Home Care In Collingswood, NJ

The (mostly) dry town of Collingswood won't go too long without a brewery, according to the company that bought Devil's Creek.

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ — A South Jersey brewer will take over Devil's Creek Brewery, which recently shuttered in Collingswood.

Swedesboro Brewing Company plans to expand, readying The Raccoon Taproom for 1 Powell Ln. The space will be closed for about two months for renovations and brewing expansions, the company said.

Devil's Creek became Collingswood's first craft brewery in 2016 after local officials passed an ordinance allowing such businesses in the dry town. The business closed earlier this month following a sale to a then-undisclosed buyer.

Founded in 2020, Swedesboro Brewing Co. was ranked as the nation's second-best new brewery, according to a USA Today 10Best list based on selections by readers and editors.

"Our goal has always been to share our passion for exceptional craft beer with as many people as possible," Owner Marvin Bowe said in a news release. "By taking over Devil's Creek's location, we're excited to bring our wonderful reputation to Collingswood and provide residents and visitors alike with an opportunity to experience the unique flavors that have made Swedesboro Brewing so successful."

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Swedesboro Brewing plans to brew six of its flagship beers at The Raccoon Taproop, while also crafting six exclusive beers that "cater to the local palate," the company's announcement says.

The raccoon theme didn't appear out of nowhere. Hoppie the Raccoon is Swedesboro Brewing's mascot and graces the company logo. The creature provides a fitting theme because of its charisma, adaptability and generosity, according to the brewer.

"Like the raccoon, we too are curious – about crafting different beer styles – and devoted – to providing you the best we have to offer," Swedesboro Brewing's website says. "As the raccoon totem urges us, we promise to share our curiosity, ingenuity and wisdom for our craft with you.

Swedesboro Brewing Co. is located at 95 Woodstown Rd., Swedesboro.

Devil's Creek provided patrons with a rare place to purchase alcohol in Collingswood, where alcohol otherwise cannot be sold. However, certain restaurants allow diners to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

In their new Haddon Avenue restaurant, Kim Diggs, her brother Matthew, and sister Trudy Pegues honor the legacy of their mother, Irene, whose passion for food connected a community in downtown Camden.

For years, downtown Camden City was home to Irene’s 2nd Street Terminal, a friendly eatery where locals knew they would be well fed, even if they were down on their luck.

A place where, Kim Diggs said, the beat cops knew whether her mother was in the kitchen by the smell of her turkey wings on the wind; where many in the neighborhood simply called her “mom.”

“Anything she did, she put her best foot forward,” Diggs said.

“Got her master’s in theology at 65. She took in so many kids that she had an impact on.

“[Irene] was ambitious, resilient; she never let anybody be hungry,” Diggs said.

“She fed the neighborhood. Everybody loved her.”

Although the matriarch passed on in 2013, her children are rekindling their beloved mother’s memory at Irene’s Place, a seafood and soul food eatery that opened in the former Amber Grain Bakery at 325 Haddon Avenue this summer.

The new Collingswood eatery is inspired as much by Irene’s presence in the community as her recipes that nourished it.

While Irene was famous for her soul food recipes, like turkey wings and sweet potato pie, her daughter specializes in seafood — and crabs are her favorite. After she gets the restaurant on its feet, Diggs even plans to market the seasoning blend with which she prepares them.

“I’ve been doing crabs for years in different bars and kitchens,” Diggs said. “I’ve been picking crabs so long I know a Delaware Bay crab from a Virginia crab from a Maryland crab or a Louisiana crab. That’s what I bring to the restaurant.”

Irene’s Place is built around seafood — fried fish, sautéed shrimp, salmon balls, fish tacos — including the salmon cheesesteak, or “seasteak,”, a Camden City favorite that enjoys a place of prominence alongside the more traditional beef and chicken cheesesteaks.

But Diggs is equally excited for guests to sample her soul food, and as the weather turns colder, she plans to cook more of it.

For now, customers can order her honey garlic and barbecue hot wings, but hearty dishes like stuffed salmon, collard greens, and potato salad are on the way, too.

“We’re going to slow-walk it,” she said.

“We’ve just got to do a little bit at a time.”

Diggs comes to the restaurant business after years of working union labor jobs and hustling crabs on the side.

The family spent two years restoring the former Amber Grain storefront to use as a seafood eatery, replacing “everything from the roof to the bottom of the floor,” Diggs said.

Her brother, Matthew, led the construction efforts; her sister, Trudy Pegues, helps in the kitchen.

