1-21 SIX09

SIX09 Arts > food > culture

thesix09.com | January 2021

SAVE OUR STAGES

The pandemic has forced entertainment venues from coast to coast to find new ways to reach patrons — and to stay in business.

Story, Page 4.

milestones Princeton Record Exchange celebrates 40 years

By Dan Aubrey

How does a strong Princeton-based company celebrate 40 years of success in 2020?

Simple: close the shop, fire the staff, rack up debt, and then try to figure out how to pay the bills.

That’s the way Princeton Record Exchange owner Jon Lambert commemorated the anniversary of one of the region’s most lively and culturally connected shops with 13 full-time and three part-time employees.

“Ironies abounded,” says Lambert in a recent masked interview in an open-windowed side room in the onestory boxy building on Tulane Street.

He says he had a “grand plan” to celebrate on March 20, the same day “when COVID took hold and sales went down to nothing. On Friday night, I bought champagne. On Saturday, I let everyone go.”

That is except for two people developing the shop’s online presence.

“We ramped up our online sales,” he says. “That enabled me to pay health insurance when I furloughed everyone and helped pay critical bills. We’re primarily a brick and mortar store, but we’re keeping our online up and running just in case.”

In this case, the team, using their site along with Discogs—a national company Lambert calls the eBay of music—saw online income rise from

around 1 percent of their pre-COVID income to 7 percent.

That effort, along with a PPE grant from the State of New Jersey Economic Development Association, enabled Lambert to bring staff back when the state allowed non-essential businesses to re-open their doors.

“They’re all back,” Lambert says about the staff. “Everyone was enthusiastic about coming back.”

“Last thing I wanted to do is to fire someone during a pandemic,” Lambert adds, “If it wasn’t for the incredible knowledge of the staff and their sacrifice we wouldn’t be here. It takes a strong team, and I thank them for their dedication. Our turnover is incredibly slow. I have nine people who have been here over nine years.”

Lambert says the need for such commitment and knowledge may be missed by the community in general.

“It is a big operation. There is a lot of product here,” he says of the approximately 150,000 titles in the store’s 4,500-square-foot display areas and back rooms.

And with the store at 75 percent back to where it had been before the March closure and 25 shopping capacity, he says, “We buy and sell roughly an average of 40,000 titles a month. We buy an average of 20 collections a day.”

He says current sales have been helped by the resurgence in vinyl records. And while the store always

2SIX09 | January 2021

until I was 17 and dropped out (of high school) in 1979.” He later got a GED. He says he then “stumbled” into working at the mall record shop where friends were working and encouraged him to take a job there. There was a lot of turnover. “At 20, I got my first job managing,” he says.

He says the Shulman Record Company—owner of the Quaker Bridge Mall’s Listening Booth, Wall to Wall Sound, and Beakys Record Store— offered him the opportunity to manage a 5,000-square-foot store with 20 employees.

“I later moved on and managed a video rental store in Lawrence Shopping Center and eventually came here.

I started here as a clerk in 1988.”

The Princeton Record Exchange— aka PREX—was started by Barry Weisfeld. Weisfeld tried his hand selling records at flea markets but found better results taking his van to college campuses and selling them in student centers or college stores.

In 1979, Weisfeld came to Princeton and evidently encouraged sales at the Princeton University Store. A year later he rented 20 Nassau Street and in 1985 set up shop on Tulane Street.

Around 2015, Lambert says, “Barry wanted to retire but wanted to keep the shop going. He offered a path to purchasing.”

Now, five years later, Lambert says, “I was in retail all my life and could

SIX09

So, just where is (609)?

We all know what the (609) area code is, but where is it exactly?

It’s a good question, and one posed to us by a reader after we said, in our first edition of Six09, that we’d cover what’s happening across the (609).

The image at right answers the question, and as you might see, at least one-quarter of the state falls in the area code—from Lambertville up north to Cape May at the southern tip of the state. (609) is the largest area code in New Jersey, and includes parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, Monmouth, Camden, Ocean, Burlington, Atlantic and Cape May counties. It is home to places like Princeton, Trenton, Hammonton, Long Beach Island and Atlantic City.

There’s a lot of ground to cover in (609), which we hope means plenty of stories that will help you explore your home turf. If you come across something that might be a good fit, send an email to ranthes@communitynews.org.

–Rob Anthes

lived up to its name by selling vinyl records, LP sales have increased and now lead.

