A dapper older gentleman stood last week at the edge of a chain-link fence in Carlstadt and watched a piece of his life being destroyed.
The construction site on the west bank of the Hackensack River directly across from Secaucus was more accurately a demolition site.
For almost three decades, Leonard LaVerghetta owned and operated the River Barge Café, a local bar and restaurant that provided more than a few laughs and libations. The café, closed since 2004, is now being torn down in order to provide space for a new waterfront park and marina to be built by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC).
Back at the barrier, LaVerghetta spoke about what he saw amidst the dust and debris.
“Memories,” he said with a glint in his eye. “A lot of memories.”
Riverside restaurant a Meadowlands fixture
LaVerghetta, 81, remembered the determination involved to get the restaurant rolling after leaving the embroidery business.
“We opened in 1976,” he said, the lilt of his native Italy still in his voice. “It took two years to put it together, but I wouldn’t give up. I wanted to save the original barge.”
The barge that LaVerghetta centered his café around was pulled from the mire of the Hackensack River shore. It originally was used to transport rail utility materials along the rail lines that wend through the Meadowlands region. After stabilizing the ship and building adaptations for tidal flows, the River Barge Café was ready for business.
LaVerghetta had a quick reply for those who questioned the business sense of opening a riverbank restaurant based around a barge.
“Because I’m crazy,” he said. “I wanted something different. I’ve been around the world, and I knew that if I was going to get involved in the restaurant business, I needed something different. People thought we would only last two years. I said, ‘We’ll see.'”
Any doubters soon saw things LaVerghetta’s way. The restaurant was regularly packed with customers. LaVerghetta also remembered one memorable night when the man who sang “My Way” came to town.
“Sinatra played the Brendan Byrne Arena around Christmas in 1983,” he said. “He didn’t come, but all his cronies came here. Lots of people ate here first before the show. It was jammed up. That was our biggest night.”
Quirky café charm created unique atmosphere
There were a lot of memorable nights at the River Barge Café. LaVerghetta noted one unforgettably funny feature of the bar.
“The bar was in the shape of a boat,” he said. “When the regulars would see that you were a stranger, someone would say ‘The tide is coming in.’ That was the code. Then the bartender flipped a switch that would make the glass on top of the bar start to move left to right about four inches. People would start to look on the floor and ask what was going on. We would say nothing was going on, and that they better go drink at home. What can I say? I was a gadgeteer.”
The mobile bar wasn’t the only entertainment feature at the café.
“Here I am,” LaVerghetta said with a smile. “I did what I could. I was always in a tuxedo, and I had a three-piece band all the time. Sometimes I’d sing with them. Why not? Nobody could chase me off.”
Future waterfront park and marina planned
After business began to dwindle, LaVerghetta decided to sell his restaurant.
After initial plans to build housing on the site fell through, he sold the three-acre site to the NJMC for $3.1 million in October 2005.
Plans for the site include a public marina, as well as offices for the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Office of Conservation. Trails will link the park to the adjoining Richard P. Kane Natural Area, an almost 600-acre urban wetland oasis formerly known as the Empire Tract that is owned by the Meadowlands Conservation Trust.
The iconic “Barge” lighted sign that towered over the café will remain in place. The new park and marina is scheduled to open in approximately 2008.
NJMC spokesman Jeff Fucci explained how the park fits into the commission’s environmental initiatives for the area.
“This site will be unique because it will be the first public access point to the lower Hackensack River in quite some time,” he said. “We plan to include green-building principles into the buildings that are going to be here, including the reincorporation of 100-year-old rare southern yellow long leaf pine wood planks from the original barge. People already come down here now for our summer evening pontoon boat cruises on the river. We’re hoping that as the Hackensack continues to recover, people will be encouraged to come down even more, just in the same way they used to come down here to work, eat and drink.”
Closing the door on a rich life’s chapter
Leonard LaVerghetta continued to watch as his former workplace was removed bit by bit to clear the way for the future. His mood wasn’t as morose as one might think.
“I envy the guys here with the machines,” he said. “I had my own backhoes, bulldozers and cranes when we built the restaurant and the marina here. You just put a cigar in your mouth, and you go to it. You can’t imagine the feeling.”
LaVerghetta walked over to where the front entrance used to be as workmen carted away the huge metal bathroom doors, originally taken from a 1940’s-era submarine that sat in a salvage yard along the Jersey City docks.
When asked where the doors were going, one salvage worker who asked to remain anonymous spoke up.
“When another visionary like this guy decides to open another place like this, we’ll sell them to him,” he said. Now that it’s gone, LaVerghetta knows how much his café was a key thread in the social fabric of the area.
“I meet people in Secaucus and other places who tell me how much they miss the place,” he said. “They say that they try other places, but that ours was unique.”
Still, LaVerghetta has few regrets about how things turned out.
“I’m very happy,” he said. “Originally I wanted to build 28 houses here, but that got knocked down. But if I can’t build houses here, then the Meadowlands Commission can’t do it either. This was the best thing to do. It’s good for the public. Maybe I’ll buy a boat and use the marina on the same piece of land that I had.”
In the end, LaVerghetta seemed content as he stood on the changing spot that ultimately changed him.
“I spent 30 years down here,” he said. “I met my wife on this piece of property even before then, so it always had a lot of meaning to me. My son Jay was the cook and commander. I was the captain. Who’s going to dispute that? It was my boat.” Mark J. Bonamo can be reached at mbonamo@hudsonreporter.com.