Aromalicious, we hardly knew ya. The Portuguese pastry shop opened for business just around the start of 2011 and barely lasted a year. A few weeks ago, a sign on the front door indicated the shop was closed for vacation and more recently a “Business for Sale” sign has graced the storefront at 85 E. Cherry St.
Across the street, it appears a clothing store has opened, next to the Cherry Street Farmer’s Market, and further up the street, a beauty supply shop has taken over the space at 43 E. Cherry St. that was occupied by Pet Essentials, which moved around the corner to the former Kataluma Chai space on Main Street.
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Another sad day in Rahway.
Hope she did not put her life saving into it. what this town need's is more HOT ROD'S & HARLEY'S & Wig Shops. Right ON. keep up the good work city hall
Sad to see another business go.What's wrong with Hot Rods and Harleys?
I hate to tell you this story but I waited until the demise of the bakery to express my views. I went there for bread once and they didn't have any, so I felt bad about not purchasing anything and bought a thing of cookies. They were the worst cookies I have ever eaten and I am not a baker. My family made fun of the cookies during holiday and spit them out into their napkins. I was pretty embarrassed and probably should of tasted them before serving them but I took a chance. I never went there again. True story. Bad product = Bad business. I am not saying someone can't work out a business in the area. You just have to have a good quality product.
Can someone please put in a nice liquor store? Make it upscale to attract clientele from the luxury apartments. Craft beers would be nice.
Michelle your right I like Pagins gang's that's what Rahway Need's there was a liquor store there the mayor got rid of them. and they just needed to upscale the store on Cherry Str. now there a no show Police Station there its your tax money at work.
Out of the thousands of people that come to Downtown Rahway for Hot Rods and Harleys, to see classic cars and motorcycles, spending money at the local restaurants and bars, and whatever stores we may have left by then, you're worried about a few Pagans? Who have never started any trouble at all?You're pretty full of shutting down other people's ideas, Mr. or Ms. Anony, what's your plan to improve the local economy?
The only reason why your bloging is due to you intrest in harley D so you can make a buck. I'm not shutting down the city its city hall who has done a good job at that.
I said you're shutting down IDEAS, not the city.And I have yet to read about an actual idea from you.Since I don't blog anonymously, I don't have any secret identity. I'm working on Hot Rods and Harleys right now, with the city and anyone else who wants to help. If you have some sort of actual input you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it.Or, if you have some awesome idea as to how to improve the city, I'd be interested in that too.If, on the other hand, you prefer simply complaining about everything, ANONYMOUSLY, with nothing positive to add, then I'm about done talking to you.YOU are the one who brought up Hot Rods and Harleys, not me. So, I guess, thanks for the publicity.
PART ONE :Wow, the post was about someone who had a dream opened up a little bakery with the intent of making a living on their own, and the conversation went right to what's wrong with the downtown..I have no say nor opinion of anonymous bloggers, people can do whatever they want. I do have an opinion of people who always go right to blaming someone for something and their facts aren't quite right. My business was downtown for years, I still live downtown. When Aromalicious opened, I went in to wish them the best. I owned a bakery, a coffehouse and a bakery coffehouse cafe on Cherry St for 20 odd years. To the person who waited to comment about the cookies: when you're in the food business, ANYTHING can happen when you're making a cookie where something can go wrong; you can get a phone call, be interrupted by a customer, read the recipe wrong: it's NOT impolite to return to the place and politely say ''something was wrong with these cookies". If you don't tell the people, how will we know?? I've made my share of mistakes, unintentionally selling something that wasn't up to par, but it was a mistake and we're all human. If you gave them a chance perhaps they would have made it up to you:) I always do. I usually catch my mistakes because you can see if something looks different than it's supposed to, and then I check it out, and usually I screwed something up and have to throw it out. I'm human, I make mistakes, and if I don't catch it and a customer returns the product I make it up to them and remind them to thank God I'm their Baker and not their Surgeon. From the aspect of what Rahway needs: we need everything except what already exists and is doing well. I have been trying to get citizens together to establish a community feel in the downtown. We are meeting every other Friday at Little Portugal restaurant for food, byob, karaoke, and talk. No business is being conducted yet.