For example, Lambert says, “10 years ago, we were generally 60 percent CDs, 30 percent LPs, and 10 percent DVDs. A few years ago LPs took 60 percent.”

Some of that change is related to selling rarities, vinyl recordings that command upwards of $2,000, and being part of an inventory whose prices range “from low to stratospheric.”

“What makes us a destination is the vinyl. (It) is fun to see the packaging and read the liner notes. It’s more fun to have a physical artifact. That’s what’s sexy right now.”

He adds that “classic rock and indie rock are by far the biggest categories.

Jazz is a second; there is a lot of rare albums. Soul/funk and (heavy) metal are also popular.”

He says that the vintage rock records with groups such as AC/DC make it “almost like the ’80s all over again,” he says, quickly adding, “I started managing records stores in the ’80s in the Quaker Bridge Mall.”

Lambert says he was born in New York City to “beatnik” parents—a writer mother and artist father who both played bongos and frequented coffeehouses.

“They moved out when I was 1 year old and lived in Hopewell. And then they moved to Princeton in 1970. I lived with my mother here in town

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run a store, but no one told me how to deal with the plague. It was tough to be closed for three months.”

“The biggest problem is trying to pay back all the money we spent when we were closed, the fixed costs,” he adds. “The debt we accumulated was substantial.”

That includes rent, which he reveals in a formula: “Name a monthly amount, double it, and then add some more.”

“I feel confident we can limp through the winter—if we’re not shut down,” he says.

A few things that would help him and other businesses in the region and around the nation is debt and PPE-loan forgiveness—a point he made in April when he appeared nationally on CNBC. Meanwhile, he continues to maintain daily business while eliminating debt by “trying to tweak our systems to make them more cost effective” as well as “trying to keep everyone safe as possible as well as run the business.”

After saying “life goes on” and he couldn’t see “walking away from everything I worked for,” Lambert says, “It was unexpected to me how meaningful this place was to the Princeton community and the music-loving community in New Jersey and New York.

“I am grateful to our loyal customers. When we were closed people were buying gift cards and paid us ahead for merchandise. It was obvious people using our online were doing so to help us. The day we reopened we had a line. People missed us so much.

“This place has potent memories for

Jon Lambert became a clerk at Princeton Record Exchange in 1998, and became owner in 2015, when PREX founder Barry Weisfeld retired.

people. People who shopped here as kids are now bringing their kids here. People who had their first dates here or met someone here have had wedding photos taken here. Sharing a love of art can be

a strong bond and give a lot of depth to people, and we love being part of that.”

Perhaps it is because he met his wife when they worked together at the Quaker Bridge Mall, Lambert says,

“For a lot of people, the digital world is a cold space. We’re trying to create a warm, inviting environment where likeminded people meet and have an experience. We’re trying to fill that need—a place where people want to be.

“We like to think of ourselves as an artistic store. And we do partnerships with McCarter, the Arts Council of Princeton, and Princeton Public Library. We partnered with WPRB for decades. We like to think of ourselves as an arts group.

“We’re here to make money, but our passion for music is what drives us. It’s great to be integrated in the community.”

That integration also included a town-supported 40th anniversary celebration with a PREX 40 blend coffee at Small World Coffee, a 40 stout at Triumph Brewery, a 40-themed ice cream offering at Bent Spoon, T-shirts and other promotions.

“Maybe we’ll brew a PREX 41 blend,” he says. “But 40 years is a great accomplishment. There are very few places that have the longevity that we have.

“And, for me, being a snot-nosed kid raised in town, to be a fixture in a community that really cares and wants to see me succeed, I really appreciate that.”

Princeton Record Exchange, 20 South Tulane Street, Princeton. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Phone: (609) 921-0881. Web: prex.com.

January 2021 | SIX093

from the cover

‘First to close, last to reopen’ A glimpse into the struggle to keep music venues open — and the innovations the pandemic has inspired as a result

By Joe Emanski

The stages went dark before almost anyplace else.

In early March 2020, few people knew what to think about the looming COVID-19 pandemic. Few had any idea of the radical changes the coronavirus was about to impose on us all — or for how long those changes would stick.

Among the first to get a true sense of how difficult things might get were entertainment venues: theaters, movie houses, live music stages. By the time Gov. Phil Murphy issued Executive Order 107 closing all venues on March 16, many had already made the decision to shutter temporarily.

