From Fort Lee to Bayonne, restaurants are popping up along New Jersey’s Gold Coast, driving the region’s rebirth.

• Three restaurants opened in Weehawken in the last two years alone, coinciding with residential and hotel development.
• Gold Coast restaurants reflect a diverse community that has shape-shifted over the years.
• There are concerns about gentrification in these communities as much of the new development caters to visitors and wealthier residents.

Jeremy Casilli started his career in restaurant development in New York City. But driving through North Jersey on his way in from Rockland County, he noticed something: opportunity.

“When I looked at space down in Jersey City, you could literally see tumbleweeds. Someone told me, ‘You don’t understand. This is gonna be the sixth borough,” he said. “But that’s what happened. That area exploded, and just kind of reignited the whole Gold Coast along the water.” 

He heeded the advice, opening Pier 115 in Edgewater and Hudson & Co. in Jersey City, among others. His latest restaurant is Drift in Weehawken, and there’s another Gold Coast eatery of his in the works in West New York.

The Gold Coast — the roughly 20-mile stretch from Fort Lee to Bayonne — has swelled in recent years with new residential construction and, in turn, population growth. Restaurants have played a critical role in the redevelopment.

“All these developers have been looking to go to restaurant proprietors to find anchors,” Casilli said. “It’s no longer a department store. If you build a good conglomerate of serious restaurateurs, that is bringing business to them whether they’re trying to fill a mall or they’re trying to fill a vacancy.”

There are, of course, concerns that the rapid influx of higher-end businesses and high rises is pushing communities out. The hope is that restaurants, at least, serve the people that have lived in these changing cities for years.

“The community has always been here,” said Andrew Christianson, director of operations at Blu on the Hudson, which opened in Weehawken in 2023. “It’s just asking us for something different now.”

A renaissance led by restaurants

Gold Coast communities once thrived at the turn and well into the 20th century. Fort Lee was known as the Hollywood of the East, Jersey City was a major railroad hub, Weehawken had casinos and, oddly, a passenger elevator and an amusement park that opened in 1891. It was also (and continues to be) a melting pot of immigrants, first from Europe, then from Asia, now from those and beyond. 

But the loss of port, railroad and manufacturing jobs, deindustrialization and increased crime in the mid-20th century sent many of those communities into disrepair. Some cities took longer than others to rebuild. And there are still places working on their comeback.

Since reinvestment in these cities started some 30 years ago, people have been ringing the alarm bells of gentrification’s deleterious effects. The relaxing of rent controls along the Gold Coast and the construction of luxury units in residential areas has forced out many residents. 

The average monthly rent in Jersey City is $5,500, more expensive than Manhattan. Bayonne, which may be the slowest of the Gold Coast cities to reinvent itself, has plans underway to build high-rises and a skyline of its own.

There have been efforts to boost affordable housing percentages in these communities, and those who have been a part of the Gold Coast’s renaissance see evidence that thoughtful planning has retained the area’s socioeconomic and cultural diversity. Restaurants are a visible way to see the proof of that, said Emory Edwards, president of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce.

“Every chef starts with a story,” he said. “This being one of the most diverse places in the U.S., people love to tell their stories through food. I think you’re seeing diversity celebrated at a time when it’s being questioned. I think it’s a natural growth.”

Take Fort Lee for instance, a city that’s been home to Italian, Irish, German, Jewish, Korean and other immigrants over the last century-plus. Go today and you’ll find a wide diversity of restaurants, from casual dim sum to high-end Szechuan, pubs, virtual golf bars, Italian fine dining and much more.

The annual Fort Lee Restaurant Week puts that diversity on a pedestal, said Denis Glennon, vice president of the Fort Lee Business District Alliance, which runs the event. The alliance surveyed restaurant owners last year about why Fort Lee appealed to them to determine, in part, how to manage future growth.

“One of the questions we ask is, ‘Why did you choose Fort Lee?’ The responses are not only consistent, but they’re overwhelmingly positive,” Glennon said before last year’s Restaurant Week. “They do see it as growing, they do see it as diverse, they do see it as upper income, they do see it as progressive, and they see it as a place where things are going on and where things will be going on, and they want to be at the center of it.”

Restaurants have not only driven revenue in Gold Coast communities like Fort Lee, but they also become major employers and have helped to attract other businesses. Restaurants, Edwards said, are the engine for growth, and retaining a diversity of culinary offerings of those restaurants is paramount.

“There has been a lot of change, but one of the exciting things is you see a lot of diversity in the food offerings because it reflects the people who live here,” he said. “You can get anything you want within an hour.”

