The owners of the new Sonic Drive-In restaurant might have picked a better day to cut the ribbon that officially marked the opening of the first store in the new Bayonne Crossing Mall, as a steady drizzle and a driving wind greeted customers, city officials, and store management on Dec. 1.
But traffic to the new restaurant, located at the intersection of Route 440 and New Hook Road, has not let up since. Cars navigate the paved roads of the still unfinished mall to make their way into the stalls for a bite of nostalgia.
Two days later, when the skies cleared, traffic continued to flow into the facility, as employees skated out on rollerblades to serve guests parked in service slots. In addition, walkup customers gathered into the canopy, while cars lined up at the takeout window.
“We knew Bayonne was a good place for us.” – Dina Santarelli
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With more than 90 employees from Bayonne and elsewhere in Hudson County already hired to work at the facility, Sonic has lived up to the mall’s promise to generate jobs at a time when jobs are the focus of the city’s redevelopment plans.
Bayonne Crossing, an $83 million dream come true for the local economy, will be rolling out a series of ribbon cuttings over the next six months, with Lowe’s Home Improvement Center scheduled to open within a few weeks, and Wal-Mart by next spring. New York Sports Club, T-Mobile, and other stores are scheduled to open after the first of the New Year.
What’s coming
First proposed in 2003 to 2004, developers thought the mall would be complete within 18 months. Five years later, the 365,500 square-foot mall, which is situated on the eastern side of Route 440 between East 22nd Street and New Hook Road in Bayonne, will feature a Wal-Mart Super Store, T.G.I. Fridays, N.Y. Sports Club, and other national stores. The mall is expected to generate about 875 full-time jobs once it is fully built out.
The acreage was cobbled together through a number of land deals over the last three years, but faced some serious environmental cleanup hurdles, including the removal of underground petroleum contaminants from the site, which once served as a storage area for Standard Oil Company.
Despite all the bureaucratic problems, the mall was the only retail facility of this kind to break ground in New Jersey in 2009, and one of only seven in the United States.
Although Santarelli said she was delighted by the overwhelming response from the public, she is not surprised.
“We knew Bayonne was a good place for us,” she said.
Founded in the 1950s, Sonic is a blast from the past, something straight out of the George Lucas film American Graffiti, although waiters and waitresses roll out to serve cars on rollerblades instead of roller skates.
To work waiting cars, you must know how to skate, Santarelli said.
Customers can pull their cars into stalls, where they pick their choices from an illuminated menu and receive their food via rollerblade.
Some customers choose to pull up to the drive-up window, where they order their food and collect it, then drive off. Other patrons choose to park nearby and walk up to the standup menu under the awning, then sit at one of the half-dozen metal tables to await delivery.
Employing about 96 people from as far away as Union City to service 25 drive-in stalls and other ordering stations, business will likely increase dramatically when other stores open in the mall, drawing workers and customers. The menu includes breakfast all day, as well as classic 1950s items such as shakes and ice cream, burgers of all kinds, and Coney-style hot dogs with chili and cheese.
A portion of the first day’s receipts are going to be donated to buy defibrillators for the Bayonne Police Department, a good choice since judging from some of the people in the crowd, the police are likely to become one of the restaurant’s biggest customers.