They closed because they were concerned about their ability to keep

employees and performers safe in cozy indoor spaces. But they were also faced with the fact that people were unsure about how they might catch the virus, how deadly it was, and what was and was not safe to do. Because of that, patrons were already staying away.

Now it’s 2021, and in New Jersey, as in many places around the country, those patrons still haven’t been back.

Nine months and counting since theaters and other entertainment spaces have been able to book musicians, movies and plays, or pack the house with happy crowds.

Yet many are still in business, with hopes to reopen in the not too distant future. How have they done it?

It hasn’t been easy. Rent and mortgages are still due every month, even without revenue coming in. To get by, some have relied on grants, others on donations and crowdfunding campaigns. Thousands of staff members have been laid off to the point where many venues today operate with mere skeleton crews. The lights are dim.

The heat is set to low.

But there is hope. Not just hope, but optimism. Because as bad as the

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pandemic has been for business, it has been good for innovation. Venues and artists alike have gotten creative looking for new ways to entertain and to make money.

And some of the ideas they have come up with are good ones. Like live-streamed concerts that will be recorded on equipment that makes remote audiences feel like they are there. Like apps that could revolutionize the way digitally recorded performances are viewed. Like art appreciation and music classes taught by industry professionals, and Zoom Q&As with respected artists and content creators.

Some of the ideas have been so good, in fact, that venues hope that their best pandemic-driven innovations will remain a part of their business plans even after audiences and performers are able to safely return for live shows.

“I tend to look at things the way my father did,” says local musician Alex Otey. “My father was a very celebrated musician, and he had an old Mexican saying: No hay mal que por bien no venga. ‘Nothing bad happens without something good coming out of it.’ This particular situation, the good that has come out of it is, at least it has made us think a lot about new ways to do things.” *** In the days after the pandemic struck the U.S., a new organization quickly formed called NIVA: the National Independent Venue Association. NIVA began as a loose consortium of 75 music venues from across the country that wanted to start the discussion of how to keep the industry from collapsing after losing most of their streams of revenue.

Within months, NIVA had more than 2,000 members, including both music venues and music promoters.

One was McCarter Theatre Center, in Princeton. Another was Hopewell Theater, in Hopewell Borough, which since 2017 has been a venue known for its live music performances and film screenings.

Hopewell Theater announced its decision to shut things down on March 12, days before Murphy locked the state down with Executive Order 107. “None of us knew how long this would last, so we canceled shows in stages,” says Sara Scully, Hopewell Theater’s executive director. “We thought we’d be shut down for like two weeks to a month or something.”

In May, NIVA released the results of a survey it had sent out to its membership. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that they expected to close for good within a matter of months, if the federal government did not intervene.

In June, NIVA began the #SaveOurStages movement with a letter from to Congress requesting federal assistance for the industry. By July, senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) had cosponsored a bill known as the Save Our Stages Act, which would provide six months of financial support to help keep theaters and other venues afloat.

“We knew about NIVA, and once they got the Save Our Stages campaign underway, that’s when they really got on our radar,” Scully says.

“We wanted to do everything we could to support the Save Our Stages legislation.”

At first Scully, her business partner Mitchel Skolnick, and the rest of the theater’s professional staff kept busy.

“There was quite a bit of work to do at first, with canceling shows, business management decisions, contracting our budget,” Scully says. “We had to keep everyone safe, figure out where everyone should work, how everything should operate, how we should stage our layoffs, if we should even have layoffs, and when. For several months, no one knew what the future would hold.”

As the pandemic wore on and more shows had to be canceled, layoffs became inevitable for Hopewell Theater and many other venues. Which is to say that the only way most NIVA members were able to avoid the survey’s dire prediction of mass permanent closure was by letting go of the majority of their employees.

McCarter, which announced on March 23 that it was canceling all shows through June 30, laid off 70% of its staff on May 10. Hopewell Theater had several rounds of layoffs, until the only employees left were Scully and three others, two of whom work part time.

“These are people some of whom had been with us even before we opened, people who brought Hopewell Theater to life, and I value them all equally,” Scully says. “It was very hard to lose them, to dismantle the business. We had to do it, because there was no end in sight. There was no work to do. But it was very hard.”

Scully says that when it became clear that they wouldn’t be hosting any live events for a long time, they had no choice but to come up with ways to pivot the business. They entered what she calls an R&D phase, to try to figure out what would be the best thing they could do to enable the business to survive long term. Even in a pandemic.

