On a Wednesday morning in May, Red Bank Green found workers at Circus Super Foodtown on Broad Street boxing up merchandise and pulling price labels off the shelves. The paper called it Red Bank's only large chain supermarket. The owners said the store would close on or about May 23, 2026, after 50 years.
Five months later, the building belongs to a gym, so the weekly shop in Red Bank no longer happens in one store. It's split across a food hall on Monmouth Street, a Sunday market with a few weeks left in its season and the big chain stores just outside town.
The building on Broad Street has a new owner, and it isn't a grocer
Genesis Health Clubs, the national chain that owns the Atlantic Club and spa at 325 Maple Avenue, finished buying the former Super Foodtown property for $13.5 million. Red Bank Green reported that the deed was filed with the Monmouth County clerk on September 4, and that the club plans to move into the site.
The club didn't wait long to say so. It announced plans to move to the Foodtown site on May 20, hours after the closure news broke. At that point the sale was still under contract, and it wasn't clear what land-use approvals the move would need. The September report still treated the move as a plan. No published coverage yet shows a finished approval for converting the old supermarket into a club.
The sale also starts a second change around the club's current home. Developer Roger Mumford is pursuing a townhome project covering the 3.4-acre Atlantic Club site and about a dozen nearby properties. For its September 24 meeting, the Borough Council put a resolution on the agenda asking the Planning Board to start the process of declaring that tract an area in need of rehabilitation. A development permit application has been filed for a new building at 325 Maple Avenue, but Mumford told the paper he had not yet submitted plans for the project.
The gym and the townhomes are both plans still moving through the borough.
Why a replacement grocer was never a sure thing
The family that ran the store explained the closing in its own statement. As quoted by Red Bank Green, the Azzolina and Scaduto families wrote that "over the last decade the supermarket landscape has changed and competition has been fierce."
That same coverage named the competition. Large chain supermarkets have opened within a short drive in recent years, including ShopRite and Uncle Giuseppe's in Shrewsbury and Aldi on Newman Springs Road in Tinton Falls. Those three stores already shared the big-basket trip with Foodtown. Now they handle it without an in-town option.
What's left inside the borough is smaller and more specialized. Most of it is on one street.
Anderson Market now does part of a grocery's job
The Anderson Building at 200 Monmouth Street was a grocery before it was a food hall. Culture Collective Hospitality Group, led by Chris Viola, took over the ground floor about a year before this fall and turned it into Anderson Market after the grocer Sickles closed. With Foodtown gone, the counters you can take home from matter more than they did a year ago.
Two of them cover what a supermarket's meat and seafood departments used to:
- The Butcher sells steaks, burgers, chops, sausages and chicken, with chef's weekly specials.
- Local 130 Seafood describes its fish as sourced dock-to-market.
Booskerdoo Coffee pours coffee every day. The market's posted hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Those are building hours, not counter hours. Each vendor sets its own schedule, so check the counter you want before planning dinner around it.
The rest of the hall has moved toward eating there instead of shopping. The Lobby opened Friday night, September 18. It's a juice and smoothie counter by day and a cocktail and aperitivo bar in the evening. Its site lists a daily Aperitivo Hour from 3 to 6 p.m. and vinyl DJs Thursday through Sunday. In the next room, Studio Omakase seats 14 at a counter where Chef Steven Wong serves a 12-course menu Wednesday through Sunday, with four seatings a night. The booking page lists $108 per person plus fees, with gratuity and tax on top. Red Bank Green quoted Wong calling it "the first omakase in Red Bank."
Seoul BBQ lists spicy pork bulgogi and fire chicken on its menu. Little Andy's, a West Coast-style burger stand, now appears on the market's vendor list in the spot Namkeen Hot Chicken left. Its opening was planned for October. Call ahead before making a trip for a burger.
Monmouth Street fills in the rest of the morning
East of the Anderson Building, the small shops that opened this fall add to what the food hall offers. Most of them sell coffee or something cold.
Julia's Coffee Co. opened Monday, October 19, at 19 Monmouth Street. It's run by twin sisters Julia and Sydney Boel, and its grand opening event was Saturday, October 24. The storefront was Surf's Up Coffee & Candle until that shop closed earlier this fall. A few doors up, Reves Smooth & Acaí Cafe held its grand opening in September at 42 Monmouth Street, next to Crazy Story Books. It's the second location for husband-and-wife owners Sebastian Balk and Cynthia Noack, and it serves soft-serve acai with no refined sugars, smoothies, pitaya bowls and coffee. Across the street, Linked By Mint opened a permanent jewelry and charm bar at 29 Monmouth Street.
Put those together with Anderson Market and you can pick up coffee, a smoothie, a pound of fish and a cut of meat within a couple of blocks of Borough Hall at 90 Monmouth Street. You can't get paper towels, cereal or a gallon of milk on the same walk.
The Sunday market is in its final weeks
For produce, the Galleria Red Bank Farmers Market has filled part of that gap since Mother's Day. It runs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Galleria parking lot at Bridge Avenue and West Front Street. The market's own page says the season ends in mid-November, which leaves only the first few Sundays of the month. One outside event listing shows a market date as late as November 29, which doesn't match the operator's page. Check with the Galleria before planning a late-November visit.
When the market closes for the year, the in-town produce source goes with it, and more of the week's shopping moves to the stores across the borough line.
How a week of food shopping breaks down now
| What you need | Where it is in or near Red Bank | Timing to know |
|---|---|---|
| Meat for dinner | The Butcher, Anderson Market, 200 Monmouth St. | Building open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon–Sat, to 6 p.m. Sun; check counter hours |
| Fresh fish | Local 130 Seafood, Anderson Market | Same building hours; check counter hours |
| Morning coffee | Booskerdoo at Anderson Market; Julia's Coffee Co., 19 Monmouth St. | Booskerdoo is open daily |
| Produce from local growers | Galleria Red Bank Farmers Market, Bridge Ave. and W. Front St. | Sundays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., season ending mid-November |
| A full cart of staples | ShopRite or Uncle Giuseppe's in Shrewsbury; Aldi on Newman Springs Road, Tinton Falls | Outside the borough |
| A night out instead of cooking | Studio Omakase, The Lobby, Seoul BBQ at Anderson Market | Omakase Wed–Sun, four seatings; Lobby Aperitivo Hour 3–6 p.m. daily |
What's still in the pipeline downtown
One more restaurant is on the way. A permit filing in July named Viola Red Bank as the applicant for an Italian restaurant at 31–33 West Front Street, the longtime home of Front Street Trattoria. In its October 21 Retail Churn, Red Bank Green showed renovation work underway but gave no opening date. That same column mentioned plans for a convenience store, but didn't name the operator or the address.
On Broad Street, the next step is a health club, assuming the borough approves the move. Until something else changes, Red Bank's fresh-food shopping happens on Monmouth Street, and the rest of the grocery list gets bought in Shrewsbury or Tinton Falls.
Beth Harding keeps track of changes like the Broad Street sale and the new Monmouth Street storefronts block by block, because they shape what living in a particular part of Red Bank is like day to day. If you'd like to talk through how downtown's changes affect your street, Beth Harding is glad to help. Schedule your free consultation.
