Eighty Eights, the live jazz restaurant at Main and Lewis streets, is on the way out, and apparently a Cuban-type restaurant is on the way in. A liquor license transfer was approved last week, from Eighty Eights to Cubanu. Typically, a liquor license transfer is completed as part of a sale of the entire business.
Luciano’s set to open
Luciano’s, which from the outside has looked like it was ready for business quite some time ago, is expected to officially open in January.
The 250-seat Italian restaurant at the corner of Main and Monroe streets will host some parties during the remainder of this year.
Up or down?
Is it good news or bad news? Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the firm that will run Rahway’s new hotel (most of which actually will be condos — floors 5-15, 222 units) announced that profits plunged 60 percent in the third quarter. Not only was that expected, but operating profit was up 22 percent. If you’re not one of those zany finance types and you’re thinking, “Profits are down, yet up…huh?” Not to worry, it’s good news.
The Windsor, U.K.-based hotel group operates Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza as well as Hotel Indigo, which is the brand coming to Rahway. I think I’m more curious whether Rahway will be added to the list of exotic locales where you can find a Hotel Indigo (Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo…Buffalo?). It would be a good match with the Rahway Center Partnership‘s “Paris, Rome, Rahway” T-shirts.
The 102-room hotel is expected to open in the spring, but Director of Building, Engineering, Planning and Economic Development Lenore Slothower said during a Planning Board meeting last week that the building has a “list of snags” and hopes to “pick up the pace with some code requirements.”
Change of direction
Most downtown businesses prefer two-way traffic along Irving and Main streets, according to a survey of merchants by the Police Department. Executive Director Peter Pelissier reported at Monday night’s Redevelopment Agency meeting that 24 of 39 businesses surveyed (61.5 percent) favored two-way streets. The 15 tallied as not in favor of two-way traffic included those who were unsure, he added, while 11 were not even aware of the plan. Some merchants had concerns, including parking.
Pelissier said a circulation plan would show what parking spaces might be eliminated with two-way traffic. He would like to meet with the Police Department’s Traffic Division and city engineers to confirm the eliminations before meeting with merchants about the plan and ultimately the City Council.
The City Council approved a $360,000 bond ordinance Oct. 9 for “downtown street loop modifications,” namely signalization in the new direction at several intersections on Irving and Main streets. Changing street patterns will come via designation from council later, Pelisser said at that meeting.
The bond ordinance does not address the realignment of Fulton and Irving streets (at East Milton Avenue), Pelisser said, and would take months to implement, by May or early summer next year. The Fire Department’s main concern was along Main Street as it curves toward Irving behind the Union County Arts Center, he said, and several feet on the UCAC side of the street could be used to address the issue.
Let’s get started
The business of blogging is booming in places like Brooklyn, where dozens of sites cover specific neighborhoods within the borough, focusing on small parochial areas. And that’s despite New York City’s numerous media outlets, probably because there’s plenty of news that doesn’t make it all the way up to TV, radio or other big media. Call it “hyper-local” coverage.