For several Jersey City restaurateurs, 2023 marked the end of an era. After many years in business, restaurants, including Iron Monkey, Downtowner, Corgi Spirits Distillery, and Pasta Dal Cuore, to name just a few, turned off the lights and hung up their closing signs.
The city’s food and drink establishments have been struggling since the onset of Covid. Recently, conditions have been growing more frustrating to contend with. Rising ingredient costs, city legislation, and staff shortages are common threads between recently-shuttered businesses.
“Look around,” said chef and owner Michael Casalinho of the recently closed Tamborim Bar + Grill. “The proof is really in the pudding. Longstanding spots like myself and Pasta Dal Cuore have closed after being around for so long. It really breaks my heart. It breaks my heart as a long-term resident of Jersey City.”
Casalinho, who has a long relationship with the city and roots that go back to attending Hudson Catholic, is no stranger to overcoming setbacks. His first concept, Broa Cafe, opened in 2012, running for a decade before closing in 2021, weathering Hurricane Sandy and a complete rebuild of the restaurant. Tamborim Bar + Grill, a vibrant Brazilian space on Newark Avenue, closed its doors indefinitely in late 2023. He cites a variety of struggles that ultimately led to the decision not to reopen, many of which were related to the pandemic.
“When you start to analyze the amount of space you have, the overhead you need to run, and whether or not it’s really worth the investment, I had to ask, am I really going to get any satisfaction out of it?” he says. “I pour my heart and soul into it. It’s not about money for me, it’s about pleasing people. If you’re going to have to compromise your dream to make a buck, it’s not worth it. You’re already losing.”Â
He also mentioned that a significant contributing factor was the lack of “spendable money,” and the fact that cost of living has grown more expensive. The increase in cost of goods has led to an inevitable increase in pricing that affects the diner.
His advice to newer restaurants opening in the area?
“Keep it simple. Keep it very simple around here,” Casalinho advises. “Make sure you’ve got all your ducks in order, because it’s tough. It’s really tough.”
He’s not the only one who faced personal heartbreak with the closing of a hard-earned space.
“When Omicron hit, I was at a point where I couldn’t hire more people, and I didn’t want to put my own health at risk. And by health, I meant the business at risk. My health was the last thing I was thinking of, it was all about ‘I gotta be able to stay open,'” says Erica Messmer of Downtowner, which announced its closure at the beginning of the new year. “I was putting my own needs last. And that’s probably where other business owners are also really struggling, because the PTSD from that can be pretty intense.”
Downtowner opened in June 2020 with a sandwich menu that quickly won over the hearts of locals. The original butcher shop, Darke Pines, located on 2nd Street, had been experiencing a surge in interest around their prepared foods and sandwiches, prompting husband-and-wife team Will and Erica Messmer to expand operations to Downtowner, located on 9 Erie Street. It ran for nearly two years, serving fresh, locally prepared foods to the hungry community. Sandwiches were, of course, paramount, but charcuterie, soups, stocks, pies, and other treats continued to impress.
Then, in 2022, Downtowner temporarily shuttered its doors, shifting the menu back to Darke Pines and transitioning the store into a retail space for high-quality dry goods centered around the kitchen and home.
“Working 24/7 to keep a little shop open – some days, most days, in fact, not one person would come in,” Erica wrote in her reflective Substack earlier this month. “I would close out the register at $0.00. Most of everyone else’s ideas about what I should do were really good – but we were limited by the physical size of the space vs. a demand for products we could not make in the space, the cost of labor and by how much money we could reasonably invest into buying product to sell.”
Although Downtowner has officially closed, it doesn’t spell the end for Erica. The shop’s closure has meant a little more room to breathe and dream of what might come next. “Hopefully, I can continue to cook and to build on something that I see being a part of our future,” she says. “That’s the greatest thing that’s happened.”
“It’s crazy to see all of these businesses closing,” she continued. “I think we’ll see more closures, especially over the next quarter of this year. But I think we’ll see businesses that are going to ultimately pivot and work smarter and do something that feels more sustainable and aligns with what they really want to be doing ultimately, day in and day out.”
Elena Cartagena of Pasta Dal Cuore offered a similar sentiment.
“It used to be that I was having trouble sleeping,” she said. “I had a lot of anxiety about what I was going to do. And then after I made the decision [to close] I wasn’t able to sleep because I was so excited about what I could do next.”
Pasta Dal Cuore originally opened in 2014 as a fresh, handmade pasta shop before transitioning into a full-service restaurant. Elena has watched the city and community adapt to her forward-thinking, high-quality menu. She credits their ability to sell fresh pasta alongside full-service dining and their highly-coveted liquor license to their survival and success over the last decade, including the long haul through the pandemic.
The decision to close is one she describes as tough but necessary. When asked about the future of Jersey City’s restaurants and their owners, many of whom Elena considers peers and friends in the industry, she offered a surprisingly hopeful perspective.
“The dawn comes,” she said. “I really hope that my peers in the industry start to feel better because if they have to close or adapt, then they’ll close and realize afterward that there is a dawn. You’ll figure out that there’s another scheme, another thing on the menu that couldn’t be done before, and all this stuff that no one has ever done. I’m ready to get back in the zone again.”
“I’m never going to not be a cook,” she continued. “I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t do something in this field, and that makes you realize you’re kind of indestructible in that sense. I learned that you can actually now take everything you’ve learned over the years because you’re still that same person with all that juice and creativity in you. But now, after going through a lot, you have even more strength behind you.”