Tag Archives: downtown

Luciano’s among best of ’08

Luciano’s Italian Ristorante and Lounge, which opened in January, was chosen among 11 of the state’s best restaurants of 2008 by The Star-Ledger last week:

“No jackets are required, but Luciano’s, a cavernous Tuscan-style restaurant, evokes a more genteel time. Not a mediocre dish on the table. Menu includes many standards — fried zucchini, mozzarella and roast peppers, veal saltimbocca. A great place to bring family for a good white-tablecloth meal at reasonable prices. Desserts, too, are made with care.”

Our last visit, for dinner just before Thanksgiving, was definitely a thumbs up — nice appetizer, great entree (Ahi Tuna) and good service. The chunks of blue cheese in the martini were a surprise; E for effort on trying to be distinctive, but I could do without it.

Cuppy’s? Cuppy’s? Bueller?

Back in June, Cuppy’s signed a lease for one of the first retail spaces at Carriage City Plaza. At the time, its Web site touted locations “coming soon” to East Brunswick, Phillipsburg and Whippany. Earlier this week, when I checked their Web site, they were down to zero locations “coming soon” in New Jersey. Last night, they were just down. Trying to get to the site, I was greeted with a “Page Load Error.” Not sure if that’s temporary but fear not, the Cuppy’s MySpace page is still active (although he hasn’t logged in since September).

A quick Web search reveals quite a bit of info about Cuppy’s, some of it dating back well over a year. And not much of it good, if it’s accurate, especially if you consider the Web sites are called Ripoff Report and Unhappy Franchisee. Here’s some franchise info, which indicates required liquid capital of $100,000 and net worth of $50,000. The complaints pre-date a change in ownership this past May.

It’s not all bad news though. Apparently, Cuppy’s can make it in South Africa, Mechanicsburg, Pa. and Wilmington, N.C., among others.

Joint advertising, co-op marketing

Consider this a sequel to Monday’s post about retail recruitment and retention, as well as the penultimate post on the first phase of the Rahway Survey report, presented last month.

Continue reading Joint advertising, co-op marketing

Someone’s interested in The Chowder Pot


Someone must be interested in buying The Chowder Pot, the long-closed bar in Lincoln Plaza near the Colonia border.

There were several keyword searches the week before last that led to Rahway Rising, namely, “how can I purchase the retail property of the chowder pot in rahway,” and “chowder pot rahway nj out of business.” Another one of interest was “are there any available liquor license in rahway nj.” Is there nothing Google Analytics can’t do?

I’m told that The Chowder Pot’s liquor license was sold at auction following bankruptcy proceedings but has yet to be transferred.

There also were 14 keyword searches the same week for “Wolff & Samson Carriage City” that eventually found the blog, though not all were new visitors. The trend continued last week with 8 searches, though none were considered “new visitors.” The West Orange-based law firm represents Carriage City Plaza and it’s the third week in a row that a number of keyword searches made it to the blog. One visitor’s keyword search was “problems at Carriage City Plaza.” [Dec. 5 update: I’m told Wolff & Samson no longer represents Carriage City, “after both parties were not pleased with each other’s work.”]

There’s also the keyword searches you wouldn’t expect would find their way to the blog, like “How to wash laundry in the river.” Sorry, can’t help ya there.

***

I’m blogging early this week from the West Coast so the posts might arrive at odd times and I’m also catching up on local items. A regular reader already commented on this nj.com story about downtowns in this downturn, but I thought it’d be worth linking to; though it doesn’t mention Rahway, it’s relevant.

Then there’s this report about the St. Georges Apartments selling for $3 million, in which Rahway is mentioned as “very attractive to investors because there is no rent control and it has an impressive downtown redevelopment area taking form as we speak.”

Ice rink planned in front of City Hall

A temporary, artificial ice rink will be installed in front of City Hall and will be available for several weeks after the tree lighting ceremony on Friday. The synthetic surface allows the use of regular ice skates.

The rink came up during a discussion at the last Redevelopment Agency meeting about the property along Augusta Street and East Milton Avenue, which probably will be used for parking for at least two years.

Landmark Companies will let the city use the parcel for parking until it obtains other parts of the block, City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier said.

Landmark has purchased several parcels along Main Street, including the Wenson Associates building on the corner of East Milton.

Movie theater, clubs and related retail for entertainment district

A small, two-screen movie theater, night clubs, and ground-floor retail space for entertainment-related businesses could build upon the foundation provided by the Union County Arts Center.

Continue reading Movie theater, clubs and related retail for entertainment district

Retail demands of new growth

Future residential growth downtown will be sufficient to support a 15,000-square-foot grocery store, in addition to a dozen or so new limited service and fast-food eateries.

Continue reading Retail demands of new growth