RED BANK: DONUTS COMING BACK TO BROAD
The aroma of baked sweets may again waft in the area of Broad Street and Linden Place in downtown Red Bank.
RED BANK: FARMER DEFENDS PRODUCE TOSS
Kurt Poehler at the Red Bank Farmer’s Market in May, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The farmer who trigged a backlash over disposed produce at the Red Bank Farmer’s Market Sunday defended the practice as a normal result of sorting Wednesday.
In addition, an organization that puts surplus produce into the hands of those who need it backed him for donating carloads of fruit and vegetables weekly, including Sunday.
RED BANK: DUMPED PRODUCE STUNS SHOPPERS
Customers of the Red Bank Farmer’s Market were alarmed to see good produce tossed into a dumpster Sunday.
RED BANK: WALK-THRU MARKET TO RESUME
After four weeks as a pandemic-era drive-thru, the Red Bank Farmer’s Market plans to resume walk-thru shopping Sunday, its operators announced Tuesday.
RED BANK: MARKET REOPENS AS DRIVE-THRU
The Red Bank Farmer’s Market reopened Sunday, with some changes to limit the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The foremost modification: the market is now temporarily a drive-thru only, with customers encouraged to pre-order their purchases.
Kurt Poehler, above, and his crew from Spring House Farms were ready with arrays of colorful fruits and vegetables.
RED BANK: MARKET RETURNING AS DRIVE-THRU
The popular Red Bank Farmer’s Market will be back sooner than expected, redbankgreen has learned.
Unfortunately, shoppers won’t be allowed out of their cars to squeeze, sniff and taste until the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer considered a threat.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
RED BANK: ‘CAKE BOSS’ BAKERY CLOSES
Carlo’s Bake Shop posted a small notice of closing on its door Tuesday or early Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Five years after it was opened by television baking star Buddy Valastro, Carlo’s Bake Shop in Red Bank has closed, redbankgreen has learned.
The unannounced shutdown comes just four months after a new investor in the business said there was no plan to leave town.
RED BANK: MORE DESSERTS DOWNTOWN
Kayla Barbuto in her newly opened Lady K’s Bake Shop. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Cakes, tarts, ice-cream and other sweet treats: downtown Red Bank is adding to its dessert menu with the recent opening of a specialty bakery and plans for a new ice cream shop.
Read all about it in this edition of redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.
RED BANK: GLAZED AND AMUSED AT LUIGI’S
Teamwork at Luigi’s Ice Cream: one person holds an open table (left) while another waits on line to order. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
In Red Bank on a late-spring Saturday night, musicians, locals and tourists fill the sidewalks, and PieHole is right there with them. First we catch a whiff of pizza, fresh out of the oven, and then of something sweet. The scene is festive, and we’re hungry.
Stopping to listen to buskers performing Irish songs, we meet a group of teenage girls holding plates of donuts covered with sprinkles. In unison, they tell us that these are no ordinary donuts, and that the place to be right now is around the corner on Broad Street. So we head over to Luigi’s Ice Cream, where we find a throng of gourmet-minded folks of all ages seeking out their next sugar high.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? TINY SPACE, HUGE FLAVOR
Meatballs in a perfect Sunday-style sauce with grilled pesto shrimp. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Found at the end of a short strip mall on White Road in Shrewsbury, the onetime My Sister’s Kitchen space is now home to a venture called Two Cousins Catering under new owners who are, indeed, cousins.
Stopping in on a weekend afternoon, PieHole finds Sue DellaGatta and Rob Klingebiel — whose mothers are sisters — working in a pint-sized kitchen. But the dishes they’re preparing are titanic in flavor.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? BEST OF 2016
Duck confit tater tots from Red Rock Tap + Grill. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Soul-satisfying soups, beefy burgers, crusty pizzas…
From a year’s worth of lunches good, bad and inedible, PieHole‘s What’s For Lunch? feature picks the Top 10 of 2016.
Click to restaurant names to see complete individual reviews.
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CRAVINGS: A LITTLE DANISH WILL DO
August Culbert stops by the Danish Café for lunch, coffee and a danish for dessert. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
“It wouldn’t be the Danish Café without danish,” says August Culbert, a 25-year-old Fair Haven resident and owner of Apogee Technology Services, a Red Bank information technology business.
“The coffee is the best here, and they offer free refills,” says Culbert, who’s been a regular since about 2013 and has “tried everything on the menu.” But it’s the “soft, flaky European-style pastry” of the Danish’s danish that Culbert says he finds particularly appealing.
CRAVINGS: MOM’S IRISH SODA BREAD SCONES
Irish soda bread scones from Alice’s Kitchen in Sea Bright. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
When 23-year-old Shauna Harten gets a craving, it’s likely to be for Irish soda bread scones. And not just scones like those her mother used to make, but the genuine article.
When the Sea Bright resident was studying hospitality at Florida International University, she’d have her mom ship them down to her, she tells PieHole.
“My roommates really liked them, too,” she said. “They looked forward to the delivery almost as much as I did.”
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CRAVINGS: A BUSHEL IN A 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.
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WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? CREATIVE BAGELRY
A bacon cheeseburger deluxe on an everything bagel, above, and a chocolate chip bagel with a schmear of Nutella cream cheese, below, at Hot Bagels Brooklyn’s Finest. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
James Beard, “the dean of American cookery” according to the New York Times, once said that “too few people understand a really good sandwich.”
Nikos Zaires and Mike Gambale, owners of Hot Bagels Brooklyn’s Finest in Red Bank, understand, and they’re turning that humble sandwich into a higher art, making creative use of quality ingredients layered on fresh baked bagels and other bread varieties in their month-old deli.
