Bischoff's, Teaneck's 90-year-old ice cream shop, is closing permanently once again
Bischoff's, the homey, old-school, near-90-year-old ice cream shop in Teaneck, is closing permanently — again.
After giving the five-generation-long family-owned soda fountain, which closed at the end of last year only to reopen four months later, a second chance, owner Steve Mather and his mother, Anita, decided to close the shop for good.
The shop announced the closing on its Instagram and Facebook pages Tuesday.
"We can't begin to express how painful this decision was for us," the post said. "Five generations of our family have treasured our role in the community. Bischoff's has been everything to us. YOU have been everything to us. — every kid who first tasted ice cream in our shop, every couple on a first date, everyone who came here for a celebration, or because they needed something sweet in a painful time."
Bischoff's was reborn on Memorial Day, this time as a summer pop-up, with the help of Rony Alvarado, chef of Rony's Rockin' Grill in Bergenfield, TJ Quinn and Edward Pierce, all Teaneck residents. They, avid fans of the ice cream shop, came up with the pop-up idea. Alvarado also served as Bischoff's new chef, offering sliders, fries and onion rings, all firsts for Bischoff's, because for the first time it had a fryer. The shop will stay open until Sept. 3.
The long-term plan was to launch a completely remodeled, full-service restaurant, sometime next spring, that would not only serve homemade ice cream and hot dogs but be a community space with local artwork, a stage for performances by local artists and more. The group set up a GoFundMe account to help raise funds to make their dream come true — and took donations at the store.
As of Tuesday morning, Quinn said, all the GoFundMe money raised — around $15,000 — was returned. As for the money raised in the shop? "Every penny will go to something in the community," Quinn said. "No one in the shop is going to profit from it."
"It’s really sad," Quinn continued. "We really thought it would work. It was a brutal decision. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy."
When Mather originally closed the store, he said the finances just weren't working. The shop implemented changes in hopes of improving business. It even began accepting credit cards in 2019. And then COVID-19 hit.
Mather could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
When he announced the first closing weeks in advance, he was taken aback by the outpouring of love the shop received.
"I always knew people loved it, but maybe I didn’t understand just how much," he told The Record. "I mean I didn't think that people would wait three hours in line for two pints of ice cream — and do that in the rain."
The people came out again when the shop reopened, Quinn said, but it just wasn't enough to sustain a business long term.
"There was great support," Quinn said. "But ice cream is not a cheap thing to make, not when you are trying to do it right and not when you want to pay your employees a decent rate."
"People love Bischoff’s," Alvarado said. "We wanted to do something totally different. We wanted to build a community center. We were going to have a coffee shop, do lots of work. We were going to have pastries. That involves a lot of money. It didn’t make sense money-wise." He added that the Mather family does not own the Cedar Lane building, making rent another expense.
The original Bischoff's was founded in Manhattan by Mather's great-grandfather, Albert Bischoff, in the 1890s. It moved to Teaneck 89 years ago and has been a cherished part of Teaneck ever since.
"There was always a sense of responsibility to the community," Quinn said. "It really is not just about the people in the store. Everyone knows what Bischoff's has meant to the town, and this is the hardest part."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bischoff's ice cream in Teaneck NJ to close permanently again
