On the evening of Tuesday, December 1, the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District will set up at the stage area on the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall for its annual Christmas Tree & Menorah Lighting, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., with gifts from Santa, cookies and hot chocolate. Four days later the Happy Holiday Market begins its two-weekend run at Grove Street PATH Plaza and The Ashford rooftop.
A year ago, the blocks around those events had empty spaces. Roman Nose closed at 125 Newark Avenue in late 2025 after 13 years. The ground floor at 143 Newark Avenue stayed dark through most of 2026. Both addresses are occupied again, and so is a new room at 136 Newark Avenue. The plaza's comeback has a particular shape. Each operator set up its space to cover more hours of the day than the tenant before it. At one address that means a long schedule. At another it means several concepts under one roof. At the third it means a second room inside a restaurant that was already there.
125 Newark Avenue: one room, open close to 20 hours
Jersey Digs reported in June that Alessio's had opened in the former Roman Nose space, just across from the Grove Street PATH Station. The all-day Italian café started on Park Avenue in Hoboken. Founder Luca Infantino, a Weehawken resident, named it after his son. It has since opened in Jersey City's Heights, inside Hoboken's ResilienCity Park and in Weehawken. The Newark Avenue shop is its second Jersey City location.
The menu follows the clock. Breakfast sandwiches and pastries come first, then paninis, pizza, salads and pasta later in the day. The hours are the part that matters for the plaza. Jersey Digs listed 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with service until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Its article ties those late weekend hours directly to the café's spot on the pedestrian plaza. The café also runs a sandwich program in which certain menu items support rotating charitable causes.
So the first coffee of a market Saturday and the last slice after a late dinner can come from the same counter.
143 Newark Avenue: three concepts at one address
Alessio's stretches one room across the day. At 143 Newark Avenue, the space is divided by purpose instead. Jersey Digs covered the soft opening in late August. Bembe Steak & Raw Bar took over the former Better Days ground floor and is opening in stages. It comes from Chef Darryl Harmon, a partner in Don't Tell Liv and Asbury Social.
Here is how the address was laid out when Jersey Digs reported the rollout:
- Steaks Shakes + Harmony, in the back: a casual counter built around cheesesteaks and milkshakes. Its other Jersey City location is at 126 Christopher Columbus Drive.
- Bembe's front bar: a full cocktail menu with steak and seafood plates that lean Latin and Caribbean, such as a pollo a la brasa chicken chimi sandwich, grilled octopus, and oysters with salsa verde garlic butter. Diners can choose sauces like jerk butter, chimichurri rojo and sofrito bordelaise.
- The steakhouse dining room: the final stage, described as the dressier room.
143 Social, the speakeasy, still operates in the basement. In late August, the front bar's soft-opening hours were Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. A rollout in stages changes over time, so the restaurant's Instagram, @bembesteakjc, will have the current schedule before a December visit.
The result is one doorway with several price points and moods: a quick cheesesteak, a cocktail at the bar, a sit-down steak dinner and a basement bar.
136 Newark Avenue: a second room inside an existing restaurant
Across the plaza, the newest room is inside a long-running business. Jersey City Times reported in October that a long, narrow staircase at Brick Lane Curry House leads down to House of Amrut. It looks like a speakeasy but is a tasting room dedicated to Amrut, the Indian single malt whisky. Hoboken Girl's fall openings roundup describes it as the first U.S. whiskey bar from Amrut Distilleries, the company behind India's first single malt. It pours a range of the distillery's bottlings, some of them hard to find in the United States.
Brick Lane added its after-dinner room below its own dining room.
The three addresses at a glance
| Address | What was there before | What's there now | How it extends the day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Newark Ave | Roman Nose, which closed in late 2025 after 13 years | Alessio's | One room, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily and until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday, per Jersey Digs |
| 143 Newark Ave | Better Days ground floor, dark through most of 2026 | Bembe front bar, Steaks Shakes + Harmony, steakhouse dining room in progress; 143 Social below | Several concepts at different price points under one address |
| 136 Newark Ave | Brick Lane Curry House, still operating | House of Amrut tasting room downstairs | A second, after-dinner room inside an existing restaurant |
The December calendar runs right past these doors
The new tenants matter most once the HDSID calendar starts, because both main events take place within a short walk of all three addresses.
