Local business owner banks on family time

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff Johnathon’s Grille will close its doors after 10 years in business along East Railroad Avenue in Jamesburg. What began as a short-term investment plan for Johnathon Frycz became a beloved staple of Jamesburg’s blossoming downtown.

But more than 10 years after serving its first customer, Johnathon’s Grille, owned and operated by Frycz, will be closing this week.

“It was a wonderful place,” said borough zoning officer Bernie Long. Long also serves as the chairman of the town’s Democratic Party, and Johnathon’s Grille was the party’s unofficial headquarters. “Everybody liked Johnathon, he ran a good place there. It will be missed, that’s for sure.”

Frycz has agreed to sell the property, located on East Railroad Avenue, to investor George Bloomberg. Frycz said the job, which had him working late nights, holidays and weekends, just did not allow him to see his family nearly as much as he would like to.

“My primary reason is just to spend more time with my kids,” Frycz said. Frycz and his family live nearby in Monroe; he has children ages 6, 8 and 17.

Frycz said he enjoys the food service business, but not as much as he enjoys the community.

“I won’t miss the hours, and working every holiday, but I will miss all my customers,” Frycz said. “I met a lot of friends, a lot of nice people, and that’s the part that I’m really going to miss the most.”

Frycz said that Bloomberg did not say exactly what he plans to do with the property after the Dec. 31 closing, but that Bloomberg was considering several options.

All signs point to a bank as the restaurant’s replacement, however. The Land Use Board awarded preliminary site plan approval earlier this month for the construction of a 4,000-square-foot Chase Bank on the site.

Long said the application would just require some fine-tuning, and that the current structure will be demolished.

“It’s a shame,” Long said, adding that there is no timetable for the demolition.

Long said the property was home to The Be-Bop Cafe, a ’50s-style cafe, before Johnathon’s, and the Lakeview Inn before that. He said there have been no applications before the Land Use Board, and no plans, for another restaurant in the borough.

“We need a bar and restaurant more than we need another bank,” he said.

Long said there have been rumors of the sale, but such talk had not been confirmed until the application for the bank was brought before the board.

“That’s when we knew it was real,” he said.

Frycz said he worked in banking for 23 years and got tired of the commute. He said he was just looking for something different to do, and bought the restaurant with the intention to sell it after a couple of years.

But, he said, he liked it so much he began to take a more hands-on management approach, which put him more in touch with the locals, and he was hooked.

“The best thing about this business is the people you meet,” Frycz said. “That’s what I’m going to miss.”

Long said he understands how demanding the job can be, and that despite having an efficient, polite staff at the restaurant, Frycz had little time away from the establishment.

“He had an excellent crew working in there, but still, you have to be there,” Long said.

Frycz said he had such a nice experience running the restaurant that he may stay in the business, locally. He said if he could find similar work that would enable him to spend more time with his family, he would strongly consider it.

Though the immediate future is still uncertain for Frycz, he said he greatly appreciates all the customers that kept him in business for the last 10 years, and the opportunity to be part of the community.

“And I’m not moving, I’m here, I’m still in town, so I’ll be in touch,” Frycz said. “Maybe if I can find something that I can set up on a little bit of a different scale, maybe I’ll be back in business in a few months.”

Frycz said he is exploring that possibility, and that finding a location will be the most difficult part.

“But I am looking at a couple pieces of property, so who knows?” Frycz said. “We’ll see how things evolve.”