Mahwah Right Now: Two Kitchens Reopen, One Trail Calls Before Fall, and MacArthur Boulevard Has Other Plans
Tonight, while the Township mills and repaves the westbound stretch of MacArthur Boulevard between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., two of Mahwah's restaurants are doing the opposite of shutting down. One reopened its doors in April after a fire took it out for months. The other opened for the first time in June, on Franklin Turnpike. Mahwah's road crews are tearing something up this week. Its restaurant owners are putting something back together. That contrast says more about this town's food scene than any single opening ever could.
Novino, the Italian eatery Mahwah families have counted on for years, sustained significant fire damage late last year that forced a complete shutdown. According to a News12 report from April, the owners spent the closure on extensive renovations rather than walking away, and the restaurant announced it was "officially back open" this spring. That is not a small thing for a town that could easily have lost the space to a vacancy or a chain replacement.
Two months later, on Franklin Turnpike, Monaco Cafe opened for the first time. Patch reported the grand opening at 139 Franklin Turnpike in late June, describing a menu built around coffee and tea drinks with names like Salted Velvet and Tiramisu Kiss, alongside avocado toast, sandwiches, salads, pancakes, and waffles. The owners posted that they were "opening our doors and turning up the energy," which is the kind of line every new business posts, except this one happened to land in a town that just proved it can absorb a loss and still make room for something new.
Put those two stories side by side and you get a town that isn't just adding square footage. It's replacing itself. A longtime kitchen came back from a fire. A brand new one filled a gap that didn't exist a year ago. Mahwah's food scene right now is doing both at once, which is a healthier sign than either story would be alone.
A few minutes away on Ramapo Valley Road, near Ramapo College, The Mason Jar has been doing its own thing for years and shows no sign of slowing down. The restaurant describes itself as a BBQ restaurant, bar, and live music venue serving slow-smoked brisket, ribs, and pulled pork alongside what it calls one of the area's most popular Sunday brunches.
Voted Best Live Music Venue in Bergen County
That's the restaurant's own claim on its site, and whether or not you'd rank it there yourself, the fact that it's positioning itself that way tells you something about what regulars go there for. It isn't a quiet dinner spot. It's the place with live bands most nights of the week, where people come for the music as much as the barbecue. Franklin Turnpike and Ramapo Valley Road are only a few minutes apart, but they're doing different jobs for the town. One is where you go to try something new. The other is where you go because you already know exactly what you're getting.
If the restaurant corridor is Mahwah's evening plan, Ramapo Valley County Reservation is the daytime one, and late summer is the window to use it before the light changes and the crowds shift toward foliage season.
The reservation has grown past 4,000 acres with the additions of Camp Glen Gray, Camp Tamarack, and Camp Todd, according to Bergen County's own parks page, making it the county's largest park. It borders Ringwood State Park to the north and Ramapo Mountain State Forest to the south, so the trail network doesn't really end at the property line. The most rewarding short hike from the main lot is the climb to Hawk Rock along the Halifax Trail, marked with green blazes. AllTrails describes it as short but strenuous, ending in a panorama of suburban New Jersey that includes a clear view of the Ramapo College campus below.
One detail worth knowing before you go: the total trail mileage depends on who you ask. The Township's own facilities page puts it at 15 miles of marked and informal trails, while other local guides describe closer to 22 miles once you count the connecting routes into the adjoining state park and forest. Neither number is wrong. They're measuring different things, the reservation's own marked system versus the full network you can reach on foot from the same trailhead. If you're planning a longer day, download a map before you go rather than relying on trail signage alone.
A few practical notes for anyone heading out there this month:
None of this matters much if you can't get across town to enjoy it, and this week that's a real question. The Township's own site confirms that the westbound section of MacArthur Boulevard is scheduled for night milling and paving starting Monday, August 10, and continuing Tuesday, August 11, with work hours running from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. The same homepage flags Corporate Drive off Route 17 South as the better way into that part of town while road work is underway nearby, which is worth remembering if you'd normally cut through MacArthur Boulevard to get home.
If your evening plans involve either side of that corridor, whether that's a late dinner at Novino, brunch prep for the weekend, or a sunset drive past the reservation, tonight and tomorrow are the two nights to plan around it. It's a short closure, but a badly timed one if you're not expecting it.
None of these things, a reopened restaurant, a new cafe, a loud BBQ joint, a mountain trail, a two-night road closure, is dramatic on its own. But they're all happening in the same two-week stretch, and that's the actual story. Mahwah's food scene is proving it can lose a restaurant to a fire and still come back stronger than before. Its outdoor season is closing faster than most people realize, with the pool ending at Labor Day and the trail light shifting soon after. And its infrastructure, imperfect as it is this week, still gets out of the way just long enough for the rest of it to work.
If you live here, the next two weeks are worth treating as their own small season. Eat at the place that fought to reopen. Try the place that just showed up. Climb to Hawk Rock before the crowds change with the leaves. And take Corporate Drive tonight if you're headed anywhere near MacArthur Boulevard.
If Mahwah's rhythm, the mix of steady local businesses and quiet convenience to the trails, is part of what makes you think about your own next move here, The Ivanov Group knows this market from the ground up. Get Your Instant Home Valuation whenever you're ready to talk.
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