Michele Ellis in her new restaurant on Broad Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With restaurants struggling through historically poor conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, it might seem absolutely nuts to start a new one.
But the owner of a bread-based eatery that plans to open in Red Bank this week says key lessons of the past eight months are, well, baked into her plan.
Claudette Herring and Lauren Phillips at Via45 Monday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It was a day of mixed emotions for the owners of two Red Bank businesses as they closed up shop Monday.
At Via45, restaurateurs Lauren Phillips and Claudette Herring ended an 11-year run on Broad Street. Around the corner on Monmouth Street, Marissa Clifford oversaw the final children’s birthday party at Paint A Tee.
This 400th installment of Retail Churn has the details on those latest economic victims of the pandemic and other changes in the downtown mix.
The conjoined buildings at center, above, have changed hands, along with the liquor license. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Downtown restaurant and night club, a major nightlife draw, has new owners.
The West Front Street business has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A view down Broad Street last Friday afternoon. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s ‘Broadwalk’ experiment with in-street dining on Broad Street is going 24/7 for at least the next two months.
The change, from a four-day-a-week schedule, goes into effect Thursday, following a surprise proposal at Wednesday night’s council meeting.
Daniel Ardelan puts the finishing touches on the window sign at GoodVibe Nutrition Tuesday afternoon. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Lying in bed in her New York City apartment on July 16, Irina Popa-Erwin had an insight: she had to open a store selling healthy beverages.
On Wednesday, five weeks later, she and two partners will open their business in Red Bank, a town they had never visited before they went on a mad search for a place to set up shop.
A leak of emails, including correspondence between Councilman Ed Zipprich and a prospective bidder for the trash contract, is the subject of an investigation. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich will get the investigation into a leak of emails he requested earlier this month.
Approval of the probe, as well as final adoption of the 2020 budget; extended hours of parking meter enforcement; and a half-dozen police department promotions are all on the council’s busy agenda for Wednesday night.
The former Anderson Storage building, above. Below, Chris Cole in the space being readied for Glen Goldbaum’s Lambs & Wolves salon.(Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With the opening last week week of Sickles Market and Booskerdoo, Red Bank’s Anderson Storage building has all but completed a transformation in the works for almost two decades.
But for developer Chris Cole, who oversaw the project, it’s just another day at the office.
Without discussion, the Red Bank council authorized a restaurant’s closing of a public street for seating of diners Wednesday night.
Abutting restaurant setups at the north end of Broad Street have created an atmosphere that’s drawing customers away from other restaurants, some owners say. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See CORRECTION below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Is a north-south divide developing on Broad Street in Red Bank?
Owners of some businesses located just south of the month-old Broadwalk street plaza say they’re being unfairly cut out of a boom in downtown visitors.
Michael and Valerie Aufiero on the terrace of their restaurant Monday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After 35 years as mainstays of the Red Bank restaurant scene, the owners of the Front St. Trattoria have made a quiet exit.
Read all about it, plus news of a planned CBD shop, in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
Public works employees installed concrete barricades around several parking spaces on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank Thursday afternoon.
A public parklet on Witherspoon Street in Princeton. Red Bank officials plan to allow parklets for designated restaurant use. (Photo courtesy of Planet Princeton. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Among a series of adjustments, Red Bank’s economic reopening committee has scrapped the Sunday pedestrian plaza on Monmouth Street.
Instead, the Broad Street plaza, which has drawn large turnouts three nights a week since debuting June 18, will become a four-day affair with the addition of Sunday operations starting this weekend, Red Bank RiverCenter executive director Laura Kirkpatrick tells redbankgreen.
At the same time, plans are in the works for “parklets,” or temporary seating structures, to be built in parking spots outside a handful of downtown restaurants, including three that participated in the aborted Monmouth Street plaza effort.
Their plans disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis, a longtime Red Bank-area chef and his two sons have opened a restaurant in the Galleria complex on Bridge Avenue. Read More
Mayor Pasquale Menna on Locust Avenue in March. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna says he will recuse himself from future discussions of food trucks following questions raised by redbankgreen about work he did for the owner of a proposed site of a mobile eatery.
Menna, a private practice lawyer, did not disclose his connections to the property owner during Wednesday night’s council workshop meeting, when he revived the dormant issue of food trucks. But he said the omission was unintentional.
Governor Phil Murphy, whose dining choices have fueled some debate during the COVID-19 crisis, returned to Red Bank accompanied by some star power in the form of neighbor Bon Jovi Wednesday evening.
Patrons of the Dublin House in Red Bank gather at its outdoor Temple Bar on June 20. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Tapping the brakes on his economic restart effort, Governor Phil Murphy indefinitely postponed a planned resumption of indoor restaurant dining Monday.
The move is “prudent” in the face of rising COVID-19 infection rates in other states, Murphy said at his daily briefing on the pandemic.
He also cited “overcrowding, a complete disregard for social distancing, [and] very few if any face coverings” at some New Jersey bars that he did not name.
After 27 years in business, Janice Brown has closed the Nearly Newly clothing store on Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a career as a Pan Am stewardess, Janice Brown found her second act in 1993 as a Red Bank retailer, selling stylish vintage clothing.
But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown has decided to close the shop.
Read all about the end of the Nearly New Shop and other changes downtown in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
After a widely praised start last week, pedestrian plaza dining and shopping on Broad Street in Red Bank returns for week two starting Thursday night.
Under the economic restart effort, Broad Street between West Front and Wallace streets is closed to vehicles from 3 p.m to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday evenings, and Monmouth Street between Broad and Maple Avenue is closed all day Sunday.
But after daytime sunshine, the weather forecast for Thursday evening is iffy, with evening showers possible, according to the National Weather Service.
What happens if it rains? Does the street reopen to vehicular traffic? No, and merchants make the call for themselves whether open, close or resume operations when passing summer showers threaten, as detailed by redbankgreen here.
Here’s the extended forecast for the Greater Red Bank Green.
Diners filled restaurant tables set out curbside along a portion of Broad Street as the first of two pedestrian plazas debuted in downtown Red Bank Thursday night.
Among the customers were Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy, with their son, Josh, having dinner at Char, at right.
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another downtown Red Bank business.
Anthony Campitello, seen above with daughters Cristina, left, and Angie, has shut down Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe on Broad Street after only 17 months of operation.
With the first of two pedestrian plazas set to debut in downtown Red Bank Thursday under a dicey weather forecast, the question arises: what happens if it rains?
Over Easy Kitchen plans to open in space vacated by Bike Haven nearly four years ago. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
No angry crowds, no predictions of traffic jams or children being run over by cars.
A restaurant proposed for Fair Haven’s Acme shopping center had a far easier time winning approval Tuesday night than its prospective neighbor, a Dunkin’ coffee shop that divided the town for months.
With the first of two unprecedented pedestrian plazas set to debut in downtown Red Bank Thursday night, prep work was underway on Broad Street earlier this week.
Above, a crew from Powerhouse Signs, under contract with Red Bank RiverCenter, installed in-tree uplighting that owner Jim Bruno said he hoped will create a “Greenwich Village vibe” for outdoor diners and shoppers. At right, code enforcement official Frank Woods checked a sidewalk café for its distance from the curb.
Reopening after almost three months to the day after they were ordered shut down in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Red Bank restaurants drew numerous diners to their outdoor tables Monday night.
“It’s like normal – almost,” said Charlie Lyristis, co-owner of Bistro, on Broad Street, above. At right: a note left at tables for customers of Pazzo, on West Front Street.
See additional photos as restaurants resumed with sit-down, outdoor-only service under order of Governor Phil Murphy below.
Amid a boomlet in