Princeton’s business scene welcomes new neighbors
Gwen McNamara, Business Journal
Spring has sprung and so have new additions to downtown Princeton’s business scene.
In Palmer Square, Halo Fete — an ice cream pastry shop — is now open.
The shop, adjacent to Halo Pub on Hulfish Street, features ice cream cakes and high-end gourmet ice cream items, like cupcakes, tarts and ice cream bars, all made with ice cream from Halo Farms — a micro-dairy in Lawrence Township.
"The concept is based on a French patisserie," said Tom Arnold, general manager of Halo Pub. "The shop is decorated as if it’s a café in Paris."
Halo Fete, which is dedicated to Princeton’s sister city, Colmar, France, will be holding a grand opening celebration in about a month.
"This was one year in the making," Mr. Arnold said. "The shop was born out of the idea of offering birthday cakes, since there’s really not a Carvel in the area. We decided if we could do birthday cakes we should do something really gourmet to appeal to the taste of Princeton."
Design Within Reach, a modern-furniture studio headquartered in San Francisco, is slated to open April 22 in the former Smith Bros. clothing store on Nassau Street, according to company officials.
Design Within Reach is known for its catalogs and has only recently entered the retail business, said Anita Fresolone, director of marketing for Palmer Square.
The company attracted to Princeton because of the high volume of catalog business it receives from the Princeton ZIP codes, she said.
Palmer Square is looking to open an upscale wine store and two restaurants in the empty corner of Hulfish and Chambers streets as well.
"Our goal really is to add life to that corner," Ms. Fresolone said.
The square is also looking to bring in a nationally known luxury accessory store and a "surprise tenant whose fictional counterpart was made famous by ‘Seinfeld’ — and it’s not Top of the Muffin," said David Newton, director of Palmer Square Management.
Elsewhere in the borough, Saladworks Café on Nassau Street expects to open soon.
"If all goes well, we could be open in two weeks," said Rich Hopkins, franchise owner.
Saladworks Café, a national chain, is replacing Burger King, which left its Nassau Street location at the end of December 2004.
Saladworks offers freshly made entrée-sized salads and homemade salad dressings, as well as hot and cold sandwiches, wraps and soups.
There’s lots of action at the Princeton Shopping Center on Harrison Street as well.
New additions to the center include Color Me Mine: Art for Entertainment and the Shanghai Park Restaurant.
Color Me Mine: Art for Entertainment is moving into 1,500 square feet of space between The Café entrance and the courtyard across from Ten Thousand Villages.
The store will offer artistic activities for both grown-ups and children, including classes on painting ceramics and creating mosaics.
Color Me Mine: Art for Entertainment also can travel off-site to schools and camps to run events or help create personalized gifts for fund-raisers. Birthday parties, Scout meetings, office parties and play dates at the shop are encouraged.
The Shanghai Park Restaurant is leasing 5,000 square feet at the shopping center next to Radio Shack and the Winged Pig. The restaurant is expected to open in mid-April after renovations are complete.
Shanghai Park, which has operated another location for the past six years in Highland Park, specializes in Shanghai-style cuisine, such as vegetable dumplings, saimai, soup, vegetable buns and cold appetizers.
The restaurant also will serve American-Chinese cuisine and specialties for the new location, including Szechuan cuisine and fresh Japanese sushi.
Hours of operation will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday.
There is a "For Rent" sign in the window of Petco in the shopping center.
Petco is moving to the Mercer Mall in Lawrence on Route 1.
The pet supply store will be leaving its 5,600-square-foot store in Princeton Shopping Center and move into more than 20,000 square feet of space at the Mercer Mall in mid-June, a company representative said.
The company is looking forward to having more space and being able to offer customers a wider range of Petco products, the representative added.

