Red Bank Pedestrian Plaza Plans To Stay Through September

RED BANK, NJ – String lights usher families through cobblestone streets. Friends sit outside restaurants and enjoy an evening meal. Musicians can be spotted performing for passersby strolling down the plaza on a late summer afternoon.

In the latest iteration of the borough’s pedestrian mall, downtown Red Bank could be easily mistaken for Greenwich Village or a trendy European getaway.

“We’re working with retailers and eateries to make it a little more sophisticated, a little more lovely,” said Laura Kirkpatrick, the executive director at Red Bank RiverCenter. “It’s been great. We’re seeing a lot of people coming out and enjoying the outdoors in Red Bank,” said Kirkpatrick. “People are enjoying eating outside with friends and family, they’re visiting our retailers and things are going well.”

After its debut on June 18, the plaza has received rave reviews from locals and borough visitors, garnering praise for its warm and welcoming community atmosphere while maintaining social distancing regimens. The downtown program, set to remain in place at least until September, has captured quite an audience online:

“No need for traffic. Let’s keep this!!,” said one Facebook user.

“Looks really nice,” said another.

Despite a projected closing date in late September, the downtown plaza is still unveiling new additions to its pedestrian main street. In fact, the last few weeks have seen even more updates to the downtown location, including additional lighting, large flowerpots and the resurgence of Red Bank’s StreetLife entertainment programming.

June 20 marked the beginning of live street entertainment on Saturdays between 6 and 9 p.m., with a roster of piano players, guitarists, singers and jugglers. The new entertainment initiative, dubbed StreetLife, has been an integral part of the community for over a decade in a tradition of hiring local entertainers to perform downtown. Previous performers include Tri City Jazz, the Tower Hill Community Band and The Wag.

July 11 will see the likes of the Al Wright Unit, Heart of New Jersey Chorus and Sunken City Saxophone Quartet take over the plaza. For a full schedule of performers, click here.

With a range of boutiques, bars and gourmet restaurants, visitors will be able to enjoy a laid back entertainment-filled plaza experience through the summer months. According to Kirkpatrick, autumn will mark a perfect opportunity for indoor dining to resume once the plaza sees its end.

“We’re anticipating [the plaza] to be through the fall, which gets us to the end of September,” Kirkpatrick said. “But we’re also hoping that, by that time, our restaurants will have indoor seating because that’s important. We need to get that done.”

The pedestrian mall is located on Broad and Monmouth Streets. Broad Street is closed to traffic from 2 p.m. every Thursday to 11:00 p.m. every Saturday, with retail and restaurant activity open from 4 p.m. Thursday to 10 p.m. Saturday. Monmouth Street is closed to traffic from 11 p.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Sunday, with retail and restaurants open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, click here.