Tuesday, December 1. The Tree & Menorah Lighting uses the stage area on the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Mall from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. The sponsors are the HDSID, Smile Preschool & Nursery and Whole Spectrum Autism. Because it falls on a Tuesday, a few of Downtown's newer spots are closed that night. Feliz Deliz, the bakery at 336 Second Street, is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Alessio's daily hours still cover the evening.
December 5–6 and 12–13. The Happy Holiday Market fills Grove Street PATH Plaza and The Ashford rooftop with locally handmade goods. The schedule includes a 360 photo booth from 1 to 5 p.m., provided by the Office of Cultural Affairs, a live caricature artist from 2 to 4 p.m., and Santa from 2 to 3 p.m. There will also be a bounce house and a live DJ. Vendor slots for 2026 are sold out.
A market Saturday that uses the whole plaza could go like this:
- Breakfast at Alessio's, which opens at 7 a.m.
- The market and Santa's 2 p.m. visit at Grove Street PATH Plaza.
- A late lunch at Bembe's front bar or Steaks Shakes + Harmony, after checking current hours at @bembesteakjc.
- Dinner at Brick Lane Curry House, then downstairs to House of Amrut.
- If it runs late, Alessio's is open until 3 a.m. on Saturdays.
Before December, the next large Downtown gathering is the Jersey City Wine Fest on Saturday, November 21, at Harborside Atrium, 210 Hudson Street. Jersey City Connects lists $60 general admission and $15 designated-driver tickets, plus fees.
A few blocks out, the same thing is happening
The plaza is not the only place where long-empty spaces came back this fall.
Jersey Digs reported in October that Vicoletto, from the team behind Hoboken's Blue Eyes, opened at 357 7th Street. The space had been dormant for nearly four years and was home to Delenio's until 2022. Vicoletto is BYOB, built around a brick oven, and seats walk-ins only. Its hours were listed as 5 to 10 p.m. daily, until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Among its pizzas is the Pistacchiosa, made with fior di latte, mortadella, Sicilian pistachio cream and burrata.
At 336 Second Street, according to Jersey Digs, Feliz Deliz gave a business that Diana Valenzuela and Victor Johnson started in 2022 its first permanent shop. It serves Capacity Coffee, cardamom buns, pistachio brownies, rotating soft serve and made-to-order cakes, starting with the carrot cake the bakery is known for locally. Hours are Thursday through Monday, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 9 p.m.
Hoboken Girl reported that Sinta Bakery, a Filipino bakery from the family behind Hoboken's Baking Mama, soft-opened Downtown on the last weekend of October in the former Metropolis Music space. Sinta means "love" in Tagalog. Not every new arrival is a restaurant. Hoboken Girl also reported that New York Sewing Center held its grand opening at 190 Columbus Drive on October 29.
Two more openings are still to come. Barchino, a pizza restaurant from the team behind Battello, is under construction next to its sister restaurant at 502 Washington Boulevard and is aiming for early December. Dutch's Sandwich Shop, which started in Montclair and opened at 86 Garden Street in Hoboken this year, is taking the former Cafe Dolma space at 270 Grand Street and plans to open in 2027.
Three of these operators started in Hoboken: Alessio's, the Blue Eyes team and Baking Mama. Dutch's is coming to Jersey City from Montclair by way of a Hoboken shop.
Owners of mixed-use buildings and ground-floor retail along Downtown's walking corridors have seen how quickly an empty space can find its next use this year, and how much the floor plan affects what that use is. If you are deciding whether to lease, reposition or sell a storefront property near the plaza, CB Lux Real Estate can walk you through what this year's tenant changes mean for your building. Request a Private Consultation.
