We welcome a new restaurant concept featuring local craft beer that has opened at 18 Cedar Grove Lane in Somerset. Twenty/20 Taphouse opened recently, adjacent to the Springhill Suites by Marriott.
The new gastropub is a brand owned by Ohio-based Radius Hospitality, which also owns other New Jersey properties in Somerset such as The Imperia Banquet Hall and the Fairfield Inn & Spring Hill Suites, which are both Marriott franchises. It features a full bar, with a savvy selection of wines and a variety of seasonal, craft cocktails. The thought behind the name for the restaurant is attributed to the restaurant’s policy of having 20 beers on draft and 20 more in bottles or cans, most of them crafts.
“The theme is a craft beer gastropub, with a focus on working with and featuring many New Jersey craft breweries, with more than 40 choices in local taps and craft brews,” the regional sales manager for Radius Hospitality, Laura Cox, told the Food Fella. “We also have our own, specially crafted, Twenty/20 Redeye Amber Ale, which is brewed locally by our friends at Flounder Brewery right here in Somerset County. Our full menu of high-quality, American pub food is fresh and locally influenced, and all made from scratch,” Cox said.
Lunch and dinner are served daily, and there’s also a late-night menu available, with brunch being served on Sunday. The location has more than 20 large-screen high-definition televisions broadcasting national and local sporting events and has a private room for dining or corporate events.
The opening of Twenty/20 Taphouse has also brought with it about 100 new jobs.
The hours of operation are: Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A new website is being developed for the New Jersey location. Wishing the owners and staff of the newest Jersey gastropub much success!
Jersey hot sauce crowned Grand World Champion
Congratulations to Jersey Barnfire Hot Sauce, based in northern New Jersey, as it was recently awarded two championship prizes at the 2019 NYC Hot Sauce Expo for its popular Indian Summer hot sauce — winning awards at the Brooklyn Expo Center for Grand World Champion and Caribbean Style.
According to the Boozy Burbs website, the Indian Summer flavor was created in a collaboration between Jersey Barnfire and Fuego Box, the top monthly hot sauce subscription box. The sauce combines elements of a Caribbean scotch bonnet pepper sauce and a Carolina gold-style barbeque sauce — mustard-based, with mango and a touch of curry. While Indian Summer has been sold exclusively via Fuego Box, it is now available wherever Jersey Barnfire products are sold.
Since it got its start at local farmers markets in 2014, Jersey Barnfire Hot Sauce has grown rapidly, thanks to consumers across the Garden State, including local restaurants and avid fans of monthly hot sauce subscription boxes.
Jersey Barnfire’s co-founder, Chef John Sauchelli, said that, starting with the 2019 growing season, Indian Summer will be made using peppers from East Coast Organics — a small organic farm located in Long Valley.
Jersey Barnfire’s sauces can be purchased via the company’s website, at jerseybarnfire.com, and a few retailers primarily in Bergen County, including Market House in Westwood. As the hot sauce company continues to “catch fire,” we hope to see it at more retail outlets around the state. Good luck to all at Jersey Barnfire Hot Sauce!
Natural foods grocer Sprouts in the Garden State
With the opening of its first New Jersey supermarket, Sprouts Farmers Market, the owner of 324 stores across the country, is ready to go “stalk to stalk” with the competition.
The new, 33,000-square-foot natural foods grocer is now open in the Marlton Crossing shopping center on Route 73 in Evesham Township.
The rise of the chain stemmed from a single store in Chandler, Arizona, which opened in 2002, selling farm-fresh produce and thousands of natural, organic and specialty foods at competitively low prices. Within a decade, the chain had grown rapidly through acquisition and organically with new store openings. In August 2013, Sprouts, headquartered in Phoenix, became a public company traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The shopping experience features an array of fresh produce at the heart of the store, the Market Corner Deli with prepared entrees and side dishes, the Butcher Shop, the Fish Market, an expansive Vitamins and Supplements Department, bulk foods and more. Shoppers can also select from thousands of attribute-based items throughout the store, such as organic, gluten-free, vegan and plant-based.
As of 2018, here are some notable facts about the natural foods chain operations:
- 20,000-plus products, 90% of which are natural or organic;
- More than 8,300 gluten-free items and more than 7,100 non-GMO items;
- More than 7,700 vitamin and body care items;
- More than 2,400 Sprouts brand items in store;
- Supported more than 850 community events.
Sprouts features natural food products.
The company uses both KeHe and UNFI as grocery suppliers and, for fresh produce, it self-distributes from five Sprouts distribution centers across the U.S. Because fresh produce is central to the stores, this model allows Sprouts to directly source, quality control and distribute the produce it sells, and offer it at prices that give it a competitive edge over other stores.
Although they carry some mainstream-brand grocery items you would find in other supermarkets, some you won’t find there — Doritos, for instance. What the store does offer is the Sprouts brand of corn chips, at a lower price.
The shopping floor has an open layout, which makes it a bit easier for shoppers to spot items.
Sprouts is also community-oriented and supports local nonprofit and educational institutions that share their goal of improved health, nutrition and well-being. Over the years, the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation has promoted nutrition, education and access to healthy foods, and has donated more than $7 million to 260 nonprofit organizations since 2015.
In 2018, the foundation gave $2 million in nonprofit donations, including 85 local neighborhood grants awarded to support children’s nutrition education. Sprouts covers 100% of the foundation’s operating expenses.
This location, as do almost all other locations, is employing between 80 and 150 full- and part-time employees, or “team members,” as they’re referred to at Sprouts.
I must give kudos to this up-and-coming natural and health-driven retailer for committing to these causes. Wishing former Acme executive and New Jersey Food Council member Dan Croce, who is now senior vice president of Sprouts’ East Division, a successful launch as the chain navigates its way into the “Garden State.”
Conversation Starter
Reach Sprouts Farmers Market at: sprouts.com.
