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Cafe Burns Mortgage, Thanks Customers May 1

Joanie’s Café celebrates three-year success story with a party
CRANFORD n A little more than three years ago, Joan Reilly, a soon-to-be-out-of-work waitress, passed an empty restaurant store front and saw a dream.
In the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression, Reilly took a chance. She opened a restaurant, without any formal business experience, and ran Joanie’s Café (29 North Avenue, Cranford. 908/709-7300) her way.
On May 1, from 2-4 p.m., Reilly will hold a party to celebrate her success by burning the café’s mortgage and thanking the friends and customers who made it possible.
“This hasn’t been easy,” she said. “But it’s been the most fun of any job I’ve ever had. It’s the people. It’s a small town café where people tell me all kinds of stories. I feel like a bartender without the booze.”
Joanie’s Café is a modest place n a few tables, a few booths, a counter and Joanie.
“I was a waitress at another restaurant and new owner was about to get rid of the staff,” she recalled. “There was this vacant storefront that I walked by on the way to work every day. So I decided to open it up and do it on my own n my way.”
It’s a family restaurant, open for breakfast and lunch. And all around are indications of Reilly’s Irish heritage n from flags to placements and more. And every Thursday, Reilly makes her own corned beef. It sells out every week.
She put her thoughts about her experience in rhyme.
“After years of hard toil
and sometimes regret,
“We’re burning our mortgage
now free of the debt.
“With sore feet and back pain,
we’ve longed for this day.
“A thank you to the thousands
who helped us pay!”
“Money has been extremely tight, but we made it,” she said. “And I would do it all over again.”