Go one easy mile
down River Road, out of Red Bank, headed east towards the Atlantic
Ocean, and you seem to cross a timeline, as well as a town line, when
you enter Fair Haven — lovingly called “a little piece
of Haven” by many who live and work there. Long celebrated as
a place where the pace and pleasures of small town life are highly
prized, dearly cherished and abundantly apparent, it’s a family-oriented
community that one resident recently described as “a real town
for real people;” the kind of place where folks make conscious
choices about keeping life on a human scale… friendly, warm,
and filled to the brim with a sense of belonging.
It’s
also a vibrant business center and a great place to shop, eat and
hang-out!
The
Fair Haven Business Association counts more than fifty members in
a wonderful mix of owner-operated businesses sprinkled, like stardust,
along River Road. There’s that small-town, Fair Haven feeling
of welcome that greets you — along with practical pleasures
like free parking and plenty of it — but it’s the variety
of what’s available for you to enjoy that adds its own delight.
As Michel Berger, owner of FOREFRONT, a data integration company on
River Road, and president of the Fair Haven Business Association points
out, “You’d be amazed at what wonderful things are waiting
behind every door.”
Coffee
stops. Pastry shops. Fine fare. Hair care. Picture frames. Bicycle
chains. Diamond rings. Antiques and things…Fair Haven has a
little bit of everything, in just the right proportion…along
with some real surprises.
Like
SMALL FACTORY PRODUCTIONS, the incredibly creative, fun-filled storefront
animation/cartoon/music production studio for kids that would be right
at home in SoHo but would rather be next to KASSIE’S FAIR HAVEN
GRILL, where muffin magic is just one of the delights on the menu,
and across River Road from TASTE & TECHNIQUES, the cooking school
for budding chefs of all ages, and around the corner from Jennifer
O’Connor’s singing/dancing/music/arts&crafts/lang-uage
learning place, DISCOVER LINGUA, where anyone from infants to adults
can come to learn French, Spanish or Italian
Like
the multi-dimensional NEW JERSEY CENTER FOR THE HEALING ARTS that
reflects the town’s sense of community as a place where mind,
body and spirit are all valued as essential aspects of integrated
wholeness.
Like
the three women-owned businesses — Betsy O’Neill’s
MEN’S HAIR WOMEN’S FARE, Darry Guli’s THE YOGA STUDIO
and Tina DeAngelis’s photography studio, VISUAL XPRESSIONS —
all gathered under one historic roof in the Meyer Building that was
once the Fair Haven Volunteer Company #1 Firehouse on Fair Haven Road,
right behind that classic American hardware heaven — FAIR HAVEN
HARDWARE.
Like
THE ATTIC, Melanie Sellick’s consignment shop, with its secret
stash of the best of fashion and finery from the two river area, nonetheless
for wear, and at a fraction of the original cost.
Like
RIVER ROAD BOOKS, the long-standing bastion of an independent bookstore,
where owners Sharon Everett, Laurie Potter, Kim Robinson, and Karen
Rumage are in the business of loving books, not just selling them.
Many
of the town’s storeowners are hometown residents like outdoor
outfitter Karen Hellman, proprietor of GEAR LOFT, and mother of four,
who’s lived in Fair Haven for eight years. Or Erin Avery, founder
of AVERY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES an independent educational consultant
whose husband was raised here and simply calls it “one square
mile of paradise.”
Kathy
DeVincens, owner of SHUTTERS, a charming treasure trove of home furnishings
and accessories, opened her shop on River Road ten years ago “I
wish I had raised my kids here,” says Kathy. “It’s
a lovely town with lovely values.”
There’s
history, too, with retailers like Ike Burnstein of BLUE STOVE ANTIQUES
and his building-mate, Priscilla “Perk” Bahr, of the incredible,
eclectic NATURE’S EMPORIUM — shopkeepers whose roots in
Fair Haven go down for more than thirty years. “I’ve always
loved it,“ Perk says. “That’s why I’ve stayed.”








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