Downtown Denville

Morris county

Celebrate National Ice Cream Month in downtown Denville!

It seems rather fitting to celebrate the hottest of summer days with a dish of ice cream, but when better to do it than in July, which is National Ice Cream Month? And so, in the interest of research, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite of the sweet treats available in downtown Denville.

Whether you enjoy your ice cream outside at their bright orange tables or take it to go, the folks at Denville Dog & Grill have a delicious assortment of 32 Welsh Farms ice cream flavors to choose from. Get it in a cone, cup, or even milkshake form, but don’t forget their Pineapple Dole Whip! It’s the next best thing to hopping a flight to Florida for Disneyworld’s version!

Speaking of milkshakes, if that’s your pleasure pop into Weenies and check out all their crazy and traditional concoctions! They have everything from old fashioned Chocolate, Vanilla, and Coffee, to more unusual varieties like Maple Bacon, Frosted Flake, and Blue Cotton Candy. They’re open until 3 am for outdoor dining, to go orders, and delivery.

You might not think of Bubble in Paradise when you’re thinking about ice cream, but then you’d be missing out on their fun shaved ice and taiyaki creations! They have a wide variety of build-your-own shaved ice creations that you can top with ice cream, and they also offer made-to-order egg waffles and taiyaki topped with ice cream and your choice of toppings and drizzles. Still not enough? They even have traditional sundaes that you can top with non-traditional toppings like mochi, pocky, or red bean.

And, of course, no ice cream list is completing without mentioning Denville Dairy! In business for over fifty years, the Fine family has been serving up their homemade treats to customers far and wide. Milkshakes, cups, cones, pies, cakes, and even ice cream sandwiches! Tons of flavors and toppings to choose from, each one more delicious than the next, and sugar-free and fat-free flavors are available as well (and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference!).

With just less than two weeks of National Ice Cream Month, you have your work cut out for you, but we know you’re up to the challenge! Indulging in ice cream around town? Share on Instagram and be sure to tag us – we’d love to see!

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!

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.

Great Events for 2020 Announced !

The Downtown Denville Business Improvement District has announced a slate of outstanding events coming to one of Morris County’s best downtown districts. The events draw shoppers and visitors to all that Denville has to offer from great retail to top restaurants. Many events also tie-in with local causes and charities as Downtown Denville has always been the place where a community comes together.

BE A SPONSOR OF ONE OF THESE GREAT EVENTS

LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION sponsored by Hunan Taste (February 9th, 1pm)

Downtown Denville’s Lunar New Year Celebration will be sponsored by Hunan Taste

A cultural celebration of Lunar New Year, which is celebrated by nearly half the world. The event will be sponsored by Hunan Taste, NJ’s Best Chinese Restaurant and chaired by Viva La Pet and The Urban Muse. It will feature a Pet Parade, Ice Sculpting, Dragon and traditional Chinese Dancers in Hunan’s Parking Lot after the parade, A huge maze for the kids and so much more. Supplies for Denville’s Animal Shelter will also be collected and awareness and fundraising for a local animal charity to be announced soon.

SPRING INTO DOWNTOWN DENVILLE Sponsored by Lakeland Bank (April 11th)

Spring Into Denville features tons of activities including egg hunts, music and more.

Families and children can come downtown for their spring shopping and collect eggs, in stores, filled with candy and other prizes. Many shops feature great specials and events. Don’t miss getting a pic with the Easter Bunny at Lakeland Bank or the hopping music playing throughout town.

CENTER STREET LIVE Presented by Saint Francis Residential Center (June 11th, July 9th and August 13th)

Once a month during the Summer, Downtown Denville will be rocking as on Center Street for live performances from your favorite local bands. Grab some food from outstanding surrounding eateries and a cold beer in the beer tent for the newest series coming this year. What an awesome event !

SUMMER BLOCK PARTY & SIDEWALK SALES (July 30th – August 1st)

Sidewalk Sales in Downtown Denville kick off with a huge summer block party featuring live music on Center Street, tons of store specials, events and sales, sales, sales.

DOWNTOWN DENVILLE RESTAURANT WEEK Presented by Saint Francis Residential Center (Sept. 20th-24th)

When you have some of the best restaurants in New Jersey there’s no better way to celebrate than eating out all week long. Eateries will have tons of daily specials, featured menus and more. Dine Out Denville !

PINK WITCHES NIGHT OUT Sponsored by Saint Clare’s Health System (Oct. 15th)

Pink Witches Night is one of the premier Girls Nights Out in NJ raising awareness for Breast Cancer and Women’s Health.

One of the best GIRLS NIGHTS OUT in New Jersey. This event has become a huge flagship event for Downtown Denville and thousands of women (and men too) come out to celebrate life ! Raising awareness for Breast Cancer and Women’s Health, the event always ties in with a local survivor’s charity. The SWAG BAGS are filled with ridiculous amounts of awesomeness and there’s tons of prizes and giveaways for those that register. Plus women love to dance to the music blaring throughout Downtown in their pink witches hats and other creative costumes.

SHOPPING OPEN HOUSE, SMALL BIZ SATURDAY & THE WHOLE HOLIDAY SEASON (Nov. 27th, 28th and Throughout the Holidays)

There’s no better place than Downtown Denville for the entire holiday season. Shopping Open Houses, Carolers, Small Biz Saturday, Holiday parade and more.

Downtown Denville is a holiday destination. The season kicks off with a huge shopping open house on November 27th (the day after Thanksgiving) with horse carriage rides, live performances, holiday characters, pictures with Santa and so much more. Carry over the celebration that weekend by support local stores for Small Biz Saturday and the traditional holiday parade on Nov. 29th when Santa comes to town via Denville’s Fire Department to take his Santa Land Residency on Church Street just outside downtown. Additionally the whole holiday season will feature regular holiday carolers, festive music and tons of activities. There is no better place to buy gifts than Downtown Denville and these great activities make it a true holiday experience.

BE A SPONSOR OF ONE OF THESE GREAT EVENTS