MANCHESTER – When will The Barn doors open? That has been a question for more than a year now and there is now hope that it will happen soon.
The Barn located on Route 70 has been trying to open the doors of her restaurant and has run into obstacles with municipal code and state required environmental requirements.
It was more than a year ago that owner Patricia Donahue told The Manchester Times, “we plan to open a warm and inviting restaurant called The Barn located at 1330 Route 70 in Whiting. We plan to serve American style comfort food.”
Donahue and many other individuals have been working to bring life to this unique establishment – a restaurant where the profits will be used to provide free meals to those in need.
“During the course of our journey we have had quite a bit of setbacks including a pandemic that shut down the world and yet we still keep our eyes focused on bringing this social enterprise vision to the community,” she said.
The Barn is associated with Inspire-NJ. A social enterprise is defined as a business with specific social objectives that serve its primary purpose. Social enterprises seek to maximize profits while maximizing benefits to society and the environment, and the profits are principally used to fund social programs.
After more than a year of delays involving township requirements and state environmental issues, Donahue received some good news just before the new year.
Manchester Mayor Robert Arace (standing at right) addresses attendees at a recent gathering at The Barn which will soon be open as a restaurant in the Whiting section of the township. (Photo By Judy Noonan)
“The good news is that we got approval from the New Jersey Pinelands Commission on the Friday before Christmas. Talk about a Christmas miracle. We are finishing up with our final inspections with the Health Department and all that. We are looking at doing a friends and family opening at the end of February,” she said.
“The date is to be determined,” she added. She had a firmer date for a soft opening on March 9 with a grand opening March 17. “After all this time and all this money. As we were tallying up everything, professional fees alone are close to $45,000.”
“In my world, every one of those dollars could have been used towards free meals from the Food Pantry, so it was a little disheartening but the Barn doors will opening, very soon and we are very excited about it,” she added.
The process began in November of 2019. “That is when I started talking to the owners of the building and on March 9, 2020 he gave me the keys to the building and shortly thereafter we started the process and then we had the Covid crisis and no one was working,” she added.
“We tried to get all the donations in line and we are blessed to have such tremendous supporters getting those donations in line, getting products delivered, refrigeration and other things but we got it all through,” she said.
Donahue said, “it is going to be an incredibly fun place to be. There is nothing quite like what we are doing. What I need people to understand is that while we are a non-profit and we are in service to those in need, this restaurant is a for profit entity. Every dollar of profit though, will go back directly into our programming, which will allow us to continue the feeding programs for our seniors, the military and the veterans with the food pantry and the meal delivery service that we are planning on.”
The operation will have a tremendous number of volunteers according to Donahue. “We are asking everyone now to let us know about their staff availability. We will need, for lack of a better word, ambassadors in the restaurant and once people are seated, one of our volunteers will go up and explain what we are and what we do which is important.”
“As a social enterprise you have to constantly be reenforcing that as it is how we are going to stay alive,” she added.
Interested volunteers can reach out to Donahue by e-mailing Info@Inspire-NJ.org. “We are getting ready. We are excited to be able to move a lot of meals out of here. People here in Whiting need a place to go that is safe, reasonable and the services we are going to provide. I am bringing in my community partners. There will be quite a few non-profits now – everything from home repairs to facility assistance and organizations linked to The Barn,” she said.
Reviewing some history of what The Barn once was, Donahue said that back in the 1960s, there was house on the property. It was purchased by a Toms River resident and in the 1970s it burned down. The owner rebuilt it to an actual horse farm that was dismantled and brought in from Pennsylvania and reassembled on site.
The Barn has had some food distributions already. (Photo courtesy The Barn)
“It was a restaurant and bar and then it became Harrison’s and then it became The Cranberry but it got to the point where nothing was making it here. At one time it was a motorcycle repair shop and after that folded the place was vacant for a long time,” Donahue said.
The Barn will offer up Jersey favorites like pork roll egg and cheese on a kaiser roll, Reuben sandwiches and Banging Burgers. It will also feature Kohr’s Original Frozen Custard bar that will serve up “those orange cream shakes only found at the Jersey shore and the best part is that eating here will not only become your favorite spot to get delicious quality breakfast, lunch and dinner food at a reasonable price, but eating here also helps to support local programs,” Donahue told The Manchester Times.
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