Red Bank Approves Pizzeria Plan at Former Gas Station, Intersection Improvements

Red Bank's planning board approved a plan to convert an abandoned gas station into a pizzeria at 187 Riverside Ave. The vote was unanimous. This happened April 8, when board members granted preliminary and final site plan approval. All Things Vic LLC bought the property last year. Victor Rallo, a restaurateur, controls the company. The lot sits at the foot of Coopers Bridge, where one of the town's most hazardous intersections creates problems for drivers.

The restaurant will reuse the current 1,700-square-foot service station building. Its footprint won't change. Plans call for a main dining room with a small pizza oven kitchen, a bar with seating, a reception area, and 17 parking spaces.

"Hopefully by the end of this summer, the entrance to Red Bank will look great again," Rallo said at the end of the meeting.

Victor Rallo also owns Birravino, the restaurant next door. The new restaurant will share a liquor license with Birravino.

Board members concentrated on curbside safety. Why? Planned outdoor seating sits just feet from traffic on Route 35. The plan closes all 120 feet of depressed curb and open access along Riverside Avenue. It removes one of two driveways on Bridge Avenue.

"There should be a real curb along Riverside fronting this property, not a depressed curb that would encourage someone to drive up it while everyone's out there eating pizza," said chair Dan Mancuso, according to The Two River Times. About 17 bollards will be installed along the Riverside Avenue frontage in the landscaped strip between the outdoor seating area and the street. These will protect diners from an errant vehicle.

Traffic engineer John McCormick said eliminating curb cuts on Riverside Avenue would bring "significant safety improvement, not only for the drivers entering, exiting the site, but also for the drivers coming into town and driving past the site."

The property has been cleaned up except for ongoing monitoring of groundwater wells. Attorney Ed McKenna told the board a licensed site remediation professional expects the site to receive a "no further action" determination by the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

The plan calls for reusing a 20-foot-tall sign structure with a 54-square-foot sign area. "Bridge Avenue Gas" will be replaced with the restaurant's name under a "Welcome to Red Bank" panel that faces the river. An existing billboard on the site is leased by Outfront Media LLC through 2041, but efforts to remove it are underway.