The best idea they came up with — one that they are working on right now — is something she calls the Sanctuary System: a system that would allow

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venues like Hopewell Theater to live stream and do prerecorded live presentations of broadcast quality.

“We’re talking about how to creatively reimagine how you’re filming a theater and a performance, really in three dimensions,” Scully says.

“Thinking creatively about building the camera equipment into the theater. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

The system will be designed to be mobile, so other venues could use it, and to work with an app that would enable them to get on board. You can think of it, Scully says, as an independent channel for venues. They could prerecord performances, build a library of content, then push it into the world on a multi-tenant platform that would enable them to monetize the content.

“It’s kind of going beyond how livestreams are presented creatively and how they’re shot,” Scully says.

“I’m hoping it will allow for technology sharing with other venues, to empower them to [participate] in a way such that the barriers to entry are lower.”

Live streaming is not new of course.

And many venues already put shows online. But Scully says there are also many technical issues that hold venues back: which platform do you stream on? How do you sell tickets?

How do you safely store content digitally? What about video and audio quality?

“I want to be able to present theater anywhere, livestream or prerecorded, and I want to be able to press a button and record and say, this goes into a library. I want the box office experience for people to be integrated. If we could make this work, it could liberate theaters,” Scully says.

To make this happen, Hopewell Theater has partnered with a couple other technical and theater companies that have experience in this area.

“We’re hoping that by the time it’s built, we will be able to keep an audience in the theater and an audience

online,” Scully says. “Even when we’re back open, digital’s not going to go away. The cat’s out of the bag. You have to be able to have digital content as a companion to in-person content.”

Besides developing the Sanctuary system, Scully says her main priority has been supporting NIVA in its push for the Save Our Stages bill. She has also been busy launching a group similar to NIVA, but for New Jersey-based venues, called NJIVA. “The entire ecosystem of the creative industry has been affected by this,” Scully says. “We were the first places to close, and we’ll be the last to reopen. It’s affected promoters, musicians, technical people, venues — if one goes down it affects all of us.

These musicians need venues to play at. That’s why we’ve been so passionate in advocating for Save Our Stages.

The entire ecosystem needs to get through this.” *** Other area venues have found their own creative ways to cope with the pandemic. Just three weeks after the statewide lockdown began, McCarter Theatre launched McCarter@ Home, described as “an online platform for archival footage, new content, and opportunities to engage through classes, readings, and virtual programming.”

One of the first McCarter@ Home events was a virtual conversation between decorated actor Mary McDonnell and outgoing long-time artistic director Emily Mann. Other sessions soon followed, including one with actor Michael Shannon. In December, McCarter@Home featured singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin and an ongoing virtual festival dedicated to the work of Black playwright Adrienne Kennedy.

Sarah Rasmussen succeeded Mann as artistic director in August. One of the first pandemic-related challenges she faced was figuring out what McCarter could do regarding its

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January 2021 | SIX095

STAGES continued from Page 5

annual holiday favorite, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novella “A Christmas Carol,” which it would not be able to produce on stage this year.

The solution they came up with was A Christmas Carol@Home: a box filled with scene readings, conversation prompts and postcards that would enable groups to enact their own versions of the play in the safety of their homes. The $40 boxes were a hit, and sold out quickly.

“It’s very old fashioned,” Rasmussen says. “I think it’s reminding people that storytelling, at the end of the day, requires imagination and sharing a story together in what’s been a very challenging winter.”

Also successful for McCarter has been its online classes for all ages.

Topics range from “Mystery Theatre Drama” whodunits for kids to improv classes for adults.

“We’re serving about the same number of students online now that we would have in person,” Rasmussen says. “That’s exciting because this online forum provides access that people wouldn’t have had otherwise had.

People have said, ‘This is great, my parent wouldn’t be able to drive me to this class normally.’ When we come back to the theater, we’ll be glad to get together in person again. But I hope it’s really the best of both worlds, and I could definitely see us continuing to offer classes online.”

The 1867 Sanctuary in Ewing, also a NIVA member, has dealt with many

of the same challenges that Hopewell Theater and McCarter Theatre have gone through, only it’s been a little different. For one thing, the Sanctuary is a nonprofit organization, with a volunteer-driven staff and limited tax liabilities.

