Along Newark Way, Maplewood's zoning permits a building up to 50 feet tall covering as much as 90 percent of its lot. Most of what the code allows in that space is industrial or artisan: offices, warehousing, light manufacturing, labs, breweries, makerspaces, studios. General restaurants, ordinary retail and apartments are not on the list.
Artie's has served Italian food at 15 Newark Way since 2023 anyway. It got there the same way several of its neighbors did, through one variance application at a time. That history put a pasta shop, a raw bar and a gallery within a few minutes' walk of each other in the Hilton neighborhood. It also explains why parking on Jacoby and Hughes Streets filled a community meeting in October, and why the Township Committee has sent the whole area back for study.
Two zones meet at one corner
Two districts overlap here, and they work very differently. The Neighborhood Business zone along Boyden Avenue already allows retail, restaurants other than fast food, apartments over stores, offices and multifamily housing. The commercial-industrial zone along Newark Way allows retail mainly for goods made on site.
The township has widened the Newark Way rules once already. Ordinance 3148-25, adopted in April 2025, added indoor agriculture, food production, makerspaces, artist and artisan studios and galleries, limited associated retail, and temporary art and craft events. It didn't cover general restaurants or housing.
Lot sizes show how far the rules are from the street that exists. The commercial-industrial zone calls for a 40,000-square-foot lot with 150 feet of frontage. The property at 36 Newark Way, approved as a live/work artist studio and residence, has about 5,482 square feet and 19.35 feet of width.
The corner, address by address
The cluster started small. In 2019, Fred Shandler, a Maplewood native, opened The BreadStand on Boyden Avenue between Menzel and Jacoby. He later folded it into Artie's, the restaurant formerly known as Arturo's, when he moved it from Maplewood Village to Newark Way. Over the following years he bought more property and brought in more businesses. Here is how the corner looks heading into the holidays.
| Business | Address | What it is | Hours and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artie's | 15 Newark Way | Italian restaurant, with The BreadStand folded in | Approved by variance |
| Porta Rossa Pasta & Provisions | 160 Jacoby St., at Boyden | Handmade Italian pasta and provisions | Closed Mondays |
| Perla Seafood & Raw Bar | 415 Boyden Ave. | 32-seat seafood and raw bar | Reserve on Resy; no phone; bar seats are first come, first served |
| Wheelhouse Cheese & More | 417 Boyden Ave. | Cheese shop and café | Wed and Thu 11 to 6, Fri and Sat 11 to 8, Sun 11 to 5 |
| Corner Slice | 419 Boyden Ave. | New York square pie by the slice | Daily 12 to 8 |
| Shopkeeper | 405 Boyden Ave. | Housewares, jewelry, art books, locally made goods | Gift shopping |
| Pallet Brewing Company | 30 Newark Way | Brewery, opened in 2025 | Trivia, music, comedy |
| The Art Generators Gallery | 14 Newark Way | Gallery, workshops | Thu to Sat 11 to 9, Sun 11 to 7, or by appointment |
The table shows the zoning split. Perla, Wheelhouse, Corner Slice and Shopkeeper are on Boyden Avenue, where shops and restaurants are permitted uses. Corner Slice took over 419 Boyden, The BreadStand's original home, after a soft opening on February 1, 2025. On Newark Way, Pallet Brewing fits the commercial-industrial zone, which lists breweries among its permitted uses. Pallet opened in a building owned by Levent Erhamza, who also runs Guten Parts + Storage next door at 34 Newark Way. A gallery became a permitted use there under the 2025 ordinance. Artie's, a full restaurant, needed a variance.
Perla adds an 18-seat sidewalk patio from spring through fall when weather allows. It recommends reservations because the room is small. Corner Slice closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so plan around those dates if a slice run is part of your holiday routine.
What's on the calendar through December
The gallery and the brewery are the two places on the corner with a steady event schedule. Through the holidays it runs as follows:
- Through November 29: "Roots" is on view at The Art Generators Gallery, 14 Newark Way.
- Friday, November 20: The Maybes play Pallet Brewing.
