Café, restaurant to open in Arts and Transit Neighborhood next year

A café and restaurant are scheduled to open in 2016 and 2017, respectively, in the Arts and Transit Neighborhood near Forbes College, University Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget said.

The restaurant will be opened at the same time as the construction of a new facility associated with the Lewis Center for the Arts, Appelget said.

The two buildings housing the café and restaurant have been a part of the Arts and Transit Project since it were first proposed in 2013, Appelget said.

The Arts and Transit Project, which is slated for completion in 2017, has also involved the relocation of the Wawa, the construction of a new Dinky stationand the construction of new facilities associated with the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music.

Appelget said that the Terra Momo Restaurant Group, which operates three restaurants in the Princeton area, was originally selected to operate the restaurant and café but that the group has decided to step aside and not move forward in the project.

“We had a mutually agreeable parting of ways,” Appelget explained.

As a result, the University has reached out again to decide who the new café and restaurant operator will be, Appelget said.

Co-owner of the Terra Momo group Carlo Momo declined to specify the reason behind the termination of the negotiation but said that he and the University could not agree on general terms. Momo added that the termination of the negotiation did not have anything to do with the difficulty of obtaining a liquor license, as the University had already purchased one.

“Our negotiations were kind of like our winter,” Momo said. “That expectation of winter and all the beautiful snow and all that and we were really looking forward to doing our beautiful project and then all of the ice and cold and wind set in, so there you have it.”

Appelget said that while the selection process for a new operator is going on, the project has continued and has not been delayed. She said that the restaurant and café are currently going through various stages of construction.

She added that the interior of the café and restaurant will be designed by the new operator when the new operator is found, but work is currently being done on the exterior of the buildings. Appelget added that the opening of the café will be determined in coordination with the eventual operator.

Appelget said that the restaurant and café are ideally situated because they are close to McCarter Theatre and to the new Lewis Center facility. She explained that the café’s location allows people to get something to eat before or after attending a performance or going to a rehearsal space in the Lewis Center.

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“I think the café and restaurant will be a great resource not only for students in Forbes but also for undergraduates and graduates, given the location of the caféand restaurant,” Appelget said. “It’s in close proximity to several of the residential colleges, it’s intended to be something that’s distinctive and especially intended to be complementary to McCarter Theatre.”

Ryan Born ’19, a resident of Forbes, said that he generally stays in Forbesbecause everything is far away. However, he added that since the restaurant and café would be a lot closer to many other places, he could see people going there if it does become as popular as the Wawa as a place to gather.

Zara Jayan ’19 said she would probably go to the café about twice a week, adding that the café will be a nice place to work compared to Forbes library.

“The addition of the café and restaurant will be another thing that Forbes can say it has,” Jayan said. “It’ll be a nice addition to the Forbes community at least. We can chant about it next year at Clash of the Colleges.”