Kim Diggs, who is a cancer survivor, calls the restaurant her “last lap” of work after years of hard physical labor. She credits her family for helping breathe life not only into their mother’s memory, but her own transition into self-employment as well.

“I’ve been through journeys,” she said. “I just keep on moving with the help of my family. All of us work together to make sure that we put out healthy food, give back to the neighborhood, and help out the family.

“God gave me this gift, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do with my last breath: give back,” Kim Diggs said. “My brother and sister got this place for me, and gave me a purpose to get up in the morning.

“Mom raised us to stay together,” she said. “Whatever you do, give it to God and stay your course. If you’re passionate about something, keep doing it.”

Irene’s Place is located at 325 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood. Hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 856-240-7047.

Stephanie Kinney and Amanda Lewis believe they’ve got the first full-time zero-proof cocktail bar in South Jersey.

Since moving from Haddonfield to Collingswood this spring, retailer Mercantile 1888 has expanded its offerings to include what cofounders Stephanie Kinney and Amanda Lewis believe is the first full-service, zero-proof cocktail bar in New Jersey.

The core business at Mercantile 1888, which occupies a portion of the former DePace Sports Museum on Haddon Avenue, is a curated selection of gifts and goods rooted in local and regional brands.

Growing with the space, which was approved for café service by former tenants Willam Penn Bank, Kinney and Lewis have found just as much interest from customers popping in for an alcohol-free bar experience as for their retail shopping.

It started with flights of canned, zero-proof drinks during a soft launch at Collingswood May Fair, Lewis said — and then questions started pouring in.

“People were asking, ‘Is this going to be a real bar?’” she said. “We were getting e-mails and text messages from people who said, ‘I haven’t been able to sit in this kind of an atmosphere for 30 years.’ We’ve even had people in tears.

“So we said, ‘Let’s go all the way.’”

After acquiring a kegerator and a three-stage sink from a shuttered restaurant in Philadelphia, the duo began to evolve their bar program from kombucha and cold brew kegs to mixed drinks and cultivated alcohol-free brands.

Zero-proof spirits are designed to offer a sensation that approximates the taste and mouthfeel of alcohol using botanicals like cayenne, cracked pepper, caramel, capsaicin, lemongrass, and bergamot. The bar at Mercantile 1888 stocks brands like Ritual, Seedlip, and Lyre’s, as well as canned beverages, craft sodas, and non-alcoholic beer.

“Most people are used to mocktails that are all juice and sugar, and we’ve tried to make it more of what you can get at a nice bar,” Lewis said.

Kinney, who has been sober for more than a decade, said that, in addition to the curiosity around watching a bartender work, the zero-proof bar allows people who don’t drink to “enjoy the taste without the lasting effects.

“It’s been cool to meet other people in the same situation who’ve been looking for a safe space,” she said.

Kinney and Lewis said the experience has been popular among restaurant-goers killing time before their reservations or extending their evening after dinner. But it’s also given Collingswood visitors and residents another dry gathering space in which to socialize. They also hope to create more live entertainment experiences to accompany the interactions.

“We enjoy hanging out, music, and an atmosphere where you can relax like this,” Lewis said. “If you’re in a bar, I think it intimidates some people.”

The popularity of the zero-proof bar also has inspired Kinney and Lewis to expand in-store and al fresco seating at the shop, the better to accommodate more guests.

“We always had a vision to do something like this,” Lewis said. “We’re vibe people,” she said. “To us, everything is an experience.”

Mercantile 1888 is located at 765 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood. The shop is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, although service hours may be extended to facilitate demand.

Look for Kinney and Lewis to make their HGTV debut August 15 at 10 p.m. on the new season of What’s Wrong With That House?

Inside the former Tortilla Press on Haddon Avenue, Chef Jorge Reyes presents a contemporary Mexican menu that draws inspiration from modern and classical recipes in an updated setting.

Chef Jorge Reyes hasn’t been this excited to go to work in Collingswood since the days when he was heading up the kitchen at Casona (now OBA Mediterranean Grill).

However, with the launch of Paloma, which replaces the long-tenured Tortilla Press at the corner of Haddon and Collings Avenues, Reyes believes his take on contemporary Mexican fine dining will stand out among alternatives in the region.

“I’m super-happy to be back to Collingswood,” Reyes said. “I love this town. We always have big expectations and big dreams, especially in Collingswood, and we’re bringing new flavors; breaking the rules from other places.”