For another, the preserved and former First Presybterian Church of Ewing building has relatively low overhead.

Electricity is covered by an in-kind donation from PSE&G, leaving as the largest expense a sizable oil heating bill in winter. The Sanctuary is administered

by Preservation NJ, and shares services like bookkeeping with that organization, and has been able to reach out to donors who have supported the venue over the 10 years since the initiative began to save the historic site.

“We have support from people that are historic preservationists, that appreciate and celebrate the legacy of the building,” says Bob Kull, event manager for the Sanctuary and a Preservation NJ board member.

Audiences have been good donors, and a ‘Save Our Sanctuary” GoFundMe campaign raised more than $2000 to help cover expenses like the oil bill.

“We’re not rolling in money, but I think we have enough support that we can anticipate that when the pandemic finally releases its grip on us, we hope

by April or May, we’ll still be able to be standing, and be able to have public events again,” Kull says.

One of the Sanctuary’s innovations to try to make some money during the pandemic has been to actually live

stream performances from within its walls, like the Alex Otey Trio’s “Jingle Jazz” online performance on Dec. 12.

Kull says the Sanctuary upgraded its internet to minimize the risk of freezes and other glitches during the show.

But as Kull points out, live streaming is not as simple a thing to do as it might sound, and one of the reasons for that is copyright law.

ASCAP, or the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, is an organization that works to protect the copyright of the creators of modern music. It does this primarily through licensing agreements with artists who perform songs created

by ASCAP members, and venues that host and broadcast the performances.

The 1867 Sanctuary is an ASCAPlicensed venue, but for live performances only. While the Sanctuary is permitted through its license to live stream a performance, it would need a different, costlier license from ASCAP to be able to record and rebroadcast the performance or make money from the recording.

Another complication with live streaming is the challenge of charging virtual attendees ahead of time for access. For the Alex Otey Trio concert, for example, viewers could donate money which would be split between venue and performer, but if they wanted, they could watch the whole thing for free.

These are just more technicalities, and more reasons that Sara Scully is working on a system that could poten-

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tially help venues and artists deal with music licensing and ticketing issues.

In terms of welcoming patrons back into the Sanctuary, Kull doesn’t think it will all happen at once. “I think we will be able to become active again later in the spring, but the bigger question is whether audiences will be comfortable in coming, whether there will still be limits on the number of people that can be in a space,” Kull says. “I think as we have the community of donors that continue to support us, we’ll make sure we’re a safe place to be and to enjoy arts and culture. But we do have a lot of older people in our audiences, so we hope to be able to continue doing webcasting as well.”

Kull also notes that a lot of musicians have used the abundant downtime to work on their craft. “It should be quite eventful next year when we start having concerts again, not just getting back into the swing of performing, but also there will be a lot of new music out there,” he says.

Speaking as a musician, Alex Otey says the venues’ efforts to develop new business pathways online are good news for him and his fellow performers.

“The industry is kind of realizing that for now we have to do this, but once the stages do open up again, this whole online thing will continue,” says the Ewing resident. “I don’t think it’s going to stop. The growth in online activity has been a shot in the arm. In the long term artists will have more outlets, and that’s a good thing.”

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Boro brings refinement to Pennington

By Joe Emanski

Boro, Pennington’s newest restaurant, is about refinement. Refinement in cooking, refinement in dining — and refinement of a concept that owners Ben and Katie Sanford have nurtured for a decade.

The freshly renovated Boro — known until November as Cugino’s Italian Market — is now essentially two businesses in one. Boro Market is a reimagined version of Cugino’s, the shop the Sanfords opened on Pennington Circle in 2011 and moved to Old Mill Square in 2016.

It will offer the same types of prepared foods, fresh pasta, light fare and imported specialty items that Cugino’s was known for, only with a more continental approach. Soups, salads, pizzas, sandwiches and more are available for takeout or, pandemic restrictions notwithstanding, to eat in at the market’s expanded seating area.

“We wanted to step away from the Italian focus, go a bit more of a worldly approach,” Ben Sanford says. “We have cheeses and meats from France

and Spain as well as Italy, as well as Greece. We didn’t want to be pigeonholed as Italian, which is why we wanted to rebrand.”

Sharing space with the market is Boro Restaurant/Bar, a whole new food and dining experience. Chef Jason Santillo is using many of the same products and ingredients available in the market to build his menu of small plates, salads, pastas and mains.

