A family-run operation, the Concord Café in Avalon opened in the late ’80s beneath the Concord Suites Hotel. Jim Barnabei, who bought the space more than 30 years ago, transformed it from liquor store to mini-mart to its current incarnation, a bar and restaurant.
Barnabei and his wife, Nancy, have owned multiple eateries and liquor stores along the Shore. Their oldest son, Justin, took over the kitchen at the Concord Café a few years ago.
“It’s a local meeting place,” says Barnabei. “Meeting the people in the area over the years has been so nice.”
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Table Hopping: How did you get into the restaurant industry?
Jim Barnabei: It was baby steps, actually. At the time we bought the Concord space, I had a separate liquor store. I really didn’t have that much restaurant experience. As a kid, I worked in different places in restaurants and cooked. We started [the Concord Café] as a store and it kind of grew into a restaurant. We started with a hot dog roller.
TH: When did you add full sit-down service?
JB: A friend of mine who made pizzas in another place said, “Why don’t we do pizzas up here?” So we started with pizzas. Then we opened the kitchen up and were starting to turn it into more of a bar and restaurant. I think it was 2000 that I finally took out the liquor store aspect and went full-blown bar and restaurant.
The Concord Café bar
TH: What’s it like operating your café underneath the Hotel?
JB: Another friend of mine—his family had an Italian restaurant that had closed—he started working for me. So we supplemented the pizzas and sandwiches with pasta dinners. At that time, most of the places in the hotels were fine-dining restaurants. There were a number of families in that area that didn’t go to fine dining, and they were glad to bring their kids in for pizzas, pastas, burgers and stuff like that. So that was our niche. That’s how we started.
TH: What does your son, Justin, bring to the menu?
JB: He’s been there the last couple of years. He went to culinary school in New York. He does a good job, and he’s able to do a lot of dinner specials that you don’t normally see. He worked at a couple of other restaurants I had as well.
TH: Do you own and operate other restaurants in Jersey?
JB: I still own North End American Grill in North Wildwood. At one point I owned four restaurants and two liquor stores. I owned Marie Nicole’s restaurant down in Diamond Beach in Wildwood Crest. I sold off the others and both liquor stores, so now we’re just with North American Grill and Concord Café.
TH: What made you jump from owning a liquor store to restaurants?
JB: As Concord and the liquor store were going good through the ’90s, we opened Marie Nicole’s in the Diamond Beach, Wildwood Crest, area. It was a pretty established fine-dining restaurant since 2000. We were there for 20 years. It’s been an adventurous time and been good. My other son, Jeffrey, is running North End American Grill, and my oldest daughter and her husband bought my original liquor store last year. They’ve done a really nice job with it.
TH: What’s it like passing down businesses to your kids?
JB: It’s a good feeling. They’ve all worked in the business on and off for all these years, so they understand what’s going on and what to do. I’m learning to walk away, and I’m where I want to be right now. I’ll be 71 this year.
TH: What are you looking forward to this summer?
JB: People can now sit at the bar, so that makes it more welcoming. People see others they don’t usually see in their everyday life here. People on one end of the island meet people from the other end, and when they see each other at the Concord, they have stuff to talk about. It’s a nice little spot.
The Concord Café bar and restaurant, located at 7800 Dune Dr. in Avalon, offers full-service dining and takeout. Check out their menu.