New avenues to meet a changing population

People are moving to the Gold Coast. From 2012 to 2022, Jersey City’s population rose almost 12%. Hundreds of new apartment buildings have opened, or will soon open, in Weehawken in the last two years. And several massive hotels have opened in Fort Lee, Weehawken and elsewhere.

With those new hotels and apartment buildings come restaurants. These eateries create dining spaces for locals, and draw in people from New York City and beyond. A place like Blu on the Hudson, with picture-perfect skyline views and Wagyu steaks, is worth the trip for many.

“We get such a mix,” Christianson said. “We get everybody from Edgewater, everybody from Weehawken, Jersey City. But then we have an uncanny pull from Philadelphia, New York, Connecticut. We just had people say they drove two hours to come here because, ‘We saw you in this article.’”

He added that while Hoboken may be maxed out on space, “It’s the surrounding community [that] is growing.”

Edwards said part of his job at the Chamber is to curate the experience for people who may not have visited Gold Coast communities in a while (or ever).

“Hudson County, all along the waterfront or inland a bit, people are using the restaurants here. They’re of such quality, and they’re an interesting dynamic that people are coming from across North Jersey,” he said. “When you first come to Hudson County, they may tend to go back and forth [to New York City] but if they live here a little bit, they dig in and look for things in their hometown.”

Faubourg, a French restaurant in Montclair, opened a second location in Weehawken late last year. Partners Dominique Paulin and chef Olivier Muller first came upon the spot some four years ago and appreciated the skyline views it provides and the proximity to New York City.

“We felt like it touched some of our existing customer base but it’s far away from us so we’re not competing with ourselves,” Muller said. “I think it’s a very pretty waterfront. We felt like it was a great location to expand.”

“It was a good location closer to New York, which we wanted,” Paulin adds. “I don’t think we would move to New York, but across from the river is alright.”

The concentration of good restaurants — Weehawken itself welcomed Drift, Faubourg and Blu on the Hudson in the last two years — makes these cities a destination for diners, and also improves the quality of the food, Paulin said.

“We came from the New York scene and worked there for 20 years,” he said. “I think it forces you to be creative and to work at what you do. With new restaurants opening, I think it’ll create a dining scene where people will want to come to Weehawken.”

A variety of causes led to the regrowth of Gold Coast communities — folks being priced out of New York City, the pandemic shifting work spaces, the proximity of public transit and, frankly, the improvement of those cities on the Jersey Coast. While that helped lead to the creation of residential buildings, restaurants and event spaces, the word has gotten around that sitting on a rooftop patio overlooking the New York City skyline with a drink in hand is a worthwhile visit.

That matters to the health of the restaurant scene here: Faubourg Weehawken almost doubles its capacity in summer, and Casilli said that helps offset the costs of running a restaurant in the cold months.

“I look at it like an insurance policy for success,” he said. “Winter takes a nosedive — I don’t know why because all the restaurants are very cozy — but as soon as spring, summer, fall activate, a sea of people come out. That’s why I’ve been focused on rooftop deals and waterfront properties.”

The rebirth of the Gold Coast as a destination is so successful, some are beginning to think of it not as an extension of New York City anymore — it’s just Jersey.

“I really strongly resist the language of being the sixth borough because I think we stand on our own,” Edwards said. “You see a lot of tourism growing. If you look at the hotels along the Hudson River waterfront, they’re staying almost full consistently throughout the year.” 

The future of the Gold Coast

For better or worse, the Gold Coast is likely to bring in more people, more buildings and more restaurants. Casilli is opening a more casual eatery in West New York in a space that hasn’t been touched for 20 years. Blu on the Hudson is gearing up for a lively summer with a lineup of live music and events (and they’re opening another location in Livingston later this year).

Edwards, at the Hudson Chamber, is planning for the increased crowds the 2026 World Cup will bring into the region. The hope is all that economic growth comes back to the community that started it. 

“I think if you look at New Jersey just in general, this is one of the growing counties,” he said. “This is one of the growing economies. I think there’s a huge opportunity here.”

He’s not alone: The hopes are high up and down the coast for an even more gilded Gold Coast.

“I think we’re going to exceed the posture that we had in the 1960s as being the place to live in Bergen County,” Glennon said of Fort Lee. “More pointedly, the place to live in northern New Jersey and with a little bit of license, one of the great places to live in the New York metropolitan area… I don’t wanna get carried away here.”

Matt Cortina is a food reporter for NorthJersey.com/The Record. Reach him at mcortina@gannett.com.