“We’re taking top quality ingredients from around the world and putting them together in a straightforward approach. Simple components, but presented beautifully,” Sanford says. “We don’t overdo it. No foams, nothing of that nature. But when the food comes out, it looks like a work of art on a plate.”

A recent dinner menu featured dishes like a charcuterie plate ($15),

mussels and cockles in a coconut saffron brodo ($15), a “sunny crunch” bean salad ($11), crispy cauliflower gnocchi ($18), spaghetti carbonara ($22), eggplant gratin ($18), brisket burger ($17) and ribeye steak ($34). Sides included spiced carrots, crispy Brussels sprouts and roasted fingerling potatoes.

New and exciting for both sides of the business will be a first for Pennington: Boro has purchased the borough’s only liquor license. Cocktails, wine and beer will be available in the restaurant as well as the market, which features a brand new wine and espresso bar.

“We always had the dream of having a restaurant, and when Za went out of business, we took a look at the place. A lot of things were enticing about it. It’s close to our previous location, so we felt we’d be able to retain our existing clientele,” Sanford says. “The liquor license was one of the main motivations for moving our store from Pennington Circle (which is technically Hopewell Township) to this location in Pennington Borough.”

The borough had attempted to auction off several times since 2010, without any takers. Consumption licenses are relatively scarce in New Jersey, and therefore typically a big expense

“We wanted to go with a bit more of a worldly approach.”

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Boro in Pennington will offer the same types of foods specialty items that predecessor Cugino’s was known for, only with a more continental approach.

for a restaurant.

“We felt we had proved ourselves as far as establishing a successful business, and by adding this liquor license, we thought it would be a really big draw for people in the Hopewell Pennington area,” Sanford says.

Boro Market reopened in time for Thanksgiving. The restaurant officially opened on Dec. 8, albeit without the formal clearance they needed from the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control to use the license.

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Our Amenities Include: 24-Hour Nursing Care, Restaurant Style Dining, Scheduled Daily Activities & Entertainment Full Service Beauty Salon, On-Site Physical & Occupational Therapy, Weekly Housekeeping, scheduled transportation For more information or to schedule at tour, please call Robyn Siminske, Resident Services Director at (609)371-7007 www.rosehillassistedliving.com 1150 Washington Boulevard, Robbinsville, NJ 08691 located across from Foxmoor Shopping Center

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8SIX09 | January 2021

Boro has Pennington’s only liquor license and will offer cocktails (left).

Its espresso bar has a variety of coffee drinks (right).

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton

Best in the U.S. for the 10th time Boro’s menu features dishes like shrimp (left) and spaghetti and cockles (right).

“We of course wanted to open with the liquor license, but we said we can’t wait. We have to open,” Sanford says.

He expressed hope that ABC would grant them permission to serve alcohol before long.

Back in 2011, the Sanfords opened Cugino’s in a partnership with Ben’s cousin, Joe Egitto. In 2014, they took over Cafe 72 in Ewing, which they still own and operate.

In 2016, they moved the market to West Delaware Avenue with the intention of doing what they are doing now. Egitto and the Sanfords have since parted ways.

Over the past several years, they have been working on their plan to update and expand what they had in Pennington.

Sanford says during the renovation phase, he dealt mostly with matters relating to finances and construction, while Katie took on interior design duties as well as developing the menu and cocktail program.

“She spent a lot of time over the past year and a half, kind of seeing what a lot of other restaurants are doing around the country, around the world, and putting her twist and vision and passion into it, then working with our chef to be able to execute it,” Sanford says.

There came a time when they decided they wanted to push the business past the constraints of an Italian market. “When we were thinking about the menu, we were thinking that if we limit ourselves to selling only Italian products, we lose out on a lot of great food that’s out there,” Sanford says.

When the Sanfords opened Cugino’s, there were not many Italian markets in the area. There was Porfirio’s, the Chambersburg staple that

had moved to Hamilton the previous decade, but not many else. In the years since, several more have opened, including Dolce and Clemente’s in Robbinsville and D’Angelo’s in Princeton. That market proliferation is one of the motivators for their decision to broaden the menu at both the market and the restaurant.

“You have to look at what’s going on in the market to stay at the top of your game, you have to adjust and adapt to what is happening in the world,” Sanford says. “We are looking at what successful restaurants around the country are doing to be successful, and taking a page out of their book.”

He says that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, response to the opening of the new restaurant was pretty good.