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RED BANK: TIME-LAPSE OF VANISHING BREAD
NJ.com video reporter and Red Bank resident Brian Donohue and a colleague set up time-lapse cameras in the bread aisle of two supermarkets, including the SuperFoodtown on Broad Street, to capture a slice of the predictable, pre-blizzard stockup on staples Friday. Enjoy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: THANKSGIVING SIDES AND SWEETS
Seasonal treats from Red Bank include pumpkin-filled cannolis from Sempre Cannoli, above, and pumpkin truffles from Chocolate Works, below. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Whether you’re hosting a Thanksgiving dinner or you’ve been invited to a feast, making everyone happy can be tricky.
Were you asked to bring a side dish or dessert? Do you need a hostess gift? PieHole has you covered with a cornucopia of sweet treats and savory sides available in the pumpkin-tinged town of Red Bank.
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RED BANK: FLAVOR’S ORGANIC FOR KITCH CHEF
Kitch Organic chef Jennifer Freeman stirs a mixture of ground turkey and vegetables while Liam Splane cuts down a flat of wheat grass. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
In the exquisite, state-of-the-art kitchen at Kitch Organic on Leighton Avenue in Red Bank, the cooks are busy preparing some extraordinary recipes.
All the food here is gluten-free and certified-organic, but that isn’t what makes it exceptional. Health benefits aside, chef Jenny Freeman is producing meals chock-full of flavor — and she’s doing it with home-grown and carefully sourced ingredients.
The 42-year-old chef went to the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York “to learn how to help heal people through food,” she tells PieHole. “I wanted to learn good nutrition and use it in my cooking.” More →
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? A SUGGESTION IN FRENCH
Perhaps lured by the aroma of baked pastries, below, customers took advantage of a crisp autumn day for lunch at the French Market this week. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Open the door to the French Market on East River Road in Rumson, and the aroma of fresh baked pastry overwhelms your senses. PieHole tells you this as a favor. It’s easy to lose control and forget that you are there for a reason.
Since July, chef Laurent Chavenet has been filling the shelves of this market with his butter-enhanced flaky creations. But it’s not just pastries: a six-page takeout menu offers French specialties such as quiche, crepes and croissant sandwiches, as well as salads and a charcuterie plate.
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WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? DANISH PANINI
Chicken Douglas, a panini-style sandwich from the Danish Café, a flag-festooned coffee shop. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
On any given day at Loni and Claudi Kofod’s Danish Café on Bridge Avenue in Red Bank, you’ll find customers in deep discussion, their open laptops sharing table space with large cups of coffee.
But the wifi, full-bodied, European-style java and original pastries are only part of what brings customers to this light-filled, red-and-white-flag-festooned Galleria space. The lunch menu offers simple, healthy choices, as PieHole rediscovered on a recent business meeting-slash-What’s For Lunch outing.
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RED BANK: FARMERS AND CHEFS ON PUMPKINS
Michelle O’Connor at the Red Bank Farmers’ Market with pumpkins grown at Brookville Farms. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Autumn has arrived on the Greater Red Bank Green, and that means we’re in for a plethora of pumpkin-flavored options in coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants.
But home cooks use them too, of course. And with that in mind, PieHole popped in at the Red Bank Farmers’ Market and a couple of local eateries to get some insights on choosing and using pumpkins.
ON THE GREEN: ROSH HASHANAH TREATS
This week, PieHole shopped the Greater Red Bank Green for Rosh Hashanah eats, and came up with a selection that’s like to appeal to tastebuds of many persuasions. Take it here for the rundown to Sunday’s sundown, when the holiday commences. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
JEWISH NEW YEAR: A GOURMET ROUNDUP
Three light dessert cakes from Antoinette Boulangerie, above, and a box of honeybee and apple cake pops from Lil Cutie Pops make tasteful gifts. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Delectable and symbolic foods for Rosh Hashanah, a celebration of the Jewish New Year that begins at sundown on Sunday are popping up all around the Greater Green.
Preparing a holiday dinner for a few or many, finding the right ingredients and cooking all day can often take the fun out of the feast. PieHole has done some of the legwork for you, rounding up sources for pre-made dinners, desserts, hostess gifts and basics for a sweet new year.
SHREWSBURY: BUNDT CAKE SHOP FILLS A HOLE
Maria Lewis at Nothing Bundt Cake. Below, red velvet cake samples. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Filling a hole that Shrewsbury didn’t know it had, Nothing Bundt Cakes opened last month in the Staples/Trader Joe’s shopping center on Route 35.
Owners Maria, Carly, and Bill Lewis are betting their franchise, the first to open in New Jersey, can succeed on a concept centered— sorry — on a single style of cake. More →
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH? MEETUP AT DELFINI
A Buffalo shrimp salad from Delfini, above. The Big Lou sandwich shown, below. (Photos by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Keeping lunch hour social, PieHole joined Red Bank Lunch Meet at Delfini Gourmet Catering, at the corner of West Front Street and Bridge Avenue in Red Bank, on a recent outing.
What’s Lunch Meet? Created by borough resident and redbankgreen webmaster Kenny Katzgrau, it’s a loose assemblage of epicures in which any member can suggest a get-together, whether it be for lunch, happy hour or dinner. It’s all coordinated through the group’s Facebook page.
This meetup was called by another Red Banker, Tom Musumeci. No one attending had eaten at Delfini before, but everyone came away impressed by the fresh ingredients and array of choices.