Well, the Hudson is right there.

It's really freaking expensive to get licenses so, you simply don't wind up with many specialty type of establishments.

It's not that they prevent them, it's that they make it difficult and expensive to try anything so you wind up with less variety and options overall.

Nice background, thanks!

It's been great to see new restaurants open on that stretch of Bergen the last few years: Cavaro, ITA, Krewe, Crema. Hopefully more to come.

Yes and great lines from the NYT’s 1975 review….

“Once, most cities had restaurants like The Alps: solid, unpretentious and expertly run. They have been replaced by anonymous chains, those where fast‐food operations are dressed up to resemble real restaurants. The food is frozen and tasteless, the atmosphere gimmicky and gauche. Places like The Alps have all but disappeared in this country. Perhaps, we prefer spurious “atmosphere” and plastic food to good meals in unpretentious surroundings.”

The Alps was one of the go to JC restaurants for family occasions like graduations, birthdays, etc. As the NYT’s review says in the 70’s the patrons were older.

The area was getting kind of shady and the old-timers had worries getting to it. So as I recall the owners started a door to door limo service. They hired off duty cops as drivers. Great idea at the time…pre Uber.

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Man I have been looking for an affordable swim option forever. :(

I have a tenant who hasn't paid in a year, just got him evicted last week and cleaned up the mess he left. Now to go after all the lost cheese.

Wow thank you so much!

They stopped during the pandemic and I am still hoping they start up again soon! Haven't called in almost a year, tho.

Agreed on the lower part of Satis. Haven’t been since pre Covid, but it used to get packed and they had great wine there

THANK YOU. You nailed it. It is SO OBVIOUS there is nothing like that. Where I disagree is that I never felt Third and Vine was a real wine bar. It tried, and it did get some aspects right, but the ambiance was never quite right. Terroir in NYC was pretty close to a good version of a wine bar, very much wine focused, with food options tailored to pair well with the extensive wine options.

I wish this place success.

Cool to read the 1975 NY Times review of the original Alps in McGinley Square. That building on Bergen (across Fairmount from Wonder Bagel) had been boarded up for many years when I moved nearby 15 years ago, but it looked like it had been a fancy place at one point. Glad that lot is finally being redeveloped with an appropriate-scale residential building.

Miss that place! 😢

From Jersey City tenants rights explanation:

"Many written leases will have a section explaining how you can get a new lease when your current lease ends. The lease may, for instance, state that unless the lease is ended by either the landlord or the tenant, it will automatically be renewed for an- other year. But a yearly lease that is not renewed automatically becomes a month-to-month lease when the year in the lease ends. Cite: N.J.S.A. 46:8-10. A month-to-month lease will renew itself automatically for another month unless the tenant or the landlord acts to end the lease. This rule applies even if the lease agreement is oral and not in writing. Cite: N.J.S.A. 46:8-10.

When your lease ends, the landlord can offer you a new lease with changes in the terms and conditions of the lease. To do this, the landlord must give you a written notice ending your existing lease and offering to enter into a new lease with you if you accept the changes. The landlord’s notice must clearly spell out the changes. A tenant’s refusal at the end of a lease to accept rea- sonable changes in the terms and conditions of the lease can result in eviction under the Anti-Eviction Act. To be “reasonable,” the changes must take into account the circumstances and interests of both the landlord and the tenant. This means that your land- lord cannot make lease changes that he or she knows will cause you unnecessary hardship, unless he or she has very strong reasons for doing so. If your landlord sends you a written notice containing lease changes that you think are unreasonable, send a letter to the landlord describing the unreasonable lease changes. Your letter should also say that you will not accept the new lease unless the landlord offers to make changes that are reasonable. Cite: 447 Associates v. Miranda, 115 N.J. 522 (1989)"

That's a fair question. I am not OP so I can't say for them but for me it means a few things. Wine should be the main focus of the bar... Meaning it comes first on the menu. There should be a wide selection/variety of wine by the glass and bottle that changes over time (not the same 4-8 reds and whites available everywhere else). The staff should be somewhat knowledgeable about wine or at least the owner/manager should have a cheat sheet prepared so that you feel like you're talking to someone who is passionate about wine. And of course a more laidback, loungy atmosphere.

Other nice to haves include serving food specifically meant to accompany wine, tasting flights, the owner having special relationships with specific vineyards, celebrating Beaujolais Day, and so on.

Ideally, I'd want the wine equivalent of what Cork City is to beer in Hoboken. I always leave with another morsel of knowledge about beer or a brewery and I appreciate it. Third and Vine, for all its faults, was very much like how I described.

And the landlord then refuses to accept it and off to court you go...

Yeah, JC absolutely needs a proper wine bar. If you've ever been to one, you don't really need an articulated definition, you just know there's nothing like that in town right now.

In my experience, the closest we currently have is the bar connected to Satis, but since it is part of a restaurant, it closes way too early.

The first few years of Thrid & Vine were great, but things dropped off a cliff seemingly overnight and its eventual closure was more merciful than disappointing.

Thanks! It just says “offered a renewal” and “notified of the proposed terms”

Thanks!

Can you describe how the liquor laws are preventing OPs idea of what a wine bar is supposed to be?

I meant what qualities make a proper wine bar.

Then you definitely get 90 days. Call the landlord/tenant relation number just to be sure...but sounds like you've got 3 months time to find a new place.

Blame the liquor laws in NJ, which the Governor is trying to amend

Third and Vine was pretty good.

Actually you do. If you just keep posting rent they have no case against you. You never signed anything about a rate increase.