Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards
General Category => Hackensack Discussion => Topic started by: BLeafe on July 11, 2016, 08:30:07 PM
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This is still embedded in the sidewalk in front of 402 State (recently vacated by the Don Alfonso Restaurant). All I can find out about the Cafe online is in some City Council minutes from 1984 that show that the SSC's Plenary Retail Consumption License was transferred to the Ariyoshi Corp (I remember the Japanese restaurant that lasted at 402 until the early 90s, pre-Alfonso).
So the Cafe has been gone for 32 years, but I have no idea when it started there.
Homer? Anyone else?
CLICK!
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As Ol' Homer downshifts his brain into second gear, 402 State Street was occupied by an establishment called the Ivy House until about 1976. The Ivy House had a somewhat dubious reputation ( at best) and thrived because it was off the so called beaten path.
After the Ivy House closed, the building stayed empty until sometime in the early 80's when the owners of the State Street Cafe sunk a whole lot of money into the building and opened the restaurant. The food was pretty good there; BUT, they couldn't make it there because they couldn't draw walk in traffic for lunch and it was too far for the Courthouse crowd. The location was also not conducive for the dinner crowd either.
To make a long story short, the Ivy House thrived because it was off the beaten path while the State Street Cafe died because it was off the beaten path.
'Nuff said.