Ever-evolving Collingswood considers whether liquor licenses could bolster its business district

The unexpected closing last month of Tortilla Press — a restaurant that helped make Collingswood a regional dining destination — jolted customers and downtown businesspeople.

So Monday’s announcement that a new Mexican restaurant called Paloma expects to open this summer was welcome news.

“We’ve tried for years to get something in Collingswood,” said Emir “Mike” Dedja. The Cherry Hill businessman is partnering with his son Tim, who owns The Boiling House seafood restaurant in Cherry Hill, as well as chef Jorge Reyes of Orale Tacos in Blackwood in the new venture.

“Collingswood is the right place to be,” Dedja said. “In the future we hope there is a chance to have a liquor license. But for now, it’s a dry town.”

Lydia Cipriani and her husband, Mark Smith, the owners of Tortilla Press, blamed the pandemic and inflation for the decision to shutter their restaurant at Haddon and Collings Avenues after more than 20 years. They also cited the borough’s long-standing prohibition of liquor sales.

But even if Collingswood voters were to authorize restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages, only three or four licenses would become available under current New Jersey regulations, which allow for one retail license per 3,000 people.

With a population of 14,150, Collingswood would be eligible for four such licenses at most; the borough has about 30 restaurants, mostly on Haddon Avenue. Many of them are BYOB.

“I don’t think we would want to do any type of licensing that would exclude the vast majority of our restaurants,” Mayor Jim Maley said. “For the last year we’ve been working on finding a way to give every restaurant a chance.”

The mayor’s effort is separate from Gov. Phil Murphy’s announcement in April of a bipartisan task force that will consider phasing in changes in how liquor sales are regulated statewide. The goal is to make more licenses more readily available and less expensive, particularly for mom-and-pop businesses in smaller communities.

Collingswood has not allowed liquor sales since 1871, and local officials are not aware of any serious efforts to overturn the ban.

Cipriani and Smith opened Tortilla Press in 2002 and its sister restaurant, Tortilla Press Cantina, six years later in Pennsauken; the cantina has a liquor license.

“The two restaurants really were identical in many respects, but on any given day [revenue] was 30% to 40% higher in Pennsauken, and it was all alcohol,” Cipirani said. “With staff and food costs going up, we saw that ultimately, serving food alone would not be enough.”

Collingswood is like any number of older South Jersey and Philadelphia suburbs close to the region’s urban core. Neighborhoods have a variety of housing stock, from rowhouses to Victorians; many streets are lined with trees; and PATCO and NJ Transit offer quick commutes to Camden or Philadelphia.

A densely populated, walkable town with plenty of parks — including the 70 verdant acres of Knight Park — the borough of less than two square miles also has a traditional business district surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

But by the early 1990s, the commercial blocks of Haddon Avenue were fading.

“There wasn’t much going on in town at the time,” said chef Giovanni Barone, who opened his Villa Barone restaurant on the avenue’s 700 block in 1994.

“There were salons and secondhand stores and not much in the way of food,” he said. “As a full-service restaurant, we were pretty much a destination.”

By the time the Collingswood Farmers Market was founded in 2000 and Tortilla Press joined the avenue two years later, the borough was becoming more racially diverse and also had become home to a substantial LGBTQ community. More chef-driven restaurants opened, as did adventurous, locally owned retail.

As the mixed-use LumberYard residential development came fully on line around 2010, Haddon Avenue was a thing.

Then came COVID-19. The pandemic’s impact on the business district can be seen in the PATCO parking lots adjacent to the avenue’s south side.

“You couldn’t get a space in there, but now, there aren’t as many people commuting to work, or going out to lunch, or getting off the train” to shop, Maley said. “Foot traffic is a concern.”

Jeannine Cook shares Maley’s view. The proprietor of Harriett’s Bookshop in Philly’s Fishtown section, she opened Ida’s Bookshop on Haddon Avenue’s 700 block in July 2021. Both stores focus on serious fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and other writing by Black authors, and host readings and other cultural events open to all.

Cook said she discovered Collingswood while looking to buy furniture for her Philadelphia store and was struck by the community’s small-town charm and big-city proximity.

“I was talking to the owner at Dig This about how much I’d like to have a store here, and soon after I got a call from the mayor. He said, ‘We’d love to have you,’” Cook recalled.

“What a way to be introduced to a new city! It meant a lot to us.”

But the modest amount of pedestrian traffic, particularly in the beginning of the week, is a challenge, she said.

“A lot of our feedback is like, ‘Every time I come by, you’re closed,’” Cook said. “I tell people that it’s hard to stay open on days when there are so few people here, and I’m paying someone all day long to literally sell a single book.”

She also said promotional collaborations among businesses and encouraging more diversity among shop owners would help energize the avenue.

Lindsey Ferguson, the borough’s economic development director, pointed to Ida’s as well as the recent opening of two other women-owned businesses as evidence that downtown Collingswood is alive and well.

Not counting Tortilla Press, there are about four vacancies in the Haddon Avenue business district, which has about 30 restaurants and 55 retail/service storefronts between East Stiles Avenue and Browning Road, she said.

“Our restaurant scene is still going strong,” said Ferguson, noting that both Zeppoli and Sagami have been James Beard Award semifinalists.

“There’s an incredibly strong sense of community here among the businesses, a feeling that a rising tide is good for all,” she said.

Kara Kennedy opened House Finch, a “suburban nature store,” on June 3 on the 700 block of Haddon Avenue. She custom-blends birdseed tailored to the local environment.

“I live in Collingswood, and I wanted to be able to work where I live,” said Kennedy, a self-described bird nerd.

“There’s something special going on here. The events the borough puts on all year round and the farmers market are incredible. I believe a business focused on birding and nature and sustainability ... could be successful here.”

Across the avenue, Stephanie Kinney opened Mercantile 1888, which she describes as a “modern day general store,” on June 3. It offers textiles, gifts, and a cozy “mocktail bar” serving zero-proof libations.

“Our original plan was always Collingswood. We started to look in early 2022, the only available space we could find was in Haddonfield,” Kinney said. “Now we’re in Collingswood. It’s more our style. And so far, it’s been great.”

Barone said that selling adult beverages could help Villa Barone’s business.

“It would increase our margins and hold our head up above water,” he said. “Since the pandemic, everything has changed.”

Reed Orem, who along with his wife, Megan, co-owns and lives above Dig This (Cool Stuff for Cool People) doesn’t see alcohol sales as a panacea, particularly given Haddon Avenue’s continuing vitality.

“I’m concerned that liquor sales could vastly change the look and feel of Haddon Avenue,” he said. “I’m not sure that would be the best thing. Allowing more limited types of licenses would be beneficial. But all-out bars up and down the street? No.”

Maley noted that New Jersey does issue ”concessionaire” licenses for alcohol sales by new restaurants that open in publicly owned buildings, such as the Rowan Boulevard development in downtown Glassboro. If the state expanded the availability of such licenses to include existing restaurants, the borough could purchase a restaurant building, and a concession license could become available to the tenant, he said.

But any licenses would become available only if Collingswood voters were to approve a ballot measure to end the ban and allow liquor sales, as per New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control regulations, the mayor said.

“Lydia and Mark have been great, and we hate to see Tortilla Press go,” Maley said. “But the continuing vibrancy of Collingswood will depend on what comes next.”