New Piperno family restaurant on Haddon Avenue has chef's kiss
HADDON TWP. — A liquor license up for grabs was a strong hint that maybe Haddon Township was a ripe and right choice for the second restaurant Chef Dominic Piperno had been planning.
Piperno was eyeing something larger and more versatile than his first establishment, Hearthside. He and his wife Lindsay opened that in 2017 in Collingswood, a dry town with a score of restaurants.
“When we were looking for a property, we got the liquor license first,” Piperno said. “I had someone reach out to me about a possible liquor license in Haddon Township, if I was interested. Clearly, I was. So, we purchased the liquor license first.”
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Hearthside only seats about 45 people inside, and in good weather some more outside. The new place, still not named, will have 145 seats.
“We just thought it would make sense to go bigger,” Piperno said. “We knew we wanted to be on the Avenue, on Haddon Ave, in Haddon Township. We knew we didn’t want to go to the (White Horse) Pike or anything like that.”
The same herald for the available liquor license also steered Piperno to a vacant commercial structure at 105-107 Haddon Avenue. The location was ideal.
“It’s right in the center of town, walkable from the new condos, walkable from Albertson Village new condos, kind of in the center part of the town,” Piperno said. “That’s kind of why we chose that area.”
At its Feb. 1 meeting, the township Planning Board approved the proposal with some changes. An outside bar was dropped from the final design. A planned retail space to rent is on hold for a while, as well.
The existing building is about 18,826 square feet, including a 10,000-square-foot cinderblock warehouse at the rear. The warehouse projects close to houses and will be demolished to make way for a parking lot, as well as a sizeable drainage infrastructure.
“The main structure that’s on Haddon Avenue, 105-107, is going to be just completely gutted,” Piperno said.
Piperno builds on Hearthside success with Haddon Avenue restaurant
Originally, the idea was to open a cocktail and wine bar. That concept changed and enlarged, he said.
“It’s still going to have a really large bar in the center of the dining room,” Piperno said. “But it will be a little bit more than just snacks. It will be more ‘fine dining style,’ with house pastas, flatbreads, shellfish towers. We’re going to have a wood burning oven, as well, just like we have at Hearthside. Still that contemporary American cuisine.”
Piperno said 10-foot-tall perimeter walls and greenery address neighbors’ privacy and noise concerns, a solution worked out with the township. Drainage features that include an underground storm water detention basin will channel storm water from neighborhood homes, whose backyards regularly flood.
“And we understand that, if we don’t do it, no one’s going to do it,” Piperno said. “So, we thought it’d be a nice little olive branch. Instead of just ignoring it and putting a parking lot, we’re going to take care of it for everybody. And, you know, just to show that we want to be great neighbors. We want to be part of the neighborhood.”
Piperno said the selection of a construction contractor is going on now.
“It’s finally coming to fruition,” he said. “But we still have a lot of work to do.”
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
Have a tip? Reach out at jsmith@thedailyjournal.com. Support local journalism with a subscription.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: American cuisine coming to Haddon Avenue with new Piperno restaurant