“Opening the doors here is a big challenge,” Reyes continued. “We’re taking Tortilla Press from what Mark [Smith] made, and keeping things at that level, so people can try to taste something different and see what happens.”

Reyes, whose popular Blackwood taqueria, Orale, offers authentic Mexican fare, is eager for guests at Paloma to experience Mexican flavors with which they may be less familiar.

“Right now there’s a lot of fusion from everywhere to get Mexican flavors, but we never lost the roots: modern techniques the traditional way,” he said. “That’s the main idea of the concept we want to create here.”

To that end, the menu at Paloma features recipes built around fresh seafood, like the tuna tostada with peanut-salsa macha, a dried chile oil that hails from Veracruz.

Or the ceviche tatemado with recado negro, a char-flavored seasoning paste from Yucatan.

Shrimp aguachile is served Sinaloa style: cooked quickly in a highly acidic chiltepin water bath, and served with cucumber, avocado, red onion, and cilantro.

There’s fresh guacamole, but for those who want to delve a little deeper, there’s also sikil pak, a Mayan pumpkin seed, tomato, and habanero hummus, served with homemade blue corn and yellow corn tortillas.

Among the entrees, seafood paella, a favorite from Reyes’ Casona days, lands alongside Norteño-style steak, street-style rotisserie chicken, and salmon chino-poblano: pan-roasted with chilies, vegetable stir-fried rice, and squash salad.

In a nod to the Chinese influence present in the fare of the Mexicali border regions, Chef Tim Dedja of Boiling House in Cherry Hill, Reyes’ partner in the business, also brings some of his most popular recipes to Paloma. Shrimp, fried rice, and noodle dishes get a special shout-out here.

For the less adventurous diner, there’s also a taqueria menu with seven different preparations, from the crowd-pleasing birria (a standout at Orale) to chicken barbacoa, carne asada, cauliflower, tempura fish, bang-bang shrimp, and slow-roasted pork. Any dish can be prepared vegan or vegetarian style, Reyes said, and several are gluten-free, as well.

Although Paloma is BYOB, the kitchen serves alcohol-free versions of popular cocktails, including margaritas, ninas frescas, and Palomas, plus Mexican favorites like mangonada.

Desserts will change seasonally, and include traditional flan, tres leches with blueberry sauce, and cheesecake buñuelo, a fried dough reminiscent of a stuffed fritter.

“The main idea is to get contemporary Mexican cuisine,” Reyes said.

“We want people to try the flavors and really love the food.”

Dedja said Paloma has received an instant welcome since opening its doors last week.

“I’ve never been on a main street where people support the restaurant immediately,” Dedja said. “In other places, it’s been a lot harder.”

Dedja said his vision for Paloma is not only to stand shoulder to shoulder among the eateries on Restaurant Row, but to join the ranks of elite Mexican restaurants in the state. His fiancée, entrepreneur Aurora Vojnika, who designed the interior at Paloma, said the couple, which grew up in Albanian restaurant families in Maple Shade, toured top-tier dining destinations throughout New Jersey and New York City as they refined their concept for the Collingswood space.

“We didn’t want very standard things you would see anywhere,” Vojnika said. “I wanted a lot of textures and depth into the space.”

To that end, she outfitted Paloma with details that would set it apart not only from the brightly colored interior of the Tortilla Press, but from other Mexican restaurants in the region.

Gone are the festive magentas, oranges, and yellows that once colored the walls.

(As Reyes said, “no sombreros, no pinatas.”)

In their place, Vojnika selected a muted, dusty color palette, with softer hues drawn from a recent trip to Tulum. Where she wanted to add depth and texture, Vojnika selected three-dimensional artwork, like the hand-woven palm bread baskets that appear over one wall in the main dining room. Other surfaces were given over to greenery, whether in the form of the succulents that top the benches in the party room, or a faux ivy offset wall in the main dining area.

A previously closed-off server station was retooled into a cat’s eye wall fashioned from wooden panes of different heights, and the same pattern was repeated on one of the walls in the main dining room with comparable effect. Ceiling lights in the same room are suspended from a floating wooden beam framework anchored to the ceiling.

Taken together, these choices — like the menu itself — represent a dramatic departure from the typical atmospherics found in most of the taquerias and cantinas throughout South Jersey. Vojnika hopes it will help Paloma to stand out in the Instagram era of fine dining.

“We wanted to be super-different,” she said. “We want people to share pictures of their experience; we have to think what people want to share.”

