Why would a juice shop give up a highway location in the same year two coffee shops chose one? In Scotch Plains, that happened within about seven months. Ameen and Roshonda Albany closed their Green Brook store and moved Hollywood Juice Shop to 391 Park Avenue in January. In June and August, Outsiders Coffee Roasters and Meet Again Café cut ribbons at 1943 and 1985 Route 22.
These choices fit one pattern. Scotch Plains' 2026 openings sorted themselves by the kind of visit each one was built for. The highway drew coffee meant for a quick stop on the way somewhere else. Downtown drew rooms built for a longer stay, including a 12-seat omakase counter with 90-minute seatings. The one owner who had run a business in both settings explained the difference publicly.
| Opening | Address | Setting | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Juice Shop | 391 Park Ave. | Downtown | January 2026 |
| Joan Marie Photography | 451 Park Ave. | Downtown | May 2026 |
| 1874 Coffee Company | 220 South Ave., Fanwood | Across from Fanwood station | May 27, 2026 |
| Outsiders Coffee Roasters | 1943 Route 22 | Highway | Ribbon cutting June 9, 2026 |
| Meet Again Café | 1985 US-22 | Highway | Ribbon cutting Aug. 18, 2026 |
| Sushi BBY Omakase | 1832 East Second St. | Downtown | Ribbon cutting Aug. 18, 2026 |
The Owners Who Tried the Highway First
The Albanys ran Hollywood Juice Shop in Green Brook for more than two years before closing it. In January they told TAPinto Scotch Plains-Fanwood that the highway gave them visibility but made it hard for customers to stop in and experience the space they had built. They said they wanted to be part of a walkable downtown.
Ameen Albany found the Park Avenue storefront by chance. He noticed it was available while on his way to a nearby bank. The shop sits at a traffic light, which offered the visibility and the foot traffic the couple hoped for. The space was most recently Angelina's Bistro and, before that, the Florence Ravioli Store. Inside, a mural by Lilo Walls hangs alongside artwork from a high school friend of the owner and a longtime customer from Green Brook.
The menu at opening was all cold and made to order: fresh juices, smoothies, acai bowls, wraps and salads. The owners said they planned to add soups and some hot items later. In January the posted hours were 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Two Cafés on the Same Stretch of Route 22
Outsiders Coffee Roasters is an 800-square-foot café. Despite the name, nothing is roasted at the Scotch Plains shop. Founder Ames Abdon roasts for the café, his online customers and a growing wholesale business in a dedicated 2,000-square-foot space in Jersey City, according to a Daily Coffee News profile published in August.
The bar is built for regular customers and coffee enthusiasts alike. A Sanremo espresso machine handles espresso drinks. Pour-overs are made with Hario Switch brewers, and a batch brewer handles drip. The roast list pairs familiar medium and darker roasts with a growing selection of lighter single-origin coffees. Coffees from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are roasted toward chocolate and brown sugar, while beans from Ethiopia and Kenya get lighter profiles. Pastries come from Kirshenbaum Baking Co. and Balthazar Bakery. "I aspire to be a place that offers fantastic coffee that a coffee enthusiast can come to but also have customers on the other side who want a little sugar without feeling judged," Abdon told the publication.
The hours are set for the morning rush. Outsiders' website lists 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The café is closed for regular service on Sundays, when Abdon has said he plans to host public cuppings and other coffee education. That would make Sunday the one day the highway location is used for a longer visit.
A little farther along Route 22, Meet Again Café opened in the building at 1985 US-22 that once housed a Dunkin'. Co-owners Tony Chen and Catherine Zhuo serve Italian-style coffee with Japanese light bites. The menu includes onigiri filled with shrimp or eel, sandwiches on fresh-baked bread, and a Purple Rice Roll made with red cabbage, purple rice, lettuce, sweet radish and pork. "Some of these ingredients you'll never find on a croissant or a bagel," Chen said at the ribbon cutting.
Meet Again's own site lists 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekends. The café is closed on Wednesdays. With the two cafés together, Route 22 now has specialty coffee from 7 a.m. on weekdays and an afternoon option until 6:30 on most days.
