Metro Diner and Big Lots just opened in the plaza where Teppanyaki is. I doubt they would have opened if it was slated to be razed. I think the redevelopment concerns the two adjacent plazas to its north.
I just went by the description given: “between Ruth Street and Tices Lane on Route 18 South.” It’s possible that the southern part of it wraps around Tekkanyaki et al, but I wouldn’t presume that.
And just today there was a new article, which has a different description: “This is 45 acres of what has been previously been declared blighted property along Rt. 18 south, from Ruth Street to Lake Avenue.” This new description stops just north of the Teppanyaki et al plaza, so it sounds as though Teppanyaki, the diner, Popeye’s, etc., will remain.
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I actually ended up moving to E.B. when the company I was working for was leasing space on Tice’s Lane for a few months. That building was demolished last year. Should be great potential to redevelop that area if it’s done right.
I’m pretty sure this thread can be locked, because all we’re going to see for the next few months are permanent closures, and I don’t see any openings for maybe five years.
Soup Kitchen/Sweet Tomatoes has just announced their permanent closure, for example.
One might still see AYCE restaurants, but no serve-yourself places for years, and that includes salad bars in ordinary restaurants. (Even things like serve-yourself salsa at Moe’s are likely to disappear.)
So a sad farewell to Teppanyaki et al.
I actually have an interest in a restaurant which uses a form of self service. (salad bar vs. full buffet) The discussion(s) are to have employee’s man the food bars, have full glass shields where the public doesn’t have any access to the food. You choose the items you want, the restaurant employee in full PPE places the food on your plate and you move on. Still unlimited trips but only one source of contact with the food in full PPE. Think more cafeteria meets buffet, something of that nature. So I wouldn’t be so quick to call for the complete demise of the buffet just yet.
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This mght work for a small number of items, but I can’t see anything like Teppanyaki Grill using it, or the huge brunch buffets one sees (used to see). Indian lunch buffets are probably a thing of the past as well. Their appeal was low cost and if you need a bunch of servers, that goes away.
Basically, unless the number of items us small, the additional space for and cost of servers runs the price up.
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Costs in ALL restaurants will be going up because there are going to be reduced maximum occupancy compounded by people’s apprehension of public places.
However let’s assume everyone decides to jump right back into dining out, at a 50% maximum occupancy a restaurant who used to accommodate 200 people during a night will only serve 100. Their costs of goods sold remain the same, their rent and utilities remain the same, there will be nominal saving in servers (saving the restaurant $3 an hour) so where are they going to make up the difference?
Conversely a buffet is by design geared towards volume. Dining times at buffets are significantly faster than full service restaurants giving them at least 1 to 2 additional table turns in a night vs full service. By adding a “tip jar” at the buffet line and setting up bus buckets and self serve beverage stations most buffets will reassign their “servers/bus people” to buffet servers and have a relatively small if any increase in their employment costs.
Bottom line I would say we are going to see a loss of at least 30% (at least) of the restaurant’s we have grown to know and love. That’s my personal guesstimate and I do not think buffet vs sit down will suffer any more or less than each other. The pain is going to be felt industry wide until a vaccine is discovered.
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I wonder if we’re going to see a rise of commissary type spots open up solely for take out or delivery. It with good more often also aged with sit down style restaurants , eg for Italian food, stuff at price point, ingredients, and execution along what one might associate with jimmys or Christine’s but with a setup just for outgoing food in a much smaller location one may have associated with take out pizzeria real estate. Terrible example but I’m exhausted today, so something like bagelmasters real estate but Christine’s menu. I hope they continue to allow spots to sell booze to go as well.
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I doubt they will continue to allow take out drinks once they fully open up restaurants and bars etc. I do believe that the day of reckoning is going to come regarding the value of liquor licenses in the state. The value can’t remain where they are when the amount of revenue will be governed/capped via reduced maximum occupancy limits.
Imagine the lost revenue an establishment will face when you can’t accommodate some like say…me vs. a person who doesn’t drink. Sports bars etc are all broken business models at this point. Of course we as a country have short memory spans so the faster a vaccine a faster return to our mostly gluttonous society. (yes I am looking in the mirror as I type this, you can call me a lot of things but a don’t think a hypocrite is one)
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The driftwood just got fined 750 bucks for serving liquor. Yes 750.
I just opened a vodka and lemonade stand. Come on over.
750 is a joke. I’ll seriously open up a roadside stand if that is the fine you get for serving liquor.
I wonder what would happen if you put a craigslist booze delivery service advertisement up. I just tear around in my cars for a hobby. Maybe I can get paid (picture all of that in a homer Simpson voice.)
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a cpl spots got multiple hits and now the state is looking to take away their license…that will sting…
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For allowing their employees to drink onsite, not even selling. Something seems off here…
I see food ads all the time on CL & Facebook that dont look like they are licensed; the pics are in somebody’s home kitchen. This leads me to believe that nobody’s paying attention.
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As always the devil is in the details, it wasn’t a fine for “selling” alcohol the fine was for the selling AND consumption on premises. You are only allowed to sell it “to-go” not for consumption on site, which violates the “dining/gathering” portion of the lock-down. As you aptly said; “Something seems off here…” yes it’s government over reach.
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Ah the old govt reach around!
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As I left the Middletown Shop Rite this afternoon, I was heading north on 35 and noticed a tiny sign (when I say tiny, I mean microscopic) right by the light at the intersection of 35 and Harmony Road that read “China Buffet Now Open.” I am very puzzled as there is no Chinese buffet in that shopping center (the one that was there for two decades closed a couple years ago and was divided into several businesses, one being Takumi). The only other buffet in the area is the Hazlet China Buffet which I have never been a fan of and have not been in years. This must be the one referenced? I really thought COVID would be the death of the buffet. Guess not.
@corvette_johnny any intel?
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The China Buffet in Hazlet is part of a nationwide chain; their web page currently shows a standard Chinese restaurant menu http://eatchinabuffet.com/menu/. This may mean they are open for that sort of food, rather than as a buffet.
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A week or so ago I was on 36 in Eatontown area and peaked over at the Chinese Buffet there and it looked like the windows were papered over. (as if closed for good) I could really tell for sure from the highway but it didn’t look promising. (though that place has been on it’s last leg for several years)
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That must be new. They were independently operating, at one point the same owners as the Middletown and Eatontown locations (which according to @NotJrvedivici below, is now also closed). This is probably a good thing for them. The food (mainly temperatures and appearance of freshness) could not get any worse.
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