Good Karma Café’s new takeout shop, Karma 2 Go, at the West Side Lofts. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A vegan mecca opens a new takeout shop, a framing business consolidates, and a party-services business holds a moving sale…
Read all about all three Red Bank businesses in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
JJ’s Delicasies, at 21 West Front Street, features a swirling logo on the sidewalk out front, thanks to a projector. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn, one of Red Bank’s hot vegan restaurants is building a separate takeout place, while a 24-hour gym, a barber shop and a cryotherapy spa all have plans to set up shop downtown.
Meantime, two businesses — a restaurant and a women’s clothing shop — have opened in recent days.
Birravino’s proposal for a 1,500-square-foot beer garden, as shown to the left of the existing restaurant in renderings below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Renderings by Michael James Monroe. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two Red Bank restaurants won approvals for expansion plans Monday night.
• The borough planning board gave unanimous a OK to Good Karma Café, the only vegan restaurant downtown, to triple in size by leasing vacant retail space next door. Read More
Good Karma Café has proposed expanding into the East Front Street space vacated earlier this year Creative Kitchens, which relocated to Mechanic Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s rapidly growing restaurant scene once again dominates the attention of the borough planning board Monday night.
That’s when a vegan restaurant expansion, a beer garden addition to another restaurant, and the possible creation of a new one occupy a busy agenda.
Good Karma Cafe’s Gail Doherty transports PieHole readers to the south of France. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
redbankgreen’s PieHole is all about local food and drink. If you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet or followed us on Twitter, you may have missed some of these recent stories . . .
Good Karma Cafe’s Gail Doherty walks PieHole through a recipe that will transport you and your tastebuds to the south of France. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)
By JIM WILLIS
Red Bank’s vegan stronghold, Good Karma Café, ran a dinner special recently that caught PieHole’s eye.
A post on Facebook read: Chickpea Socca, layers of golden chickpea crepes filled with a garlic white bean puree and sautéed dark greens. Topped with caramelized leeks and a zesty marinara sauce.
Socca, for the uninitiated, is a crispy pancake made from a chickpea batter. A common street food hailing from southern France, it’s humble and incredibly easy to make.
In Italy it’s called farinita or cecina. In India you’ll find pudla. Each culture has its own unique spin, and PieHole has tried a lot of them. But never before had we seen it presented in layers, like a lasagna. So we hopped over to East Front Street to sit down with Good Karma owner/chef Gail Doherty to learn a bit more about her unique spin on this dish.
Gail Doherty with a hot tray of “magic cookies,” made with pecans, chocolate chips, carrot and coconut. Below, she and employee Allison Kennedy work quickly to fill orders during the lunch rush. (Photos by Danielle Tepper. Click to enlarge)
By DANIELLE TEPPER
Nearly three years after opening, Red Bank’s Good Karma Café has put to rest many misconceptions about vegan dining, including that it’s unsatisfying “rabbit food.”
Smaller than many suburban living rooms at just 900 square feet, the cozy East Front Street restaurant caters to a mix of regulars, pilgrims and the just-curious, serving up hearty dishes along with answers to some burning questions:
Is it more expensive to eat vegan? How is protein supplemented? What does tofu taste like?
Were not bringing you in with any kind of dogma,” said co-owner Gail Doherty. “Theres no agenda other than serving you some yummy food while maybe squashing some stereotypes.
Good Karma Café opened in Red Bank last July. (Click to enlarge)
Red Bank’s Good Karma Café got some good feedback from a restaurant reviewer in Sunday’s New York Times.
Tiffany Betts, left, and Gail Doherty preparing meals for customers who showed up minutes after Wednesday’s opening. (Click to enlarge)
The much-anticipated return to Red Bank of vegan restaurateurs Gail Doherty and Tiffany Betts is complete.
Months later than they’d hoped, the pair quietly opened the doors to their new eatery, Good Karma Café, at 4p Wednesday, and quickly found themselves hustling up orders for a half-dozen hungry customers.
The gals behind Good Karma: Gail Doherty, left, and Tiffany Betts. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Gail Doherty and Tiffany Betts are back in town. And this time, they’re completely above ground.
As many locals remember, they were in Red Bank for seven years at Down To Earth, Doherty’s award-winning vegetarian restaurant, which operated below street level at 7 Broad Street until 2006.
After Down To Earth went dark, each woman went her own way.
Doherty headed south to Asheville, N.C., where she worked for a vegetarian chain and wrote her second vegan cookbook. Betts, who was Doherty’s kitchen manager, started a family and continued to work in the vegetarian realm at Kaya’s Kitchen in Belmar.
Now the two are back, and in the same vein as Down To Earth, are getting ready to open up Good Karma, a casual café/juice bar/restaurant that will cater to the vegetarian and vegan lifestyle like no other in the area.