Montclair’s restaurant scene turned over fast this month. Here’s the latest Montclair restaurant news: two longtime spots have closed, two new tenants have signed on to replace them, and three other restaurants marked their own milestones in the past two weeks.
Tous Les Jours Closes on Bloomfield Avenue, Lenwich Moving In
Tous Les Jours closed for good on August 20, less than two years after it opened at 520 Bloomfield Avenue. The Montclair Pod has learned that Lenwich is moving into the space next, trading the French Korean bakery for New York style sandwiches.
Lenwich signed a lease for its first New Jersey location in Hoboken back in 2025, but that store still hasn’t opened, and construction on the Hoboken space had not started as of last fall. If Lenwich opens on Bloomfield Avenue first, Montclair, not Hoboken, becomes the brand’s first New Jersey location.
Industry Tavern Replaces Pineapple Express at Lackawanna Station
Industry Tavern has signed a lease for the space that housed Pineapple Express Barbecue, according to David Placek, whose company BDP Holdings owns Lackawanna Plaza. The name has nothing to do with the Atlanta-based Industry Tavern Restaurant Group. Placek said it’s a separate, unrelated ownership group.
What isn’t confirmed yet: who owns Industry Tavern, what the menu will look like or when the doors open. On Instagram, the restaurant has described itself as a classic, warmly nostalgic tavern set inside the 1913 terminal, the same building that once housed the Lackawanna Railroad station.
Pineapple Express closed January 30 after five years in the space. Chef and owner Damon Wise announced it on Instagram in a personal post that pointed to soaring costs across the industry. “Running restaurants is brutal right now,” Wise wrote. Placek said BDP Holdings was fielding interest from new restaurant tenants within days of the closure.
NEW STEAKHOUSE ARRIVING IN OLD CHASE BANK BUILDING
According to The Montclair Girl, longtime Montclair restaurateur Demetri Malki, owner of De Novo, is behind the project along with family members and Robert Pantusa of La Rocca Osteria, who will serve as partner and chef.
The group purchased the former bank building in 2025, but converting it into a restaurant has been no small task: some of the building’s concrete-filled walls are reportedly about 24 inches thick, making demolition and construction unusually complicated, The Montclair Girl reports.
The vision? Not a formal, special-occasion steakhouse, but a casual, neighborhood Italian steakhouse where you could just as easily stop in on a Tuesday night, Demetri told The Montclair Girl.
If approvals and construction stay on track, the restaurant is targeting an April or May 2027 opening.
Two Ribbon-Cuttings and a Comeback
Uptown had back-to-back ribbon-cuttings this month. Farmhouse Fried Chicken, the second restaurant from Dan Campeas and Dayanna Ordonez of Dan + Day’s, celebrated its official launch at 223 Bellevue Avenue.
A few doors away, Clementina held its own ribbon-cutting the same weekend as the Montclair Jazz Festival’s Downtown Jamboree, months after it first opened. The Adriatic-inspired Italian restaurant served cake and off-menu dishes for the occasion, including a clam pasta and a cuttlefish preparation sliced into thin, pasta-like strips. Owner Michael Pavel was on hand with several of his children and grandchildren. Pavel is the Montclair developer who discovered chef Michele Rocchi on a cruise ship and talked him into moving his family to New Jersey to open the restaurant.
Not every comeback needs a ribbon. On Park Street, a name Montclair has not seen in over a decade is returning. Mexicali Rose, the Tex-Mex restaurant that closed its original location in 2011, is coming back under the Restaino family, who also own Cuban Pete’s. No opening date has been announced, but the restaurant’s website teases that “the ultimate Mexican dining experience is almost here.” The original Mexicali Rose was founded by Rosemary Leone, who went on to open Leone’s; her stepson, Dominic Restaino, ran the business before it closed.
Farmhouse Fried Chicken and Clementina are both open now, so there’s no reason to wait on those two. Go get a plate. Lenwich, Industry Tavern and Mexicali Rose are still without opening dates, and we’ll let you know the moment that changes.
Image credit: Tous les Jours
