Spring 2019 Issue
OF KITCHENS AND HEROES
Years ago, I met a lovely woman who had exchanged her McMansion in the Midwest for a railroad apartment in Manhattan. Which also meant that she had spurned her glorio...
Upcycled - Design Hacks from Restaurant Professionals
Modern restaurateurs increasingly approach design from an eco-friendly lens. It’s about respecting both the past and the future, and it speaks to priorities. We share a few clever tips for reusing, recycling and repurposing.
CELLAR 335
Cellar 335 serves progressive Asian-American dishes and tiki-style cocktails. But beyond the food is the restaurant’s Polynesian feel, which is achieved mostly by repurposed findings from an old Jersey City church.
Chef and owner Jamie Knott was inspired when his friend, Ben Lopiccolo, bought the church and turned it into lofts. Lopiccolo is a developer who owns White Eagle Hall, the building in which Cellar 335 is located.
“I said, ‘Anything you’re not gonna use, we’d like to use.’” Knott recalls. White Eagle Hall was once a wedding and celebrations venue. “I just thought it was cool to carry on the tradition.”
For the restaurant, Knott refinished items from every part of the church. But the most eccentric pieces are the reliquaries behind the bar. Reliquaries traditionally hold holy relics, usually related to saints or other important figures in Christianity.
Knott thought they were eye-catching. Each reliquary is made of carved wood; Knott had the wood refinished and painted black, and multi-colored lights were added to complete the look. The effort was not a cost-saving venture.
“Sometimes it costs more to repurpose a piece of furniture than to go get a new one,” Knott says. “But it just adds to the feel.”
Cellar 335’s elements from the church include pews repurposed into seating and gilded wood taken from the altar for decoration. Knott stresses that religion doesn’t play any role in the restaurant. He simply wanted to give new life to items that otherwise wouldn’t see a future.
CELLAR 335
335 Newark Ave., Jersey City
cellar335.com
JERSEY CIDER WORKS
Charles Rosen, founder of Jersey Cider Works (opposite page), has George Akers to thank for the floors in his tasting room.
Akers is well known in the Asbury area for barn restoration. When Akers informed Rosen that a school in Pennsylvania was being torn down, Rosen jumped at the opportunity to reuse its materials in the Jersey Cider Works tasting room, a 1700s barn on the grounds of Asbury’s Ironbound Farm.
“Our business is born out of this dual mission of workforce development and environmental repair,” Rosen says.
The school’s gymnasium bleachers became flooring for the tasting room. The dark brown bleachers were refinished and create the appearance of worn floors, giving the room an aged look.
But the wood from the bleachers wasn’t enough to cover the floor. So, Rosen decided to repurpose the school’s basketball court. Akers set the wood from the court in a parquet style to give the floor a more striking look. At Jersey Cider Works, the court’s painted yellow lines are still visible.
Rosen wanted to upcycle as many materials as possible when designing the tasting room, so nearly everything inside was originally something else. He created a chandelier, tables and a rock wall from existing materials found on Ironbound Farm’s grounds.
“Our whole aesthetic at the farm is very intentional as a signal to the things we prioritize as a company,” Rosen says. “It’s a proof of concept of what we care about,” he says. “This is how [we] treat the earth.”
TASTING ROOM AT IRONBOUND FARM
360 County Rd. 579, Asbury
jerseyciderworks.com
ROOTS CAFÉ
While Kevin and Rachelle Johnson were getting ready to open Roots Café in 2018, they searched for the perfect way to bring a farmhouse-style restaurant to life. The answer: repurposed wooden pallets.
“We were going for the modern farmhouse look, and we thought [pallets] would be the easiest touch to the restaurant,” Rachelle says.
The couple envisioned the pallets for all the café’s counters, but finding them didn’t prove to be as easy as they had hoped.
“I was pallet hunting,” Rachelle remembers. “Driving around, looking for dumpsters full of pallets. I stopped by local businesses to see if they were willingly offering them. Anywhere we could get our hands on them.”
The pallets ended up being collected from various places near the restaurant’s location.
Refinishing the pallets took extra work, because the wood needed to be well-sanitized. The pallets were scrubbed down and bleached. The Johnsons stained the wood in various shades to give the pallets some contrast. The pre-existing countertops were placed on top to complete the renovation.
“It was a lot of work, we must say,” Rachelle admits.
The winter weather has made it difficult to refinish additional pallets, but the Johnsons hope to feature upcycled tabletops at the café by summer.
ROOTS CAFÉ
28 South Church Rd., Maple Shade
eatrootscafe.com
LEATHERHEAD PUB
When Lisa Savage caught wind of an old fire house for sale in Egg Harbor City, she instantly thought it could be her next restaurant endeavor. The building, originally from 1918, was mostly in good shape when Savage purchased it—and she knew turning such a significant piece of the town’s history into a restaurant would be the best way to keep the building’s original features as intact as possible.
“The history had a little bit to do with it,” Savage says. “I liked the location and just fell in love with the building itself.”
The building, which turned 100 in November, is somewhat of a landmark in the center of town. “We kept whatever we could keep,” she says.
When she began the remodeling, she discovered that the building’s exposed brick interior had been covered up, along with the massive windows that gave it a fire-house feel. She uncovered all of the brick work and put in new windows. The original ceilings were kept as well. The building needed to be adjusted to accommodate a 50-seat restaurant, which required all new electric wiring and plumbing throughout.
Ultimately, upcycling an entire building proved to be a lot of work but resulted in plenty of reward.
Savage also tried to use as much repurposed material as possible for the restaurant’s décor. The tables are made from old barn wood she found in Lancaster, PA, while the restaurant’s center table is made from a refinished tree trunk.
LEATHERHEAD PUB
105 Philadelphia Ave.,
Egg Harbor City
leatherheadpub.com
More Stories
Communities Near You
Related Stories & Recipes