community spotlight
Joie de Vivre
Green Pear Style
I
A magical taste of Old-World Europe in Hoboken and Jersey City
sabella Molnar, owner of the Green Pear Café, in Downtown Hoboken, once had a very different kind of job: she was a professional opera singer in Europe. In fact, her fans there were shocked when the native Hungarian quit her career to settle with her family in the United States. “My career taught me a great lesson of losing a job every time the curtain went down,” she says. “Being an independent contractor, after three months of hard work, I always had to focus on the next audition, the next hurdle and how to better myself. There was never a chance to catch a cold, to stay in bed, for a snow day or no-show day.” Deciding to launch a small business also involved risk and commitment--“I had no experience in retail, hospitality, culinary arts or business in general,” Molnar says— but at least she was living on her own terms. She could finally venture outside without a silk scarf or enjoy an ice-cold drink. Because Molnar couldn’t get a bank loan, she borrowed from her parents and her husband, who cashed in his 401K so she could open a coffee shop, Green Pear Café, 20
Hudson County
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in a tree-shaded storefront at Grand and First Street. Molnar was there to unlock the doors every morning, seven days a week, for the first two years. Her hard work paid off. “Hoboken embraced us from the day we opened the doors in 2015,” she says. “My husband predicted I’d have two years of losses. He was in awe how off his predictions were.” Perhaps they were off because what Molnar created was not a traditional café. There was the eclectic menu: health-conscious, reimagined versions of old-world comfort foods, made from scratch. There was the décor: upcycled chic with circus touches.
Isabella Molnar
And there was the mission. Molnar says she envisioned Green Pear as a haven, a place for people—especially women—to gather. She hosted workshops and other educational events; creative entertainment (drag bingo!); and opportunities to explore spirituality, like tarot readings. The café quickly proved a friend of local artists too, including dancers, fine artists, musicians, jewelers and artisans. “The neighborhood was on board, embracing my creativity both in the menu and décor,” she says. “They participated in community programs, took classes, marveled at the entertainment, and together we created an amazing downtown story. We molded this hidden spot under a pear tree into an international space where there was a little bit of everything: young and old, healthy and comforting, slow and go, cultural and businesslike, spiritual and educative.” The café’s popularity got a lot of help from social media and Yelp, the modern day “word of mouth,” Molnar says. “People began taking Ubers from surrounding