“The first couple days were quiet, which we kind of expected. But each day seemed to get a little better. We’re hoping to continue that momentum into some nice regular business, especially as vaccines come out.”

Café 72 has been holding its own as well, Sanford says. “Business has been slower than it was when weather was nicer, because outdoor dining has taken a big hit since it got colder. But it has a good loyal customer base and we are thankful that we have been able to keep going.”

Boro Market Restaurant Bar, 147 W. Delaware Ave., Pennington NJ 08534.

Phone: (609) 730-4100. Web: boroeaterybar.com Market hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. Restaurant hours: dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday starting at 5 p.m. Dine in or curbside pickup; delivery available through DoorDash for market only.

“You have to adjust to what’s happening in the world.”

–Owner Ben Sanford

Achieving a Leapfrog A for the 10th time underscores Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton’s commitment as a High Reliability Organization (HRO).

Through the concerted effort of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton’s physicians, nurses, staff, volunteers and leadership, patients and families benefit from the highest level of quality care and the safest hospital experience.

rwjbh.org/hamilton

January 2021 | SIX099

Mama Dude’s focuses on fresh, local in new Yardville location

By Joe Emanski

The dining scene at Yardville’s Dover Park Plaza has enjoyed a welcome revitalization in the last couple of years.

First came the grand opening of Yogi’s Diner at the end of 2019. Then in August, long-time Chinese food favorite Sun Lok Garden reopened after several months of renovation.

The latest shot in the arm involves a young chef who grew up in Yardville, went away to culinary school, then returned home to start up his own food truck business, called Mama Dude’s, in 2016.

On Dec. 3, that chef — Steinert High grad Andrew Dudich — opened a bricks-and-mortar restaurant with the same name, serving up dishes that will remind his loyal followers of the meals they have enjoyed from his truck.

With the restaurant, Dudich is introducing an intriguing, seasonal, buildyour-own-bowl concept that marries his kitchen skills with a commitment to sourcing ingredients and products locally whenever possible.

Fans who have come to look forward to seeing the Mama Dude’s truck at the West Windsor and Bordentown farmers markets need not despair. Though the truck is in the garage for the winter, Dudich has

every intention of turning up regularly at the markets in the spring.

But now that he’s opened a storefront, Dudich will be able to offer his dishes all winter long — pandemic or no pandemic. And he’s excited to utilize his skills in a kitchen of his own, and win over a whole new legion of fans right there in his hometown. *** When Dudich was a culinary arts student at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, he often imagined that he would find a job in a Los Angeles or New York City restaurant upon graduation.

But after his mother, Donna, died in 2015, he decided that maybe Yardville was not such a bad place to be after all. His younger brother, Jared, was still a student at Steinert, and Dudich wanted to be here for him. So in 2016, he returned home to figure out his next move.

Donna Dudich was herself a chef.

When Andrew was growing up, she would sometimes bring him with her to her job at Rutgers University, where she ran one of the dining departments.

“I would spend a lot of my summers

up there, hanging out in the kitchens or in her office, doing side catering jobs with her and stuff like that,” Dudich says. “I wouldn’t say it was something I was super excited to do.

I just happened to fall in love with it.”

Dudich, a star hockey player in his Steinert days, began his formal culinary training as a student at Mercer County Technical Schools’ Sypek Center, in Hopewell, before moving on to Johnson and Wales, which his mother had also attended.

After spending four years in Providence getting trained in classical and international cooking techniques, Dudich hoped to get a job in fine dining, perhaps at a restaurant specializing in French or Asian cuisine. But once he decided to come back home, he started thinking about other options that would still enable him to take advantage of his training.

“New Jersey is not exactly a hotbed of fine dining,” he says.

His mind was open enough that when he spotted a food truck for sale one day on the streets near Grice Middle School, he immediately began to see possibilities, although not of a typi-

“You get better products when you support someone local.”

cal burgers-and-fries kind of truck.

“A lot of people assume it’s a ‘roach coach’ when we pull up, but there are plenty of food trucks in New Jersey that do high quality food,” he says.

“You can serve a higher standard of food without sacrificing quality or cleanliness. When we pull up and there’s stuff like housemade gravlax (cured fresh salmon) on the menu, it kind of changes the impression.”

He named the truck Mama Dude’s in honor of Donna, and set about putting his classical cooking training to good use. When he rolled out his first menu in October 2016, it featured items like pork belly steamed buns, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese, and carbonated ice cream.