- Wednesday, November 25: Trivia at Pallet, the night before Thanksgiving.
- Sunday, November 29: Whiskey & Sugar at Pallet.
- Wednesday, December 2: Trivia at Pallet.
- Friday, December 4: "It's Giving," a holiday art exhibition, opens at the gallery with a public reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. It runs through December 20.
- December 5, 6, 9, 13, 16 and 20: Art workshops at the gallery.
The Art Generators' holiday art market on November 28 is at Felina in South Orange, not on Newark Way.
Why parking became the township's agenda item
When a district grows by variance, each approval is judged on its own merits. Parking, curb rules and through traffic get no single plan covering the whole area. That gap is what people raised at the Hilton Neighborhood Association's October 22 meeting at the Maplewood Community Center on Burnett Avenue. The Village Green reported that residents of the Hilton and Lightning Brook neighborhoods voiced support for the district and frustration with traffic and parking enforcement.
The complaints were specific. Jacoby Street residents described cars turning around in private driveways and two-way traffic on a street too narrow for two cars to pass parked ones. Several speakers mentioned the blind curves on Boyden. Hughes Street, which runs parallel to Newark Way, had already brought complaints to an August Township Committee meeting about residents being parked into their own driveways.
The township's responses so far are at different stages:
- Flex posts at Tuscan and Boyden were installed this year near Seth Boyden School, and a resident asked for the same treatment farther down Boyden by the shops.
- Speed humps on Jacoby Street have been mocked up by Township Engineer and Public Works Director Paul Kittner's office. Former Deputy Mayor Jamaine Cripe noted that the street had tried three times over 23 years to get them.
- A traffic and parking study by a consulting engineer covers several streets in the area, Township Committee member Nancy Adams said, and is expected to come back with recommendations.
- Extra parking is still at the idea stage. Township Administrator Patrick Wherry said the Department of Public Works yard on Boyden Avenue is busy with large trucks even on weekends. He also named four nearby vacant lots, three of them owned by Provident Bank, which the township is discussing for affordable housing. He said it is too early to know what could be used for parking.
Cripe also raised another idea: weekend jitney service so visitors could leave their cars at home. She pointed out that Pallet Brewing's original application was built around patrons taking rideshares or using a designated driver. For a Friday dinner at Perla or a show at Pallet this season, walking from nearby streets keeps your car out of the driveways neighbors raised at the meeting.
Where the rulebook goes next
More approvals are on the way. In October 2025, the Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a use variance for 17 to 21 Newark Way: two ground-floor retail spaces and three apartments, one of them affordable, in a new second story. The building was under construction by August 2026. In October 2026, the Planning Board approved an expansion of Porta Rossa with apartments above, according to The Village Green.
The 17 to 21 Newark Way approval also led to a policy push. On October 10, 2025, five members of the Zoning Board wrote to the Township Committee as residents. As reported by The Village Green, they noted that six board members had found the project's benefits substantially outweighed any detriments and that no one testified against it. They called the commercial-industrial zone, "at least on Newark Way, a relic of another era." They asked the town to start a process to supplement the Master Plan.
On October 20, 2026, the Township Committee sent the question to its Code Committee. Committee member Dean Dafis, who chairs the Code Committee, had circulated a nine-page memo. It proposes a Planning Board-led subarea plan for Newark Way and Boyden Avenue, followed by a tailored zoning amendment, probably a new district or overlay, backed by traffic, parking and infrastructure analysis. In the memo, Dafis writes that use variances are "a lawful safety valve" but "not a sound substitute for legislative planning across an entire district." He described his proposed timeline as 21 months and flexible.
Mayor Vic De Luca wanted a different order. He said the township should spend the next two months solving the parking and traffic problems residents had raised before starting a broader discussion. Deputy Mayor Malia Herman said both approaches could move forward and noted that the Zoning Board keeps receiving applications. For now, Newark Way keeps its current zoning.
If you live near Newark Way or Boyden Avenue and want to know how this corner's growth affects the way buyers see your street, Judith Daniels and our team can walk you through it block by block. Request a complimentary market consultation, and we'll start with the addresses in this post.
