Saturday, November 17, 2012
Store takes place of Jolly's Pizza.
Springfield's newest pizza shop, Pizza Rustica, celebrated its grand opening in late October. Taking over for long-standing restaurant Jolly's Pizza, the Morris avenue pizzeria has already gained fans in the Springfield community. Like many businesses in the area, Hurricane Sandy presented unique and extreme challenges, forcing Rustica to shut its doors for two weeks. Owner Antonio Costagliola said that while it was a burden to take such a hit to the business so soon after opening, he was happy to see that people have already started to come back for pies, slices and more. Editor's note: the original version of this story got the address wrong. I changed it in the text.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
New spot for cold treats coming to Springfield.
Springfield is getting a new way to beat the heat. The Ice Hut, a brand new ice cream, frozen yogurt and homemade Italian ice store, opens its doors on Saturday, May 7 from Noon to 8:00 PM. Located at 246 Mountain Avenue—the former site of Libby's Pharmacy—the Ice Hut will be open daily from Noon to 10 PM. “With the closing of Libby’s Pharmacy & Ice Cream, we thought the Ice Hut would be a very attractive addition to the center of Springfield,” Ice Hut co-owner and Springfield resident Matthew Klein said in an email. Early word from the owners indicates the Ice Hut will offer a variety of frozen and cold treats, including fat-free homemade Italian ices ranging in flavors from mango, orange, green apple, watermelon, blueberry and more. The …
Monday, August 23, 2010
Friends, neighbors, dignitaries and wine-world celebs raise a glass for Springfield's newest wine merchant
Saturday marked the official ribbon-cutting opening for Springfield's new wine store, Stew Leonard's Wine & Spirits. Not only does the store offer a selection of thousands of bottles to choose from, but also its management gathers raves, having been named one of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. Dozens of Springfield residents and dignitaries showed up to make a welcoming toast to the Echo Plaza store including Township Committeeman Jerry Fernandez who noted "It's always wonderful to see new business come into town, especially established ones like Stew Leonard." Committeeman Marc Krauss concurred. "It's great for the residents and great for the business, too," he said. "Springfield is the right place for business." Rob …
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The former Maplewood meal prep studio moves to a new Springfield space.
With Dinnersmith opening in town, Springfield residents have a new way of getting a homecooked meal: having it delivered. For a number of years, Dinnersmith has been a thriving kitchen prep studio and ready-made meal delivery and pickup service at a retail location in Maplewood. Customers could use the service, which was featured on Maplewood Patch, to prepare ingredients for meals they would finalize at home, or just order complete meals. While the novel food studio element garnered media attention, meal preparation attracted business. Now, Dinnersmith owner Mary Meade is closing up the Maplewood retail location and moving her thriving business to a less expensive commercial kitchen in Springfield. "With the recession, time and every …
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Springfield's newest wine emporium opens with panache
With the long-anticipated opening of Stew Leonard's Wine & Spirits, Springfield is the new center of gravity of the well-priced wine world. Patch took a tour of the beautiful and welcoming store during its "soft opening" on Monday. Manager Rob Reynolds showed us around the thousands of bottles, priced from $2 to $200. He pointed out fine wines, micro-brews and single malt scotches. According to a Stew Leonard's spokesperson the store boasts more than 2000 varieties of wine from around the world. The new Springfield location will also host daily in-store samplings, as well as numerous special events and educational wine seminars, featuring well-known wine makers and award-winning wines. The 'official' ribbon cutting is Saturday August 21 …
Monday, February 1, 2010
J.F. Anderson's nursery once was located at the former Saks Fifth Avenue site, the possible future home of Stop & Shop.
We haven't had any updates on the future of the Stop & Shop project proposed for the former Saks Fifth Avenue building in a while. But new information has come to light about the site's past. From the early 1900s until the 1940s the site that would host Saks was home to J.F. Anderson's nursery. Ferns seem to have been the specialty. The earliest sighting of the nursery can be seen on the excerpt here from the 1906 Springfield atlas. Anderson and his then-partner Thomas Christensen were in business at the Millburn Avenue site with what seems to have been two greenhouses. In January 1907 John Anderson announced that he and Mr. Christensen were dissolving their partnership (see annoucement here), and shortly afterward a 1909 advertisement …
Tom J
8:15 pm on Thursday, November 22, 2012
To everyone who has commented above praising Jollys I would like to do the same. I've known the owners for quite some years now and they had excellent pizza. I have yet to try Pizza Rustica but I think supporting a new, local pizzeria is what our community should do, for heavens sake this is someones job and life we can at least give them a chance! As for the Jolly's owners they did not close … more ›