Many changes will greet R.B. holiday shoppers
PHOTOS BY GLORIA STRAVELLI Buildings at 21 and 27 E. Front St., Red Bank, have been purchased by Terranomics, which is seeking tenants for the space.
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
A retailer moves over, up or out, and another takes its place. Mix in a new restaurant or two, add rumors of a blue blood coming into town, and you have a picture of the downtown business district as summer turns into fall in downtown Red Bank.
For starters, streetscaping got under way this week on Monmouth Street, between Broad Street and Maple Avenue. Red Bank’s eclectic side street has a character all its own. RiverCenter, which is funding the project, promises that that character will be retained when the face-lift is complete.
Nirvana, a clothing store for young adults and preteens, will open at 21 White St. after renovations are completed.
The Monmouth streetscape redo will get a much-needed boost from the renovated Victorian courtyard, new sidewalks made of embossed concrete rather than nettlesome pavers, vintage-style streetlights, clusters of landscaping and bump-outs that will accommodate street performances.
The streetscaping will be carried out in segments to minimize disruption to businesses. It is scheduled to be completed by mid-October, before the holiday shopping season gets into full gear.
Soon after the project wraps up, Bella Soul is set to open at 27 Monmouth St. in the Downtown Antiques gallery, space formerly occupied by Uranus. Proprietor Lisa Bowden said the upscale women’s lingerie shop will also carry sybaritic bath and body oils, lotions and giftware, including candles and picture frames. Decor will be feminine but contemporary, she said, with a coral pink palette and Brazilian cherrywood fixtures.
Bowden is targeting a late-October opening.
Vintage buildings at 3-5 Broad St. are being renovated in preparation for the opening of Red, a new restaurant/bar that will serve classic American cuisine.
Around the corner on Broad Street, a longtime Red Bank business has closed and will be replaced by a commercial photo studio.
Yencarelli Photo and Design Studio will open at 95A Broad Street. Commercial photographer Rick Yencarelli, whose work has appeared in trendy magazines such as Cosmopolitan, said the studio will provide complete advertising design service, from film processing to graphics and layout.
The new studio will take over space formerly occupied by Crown Gifts Religious Shoppe. The supplier of religious articles had been a Broad Street fixture since Harold Mangarelli opened it in 1958. Owners Larry and Sharon Desider decided to downsize by closing the store and consolidating operations at their Spring Lake shop, according to Sharon Desider, Mangarelli’s daughter.
Practically next door, at 91 Broad St., restaurateur Michael Bitici will import the talents of two New York chefs to create culinary magic at Osteria Dante.
GLORIA STRAVELLI Osteria Dante, slated to open soon on Broad Street, Red Bank, will serve Mediterranean cuisine and offer a coffee bar.
The new eatery will serve Mediterranean cuisine for lunch and dinner and features a Euro-style coffee bar and sidewalk dining. Bitici’s successful Greenwich Village restaurant was featured in the movie Moonstruck.
Dante Osteria is just one star in a constellation of new Broad Street eateries that includes Salad Works Café, opening at 130 Broad, and Red, a two-level restaurant and bar that will serve classic American cuisine in space currently being renovated at 35 Broad St.
Salad Works, owned by Antonio Soriso, who also operates a location at the Monmouth Mall, is slated to open by mid-October. The salad bar on the southwest end of Broad will take over space formerly occupied by Dean’s florist. Salad Works will offer fresh green salads, soups, pasta and bread baked on premises for lunch and dinner.
On the opposite end of town, and the culinary spectrum, Red will bring a New York state of mind to the corner of Broad and W. Front streets.
According to owner Dan Lynch, the two-level format with a second-floor dining/bar area and a 100-seat main dining area downstairs is a popular format in New York, where Lynch operates two successful clubs.
"The interior will be very polished, very sophisticated," Lynch said of Red. "It’s a comment on what Broad Street is all about and where it’s going."
Lynch said renovations will unify the architecture and restore the vintage look of the two buildings that formerly housed the Root Beer & Checkers Club and a Japanese restaurant. Red is scheduled to open around the new year.
This fall, the buzz on Broad Street is all about which pedigreed retailer will take the space vacated by Ultimate Office, which has closed its retail operation at 19 Broad St.
The high-visibility spot next door to the trendy, high-end women’s boutique CoCo Pari is being touted as the future home of a designer boutique. Sources confirm that Tiffany & Co. has looked at the space as a possible satellite.
Briggie Brandner managed to pull off a move of Space’s entire showroom of custom-designed contemporary furniture and furnishings over the past weekend. Brandner, who manages Space, oversaw the move to a newly renovated 2,100-square-foot showroom at the White Street entrance to the Plaza. The move doubled Space’s display space and put an uptown polish on White Street in the process.
A new presence on White Street will be Nirvana, a clothing retailer that will move into the building formerly occupied by The Peddler bike shop.
Sunil and Anita Amatya, who operate a store with the same name in Westfield, will open their second location at 21 White Street. Renovations to the 4,000-square-foot building have restored the vintage tin ceilings and exposed the brick walls.
Geared to younger shoppers, the store will focus on contemporary clothing and shoes for young adults with an emphasis on denim.
Happily ensconced at 19 West Front for two years, the owner of Maxwell & Sophie has nonetheless decided to move her home furnishings shop to a comparable but more visible storefront at 50 English Plaza.
Cynthia Lennox said her home furnishings shop will move to the former showroom of Space in November.
Sophie & Maxwell will continue to fill a niche by offering unique and offbeat home accessories and gifts including jewelry, lanterns. lamps, furniture and tableware. This mix, Lennox said, is designed to "create a lifestyle store that promotes furnishings that are comfortable but still elegant and luxurious."
The home furnishings market on West Front Street will get a new addition when a neighboring retailer takes over Sophie & Maxwell’s space. Valentina, who opened Art Nouveau Interiors at 27 W. Front just two months ago, said she will open Art Nouveau II two doors away in November. While her current shop focuses on art deco home accessories like artwork, wall sculpture and smaller-scale mirrors and tables, the new shop will feature custom window treatments and Euro-style furniture and accessories in unusual fabrics and materials, she said.
Front Street also has its own adult store — a teddy bear store for adults, that is.
"We’re an adult teddy bear store, not a children’s store," explained Leslie Bennett, proprietor of Bears by Leslie, which opened at 29 W. Front St., formerly a tailor shop, in late August.
Bennett and TB, her teddy bear companion and the inspiration for the business, staff the shop, which features handmade collectible bears as well as bears made by Bennett and other artists. The shop also features collectible dolls, teddy bear clothing and accessories. Bennett will soon begin classes in teddy bear making.
Two Front Street buildings will soon be getting new tenants. Terranomics has acquired 21 East Front St. and is seeking to lease the seven-story, 13,500 square feet of space through its leasing arm, Metrovation, according to Chris Cole, managing partner. Terranomics also purchased the vintage two-story building at 27 E. Front St.
Renovations will retain the vintage character of the 11,500-square-foot building but will modernize it for retail use on the first floor and offices above with a river view, Cole said.