Downtown's Newest Room Runs on Reservations
On the same day Meet Again cut its ribbon, township officials also held a ribbon cutting for Sushi BBY Omakase at 1832 East Second Street, near Park Avenue. The space was formerly a juice bar. TAPinto noted the two businesses have something in common, since both serve Japanese fish in different ways.
Sushi BBY has no menu. Partners Carmen Gumina, Po Chen and Xida Zhao met while working as omakase chefs in northern New Jersey. Each meal is a 12- or 17-course progression built around the day's catch, and seatings last 90 minutes by reservation only. The restaurant's website lists the price at $80 for the shorter option or $120 for the full 17 courses, plus tax. It is BYOB. MyCentralJersey reported in September that the counter seats 12. Seatings run at 5:30, 7 and 8:30 p.m. daily, with a 10 p.m. seating added on Friday and Saturday. In August the chefs said they were already booked into October.
With 12 seats and at most four seatings a night, the counter can serve 48 guests on its busiest evenings. That is a small number, but each of those guests stays downtown for an hour and a half. The year's other downtown arrivals also favor longer stays over quick ones. Joan Marie Photography opened in May at 451 Park Avenue and offers newborn, pet, family and portrait sessions. Scotch Plains Crossing, the three-story building at 1776 East Second Street that opened in April, added 40 apartments and 2,140 square feet of commercial space to the corridor.
Fanwood's Café Sits Across From the Station
Fanwood's 2026 coffee opening chose a different location from both of these. 1874 Coffee Company opened May 27 at 220 South Avenue. It roasts green beans on site and serves drip, pour-overs, nitro cold brew, espresso drinks, tea and chai, along with sweet and savory pastries. The name refers to 1874, the year the Fanwood train station was built, and the café sits directly across the street from it.
Over the next six weeks, the station schedule will matter more than usual for anyone stopping in before a train. NJ TRANSIT's temporary schedule changes for the Portal North Bridge work begin Sunday, October 11 and are expected to last about five weeks. Regular schedules are expected to return Sunday, November 15, depending on safety testing. During the cutover, Raritan Valley Line one-seat rides to and from New York will end at Newark Penn. On November 7, buses will replace trains between Cranford and Newark. The full schedule is in NJ TRANSIT's September 17 release.
The Plaza the Township Is Designing for Longer Visits
The downtown pattern of this year's openings matches the plan the township presented on May 18. Woodmont Properties, the township's selected redeveloper, laid out a new public plaza on Park Avenue paired with the existing Alan Augustine Village Green. The plaza is designed to host farmers markets, music and movie nights, and it includes a driveway that can close during events to expand the festival space. About 10,000 square feet of retail is planned facing the plaza, with residences above. The plan also includes curb extensions and mid-block crossings meant to slow traffic and give pedestrians priority.
Deputy Mayor Matt Adams described the goal in a statement afterward. Business owners along Park Avenue and East Second Street, he said, "cite the need to make Scotch Plains a destination for shopping, the arts, and dining to ensure that the local economy continues to flourish and that our small businesses are able to compete with those in neighboring communities."
The schedule is long. The first step is a new public safety building on Plainfield Avenue. After that comes the plaza block, then a district with a public parking deck and a new town hall and library, and finally the last district. Woodmont estimates full build-out will take seven to ten years. In June, Patch reported that a final NJDEP permit application was planned for the summer. Officials hoped for approval by the end of the year and targeted groundbreaking on the emergency services headquarters for 2027. The township's redevelopment page still says it is working with NJDEP on the required individual permit approvals. No public report has confirmed that the application was filed.
Until any of that is built, the setting for a longer downtown visit is the street as it stands, and the next date on the calendar is close by. On October 17 and 18, Union County's free Four Centuries in a Weekend program opens the Osborn Cannonball House Museum at 1840 Front Street from noon to 5 p.m. The museum will host colonial clothing and gravestone-carving demonstrations.
The McGurl Team follows each new opening along Park Avenue, East Second Street and Route 22, because that is how we understand how a town's daily routines are changing. If you'd like to know how downtown Scotch Plains' next phase may shape the streets around your home, we welcome you to Request a Private Consultation.
