Dunkin' May Replace North Jersey Spot Open For 20+ Years

Editor's note: Patch has updated this article to correct which Bask restaurant was featured on "Kitchen Nightmares."

WOODLAND PARK, NJ — A Passaic Valley restaurant owner is fighting to keep his bar and grill open, as the Borough of Woodland Park considers an application to tearing it down to make way for a new drive-thru Dunkin'.

A current zoning board application calls for demolishing the Browertown Road strip mall where BASK Bar and Grill is, and replacing it with a Dunkin' location that includes a drive-thru lane.

Owner Steve Baskinger has had this local spot open for more than 20 years, and called on residents and patrons to before the most recent Board of Adjustment meeting on Sept. 25.

Woodland Park officials postponed the next hearing on the application to Oct. 30 and it has been on the board's docket since April because all seven members were not present on Monday, NorthJersey.com reported.

Bask Bar and Grill's landlord is the one pushing for the change, Mayor Keith Kazmark said earlier this year, not the township.

"Thank you for all of your patronage and support. We do not need a Dunkin' here!" said a social media post from Baskinger's other restaurant, BASK 46 at 1530 Route 46 West. That restaurant is also going to be featured in the return of fiery Chef Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares" television show on FOX, with the episode airing Monday, Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, Baskinger is having a "Kitchen Nightmares" watch party at Bask 46 on Monday, with complimentary appetizers before the show airs at 8 p.m., the restaurant said. Then, they will turn to the New York Giants game against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football.

The second episode of Ramsay's show features a Bask 46 chef who calls himself "the culinary gangster," complete with t-shirts and business cards, showrunner David DeAngelis told Variety.

Ramsay also visited a restaurant in Dumont, per Variety.