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RUMSON’S NEWEST EATERY DISHES AN EYEFUL

the-barnCarl LaGrassa, owner of The Barn in Rumson. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Stepping through the door of 102 Avenue of Two Rivers these days feels more like walking into a garage sale than a spot for pancakes and coffee.

It’s a bit of a cluttered cranny. The windowsills are lined with antiques and tchotchkes. An old Ferris wheel chair looms over the dining room. A large model airplane hangs from a high ceiling amid a wall tacked with old games, toys and artwork, including a blown-up Playboy poster featuring a Born to Run-era Bruce Springsteen. No two chairs match. It’s a dose of colorful cultural clutter with a side of bacon.

But it’s also much more than a trip down memory lane. Nowadays it’s called The Barn, Rumson’s newest eatery.

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May 20, 2010 - 9:26 am |

A NEW PIZZERIA, AND A RAVE FOR VIA 45

pizza-fusionPizza Fusion boasts 68 seats, and plans to offer delivery in about three weeks. (Click to enlarge)

We’ve got some Red Bank eatery news this rainy Monday, with a long-awaited organic-ingredients pizzeria opening today and a second Broad Street restaurant getting a laudatory review from New Jersey’s largest newspaper.

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March 29, 2010 - 11:26 am |

WEST SIDERS GETTING SOME OVERDUE TLC

danny-murphyDanny Murphy, outside his Bridge Avenue restaurant, is leading an effort to boost the Arts & Antiques District’s profile.

For years, a cluster of businesses west of Red Bank’s downtown has felt like a neglected stepchild.

That was supposed to change with the inclusion three years ago of a portion of the West Side in the special improvement district managed by Red Bank RiverCenter, the quasi-governmental entity that collects a tax on commercial properties and uses the money to spruce up and market the covered area.

The love has been slow to materialize, though. So business owners led by longtime restaurateur and nostalgia maven Danny Murphy have banded together to do the squeaky-wheel thing. And already, they’re starting to get some grease.

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January 15, 2010 - 12:48 pm |

EMPLOYEES SCORCHED BY PIZZERIA CLOSING

dannysAfter more than 30 years in business, Danny’s is ending its run and owners from Long Branch will take over. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Danny’s Pizza & Subs, a Little Silver landmark for nearly 40 years, is shutting its doors after selling to buyers from Long Branch, employees told redbankgreen.

The eatery, which has looked out at the Little Silver Train Station since 1971, is expected to cease operations soon — employees haven’t quite gotten the firm details. And they’re angry over what they say has been mismanagement of the business.

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December 31, 2009 - 9:14 am |

A TASTE OF INNOVATION AT THE GALLERIA

tasteJanine Hillyer, left, and Ken Kruse, owners of The Melting Pot, are ready to titillate your taste buds with their new restaurant just next door, Taste. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

For years, Janine Hillyer would look over from her view at the Melting Pot, which she co-owns, and see a prime space she envisioned making her own.

She watched it change occupants a couple times — most recently, a restaurant, Savanna, and before that, a coffee shop called House of Coffee. Once Savanna moved out about a year ago, Hillyer and her business partner, Ken Kruse, pounced on the opportunity to make that space their own.

“We would constantly, longingly look over at this place and want to be here,” Hillyer said.

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December 16, 2009 - 9:28 am |

TOMMY’S GETS READY TO FIRE UP THE COAL

tommy-logoOwners of Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza say it’s likely the restaurant will be open in a week or two. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

It looks like we have a leader in the race to bring coal-fired pizza to Red Bank.

Within a week or two, Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza owner Tommy Bonfiglio says his family-style restaurant, located in the Galleria where 2Senza held residence for 15 years, will be ready to open its doors before the holidays, as promised.

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December 14, 2009 - 7:30 am |

PLANNERS OK STORE CONVERSION TO EATERY

pazzo-renderingA rendering of the proposed restaurant’s facade. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

by DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Planning Board Chairman John Cash said little at Monday night’s planning meeting, but spoke the words Leonardo DiMaria most wanted to hear: “Welcome to Red Bank.”

Following a brief overview from DiMaria’s attorney concerning plans to open a coal-fired pizzeria at 141 West Front Street, the board quickly gave approval to a change-of-use request for about 4,900 square feet of empty retail space at Red Bank Corporate Plaza to primary food with outside dining.

“We’re pretty much ready to go,” DiMaria, who is one of three owners of Pazzo’s Coal Fired Oven Restaurant, said afterward.

