With a ’boutique’ liquor store now part of the plan, Sickles Market Provisions will take the entire first floor of the former Anderson Storage building on Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a century-plus of operation, Little Silver-based Sickles Market will get into the liquor business when opens its new store in Red Bank, redbankgreen has learned.
The former Yogi’s Liquors, at Drs. James Parker Boulevard and Leighton Avenue, has been rebranded A1 Liquors. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A liquor store on Red Bank’s West Side that had a seedy reputation was getting ready to reopen last week with a new look, a new business plan and a new approach to customers, its owners said.
Under common ownership, the Melting Pot also shared a liquor license with Taste, its next-door neighbor at the Galleria. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Four months after its next-door neighbor, Taste restaurant, closed amid a failure to renew its liquor license, Red Bank’s Melting Pot restaurant followed suit Monday, announcing its closing on Facebook.
Taste restaurant in Red Bank’s Galleria complex has been closed for the past three weeks for failure to renew its liquor license, according to borough Clerk Pam Borghi. Ken Kruse, who owns Taste, tells redbankgreen the restaurant and bar “had some issues which the accountant and state had to work out” over taxes. He said he plans to reopen the Bridge Avenue eatery next week.
Meanwhile, the adjoining Melting Pot, which Kruse also owns and which is covered by the license, remains open as a BYOB, Kruse said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Closed for two years, paperwork filed in connection with the sale of the former Yogi’s Liquors license indicates the store will also offer groceries and deli products. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A liquor store on Red Bank’s West Side that’s been closed for two years appears to be gearing up to reopen.
The borough council last week approved the sale of packaged-goods license of Yogi’s Liquors, at Drs. James Parker Boulevard and Leighton Avenue, and documents on file indicate the new owner intends to reopen the business there.
Referendum proponent Matt Kelly had suggested booze be allowed in the vicinity of the train station. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver is ready to wet its whistle.
Voters said “cheers” in Tuesday’s election to a referendum that would end the borough’s dry spell dating back at least to Prohibition, according to results posted by the Monmouth County Clerk.
The town hasn’t allowed alcoholic drinks to be sold by the glass at least since Prohibition. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Is Little Silver ready for a stiff drink?
For the second time in 39 years, voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to allow the creation of the town’s first-ever on-premise-consumption liquor license.
While other residents of the Greater Red Bank Green were in panic mode in the bread aisles of supermarkets, some were preparing for the looming blizzard by stocking up on their favorite beverages. NJ.com’s Brian Donohue caught up with some of them at Spirits Unlimited in Middletown, home of the famous “evil clown” sign.
Residents packed Monday night’s borough council meeting, many in support of a referendum on the license question. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Little Silver voters may face a non-binding referendum next year on whether the town should issue its first-ever license for on-premise consumption of alcohol.
That possibility appeared to gel into likelihood Monday night on the heels of a builder’s request, backed by a 500-signature petition, asking the borough council to make allowance for a family-style restaurant that serves alcohol.
A display of moonshine products at Crate’s Liquor in Red Bank. (Photos by Rachel Weston. Click to enlarge)
By RACHEL WESTON
Neon signs may be endangered, but the light of the moon shines more brightly in Red Bank after Crate’s Liquors installed a new window display last week.
Russell Burlew, owner of the North Bridge Avenue bottle shop, was among the retailers who received a confusing letter from borough hall this spring directing them to remove illuminated and neon signs from storefront windows. The signs violated borough ordinances, they were told.
After an outcry by business owners, some of whom have had their signs for decades, enforcement of the orders has been halted by the borough council, which is reviewing the sign ordinance.
Meantime, though, Burlew went ahead and removed 15 signs that advertised beer and other beverages and found a new use for the space: a moonshine display.
A former Rumson resident faces charges related to a Halloween strong-arm robbery after he turned himself into borough police Tuesday.
Curtis O’Brien, 24, now of Port St. Lucie, Florida, had a warrant out for his arrest after he was identified by witnesses and caught on video in the October 31 robbery of the Buy Rite Liquors store on West River Road, said Detective Chris Ishwerwood.
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.
An “apparently agitated” turned into a strong-arm robber at the Buy Rite Liquors store in Rumson Thursday night, police report.
The antsy customer, in the process of paying for a six-pack, shoved aside the sales clerk when the register drawer opened, grabbed a handful of cash and fled, Chief Scott Paterson tells redbankgreen.
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.”
The restaurant is doing an extensive overhaul at 33 Broad Street and plans a September opening, says the landlord. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
You’ll be able to get a bourbon with that porterhouse when Char Steakhouse opens in Red Bank later this year.
And among those who may want to raise a beverage in celebration is landlord Jack Anderson, whose hedge bet on a liquor license has paid off.
“I’d be screwed without it,” he tells redbankgreen.
Victor Kuo’s Temple Gourmet Chinese won approval Monday night to take over half the storefront used by Jonathan Salon, which has consolidated into lesser space. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Barely more than a year after Victor Kuo gambled that Red Bank needed a linen-napkin, gourmet Chinese restaurant, he’s found himself overwhelmed by the reception.
On Saturday nights, the wait for a table at Temple Gourmet Chinese, on Broad Street, can be more than an hour long. “We’re turning 20, 30 people away on weekends,” a slightly astonished Kuo tells redbankgreen.
So with sales exceeding his forecasts, Kuo is already busting out, nearly doubling the size of his restaurant and shopping around for the ticket to yet another level on the dining-out ladder: a liquor license.
