Jersey City Shake-Ups

There were quite a few restaurant changes and shake-ups in Jersey City over the holiday season. I'll be going a little more in-depth on some of these later, but for now, a recap:

The Kitchen at Grove Station has closed temporarily, announcing in late December they were undergoing some repairs and changes. Shortly after that, it was further announced Executive Chef David Viana and his staff had departed The Kitchen, but that the creative directors and management team were remaining and that the restaurant would reopen early this year with a new chef at the helm. To date, no announcements regarding who that new chef might be or what the anticipated date of reopening is have been made.

Bell + Gray, the restaurant that took the place of Carrino Provisions, also made an announcement shortly before Christmas that they would be closing their doors for good after just a little over a month in business. While it didn't come as a major surprise, the decision did seem to come abruptly, made shortly after and in fact taking the place of their holiday hour announcement. In the post (no longer available on social media), they did make mention of possibly opening the space again at some point, but specified there were no plans to reopen any time soon and that Bell + Gray itself was permanently shuttered.

Raval closed briefly for renovations before New Year's, removing the mosaic booths in the front for more functional seating along with some other interior changes and in that time, also redid their menu. They removed their brunch options and streamlined the dinner menu to a much more simplified list of tapas offerings. There are rumors the chef de cuisine, Ed Radich, has left the restaurant but these aren't verified and his name is still mentioned on the site.

(Raval's new interior)

Shortly after New Year's, Park & Sixth Gastropub announced they too were temporarily closing for renovations, citing too much confusion and similarity between the menus and locations of Park & Sixth and Park & Sixth Gastropub. They stated they would reopen in late January under new name "The Draper", a new concept inspired by Dorothy Draper. The front of the restaurant will remain a pub serving full lunch and dinner menus, but the rest of the space will become a luxury cocktail lounge with cocktails and finger foods. In addition, they'll be adding a game room downstairs. No menus have been released as of now.