BERNARDSVILLE – The borough Planning Board has approved a proposal to repurpose a landmark but vacant Route 202 garden center into a "modern European cafe?."
The Board has formally approved the plan by Panicio Pugliese LLC to convert the former Walter's Garden Center at 53 Morristown Road (Route 202 northbound) into a restaurant serving pizza, bread, pastries, sandwiches and coffee.
Giovanni Pugliese, of Morris Plains, told the Board that there will be no waiters or waitresses and that most customers will come into the business, pick up their food and leave.
However, according to the plains, there will be seating for 35 customers.
Pugliese said the business will be open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week and he expected lunch will be the busiest time.
Pugliese said he is planning a "slow rollout" at first and will start with only four employees.
"It's a family business," he said, adding his mother and father have been in the restaurant business for most of their lives.
Pugliese said the employees will be parking off site, possibly the train station parking lot where only about a quarter of the spaces are being used.
The plans called for 13 parking spaces on the site when 17 are required.
Pugliese said a comparable business would be Cocolux in Peapack-Gladstone.
As a condition of approval, the Board is requiring the cafe? to have all deliveries and trash collections when the business is not open. The Board also said the proposed roof sign should be a canopy sign.
Walter’s Garden Center had occupied the lot at 53 Morristown Road since 1976, when Walter Bowles purchased Santillo Garden Center from Mary and Ferdinand Santillo.
Six years later, he made his wife, Mary Bowles, co-owner, and they ran the business together for more than 30 years.
The Bowles’ daughter, Lara, joined the business in 2014 helping with paper and bookkeeping when her mother stepped away from the business.
The property was put up for sale in early 2020 for $750,000.
Nuvola 53 LLC purchased the property in February 2023 for $675,000 according to a deed registered in the Somerset County Clerk’s Office.
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