Quimby Street in Westfield NJ: New Dining and Rebuild Plans

"This will be the last year of the temporary Open Quimby configuration," Mayor Jeremy Berman told the Town Council in April. He meant the concrete barricades, the parklets and the seasonal one-way setup that have defined the block every summer since 2020. The redesign that replaces them is still on paper. The buildings along the street are already changing, and nearly every change since July points toward restaurants and evening hours.

That matters for anyone who uses Quimby Street as a shortcut, a dinner plan or a Tuesday-night habit. Before a single bollard goes in, the block's tenants are rebuilding the street around eating and lingering. That is the use the town's design is meant to support.

The Block, Address by Address

Here is what Quimby Street looks like this fall, using the addresses the Town and local press have reported.

Two more closures sit just off the table. N&C Jewelers, next door to Learning Express, closed when owners Nabig Sakr and Carmen Cascao retired after running the shop since 2014. Superfly, the bungee fitness studio across the street, closed too. It had opened in 2024.

What Left, and What Arrived

Look at the full list of changes and the pattern is plain. Three businesses left over the summer: a toy and game store, a jeweler and a fitness studio. Three have opened or been announced since: a French bistro, a Vietnamese restaurant and a dessert shop that stays open late.

The toy store's goodbye made clear it wanted to stay in town. "We are currently searching for a new location in the local area," the Learning Express Westfield crew said in a video posted at the end of July. They also thanked customers for "the last 20 years."

The new arrivals point the block toward dinner and dessert.

Le Bistrot at 103 Quimby opened in September with a celebration TAPinto Westfield covered on September 11. It serves dinner nightly from 5 p.m. Owner Redha Bettahar is a Paris native, and he and Dominique Sartori, both originally from France, built the restaurant around classic bistro cooking. "We created Le Bistrot to bring the warmth, charm and culinary traditions of a true French bistro to the Westfield community," Bettahar said.

Vina at 114 Quimby comes from the team behind Kirshenbaum Baking Co. TAPinto reports it is taking over the space formerly held by Westfield Taqueria. Owner Jeff Kirshenbaum described the menu as a tribute to Chef Uyen's family recipes. "At its core, Vina is about authenticity, not reinventing dishes or reimagining classics," he told Patch in July. He also explained why the concept is launching here: "We found home in Westfield, in every sense of the word; and as we grow our business, our town remains the heart and catalyst of it all."

The Scoop N Scootery plans its second New Jersey location at 109 Quimby, after Red Bank. The business started as a food truck, has grown to more than 12 locations nationally, and is known for delivering sundaes until midnight. Once it opens, the block will have two ice cream counters. The Chocolate Bar at 112 Quimby won a TAPinto Westfield reader poll for favorite ice cream shop in town with 44% of the vote.

Masalamex at 115 Quimby, listed by the Town as serving modern Mexican cuisine, has been part of the food mix since April 2025.

The Street Is Being Drawn for the Same Evening

The town's consultant, Arterial, presented updated concepts at the August 11 Council meeting. The project covers Quimby from Central Avenue to Elm Street. The design calls for a flush, curbless, one-way street with parallel parking, wider sidewalks, raised intersections, added crosswalks and movable, semi-automated bollards.

The bollards are what make it work. James Robato of the design team said that when an event comes in, "the bollards can be pushed down or brought up," and once it ends, the street goes back to "acting like a street with parking." Town Administrator Jim Gildea said the setup would let the town program Quimby year-round, winter included: "We've had hugely successful watch parties at the World Cup doesn't mean we can't have a Super Bowl party."

The watch parties Gildea mentioned were the clearest test of what the street can hold. Patch reported that more than 1,500 people turned out for Match Night on Quimby. The Downtown Westfield Corporation organized the events, and its June 23 notice for the July 1 match listed Bovella's, Ferraro's and Liquor Loft as participating sponsors.

Parking is where the design asks for a trade. Robato said Quimby currently has 26 angled and parallel spaces, and the redesign would cut that to 16. Adding spaces on Central Avenue and at nearby intersections would bring the wider area to about 55 spaces, compared with 46 today. So the block itself loses ten spaces, and the surrounding area gains about nine overall. Some of that gain depends on Central Avenue. Robato said the town has asked Union County to let Westfield take over maintenance of Central between East Broad Street and North Avenue, which could give the final design more flexibility.

Robato also set limits on the scope. Snickle Way will be handled later, and an alley connection to North Avenue is outside the current plan because property ownership questions are still unresolved.

A Deadline That Has Already Moved Once

The timeline needs a careful reading. In June 2025, then-Mayor Shelley Brindle announced the plan to make Open Quimby permanent. She said the temporary setup had "created some parking and operational challenges," pointed to the heavy concrete barricades as a limit on flexibility, and said she hoped the new street would be "done in time for next summer." That meant summer 2026.

Arterial received the design contract in August 2025. The target now is summer 2027. In April, Mayor Berman said the goal was to finalize plans and go out to bid by year-end, with the project finished before summer 2027 begins. He repeated that target in his August 14 message, adding that the plans would go to stakeholder meetings with local businesses and tenants.

The steps in between are where the schedule could slip again. Patch reported that the Council is expected to consider funding, bid specifications and contract awards next year, and that cost estimates will come as design work advances. The September 22 Council agenda had no Quimby vote or funding resolution. No construction phasing plan has been published yet, so it is not yet known how the restaurants will operate while the street is torn up.

That leaves the block in an unusual spot. The businesses on Quimby are making their bets now. Le Bistrot has already started dinner service on a street that is set to be rebuilt in front of it within the year.

Between Now and the Bid

The temporary street still has one more big day this year. Here is what's on the near calendar and what to watch for:

1. Sunday, October 18, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The AddamsFest Addams Family Fun Day closes Quimby to cars for a morning of family activities.
2. Vina's opening. No date has been announced. Kirshenbaum Baking Co.'s social channels and TAPinto Westfield's food section are the likeliest places for news.
3. The Scoop N Scootery's opening at 109 Quimby. It has been announced, and no opening date has been reported yet.
4. Council agendas from November through December. A funding resolution or bid authorization would be the first sign that the year-end goal is on track.

Anyone who wants to see what the finished street is supposed to look like can open the town's full Arterial presentation, posted on westfieldnj.gov. The renderings show the curbless street and the bollard placement.

Mayor Berman summed up the town's reasoning in his August message: "great downtowns have great public spaces, especially in centralized locations like Quimby Street." The newest tenants on the block have already opened, or are about to open, as if that public space is coming.

If you own a home a few blocks from Quimby and you're wondering how a rebuilt, event-ready street might shape the walk to dinner, the weekend crowds or the conversation when you eventually list, Kristen Lichtenthal is happy to talk it through over coffee downtown. Start the conversation.