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Newark Hopes New Restaurants Spice Up Its Nightlife; New York City restaurateurs are devouring New
Jersey's largest city with plans to transform the nine-to-five culture into a late-night hub
By Jeanette Settembre
920 words
6 November 2017
02:31 PM
The Wall Street Journal Online
WSJO
English
Copyright 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Newark has long catered to the business-lunch crowd. Now, it is aiming to get commuters to hang around for
dinner.

New York City restaurateurs are devouring New Jersey's largest city with plans to transform the nine-to-five
culture into a late-night hub as Newark's once-struggling downtown continues to undergo a renaissance.

For newcomers such as Barcade, a craft beer, videogame lounge and gastropub with locations in Manhattan and
Brooklyn, that means staying open until 2 a.m. on weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends. Its Broad Street outpost
caters to the after-work crowd with happy hour starting at 3 p.m. on weekdays, and comfort-food menu items such
as chicken-and-waffle grilled-cheese sandwiches and barbecue pulled-pork sliders.

"We looked at is as a great opportunity to get in while the city was in a comeback period and hopefully to recreate
a nightlife scene," co-owner Paul Kermizian said, adding that there's more room for classic arcade games such as
pinball in the 3,000-square-foot space. "It's definitely more floor space than in Manhattan."

A restaurant-sized retail space under 5,000 square feet in Newark costs about $100,000 annually. That is a
fraction of the cost in Manhattan, where the same space would average $550,000 a year, or Brooklyn, where it
could run $350,000 a year, according to real-estate firm CoStar.

About 36 new restaurants have opened in the downtown area alone in the past year, according to a
representative with the mayor's office. They are keeping up with an influx of people moving in. More than 1,000
multifamily units have been built in Newark since 2014, and another 900 units are under construction, according
to CoStar. Total investment for residential, commercial and industrial projects is $1.7 billion since 2015, said
Newark's Department of Economic and Housing Development.

Newark got its first Whole Foods on the ground floor of the Hahne & Co. building in March. The former
department-store building underwent a $174 million renovation and will house celebrity chef Marcus
Samuelsson's new restaurant Marcus B&P in November. The bodega-inspired restaurant will serve pastas,
flatbreads and fried chicken, with entrees priced between $15 and $22, along with grab-and-go snacks.

The Ethiopian-born chef, who got diners to travel above 96th Street in Harlem to his high-end soul-food
restaurants Red Rooster and Streetbird Rotisserie, sees Newark as a similar opportunity.

"We're not a restaurant that's going to close once the businesses are closing," Mr. Samuelsson said.

Newark has come a long way. In 2015, WalletHub released a list of its 150 best and worst cities to start a
business and Newark ranked as one of the worst due to its limited employee availability and high local cost of
living.

In 2013, it had the third-highest murder rate in the nation. The city's overall crime rate decreased by 13% in 2016,
according to Newark officials.
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"When I was back in school, Halsey Street was empty. There was nothing there," said Luis Valls-Amabile, a
Rutgers University graduate who left his finance job in Manhattan to open his first restaurant Ono Grinds Poke, a
fast-casual spot on Newark's Raymond Boulevard serving Hawaiian-inspired bowls of sushi-grade tuna, salmon
and tofu.

"Everybody was saying, 'You've got to open up in Jersey City or Hoboken.' Those places are saturated. We'd
rather be a part of something that's on its way up," Mr. Valls-Amabile said.

Some lunch spots are beginning to extend their hours too. Middle Eastern eatery Green Chicpea, serving
fast-casual kosher falafel and shawarma across from the Hahne's building at 59 Halsey St., will stay open until 7
p.m. on weekdays next month.

Newly opened Playa Bowls on Bleeker Street in Newark serves as a late-night healthy-food hangout offering
smoothie and açaí bowls until 10 p.m. And the Ainsworth, a luxury sports bar with locations in Manhattan and
Hoboken serves half-priced steaks on Monday nights at its newly opened 4,000-square-foot space on the ground
floor of the Hotel Indigo at 810 Broad St. in Newark. They also sling cocktails on the hotel's sprawling rooftop,
which has views of the Manhattan skyline.

Newark's downtown, however, is a long way from becoming an evening dining destination. Many restaurants still
close at about 5 p.m. on weekdays and shutter entirely on weekends because there isn't enough demand.

"It's mostly commuters. There's really not a lot of business," said Manny Beovides, owner of Cuban buffet-style
restaurant La Cocina on New Street.

The new wave of downtown Newark restaurants is concerning to smaller businesses that have been around for
years. When Harvest Table opened in 2007, owner Carissa Borraggine was one of the few salad stops in town
serving quinoa in her make-your-own grain bowls. She said her regulars are coming less frequently and fears she
will be pushed out.

"The window for the average person to buy property is rapidly closing," Ms. Borraggine said. "Unless you're a big
developer it's untouchable. Even the rents for retail are crazy."

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