“The idea was that there was no set standard in terms of what cuisine I was making,” Dudich says. “The last thing I wanted to be was held to the parameters of just making Italian or French food. I wanted to do what we wanted to do and see if it worked.”

Since the beginning, he has been committed to seasonal cuisine, changing the menu according to what is available locally. He highlights the local farms and food purveyors that provide him with ingredients and products on each menu. Setting up his truck at farmers markets for several years has enabled Dudich to establish relationships with a number of local providers.

Steinert High graduate Andrew Dudich has found success at Mama Dude’s with an intriguing, seasonal, build-your-own-bowl concept that marries his kitchen skills with a commitment to sourcing ingredients and products locally whenever possible. (Photos by Javier Aguiar.)

10SIX09 | January 2021

“You can get better products when supporting someone local,” Dudich says. “Whatever our farms have is what’s on the menu. Sometimes people will be upset when their favorites are not available, but hopefully they will be able to understand why.”

Over the past four years he has served a wide variety of dishes from the truck, ranging from Italian sausage biscuits with apple cranberry slaw to kielbasa and white bean stew to braised short rib tacos with poblano pepper jam to cassoulet to Thai root vegetable curry.

For the launch of the restaurant, Dudich has hit upon an interesting build-your-own-bowl approach that he says will help keep down the cost of his dishes while staying true to his farmto-table philosophy. Mama Dude’s customers can choose a base — jasmine rice or local greens — and top it with mains like tarragon chicken, Thai beef and basil, and grilled avocado.

The real fun comes in mixing and matching toppings and sauces to compliment customers’ choices. Recent toppings have included sweet corn salsa, burnt carrots, spicy cucumbers and crispy chickpeas with lime. Sauces include maple sugar vinaigrette, citrus dijonette and truffle aioli. A bowl costs $9.38 ($5.38 for a kids bowl) and there is no limit to the number of toppings you can add.

In the refrigerated case at the restaurant, Dudich also has various sides, condiments and treats available, including jams, peanut butter, apple-

Andrew Dudich opened Mama Dude’s in Yardville Dec. 3, 2020. The restaurant has the same name and the same style that Dudich has brought to his food truck since 2016. (Photo by Javier Aguiar.)

sauce, rice pudding and hummus.

Dudich does not plan to use the build-your-own model at his truck when he returns to the farmers markets in spring. “(At) the markets, we stick to dishes, because it lets us stretch our culinary wings a little while experimenting with new techniques. We look at the market as a tester to what we can put on the buildyour-own menu,” he says.

Dudich signed his lease on the Dover Park Plaza spot in February, less than a week before Gov. Phil Mur-

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phy issued his lockdown order. If he had any thoughts of opening the restaurant then, the pandemic put an end to that.

Once farmers markets started up in late spring, he was able to get his truck back on the road as per usual. By the time the markets shut down for winter at the end of November, the restaurant was ready to go, and Dudich opened at the start of December.

At least he could count on his family to help him control the costs associated with starting a new restaurant.

His dad, also named Andrew, is a retired union carpenter and handyman. He has always been available to help his son fix the truck when something on it breaks down, and when it came to the restaurant, he was able to use a load of reclaimed wood to craft an inviting interior for the shop.

“Without him, I definitely would not have been able to get half as far as I am,” Dudich says. “My brother has also been a huge support system through all this.”

Trenton artist Leon Rainbow, who painted the wrap for the Mama Dude’s truck, also provided additional decorative touches inside the restaurant.

While Dudich no longer plays hockey, he is still involved in the game — as a coach. He is in his third year as head coach of the Lawrence High School hockey team. He hopes the team will be able to have a season this year, but says it’s wait-and-see right now in terms of whether indoor winter sports will be possible because of COVID-19.

As for how the restaurant is doing since the opening, Dudich says he expected things to get off to a slow start, but he’s optimistic for the future.

“I think it will take a little bit of time for people to realize we’re here and jump into what we’re doing,” he says.

“I’m not a patient person, and the whole pandemic on top of it is a little hurdle, but I think we’ll be fine once our name gets out there.”

Mama Dude’s, 11 Sunnybrae Boulevard, Hamilton NJ 08620. Phone: (609) 954-8926. Web: mamadudes.com.

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We welcome family, friends and care providers to attend.

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