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November 5, 2009 - 8:26 am |

2SENZA OWNER WEIGHS HER OPTIONS

jill-green-2senzaJill Green says she may stay on to help the owners of the restaurant that will replace hers at the Galleria.

2Senza Ristorante owner Jill Green was none too pleased a couple of weeks ago when a pair of fledgling restaurateurs showed up at her eatery, with a redbankgreen reporter in tow, to show off their new place of business.

Green, you see, was still very much in business herself. And with some six months left on her lease at the the Galleria Red Bank, she hadn’t yet told her staff and customers that she’d be closing the popular eatery she’d started 15 years ago.

Moreover, she hadn’t put out word because she had not decided if she’d relocate the restaurant to another site or just shut it down. The visit caught her “completely off guard,” Green said afterward.

More recently, though, Green has signaled she may take an interim to work with husband-and-wife Tom and Yvette Bonfiglio of  Monmouth Beach to help them get their restaurant off the ground. They want to get into the space before the start of the holiday season, and Green says she’s doing what she can to make that happen. She may even stay on for a time afterward, she says.

“I like this new group,” she said. “They’re trying to get a head start, and we’re working with them on this.”

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October 7, 2009 - 7:48 am |

COAL GUY: PUT GALLERIA ON YOUR LIST, TOO

2-senzaTommy’s Coal Fired Pizza will replace longtime Galleria tenant 2Senza Ristorante.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Red Bank’s ever-growing pizza party may soon have yet another purveyor of tomato pies boasting of a coal-fired oven.

After redbankgreen reported last month that Pazzo’s Coal Fired Oven Restaurant was close to inking a lease to move into the Red Bank Corporate Plaza on West Front Street, yet another new force in  coal-fired pizza called to announce itself.

Tom and Yvette Bonfiglio, Brooklyn natives who now live in Monmouth Beach, say they’re moving into Red Bank’s Galleria and will open Tommy’s Coal Fired Pizza in the space currently occupied by 2Senza Ristorante by the end of the year.

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October 2, 2009 - 11:17 am |

PLANNERS OK VEGAN EATERY, DESSERT BIZ

frozsurt-monmouthHome to a newsstand for more than half a century, 6 Broad Street may next see duty as a frozen yogurt shop.

Call it dinner and dessert lite.

The latest additions to the growing roster of businesses planning to open in Red Bank now includes a vegan restaurant focused on the ‘grab and go’ trade and a frozen yogurt shop.

The borough planning board last night quickly approved variances that would allow each to operate in downtown spaces not previously used as food business.
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September 22, 2009 - 7:28 am |

BAKED, NOT FRIED, MAKES FOR THE CRABBIEST

red-2Red Bank’s Red restaurant came out on top at the Star-Ledger’s Munchmobile Crab Cake Festival and Shore Chef Cook-Off at Monmouth Park Sunday.

Red’s crab cake was selected as the best by judges at the day-long festival, the paper reports on nj.com, its website.

From the article:

“It’s definitely a surprise,” Dominic Giuliano, corporate chef for Park/South Hospitality, of which Red is one of five restaurants. “We didn’t have the biggest food line all weekend, but we thought all along we had the best crab cake.”

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August 24, 2009 - 6:21 am |

BOONDOCKS REVIVES WATERFRONT DINING

boondocks1Scenes from a recent Tuesday night at Boondocks. That’s owner Kelly Ryan at upper left with Mike Harper and Megan Prenderville. At upper right is chef Chris Kelber; lower right, the blackened grouper platter. (Click to enlarge)

Think of it as waterfront access for the rest of us.

Anyone familiar with Red Bank’s northern edge knows that river access is at premium. Hotels, private residences and marinas hog most of the Navesink River shoreline. It’s inaccessible to all but the most adventurous from Riverside Gardens Park. And while one might drop a baited line or crab pot from the pier at Marine Park, there’s no getting one’s feet wet — never mind that the pier and promenade are completely off-limits now for a planned reconstruction.

Hell, there’s even a battle raging over how much access the public should have to about 50 feet of frontage at the foot of Maple Avenue.

So it’s no small thrill to find that, after a two-year interval, waterfront dining is back on the Navesink here. And for many patrons of the new Boondocks restaurant, it’s a double thrill to discover that the simple seafood menu is done with panache.

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July 31, 2009 - 3:05 pm |
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