thought you were playing Russian roulette.”
“Upscale” 26 West on the Navesink opened Monday night in a building previously occupied by a string of nightclubs and Mexican restaurants. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank got a new, upscale seafood restaurant Monday, even as its owners were a few blocks away, at borough hall, getting approval for an expansion.
But not the approval they originally sought.
A rendering of the remodeled former 10th Ave. Burrito Company building. An open-air deck proposed in January would now be enclosed under a revised plan. (Rendering by Cahill Studio. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The proposed conversion of the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company in Red Bank to an upscale seafood restaurant will have to wait at least two more weeks to move ahead.
A makeover into a seafood restaurant with a roof deck is proposed for the site of Caliente Cantina, a short-lived restaurant at 26 West Front Street. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Yet another Red Bank restaurant and bar is hoping to join the rooftop dining trend, and this one has a widescreen view of the Navesink River.
The plan to convert 26 West Front Street to a seafood restaurant follows the recent closing at that address of Caliente Cantina, itself a successor to the short-lived 10th Ave. Burrito.
10th Ave. Burrito owner Brian Katz with a mural depicting luchadores in an agave field—complete with a tequila distillery. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
10th Ave. Burrito Company opened in Red Bank last week, and there’s no mistaking: it’s serious business, aiming to leverage its 165 seats, a coveted liquor license and primo views of the Navesink River to success.
But with a giant mural of masked Mexican wrestlers, a cadre of tattooed and weird-bearded servers, and a barely filtered owner, the West Front Street eatery appears to be off to a running, if low-key, start on his goal of “bringing something unique” to the town.
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Signage is now up at 10th Ave. Burrito on West Front Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the restaurantization of Red Bank in full swing, this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn serves up a groaning board of food news.
• The long wait for 10th Ave. Burrito Company is nearly over.
• Sicilia Ristorante on Broad Street has a new owner, and he’s planning to split the business in two, sort of.
Details, and some assorted table scraps, are just around the corner.
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Susan Haugenes and Chuck Lambert perform with his full band in a free concert in Little Silver Sunday evening. Dead Bank is at the Walt Street Pub Friday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Friday, August 2:
RED BANK: Fixx presents a lineup of live bands starting at 8 p.m. with Diego Allessandro & Lot 25 playing a few songs from their next album. Also on the bill: the Trouble, Frances Jones & the Saviors, Exit 117, Oblivion and headliner Negative Traction. No cover; 26 West Front Street.
MIDDLETOWN: In honor of the 36th anniversary of the Kings passing, the Middletown Arts Center presents two nights of free, hip-shaking Elvis Presley tribute performances. Bring blankets, chairs and snacks. Night one of the weekend concert, Memories of Elvis, begins at 8 p.m. 36 Church Street; parking is free.
A fundraiser to help pay for field lights will feature local favorites Brian Kirk & and the Jirks. (Click to enlarge)
A fundraising effort to install field lights at Red Bank Regional moves into its final stages later this month.
The Dublin House Pub is one of a dozen Red Bank stops on Saturday’s crawl for post-Sandy charities. (Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
With a cold, drab and possibly wet February weekend in the forecast, isn’t time to break out the beach wear?
It is, say the folks at Red Bank RiverCenter, organizers of Saturday’s Red Bank Bar Bounce, a pub crawl that encourages patrons to wear their favorite beach duds as part of a fundraiser for three charities helping to rebuild Hurricane Sandy-shattered Shore towns.
A display in the window of the newly opened Poor Cat Designs. (Photo by Rebecca Desfosse. Click to enlarge)
By REBECCA DESFOSSE
The story of Poor Cat Designs begins with a soggy kitten Joe Romanowksi found sitting on his doorstep in the rain on the eve of his sisters death about five years ago.
Unable to find the cats owner, Romanowski decided to keep him, naming him Felix. Every morning as he left for work, the cat would look at him sadly, and Romanowski would tell him, You poor cat.
During that time, Romanowski was developing a new jewelry line. Suddenly, he tells redbankgreen, a light bulb went off in his head, telling him to name the line Poor Cat, in homage to both his sister and his adopted feline.
Now, Poor Cat has found a home in Red Bank.