With seating for 75 guests, Paloma offers dine-in service for dinner six days a week, with brunch on weekends; Reyes said lunch will be added as the restaurant finds its footing. Takeout and delivery options are immediately available through all major third-party services.

Paloma is located at 703 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood. Hours are 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 856-869-0890, or visit palomanj.com.

The infrastructure was funded by $250,000 in grants from state agencies and public utilities, and more will be needed to support a target of 330,000 electric vehicles on New Jersey roads by 2025.

New Jersey drivers don’t pump their own gas, but in Collingswood, electric vehicle (EV) owners may now begin plugging in their cars at a pair of public charging stations in the borough downtown.

Last week, officials ceremonially cut the ribbon on a pair of ChargePoint charging stations in the 600 block of North Atlantic Avenue, the first to be unveiled in Collingswood, with a third unit nearby in the public garage at the Lumberyard apartments.

The stations, which Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley said were constructed with $250,000 in grants awarded by the state Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), Department of Environmental Protections (NJDEP), and energy provider PSE&G.

“This has been a long time coming,” Maley said, crediting borough employees and Sustainable Collingswood volunteers with their efforts to source the funds and technical assistance required to facilitate the installation of the stations.

The project, which took months to complete, includes the charging stations themselves as well as the electrical infrastructure that regulates power to them.

Prior to their installation, Maley said borough staff found EV owners running charging cables to their vehicles in odd places around town — even within the same lot, at power boxes traditionally reserved for vendors at the Collingswood Farmers Market. The mayor said such incidents helped frame the scope of demand for dedicated stations in the community.

“Doing this at this scale hits home,” Maley said. “It’s about finding a location that works, that you think is somewhat accessible; visible, but out of the way. Infrastructure is the hardest piece of this.”

New Jersey Assemblyman Bill Moen (D, NJ-05), who also serves as vice-chair of the Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee, spoke at the ribbon-cutting about the New Jersey Energy Master Plan goal of “100 percent clean energy by 2050,” and what EVs mean to achieving that benchmark.

“We’re underneath PATCO, talking about EV chargers, with Bike Share just across the way,” Moen said, referring to the multimodal travel options to which Collingswood already boasts access.

“One of the goals of state government is to have 330,000 electric vehicles in New Jersey by 2025.”

Those EVs will require places to recharge their batteries, and Camden County — home to the only county-government-level department of sustainability in the state — has 22 public charging stations as of last year, said Camden County Commissioner Jonathan Young.

The county was also the first to debut zero-emissions NJ Transit buses last summer, as the agency works to fully electrify its fleet by 2040.

Collingswood resident Chris DiPinto, who showcased his 2017 Chevy Bolt EV at the charging station ribbon-cutting, said user demand for charging infrastructure is only increasing.

Mostly DiPinto uses the Bolt to commute to his guitar shop in Philadelphia, but he’s driven as far as 300 miles on a single charge; about as far as the Catskills in New York. Navigating among charging stations changes the way the family takes road trips, but they use the Plugshare app to get to the next battery top-up.

In some cases, that means waiting an hour or more outside of a hotel or big-box store, occasionally with little else to explore in the meantime. (The appeal of situating the charging stations in the Collingswood downtown is meant as an incentive to shop and dine nearby, Maley said.)

The electricity isn’t provided for free — it costs about $11 to get the Bolt battery to an 80-percent charge — nor is it always generated in a sustainable fashion. DiPinto typically charges his vehicle at his home in the borough, which is powered by solar energy, but until the state generates fully its electricity from renewable energy sources, the charging stations are connected to an electrical grid powered by fossil fuels.

However, DiPinto said he’s never stopped for gas, nor has the wear and tear on the vehicle been comparable to that of a combustion-engine car.

He’s replaced the car’s batteries twice under warranty, and changed the strut covers and tires, but that’s about the extent of the maintenance he’s performed on the vehicle.

“Committing to this method of travel doesn’t bother us,” DiPinto said.

“If you’re going to save the planet, there’s going to be some inconvenience. I think it’s the way of the future.”

With electric vehicle sales hitting a milestone of more than 1 million sold in the first 11 months of 2023, he’s not alone. Supporting their use on American highways will require a significant expansion of the public charging grid. Soon enough, municipalities like Collingswood won’t be the only places to find stations like those unveiled last Tuesday, but it will take even more public and private financial incentives to create that infrastructure.

“It’s going to take a lot to help us,” Maley said. “This is a big issue.”