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La Branche Bistro & Cafe
Packed with Local
BUSINESSES By Tara Ryazansky Photos courtesy of @minutesfrom manhattan and Tish Kraszyk
B
ergen Point is a tiny neighborhood at the tip of Bayonne where it juts into the Kill van Kull. The little stretch of downtown shopping on Broadway might not be more than a few blocks, but it’s packed with great local businesses to visit. Join me for a day in Bergen Point. I started my morning with brunch at La Branche Bistro & Cafe. The place got its name because it’s the second restaurant of the owners of Bake n’ Brew Cafe. If you have visited Bake n’ Brew you might have noticed the tree mural that decorates the walls of the cafe. “This place is like a branch of that tree,” owner Johanna Lara explains. Here at La Branche a mural by the same artist depicts a flowering branch. Lara wowed us with delicious eggs Benedict, scallops, and arepas from her eclectic menu. “My friends would ask me, ‘What kind of cuisine will you have?’ I would say,
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“I don’t know, we’re just going to serve food!’,” she laughs. “We have a Mediterranean background including France, Morocco, some regions of Egypt, Spain, Greece, then, of course, there’s the little South American corner in there. I’m from Venezuela.” The Reina Pepiada Arepas were the highlight of the meal. Arepas are gluten-free cornbread patties with a filling. This kind is stuffed with a dairy-free avocado chicken salad. Everything else was delicious too, including the Nutella crepe for dessert. After that, I went shopping at Bergen Point Boutique. Owners, Carrissa Golomb and Shez Zamrudeen showed me around the brand new space. The pair are longtime small business owners; Golomb owns Reese’s Hair Pieces in Bayonne and Zamrudeen owns the Deen Boutique. “We’ve always wanted to do something like this where other small businesses could show off their products,” Golomb says, explaining that the store sells items from 16
La Branche Bistro & Cafe
different vendors who will switch every three months. “You’ll always find something fresh and new here,” Zamrudeen explains. I wander around the space where you can find anything from plants from Rudo Plants & Home, who were featured on
our Spring-Summer 2021 cover, to beautiful activewear by Wear Love More. I was drawn to the cool prints on the high-quality matching sets, but what really impressed me was that they are made sustainably with recycled fabric. “That’s one of our Bayonne vendors,” Golomb says.
