Downtown Denville

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How to Support Your Favorite Local Businesses

Customer support is crucial to any successful business, but there are a number of ways that you can support your favorite local business without even spending a dime.

  1. “Like” their Facebook page and “follow” their Instagram account. It’s a simple way to keep up with their events, products and news, and helps their business continue to build their audience and find potential new customers.
  2. Engage with their social media posts by liking their posts, commenting, and sharing. Not only do the businesses appreciate your interaction, the engagement helps their pages get seen by others who don’t follow them. More followers = more business.
  3. Leave their business a review on their facebook page, Yelp or Google. People read reviews, and good reviews are golden, and also help the business come up more during web searches.
  4. Share the business in a local group, whether it be a Moms’ facebook group or your favorite town page.
  5. Shop local. The small businesses in town are also the ones saying yes when you ask them to support the local sports teams or donate to your school’s Tricky Tray. And they say yes, because it’s THEIR community too. By you continuing to support them, they can continue to support you and the community.
  6. Give referrals. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, it always has been. When you see someone asking for your favorite place to buy something, give a shout out to your favorite local store and be sure to tag their facebook page while doing so.
  7. Drop them a note and tell them why you love them. Whether it’s a retail, restaurant, or service business, being a business owner in general is challenging, and a few words of encouragement or support can literally make their day. If you didn’t get one of our new Downtown Denville postcards, get in touch and we’ll get you one. They’re a great way to drop a love note in the mail to your favorite downtown business.

Event: Denville After Dark {6/26}

Downtown Denville has been hard at work behind-the-scenes to plan a fun and safe outdoor event downtown, designed to bring the community together (while we stay socially and physically distant ofc!) and enjoy live music, a mini classic car collection, outdoor dining, retail sales, and more.

Please join us this Friday night, from 5-9 pm, as we close down Broadway from top to bottom and open it up to pedestrian foot traffic only.

Many of our retailers will be staying open later than usual, and will be putting tables out on the sidewalks to showcase their wares.

Outdoor dining available at several downtown restaurants, including The Second Half, Mara’s, Beignets, The Pasta Shop, The Tuscan Table, Thatchers, Denville Seafood, Hunan Taste, and more, and additional seating by way of hi tops and picnic tables will be placed down the center of Broadway. Additionally we still have parklets with picnic tables for overflow seating for your take-out orders down along the new stone wall at First Avenue, the area in front of A&R Interior Design, and in McCarter Park, across from Denville Dog and Il Torrente.

You will be able to check out a small collection of classic cars (and meet their owners!) in the Denville Hardware parking lot from 6 pm on.

Denville’s own KickStart band will be playing live in front of A&R Interior Design, also from 6-9 pm.

The street will be closed off from 5-9 pm, so we encourage and invite you to come down, eat and shop local, and enjoy gorgeous summer weather … all while following the state’s requirements of wearing masks and practicing social and physical distancing, please. Hand sanitizers will be located on the various tables around downtown and portable ADA-compliant restrooms will also be located on Broadway.

Thank you for continuing to support our downtown businesses and Downtown Denville events – see you Friday night!

Denville Outdoor Dining Opens Up

In what can be described easily as a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally, New Jersey restaurants received the green light to begin the outdoor dining phase of our re-opening plan, and downtown Denville restaurants immediately rose to the challenge.

They worked hard to implement new outdoor dining areas, or reconfigure existing ones, and have done everything in their power to create warm inviting spaces while still keeping their staff and guests safe.

Restaurants like The Second Half and Tuscan Table are hosting guests in beautiful outdoor areas, while Thatcher McGhee’s (and soon to follow, The Pasta Shop) have expanded their footprint into parking spaces directly in front of their establishments.

While taking advantage of some restrictions being lifted, give a quick read to these suggestions from NJ.com if you choose to partake. Restaurants will continue to offer take out and curbside pick up as well. As always, continue to do what makes you and your family feel safe and comfortable… wear a mask when going out, wash your hands frequently, and maintain social and physical distance.

See you downtown!

Reopening Day!

Today the ban on non-essential stores being closed was lifted, and many of our downtown merchants happily threw open their doors to let customers back in. While there are still many restrictions like masks, capacity, and social distancing in place, it was nice to make one small step back to what our new normal will be.

Butter & Velvet, Sisters, and Shoe & Sneaker Barn, among others, were welcoming customers today, and several stores that are typically closed on Mondays (Dash of Thyme and Faith & Begorra, for example) opened up as a show of support for their fellow store owners. That’s what a community is all about.

As plexiglass partitions go up and store capacity comes down, the stores will face many challenges as they navigate how best to operate their business during these unchartered territories. Many will still be selling their wares online, in addition to in person sales, and look forward to an upcoming summer season. Do seek out their social media channels on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with new store schedules, promotions, and more. Additionally, Two Girls Media has updated their retail directory with store information.

Today also marks the reopening of outdoor dining, and you’ll notice many of our restaurants putting out tables and colorful umbrellas and getting ready to serve customers in a whole new way. More on that to follow later this week.

As always, our downtown is only as good as its support, so do what you can to welcome our retail and restaurants back into the fold, and continue to eat, shop, and discover your local community.

What We’re Doing Now

The Downtown Denville Business Improvement District has prepared a series of steps to help our businesses plan for a re-opening strategy based on updates from the Governor’s office of the State of New Jersey.  While developments are ever-changing, we have outlined strategies as a guideline, as well as the steps we are taking as a downtown district. Once the executive order and state shutdowns began, all of us were scrambling as business owners and professionals.  As a district, we hope you were able to take advantage of the resources we were providing. Here is what we’re working on right now.

Outdoor Dining Parklets
We have been working very closely with Mayor Andes and his Administration to establish a few areas to encourage shoppers to dine outside safely.  Cafe tables, wipe dispensers and other accommodations will be added to make for pleasant seating environments and will be opening shortly in the below designated areas:

  • Along First Avenue by the new decorative stone wall
  • McCarter Park
  • A few parking spots on the East side of Broadway will be blocked to allow for a small dining area
  • Potentially Center Street. We have the ability to occasionally block off Center Street after banking hours as we have for the Summer Block Party and other events, if desired, by working with the Township and Denville Police

Outdoor Shopping
The Mayor and his Administration via Township Executive Order will allow our retailers to put tables and outside retail to sell directly in front of their storefronts, similar to the way it is done during Sidewalk Sales. 

NOTE:  This can only be done when the Governor allows for non-essential businesses to open up.  When this happens, a path for pedestrians to walk must be accessible on the sidewalk.

Relief Fund
As we’ve shared, we created a Downtown Denville Relief Fund in hopes to raise money for grant relief and the additional items needed to adapt from the pandemic’s impact. We are grateful to all the support residents and businesses have given to the community thus far and hope the generosity will continue.  We have also contributed $10,000 to the fund. More details can be found on our website, including an FAQ.

As we gain more insight from the State on how stores and businesses will open, we will continue to share more of our plans and strategies moving forward.