PART TWO:The first thing we need downtown is a co op supermarket for the people living in the apartments and condos. It would be nice if individual departments of the supermarket were owned by different people, thereby giving more people a chance to start a business, employ people and get things moving. There can be vendors for:producedairygreen grocerbreadbakerybutcherseafoodI have people interested in opening store fronts that make their own:skin care and mineral make up store with aestheticians doing make overssoaps and body washshoes, yes, handmade shoes.handbagshat makerscouture dressestailorjewelryleather goodsfloristice creamcandya restaurantcoffehouse (me)window treatmentshome goodsantiquesA couple of the people interested have been on Project Runway. The powers that be need to persuade the banks and investors in this town to finally put their money where their mouth is, stop being self serving, and create a downtown. It can be done, it's not that difficult for Gods sake. If all of these people can be encouraged to come downtown and open AT ONCE and Rahway is known for one of kind products, people will come here not just for Hot Rods and other events. If a ''one of a kind'' downtown is created, it's our nitch. Corporate franchises will not come here until there are way more residents here. And really, is that the town we want? If indeed there is a ''we''. It's not what I would like to see. The past 30 years has brought about nice changes and big projects. A nice liquor store would be great, but the one's that were ''closed'' were not operating business with any community minded dedication in their plan. To the negative people (and there will always be negative people because it's way easier to wallow in your self pity and misery than to get off your ass and actually do something and risk taking a chance to make change)to those people: blog away….bring it on..people like me will never absorb it because it's not the world I live in. People that want to see the change, join us. It starts with people wanting it to happen, having a vision and staying focused.
I would love to see a coffee shop open downtown. It would be great to have a place to go on a weekend morning to have a few cups of coffee while reading the paper. The place that began with a K on Main St was pretty good, but they were too small, and it was difficult to get s cup of regular coffee. Too many specialty coffees, but I suppose they need them, because that's where the money is. We don't need a commercial Starbucks, but a locally owned coffee shop would be great. Have some live music on some evenings to get a crowd and following going. Display art from the local artists. Things like that. I think that type of shop would be sustainable.
it'll happen:)
hey joe levi, i think you should run for mayor.
@silent Bob,hahaha — yaaaaaa — my mouth + bureaucracy = total FAIL lololol.
I just want to pipe in on Aromalicious for a moment.My experience was different. I think they had strengths and weaknesses. First, they had these wonderful little shrimp fritters (for lack of a better way to describe them). Wow, they were fantastic. I was addicted to them. Their regular white bread was darn good too and I looked forward to being able to pick up some of it on a Friday night on my way home from the train. Much better than a loaf of Wonderbread from the little grocery across the street for sure. Some of their pastries were darn good, but others were just not my taste, not that there was anything specifically wrong with them. I was surprised to see them close down. I would have placed bets on that take-out "fish" store going first. Honestly, I do not understand how they are keeping afloat. This one puzzles me completely as I can honestly say the one time I tried the food I found it to be a deplorable "cooking". But there is no accounting for tastes as is proven over and over by the many stores which continue to decline and the few which somehow survive.
it saddens me when people invest their time, money and soul into a business and it doesn't 'work'. hopefully the owners will be able to sell and recoop. Everyone has their own taste, no one will ever please every body, it's just impossible. I want my downtown to be a cool, happening, thriving place.
Yay JoeLevi! I agree with just about everything you said.We work hard in our family business downtown too, and I can't imagine what it must be like to work so hard to make a business successful, only to end up having to close. I hope that they find a way to succeed in a new venture.And as far as the really lousy cookies, I don't know about this business, but I would rather a customer tell me that they had a bad experience so that I can improve it rather than just never coming back, or worse, telling other people. If the cookies were that bad, and you politely took them back to the owner and asked him to taste them or something, it may have actually helped him improve rather than this eventual fail. Or, it may not. I just know *I'D* rather know than not.Co-op supermarket sounds incredibly cool, if it could be worked out I imagine I'd spend way too much time and money there. I'd even read a story about a high school teaching a class in business by having the kids run a grocery store for a semester – and they were so successful that the store stayed open and is now a model for other communities.We need some fresh ideas for the downtown, beyond only arts and art-related stuff. If there was a grocery store downtown, I'd almost never have to drive again.We did have a Tea shop downtown for a while, but it eventually closed. We had a coffeeshop/vegetarian restaurant called 'Eat to the Beat' that I absolutely loved when it first opened, again, gone. Until we have some real foot traffic I don't think these small cafes will succeed.SO NICE to see an actual exchange of ideas instead of just a bunch of negativity and blaming!
yes I have an Idea Michelle, we all need to vote and clean out city hall thats the first Idea. then all of the above can happen. they don't want ice cream you remember the old bar on Jaques ave there was to be an ice cream store there and the city said no now its a empty lot. it all sounds good bet they don't want it city hall.