A large restaurant space near the city’s train station has been dark for over a year but appears to finally have a plan in place after indicators of a new group taking over the property emerged last year.
Last February, we reported on a liquor license transfer application that was submitted for 36-42 Newark Street. The company behind the move was called Goodfellas Bar & Grill LLC and while the transfer was delayed for a few months, it was eventually approved by Hoboken’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board on April 25 last year.
The company’s name seemed to indicate that an Italian eatery would be coming to the property, but a transcript from the aforementioned April meeting says that the license’s new ownership is “a family that also runs Ramen Fish House” on Washington Street. While no such business exists, South Street Fish & Ramen Co. is the only ramen restaurant currently open along the road and that eatery is likely what the testimony in the transcript was referencing.
Flash forward to January 6 of this year and the city’s Historic Preservation Commission approved the application of a man named Yen Chang related to the same Newark Street property. Chang wishes to erect a sign on the building that reads Monroe’s and an Instagram account at the handle @monroeshoboken popped up earlier this month, thus seeming to solve the mystery.
According to the transcript from last year’s ABC board meeting, the family is planning on Monroe’s being a bar and grill that serves “Americana type food.” Testimony during the hearing claimed the applicants own an eatery in Brooklyn and are opening another one in Fairfield, but they assured the board during the meeting that they will personally run Monroe’s and not have any management company at the restaurant.
Monroe’s looks like they could be opening soon, as they are hosting a hiring event on Thursday, January 23, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. They are looking for bartenders, servers, and hosts; those interested can send resumes to [email protected].
