The Melting Pot features induction heating elements in tabletops to keep the pot contents melted. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

A long-closed Red Bank restaurant re-opens, a new one headed by a pair of vaunted chefs announces its debut, and a new retail shop arrives with an intriguing pitch…

All in the latest edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

Café Loret is getting ready to open at Broad Street and Peters Place, above, and Wild Eye opens its doors on Bridge Avenue Friday. (Photo above by John T. Ward; below, courtesy of Wild Eye. Click to enlarge.)

• More than a year and a half after it closed, the Melting Pot of Red Bank will reopen under new ownership in the Galleria of Red Bank on Bridge Avenue at noontime Friday.

The “interactive” fondue-based eatery has gotten a complete interior overhaul, including the creartion of a somewhat secluded seating area dubbed the Tunnel of Love. The new design is to serve as a prototype for the 114 Melting Pot franchise locations across the United States.

Under new owner Barry Berkowitz and partners, the restaurant is now open for lunch and dinner; it was previous a dinner-only spot.

•  Shortly before deadline for this edition of Churn, we received word that Wild Eye, a new Glen Goldbaum venture, is set to debut Friday just a block away from the Galleria at 72 Bridge Avenue, next door to Goldbaum’s artful Lambs & Wolves hair salon.

In an email announcement, Goldbaum describes Wild Eye as “a mindful marketplace… a creative breeding ground for artists of all mediums — a retail space in the day and a playground at night.”

• Café Loret, a new restaurant at 128 Broad Street, plans to open July 19, Churn has learned.

Under chef Dennis Foy and his wife, Estella Quinones-Foys, owners of the highly regarded d’floret restaurant in Lambertville, the new restaurant will be “a modern American brasserie” that spotlights both Dennis’ culinary creations — dishes that blend French, American, and Mediterranean influences — and his artwork (he’s also a painter).

“I play with the flavors very much like a jazz musician plays with scales and notes – sometimes brazenly, always with curiosity, rhythmically reaching for harmony and discourse,” he says in a Facebook post.

Café Loret will feature a 42-seat dining room, a private room for 20, an outdoor patio for 40, and an adjoining patisserie.

The space was last occupied by the short-lived JJ”s Organic, which closed in January.