Businesses new and old realign along Broad St.

PHOTOS BY GLORIA STRAVELLI Marguerite Pahira (above) is stocking The Paper Rose for opening day Sept. 1. Below left, Vincent Woods, manager of Love Lane Tuxedos, custom fits a tuxedo, and Doreen Jolly (below right) arranges tableware at A Pleasant Home.

New and relocating

retailers keep
downtown changing

BY GLORIA STRAVELLI

Staff Writer

Her stock in trade is balance sheets, so when Anna Murakhovsky looked around the county, she recognized a deficit.

"I’m an accountant and an at-home mom. When I moved here from Brooklyn, I wasn’t inspired at all with what stores were carrying," she explained.

"I like European clothing that’s well made and has bright colors and patterns. It’s so different. It’s not just the basics."

To fill the void, she opened Lavish Kids, a children’s boutique, at 39 Broad St. in space formerly occupied by The Red Pipe tobacco shop.

"I did research to see where a store like this would fit. Red Bank is really an interesting town, and interesting towns surround it," said Murakhovsky, a Marlboro resident.

The shop’s sleek, all-white interior is a backdrop for the bright colors, patterns and textures of clothing for boys and girls in sizes 2-12 that are the store’s focus.

"The clothes are designer, very Euro, trendy, funky," she explained. "A little bit different, unique. There is still clothing that is cute and pink," she assured. "but there is definitely a European flair."

The flair is supplied by designer labels like D&G and Versace and prices that range from mid- to "really high-end."

Customers can try out a mattress and Abe Feldmus will provide breakfast at Mr. Mattress.

"My vision is just to introduce a different variety for children. They can want something different," said Murakhovsky. "This is a boutique, so not everyone will be wearing the same dress or pants."

Lavish Kids is part of a Broad Street realignment that includes some shuffling of spaces and more than a few new faces.

It’s already looking like holiday time at the corner of Broad and White streets where the Paper Rose will open Sept. 1 The Royal Box occupied the spot at 46 Broad for 14 years, and owner Ann Pollitt held a summer-long sale in anticipation of retiring to Florida.

According to Paper Rose owner Marguerite Pahira, she and her husband, Bob, are not novices at the card store business.

"We’ve had four stores previously," she said. The Holmdel couple previously ran card stores in Old Bridge and East Brunswick, and Red Bank is their first location outside of a strip mall.

"We absolutely love this town," she said, adding her sights were set on a Red Bank location years ago. "I saw this spot and told my husband, "that’s the corner I want," she recalled. "There is a great flow of people. It’s like ‘windows on Broad Street.’ "

In addition to Hallmark cards, Paper Rose will carry handmade greeting cards, wrap, ribbons, party goods, plus gift items like picture frames, photo albums, candles, candies, seasonal accessories and ornaments, plus Crabtree & Evelyn personal care products.

Pahira’s passion for customer service fits right in with the focus of the downtown’s independently run businesses.

"You don’t get it with the company-owned stores," she observed.

A second-generation business owner, Abe Feldmus decided to open his family’s third Mr. Mattress store at 58 Broad St. in Red Bank after moving to town four years ago.

"It’s a great destination town," said Feldmus, who converted an art gallery space to a mattress showroom featuring Sealy and Stearns & Foster mattresses, beds, and futons, in sizes ranging from single to king. He pointed out the openings for a projector that are still visible in the walls of the store, which once was the location of Red Bank Cinema.

Feldmus encourages customers to try out mattresses before buying. "They can spend the night," he quipped. "I offer them bagels and coffee in the morning."

Doreen Jolly has created a serene environment at A Peaceful Home, a home furnishings and accessories shop and her first retail venture.

"I shopped and dined in Red Bank and knew it was the place, but it took two years before I had the right space," said the Manasquan resident. Peaceful Home at 64 Broad has "higher-end but affordable" furnishings including tableware, linens, paintings, lighting, fabrics and accent pieces, and will custom order the living, dining and bedroom furniture featured.

"We can take a piece of furniture and make it what you want it to be," Jolly explained. "That’s what design is about: it’s about enjoying the comforts of home, what you think will make your home a peaceful, beautiful space. It’s all about creating an environment that has a lived-in feeling and a sense of elegance and individualism."

Love Lane Tuxedos is migrating from 25 W. Front St. to 66 Broad St., former home of Katie’s Caché. The formalwear retailer has been in Red Bank since 1954 and at its present location for 30 of those years, according to manager Vincent Woods. The shop is downsizing, trading square footage for foot traffic. With the move, Woods said, Love Lane will take on a more upscale tone, adding designer formalwear by Hugo Boss and Jack Victor. The store rents up to 300 tuxedos per week and outfits up to 1,000 wedding parties per year, he said.

"We’re not a chain store; we give customer service," he noted of Love Lane, which is one of five locations in the state. "Our selection is so much larger, a customer can try on the tuxedo in the store. Other stores can’t do that because they don’t have the stock."

There’s almost no length to which Woods won’t go to service customers, including a last-minute sprint to the altar just ahead of the bride.

"I’ve run to the church because a groom has ripped his pants," he recounted, "and we changed them right before the ceremony."

Still ahead on Broad Street are changes that include the opening of a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store at 8 Broad St. in space formerly occupied by Ovale; British import Clive Christianson custom cabinetry shop at 9 Broad, formerly Nové; Agostino Antiques in the former Afridesia/Design Studio space at 21 Broad; and a new tenant, likely a bank branch, in 34 Broad, Prown’s former retail space. With a few retail and restaurant spaces up for sale, and the question still pending of a new tenant for Garmany’s space at 105 Broad when the clothier moves to the renovated Bon Ton building, will keep the downtown’s main corridor in flux for months to come.