“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.
The former Doc Shoppe at 43 Broad Street has been rebranded Red Sole, and now includes sneakers among its footwear offerings. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
This edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn includes items about a sneaker store, a liquor store, an ice cream shop and a restaurant.
If there’s a common thread through all, its branding and rebranding.
A rendering shows the proposed roof deck on the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company building, as seen from Union Street. (Rendering by Michael Unger. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
After two planning board hearings, a proposal to convert the former 10th Ave. Burrito Company space in Red Bank to an upscale seafood restaurant remained undecided Monday night.
Still at issue: the impact of a planned roof deck on residences in the condo building next door.
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.
Up for review at Monday night’s meeting of the Red Bank planning board: the Element, seen above, a 35-unit apartment complex proposed for a vacant lot at 55 West Front Street, opposite Riverside Gardens Park. The controversy-stirring plan could go to a final up-or-down vote.
Also scheduled: a proposed makeover for 26 West Front Street, right, last operated as Caliente Cantina, and not long before that, 10th Ave. Burrito Co. The plan calls for the addition of a 1,000-square-foot outdoor deck with views of the Navesink River. Here’s more info about the plan.
And here’s the full agenda for the meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street. (Renderings by Rotwein + Blake, above, and Cahill Studio, right. Click to enlarge)
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.
A fried sweet apple burrito covered in two sauces and ice cream. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Seasonal changes can induce all sorts of fresh cravings, and with September screaming “apple season,” PieHole stumbles on a dessert so tasty, and in such an unlikely place, that sharing our bonanza is all we can do.
Read on to see where you can feast on this crave-able cinnamon-scented apple burrito.
More →
Jimmy John’s has opened in the long-vacant former Wayne’s Market space on West Front Street. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A few quick bites of Red Bank restaurant news for this edition of Retail Churn:
• A sub shop, co-owned by a member of Gaslight Anthem, has opened.
• Two restaurants in town have changed their names.
• Actually, three, if you count the former Brannigan’s. In case you missed it, the Wharf Avenue mainstay has a new moniker to go with a dramatically new look.
The trailer for “65 Percent,” a documentary by Mike and Jon Altino of Middletown, screens at the Red Bank Middle School at 1 p.m.
Saturday-morning cartoons, a locally made documentary and shorts-in-a-bunch enliven Saturday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway in Red Bank Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.
Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers. More →
Sand artist Joe Mangrum creating a temporary painting at the festival opening-night cocktail party on the Count Basie patio Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Screenings at four Red Bank venues fill Friday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.
Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.
A documentary about people who eat white dirt adds some grit to the first full day of the Indie Street Film Festival.
Scandalously long, beautiful legs. A guy with a compulsion for commandeering buses and trains. Geophagy, or dirt-eating.
These and other delightfully strange and wondrous topics fill the schedule of Red Bank’s Indie Street Film Festival as it enters its first full day of screenings and other events Thursday.
Click the “read more” for the full sked and a whole dirtload of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.
The festival flickers to life with “Morris from America” on the big screen at the Count Basie Theatre. Here’s the trailer.
Day One of the first-ever Indie Street Film Festival gets underway in Red Bank Wednesday, kicking off five days of heaven for movie lovers.
The opening day schedule is light, with one just one film lighting up the giant silver screen of the Count Basie Theatre and two parties. But the festival shifts into high gear Thursday with daylong screenings and other events at five venues, and keeps up the pace through Saturday before winding down Sunday.
Check in with redbankgreen throughout the week for festival coverage and next-day schedules with tons of trailers to help you decide which darkened room to bring your popcorn to. Meantime, here’s the first-day lineup:
A mural on Monmouth Street near Maple Avenue touts the five-day Indie Street Film Festival, which flickers to life Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
For the first time since 2007, Red Bank will swarm with screening maniacs this week as independent films, filmmakers and cinephiles invade the downtown — and one or two nearby outposts.
Encompassing nearly 100 feature-length and short films, four screening venues and a handful of bars and restaurants, the five-day Indie Street Film Festival kicks off Wednesday, promising to liven up a post-Independence Day interval when the borough traditionally slips into an early doldrums.
