This year’s Giving Tuesday is November 29, marking the 10th year of the annual push to “inspire generosity around the world, with a common mission to build a world where generosity is part of everyday life.”
Here are some Red Bank area organizations seeking help – and one that plans to give a boost to others.
A customer checks her email at one of the new seating areas at Coffee Corral. (Photo by Chris Ern. Click to enlarge.)
By CHRIS ERN
It’s a warm summer night as Jessica Olszewski relaxes in an Adirondack chair while her wife and young daughter dance to live jazz under glimmering lights outside the Coffee Corral in in Red Bank.
A new, post-pandemic vibe has captured the attention of locals at the busy corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard. There, owners Courtlyn Crosson and Erich Reulbach have developed their business into what Reulbach said is now “more than just a coffee shop on the corner.”
“It’s family-friendly. I have my wife and daughter here, and she’s able to run around and enjoy the live music,” says Olszewski, of Tinton Falls. “It’s a lot of what we couldn’t do for so long.”
Students working on a mural in the background as new plants soak up the sun in the community garden at the Coffee Corral. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
On a mostly vacant corner lot in Red Bank that was to have been the home of a new restaurant, the kids have taken over.
In recent weeks, students from the borough’s middle school have planted a community garden behind the Coffee Corral, at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard. Others are in the process of transforming two sides of a garage into lush, coffee-themed murals.
Red Bank Middle School students got an up-close look at 40 career and college opportunities Wednesday.
An exhibit used in the Coffee Corral hearing illustrates the placement of the new building, which would on Shrewsbury Avenue at the corner of Drs. James Parker Boulevard. The existing shop would be used for roasting beans. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Coffee Corral won approval for an ambitious West Side building plan Monday.
The borough planning board gave a unanimous OK for owners Courtlyn Crosson and her father, business founder Russ Crosson, to transform vacant land at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard into a new home for the coffee shop, plus an adjoining restaurant.
Coffee Corral owner Courtlyn Crosson hopes to build a new, larger coffee shop, and a separate deli, on the empty lot at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Six years after it opened in a tiny West Side construction office, Red Bank’s Coffee Corral is rarin’ for bigger pastures.
Owners Courtlyn Crosson and her father, business founder Russ Crosson, are scheduled to go before the borough planning board next month with an ambitious plan to transform the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard into a new home to the coffee shop, plus an adjoining restaurant.
A Root Beer Float from Toast City Diner. (Photo by Sherri Hall. Click to enlarge.)
By SHERRI HALL
Is it really over already? No! Say it isn’t so!
As the summer of 2016 fades into history, it is with great reluctance that PieHole‘s Cool Inside series closes out (sniff!) with a simple classic: a root beer float.
It’s the 15th entry in the series that has served up everything from a waffle bowl to an egg cream, with lots of variety in between. Each was carefully selected to deliver maximum mouthfuls of flavor and bone-cooling effect on a hot summer’s day.
But remember, dear reader: summer doesn’t actually end until September 22. So if you missed any of our stops, there’s a complete list at the bottom of this article to help you keep cool in the interim —and beyond. Because really, if you think about it, does summer actually have to end?
A New York Egg Cream from the Red Bank Diner. (Photo by Sherri Hall. Click to enlarge.)
By SHERRI HALL
This week, PieHole‘s Cool Inside summer series finds an old-school Brooklyn lunch-counter favorite still being made right here in Red Bank.
The Peanut Butter Protein Blast from the Coffee Corral. (Photo by Sherri Hall. Click to enlarge.)
By SHERRI HALL
This week, PieHole‘s Cool Inside summer series gets its recommended daily allowance of the primary food groups — caffeine, peanut butter and chocolate —all in one cold cupful at a popular Red Bank coffee stop. More →
The Friday special at Red Bank’s Coffee Corral will be “dark roast,” owner Russ Crosson quipped Thursday night following a fire in the bean roaster at his Drs. Parker Boulevard shop.
Michael Paul Raspanti shows off his eco-friendly organic garden during last year’s Green House Tour in Red Bank. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge.)
On a first-autumn-weekend that also features Shore Paddle and the Red Bank Guinness Oyster Festival, it might be easy to overlook a quiet, grass-roots endeavor that opens some of the town’s “greenest” gardens and homes to public perusal.
But as the borough Environmental Commission points out, the public-welcome happening that’s all about the community’s future has grown by leaps and bounds since last year’s inaugural Green House Tour.
Scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m.to 6 p.m., the newly rebranded Red Bank Garden and Eco Tour offers a self-guided excursion designed to “educate the local population on the individual and environmental benefits of incorporating sustainable living practices, and to provide residents an opportunity to build and grow together,” in the words of commission chair Frank Corrado.
Courtlyn Crosson makes a High Roller, seen below complete with grapefruit foam. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Tired of getting the same old latte or mochaccino from your local coffee shop? Baristas, the mixologists of caffeinated beverages, are raising the bar by creating new and interesting coffee “cocktails.”
Twenty-four-year-old Courtlyn Crosson, barista at the Coffee Corral in Red Bank, brings PieHole up to date on some of the latest innovations.
PieHole stopped by DoCo for its opening Friday morning. The credit card machine wasn’t working, but the donuts and coffee were hot and ready to go. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
Coffee was on when the doors opened at DoCo in Shrewsbury Village in Shrewsbury Friday morning.
PieHole stopped by for a half-dozen hot glazed donuts ($7.50).
The change will not apply to a proposed Walgreen’s store at the former site of Rassas Buick, officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A change to Red Bank’s law on drive-thru businesses got quick service Wednesday night.
Setting aside opposition by the lawyer for a proposed Walgreen’s pharmacy and by Coffee Corral owner Russ Crosson, the council gave unanimous approval to a zoning change that requires new drive-thrus to be located 100 feet from a residential zone.
It’s not often that you see a horse on busy Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank. But when a business is called the Coffee Corral and the back forty is fenced by split rail, well… Owner Russ Crosson’s daughter Courtlyn stopped by for a visit Tuesday with Meet My Hero, her 9-year-old former thoroughbred racer.
By the way…
Employees gathered for training Thursday at Russ Crosson’s Coffee Corral, the take-out java shop he built in the onetime home of his now-closed construction company. The shop, at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard in Red Bank, plans to fire up the bean roaster for customers at 5:30 a.m. Monday. (Click to enlarge)