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SEPTEMBER 2019 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Coffee shop for sale
To recycle, or not? Most residents don’t know the answer, and that’s causing soaring costs
Boro Bean owners committed to finding buyer who will be the ‘right fit’ for the restaurant
by mIcheLe aLPerIn Since 1987, New Jersey state law has mandated recycling, but Mercer County residents can’t seem to figure out what is recyclable and what isn’t. The result has been increasingly contaminated containers and huge increases in recycling costs. The issue is statewide, and local towns are no exception. According to Chris Rupp, director of public works for Robbinsville Township, the town’s recycling costs “have doubled from $125,000 per year to $250,000 per year.” Dan Napoleon, director of environmental programs at the Mercer County Improvement Authority, says that the cost per household per year now averages around $29, which generates large bills in populous towns. The major change on the recycling scene, says Frank Fiumefreddo of Solterra Recycling Solutions, is that “the quality of the material we were shipping overseas had gotten to a point that it was unacceptable.” As a result, in 2018, China lowered the minimum allowable percentage of contamination in recycling, throwing the entire recycling industry into crisis. Solterra is the contracted hauler for curbside recycling in Robbinsville and towns served by the Mercer County Improvement Authority, including Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and See RECYCLE, Page 8
by Joe emanskI
jemanski@communitynews.org
Ron Suzuki in Eclair Café on Main Street in Pennington, Aug. 12, 2019. Suzuki and wife-partner Marie-Mathilde Laplanche have opened two Eclair Cafés this year. The other is on Witherspoon Street in Princeton. (Staff photo by Joe Emanski.)
Sharing a vision of French cuisine Husband and wife team open Eclair Café in Pennington and Princeton by Joe emanskI
jemanski@communitynews.org
Ron Suzuki and MarieMathilde Laplanche have a vision of what a French bistro should be, and they have brought it to life this year at Eclair Café in Pennington and Princeton. The couple opened the Pennington location on Main Street
in March. They followed that up by opening the Princeton shop last month on Witherspoon Street. In each place the clean, creamy walls and uncomplicated tables and chairs set the mood. Chalkboards on the walls reveal food and drink menus in a stylish looping script. Suzuki is known to many in the community as Dr. Suzuki. The physician has a successful family medical practice, Suzuki Medical Associates, with offices in Plainsboro and Pennington. But he has a passion for cooking and baking that takes him somewhere medicine could not
go. In January 2016, when he learned that The Grind Coffee House and Café in Plainsboro was set to close, he bought it to keep it open. It’s a passion he shares with Marie-Mathilde, a native of Brittany in France, whom he describes not only as his coowner, but also co-head chef. “I think we both are the head chef,” he says. “We are a team. We invent a menu together, we work together. We both are capable of making all the products we make.” In addition to his medical degrees, Suzuki has trained See ECLAIR, Page 6
Jack’s GREENHOUSE & FARM
Mums • Pansies • Perennials • Trees • Shrubs Come check out our Fall Specials! See Our Ad & Coupons On Page 19
Boro Bean may be for sale, but Ellen and Johnny Abernathy are in no great hurry to conclude a transaction. Though the business is available, the couple is content to wait until the right buyer comes along—someone whom they feel would be a good fit for their neighborhood coffee shop in Hopewell Borough. And even then, Ellen says, they would be happy to stick around to help during any transition period. “I’m not packing my bags and going,” she says. The Abernathys have been together at the helm for nearly 12 years. For 27 years before that, they managed Thomas Sweet in Princeton, which Ellen’s brother, Tom Grim, coowned with his business partner Tom Block. Grim is coowner of Nomad Pizza, also in Hopewell Borough. Grim and Block sold Thomas Sweet in 2008. Shortly thereafter, Grim went in with the Abernathys on Boro Bean. They bought it from Lewis and Doreen Kassel, who themselves had bought it only a year earlier. Before that it was owned See BEAN, Page 7
NOW OPEN IN PENNINGTON!
3 Tree Farm Rd. (Just off Rt. 31 in Pennington Point) Proud to be part of the Hopewell Valley community! See our ad on page 27
1179 NEWARK, NJ