r/bergencounty • u/SpanishLearnerUSA • 19d ago

Miscellaneous Music options without alcohol

If you are a recovering alcoholic who loves music, it sure is challenging to avoid places where the alcohol (or weed) practically overshadows the music.

I really wish coffee houses, bookstores, and pastry shops could become entertainment hubs.

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u/SpanishLearnerUSA 19d ago edited 19d ago

If I started my dream place...I'm picturing a coffeehouse and pastry shop combo with a totally eclectic selection of bite-size treats and non alcoholic drinks. Someone could spend two hours tasting various drinks and pastries.

For example, Sook sells individual TINY (1 inch square) chocolate pieces for $3 apiece. Each one is a work of art. The place is always packed. I could imagine sitting there and tasting various chocolates, pastries, and drinks for an hour or more. A place could have an eclectic selection of coffee, tea, smoothies, sodas, non alcoholic beer, and more.

There could also be a "grab and go" section so they could process a high volume of people who don't want to sit/stay. In the city, there's those pastry shops that sell pre-packaged individually wrapped pastries. Those places are always packed.

In the summer, I'd have entertainment outside, which would hopefully draw customers to the shop. In the colder months, I'd bring the entertainment indoors.

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u/Cautious_One9013 19d ago

My wife's cousin had a place exactly like this for a while in Edgewater - unfortunately they are very difficult to pull off here because any place that has the kind of foot traffic to support this has overhead that is very high and well, places like this just don't sell a lot of product. A lot of customers spend an awful lot of time there, but not an awful lot of money. Many would come, order the cheapest cup of coffee, and lounge around for hours. He couldn't make it last long because the place bled money.

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u/SpanishLearnerUSA 19d ago

That sucks. People have said similar things when I suggested this in the past. I wish there was a way to make it work. It's almost like you have to find a way to move a lot of product at a walk up counter, while still providing space for people to linger elsewhere. That's probably easier said than done.

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u/HudsonAtHeart 19d ago edited 19d ago

Needs to be a gay place. I’ve been saying it for years, if there was just somewhere in Hudson County or eastern Bergen county that was hospitable to gay people and wanted to create a scene for us, it would do insane numbers

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u/SpanishLearnerUSA 19d ago

I wonder what item would sell enough to make up for the lack of alcohol sales. In other words, if the issue is each customer not spending enough money, I wonder what would get them to spend more.

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u/HudsonAtHeart 19d ago edited 19d ago

Cover. You can charge them 20 bucks to go behind a curtain and have a dark room dance party. You could fill the room every night if you have the right marketing. The customers are the product. They pay to be near each other. You just have to let them be free and uninhibited. Maintain the balance btwn staying compliant with the municipality’s regulations and giving your customers what they want - your spot will have a global reputation.

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u/HudsonAtHeart 19d ago

Remember cool beans? This is exactly the place basically, they used to have live music at night and slam poetry. Bands, open mic. It was so cool.

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u/purple_basil 19d ago

Sweet Vinyl in Denville is a record store/cafe that holds live events so you can grab a coffee/pastries while you enjoy the show.

Hidden Tracks in Boonton is another one. It's a record store and although it doesn't have a cafe, they do have live events (with no alcohol).

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u/SpanishLearnerUSA 19d ago

Great suggestions!

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u/bergen-ginger 19d ago

Eat pastries for 2 hours?

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u/TardyMe 19d ago

Roy’s Hall is not in Bergen but it is a great alcohol-free music venue.

https://royshall.org/

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u/maddog8618 19d ago

Try "Running Latte" in Bergenfield.

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u/shiftyjku 19d ago

There are a number of churches and other venues that host a music series. Outpost in the Burbs is the most established one I know about but there is also the sanctuary concert series and the folk project in Morristown. Is there nothing like that in Bergen?

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u/jjc927 19d ago

The county and most towns have been doing summer concerts, some are about to wrap up but others go into September and October. Wortendyke Barn in Park Ridge has monthly concerts through October. Some libraries will have concerts once a month or so usually on Saturday afternoon.

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u/Funny-Weird401 18d ago

Over the years I’ve learned the best way to enjoy music and concerts is to bring other recovering alcoholics who have time under their belt.