Marcos Ramirez shows customer Chris Hawkins his haircut at the newly opened Red Bank R Barber Shop on Shrewsbury Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly reported that Playa Bowls needs variances to open. The plan has been approved and no variances were needed, according to borough officials.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Kicking off its second decade of covering the endless comings and goings of Red Bank merchants, redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn has the scoop on these churnings:
• The debut of new dance studio
• One barber shop opens, and another relocates
• The departure of a “hippie shop” and plans by a tailor to replace it
• A fruit bowl business plans to open
• RiverCenter puts a bow on 2015
All that and more awaits, just around the “read more” corner… More →
Red Bank police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the assailant in an attack that occurred shortly after midnight Sunday morning on Boat Club Court, between 10th Avenue Burrito and a mixed-used building on West Front Street.
Police Chief Darren tells redbankgreen that the victim, a 23-year-old Middletown man, suffered “significant” injuries in the assault, but police were not notified until long after it happened, and the victim went to a hospital with family members from home. More →
Veteran Shore guitar star Siegfried Schock (above) leads the Ziggy Shock band at 10th Ave Burrito Friday night. Virago (below) take the same stage January 29.
Reports from the Front Street frontlines here on redbankgreen have detected the presence of national touring music acts — something that the downtown club scene hadn’t seen for close to a generation — at the recently opened Red Bank branch of 10th Ave. Burrito Company.
In the months since the river-vista restaurant and rockbar made its debut, it’s also become abundantly clear that the venue has offered safe harbor to local purveyors of original music, a welcome policy during a time of year when the off-season winds blow with extra cruelty around those summertime boardwalk haunts.
Neptune City-based rockabilly artists Fast Clare, a trio led by guitarist (and Red Bank Catholic grad) Laddie Keelan, bring their to muscular sound to 10th Ave. Burrito in Red Bank Friday night. A three-song sampling of the band’s original stuff is here. (Video courtesy of Fast Clare.)
The burrito comes with how-to-eat directions. Below, the chips and salsa dip. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
From Broad Street to Bridge Avenue, burritos have become a ubiquitous menu staple in Red Bank. Interpretations of the Mexican-style tortilla-wrapped meal are becoming increasingly competitive, with hungry fans reaping the rewards.
Jumping into the scrimmage is the much-anticipated 10th Ave. Burrito Company, open since August on West Front Street. PieHole popped by for lunch this week.
More →
It’s like a Breakfast Burrito at Tiffany’s as British garage-rock sensation Holly Golightly makes her area debut this Saturday at the panoramic window-view stage of 10th Ave Burrito.
It’s a genuinely offbeat option for your Saturday evening’s entertainment, here in a town where the live music choices tend to run toward coverband crowd-pleasers, saloon-scene stalwarts, and the well-established household names of the top-ticket tourbus circuit.
But Brian Katz of the recently opened Red Bank branch of 10th Ave. Burrito Company has gone on record to the effect that the bar-restaurant’s music bookings will continue to be a prime distinguishing feature in the downtown’s competitive nightscape — and on October 24, the river-view stage area at 10th Ave scoops all other area clubs as it plays host to alt-rock cult favorite from across the pond, in her first local appearance.
Carley Wolf joins bandmate Jonny Wolf on the stage of 10th Ave. Burrito Tuesday night, as the Austin-based duo the Ghost Wolves helps the new venue up the original-music ante in downtown Red Bank.
By Tom Chesek
As reported earlier in redbankgreen, the recently opened Red Bank branch of 10th Ave. Burrito Company made its debut in the downtown restaurant wars equipped with an arsenal of assets that ranged from “165 seats, a coveted liquor license and primo views of the Navesink,” to more than 100 varieties of tequila and a not-so secret weapon: “live music – cover bands need not apply.”
While the town doesn’t often get mentioned in the same breath as Asbury Park and other musically-minded burgs, the fact remains that most every night of the week finds something for music aficionados to choose from; be it at the Basie or one of the borough’s bars, beaneries, sidewalk bumpouts or black-box performance spaces. But even as Red Bank regulars like Sonny Kenn, Quincy Mumford and Matt O’Ree have made a habit of stocking their saloon sets with generous amounts of originals, the town hasn’t truly seen a full-time venue for homegrown originals and national touring acts since the long-ago heyday of Big Man’s West. It’s a situation that 10th Ave owner Brian Katz and manager Chris Masi (formerly the music booker at the Downtown) seek to address with an attention-compelling slate of up-and-coming talents, cult favorites and best kept secrets that range from deliriously anarchic alt-rock to urban-hipster roots Americana, and even an unexpected visitor from across the pond — a schedule that really clicks into place as summer turns to fall.