BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
Pat Chambers is the new owner of Monmouth Meats, located at 112 Monmouth St. and formerly owned by the Noglows family since the 1940s.
New people in new places, familiar faces in new places, and even some businesses trading places are part of the scene as the new year gets under way in Red Bank’s business community.
Pat Chambers manages to flash a smile despite the fact that skyrocketing prices and sensational headlines have coincided with his return to Monmouth Meats at 112 Monmouth St.
"I started out in October when beef prices were the highest they had ever been in history," he said last week. "And six weeks later there’s a mad cow disease scare."
Chambers began his career at the longtime purveyor when he was just a lad out of Red Bank High School, then went on to a career as a butcher at the Acme supermarket in Lincroft. Now that he’s retired after 25 years at Acme, Chambers has returned to Monmouth Meats as the new owner of the business founded by members of the Noglows family in the 1940s.
Jennifer Quinn is the new owner of T Berry Square, formerly located at 20 Broad St. and now found at 62 Broad St.
He plans to expand Monmouth Meats’ product line, adding homemade sausage and made-to-order chopped meat for a local clientele that includes many of the area’s fine restaurants.
His supermarket experience gives Chambers an insider’s view on the competition. His small butcher shop will hold its own, he said last week, because it will trade in a commodity the larger stores do not — service.
"Supermarkets are evolving into mega-stores," he said. "They’re like malls where everything from TVs to food is sold."
While consumers are price savvy, they aren’t always well versed in meats — and that is the strength of the traditional butcher shop, he noted.
David Prown, owner of Prown’s Home Improvement, moved his store to its 135 Monmouth St. location in June.
"People are not educated about meat. That’s why when they come in here. I tell them what they need, for how many people, and how to cook it. They come here for the service and because they know the product is fresh and fairly priced."
The shop is open Monday through Saturday, and customers can call orders into the butcher shop for pick up and find plenty of parking in the rear lot.
Jennifer Quinn, the new owner of T. Berry Square, has managed to transplant the shabby chic appeal from its former location at 20 Broad St. to its new location at 62 Broad St.
Quinn has transformed the nondescript interior into a cozy boudoir. T. Berry’s new space features the same vintage and reproduction furniture, lighting and accessories for bed and bath, including the retro chandeliers that have become a hallmark.
Bill Keimig owns Chelsea Home, a furniture and accessories store located on the corner of Broad and Mechanic streets.
Quinn, Tinton Falls, will continue T. Berry’s focus on linens and vintage and reproduction furniture and lighting, and will expand T. Berry Baby, the store’s children’s line.
It could be a corner in Provence since Chelsea Home settled in at the corner of Broad and Mechanic streets. Proprietor Bill Keimig has stocked the 2,500-square-foot space chock full of imported antique and reproduction country French and English furniture and accessories. The space is wall-to-wall armoires, desks, tables, chairs and other fine furniture pieces in burnished cherry, walnut, oak and olive woods all from the period of the late 1700s through 1900s.
In addition to the fine handmade pieces in the store, custom pieces are available, according to Keimig. Period accessories also abound including paintings, light fixtures, mirrors and tabletop decor. Chelsea Home, at 25 Broad St., is open seven days a week in the town in which Keimig chose to locate his own business, after 22 years of working in the home furnishings field.
"When I was looking for a location, Red Bank came up as a great downtown," he said. "Compared to mature downtowns in north Jersey, it had the most potential for growth."
It’s a store, it’s a humidor, it’s Cigars Plus — the new playground for cigar aficionados at 68 White St.
According to owners Debra Caparelli and Frank Toscano, Cigars Plus has the largest selection of premium imported cigars in the area, ranging in price from a $4 stogie to a $25 Davidoff White Label.
What’s more, the store includes a fully appointed lounge — with club chairs, fireplace and large-screen TV — where cigar lovers can puff away in comfort.
Besides the well-stocked humidors, Cigars Plus features a full line of accessories, giftware and fine chocolates.
Feet, move! That admonition attributable to famed tap dancer Steppin’ Fetchit could be repeated by the proprietor of Sole Solution, a Monmouth Street mainstay. The cobbler shop will move to 95 Broad St. and morph into a full-fledged Birkenstock shoe shop, the area’s first and only "Birk" signature store. According to proprietor Joseph Okuszka, Sole Solution will continue to offer shoe repair services in its new location. The move should happen by early February, he said.
Among the familiar faces in new places this year is David Prown’s, arguably the most familiar face in Red Bank. Prown ended a 77-year run, closing Prown’s Has Everything on Broad Street last February. In June, he moved Prown’s Home Improvement to a showroom at 135 Monmouth St. and, he said, business has been booming since.