After a fire forced an 18-month hiatus, the Aljon’s Pizza & Sub Shop in the Princeton Meadow Shopping Center will re-open for business on Tuesday, December 9.##M:[more]##
According to Angelo Coppola — who owns the pizza parlor with his cousin, Giuseppe Lubrano — a lot of work went into fixing up the restaurant in time for its re-opening. About four months ago, Aljon’s landlord did work on the restaurant’s walls, and Coppola and Lubrano continued with other remodeling work to the inside. It now has the same setup, with a new look.
In May, 2007, a multiple-alarm fire ripped through the attic and roof of the shopping center, after it is believed to have started above the Hot Breads bakery. The fire destroyed the bakery, Aljon’s, the First Szechuan Pavilion Chinese restaurant, and the Dental Illuminations dental office. Other stores had fire, smoke, and water damage.
In starting a new beginning in its same location, the menu at Aljon’s has also evolved, Coppola says. Included in the expanded menu is the traditional food that area residents have seen at Aljon’s in the past, with the addition of a few pizza pie varieties. One pie is a mashed potato pizza, which Coppola describes as a pan pizza with mashed potatoes and bacon added in. “I don’t think anyone in this area has got it,” he says. Others include chicken pesto pie and a special pizza complete with bruschetta, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and basil.
Coppola — who came to New Jersey from Naples, Italy with his cousin and brother-in-law in 1984 and now lives in South Brunswick with his wife, son, and daughter — says that in the 18 months the business has been closed, he and Lubrano opened a pizza parlor in North Jersey, in the Millburn area, which is where they came up with the new ideas for the menu. Coppola says his business is not associated with the other Aljon’s in West Windsor.
Aljon’s will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Sunday, but will be open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays, says Coppola. Beginning on opening day on Tuesday, December 9, a lunch buffet, similar to what customers are already accustomed to, will be available for $5.95.
Shopping Center Resurgence. The reopening of AlJon’s is just one sign that things are looking up after the fire. A slew of renovations have been taking place under the shopping center’s management, including upgrades to the exterior finishes of the building and to the landscaping.
According to Ron Yake, the township planner, some of the renovations include an upgraded plywood siding material, with a stucco finish. The size of the windows has been increased, with more a view into each of the shops, he said. “In addition, a decision was made to replace the roofing material, which was discolored,” he said. “In addition to the facing material, they have an accent treatment of stone below the windows, and then on the columns. The columns and piers have been reconfigured to be decorative. They were somewhat simple and massive before.” Now that those columns have been reconfigured, it has created an improved view of the storefronts as well, Yake added.
The same cultured stone treatment that was used below the windows of the storefronts was also used at the base of the piers. Shopping center officials have also planned a new signage program for the center — similar to the decorative wall signs and gooseneck lighting at the Plainsboro Village Center — which the township’s Planning Board will have to approve, Yake says. The other improvements have been able to be approved administratively.
Yake says shopping center officials have also contemplated second and third phases for future improvements, including additional landscaping and removing the timber curbing around the landscaped islands. Instead, they would be replaced with concrete, a more typical and modern approach.
The township itself has planned roadway improvements across the frontage of the property, extending to the west as a part of the second phase of a traffic calming project on Plainsboro Road. That project includes a “much-needed” sidewalk along the entire frontage of the property so that the people walking along Plainsboro Road can, if they wish, continue along the sidewalk along the frontage of the property, Yake said. “Right now,” Yake explained, “pedestrians have to go into the center.”
“They’ve worked closely with me on these improvements, and I expect a favorable response from the Planning Board when they consider the revised signage plan for the center,” Yake says. “Overall, it’s an improvement for the community. The Princeton Meadows Shopping Center serves an important retail and service function.”
The property is owned by TALI Equities Incorporated, an equity company. It is managed by Milbrook Properties LTD, a property management company. Both are based in New York. A contractor, Empire Development, is doing the remodeling work.
“The improvements over there are long overdue,” Yake said. “It will give that whole area a much-improved look.”
