RED BANK: ROASTER FIRE IS SMALL BEANS
The Friday special at Red Bank’s Coffee Corral will be “dark roast,” owner Russ Crosson quipped Thursday night following a fire in the bean roaster at his Drs. Parker Boulevard shop.
EX-BUILDER WARMS TO BEAN ROASTING
Russ Crosson plans to remake his one-room office space on Drs. Parker Boulevard into a take-out specialty coffee shop. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
At a recent Red Bank zoning board meeting, redbankgreen was surprised to learn that builder Russ Crosson had closed his 20-year-old construction business.
Crosson was seeking board permission to convert his company’s headquarters, on Wallace Street, back to a two-family home, which it had been before he turned it into something of a restoration showcase a block from Broad Street just three years ago.
His company, Crosson told the board, had gone under, a victim of a near-stoppage of work in public works, and he no longer needed the space. The hearing on the request, which faces opposition from neighbors, is scheduled to continue Thursday night.
But what, we wondered, did the failure of Crosson Construction mean to its plan for a strip mall on the borough’s West Side?
It turns out that dream, which gained informal approval just 17 months ago, is also dead. But another, more modest one has taken its place, and for coffee lovers, it’s one that’s sure to smell heavenly.