By Kevin Coughlin
Joe Cioffi listens to his customers.
When a couple of them urged him to duplicate his Millburn salad shop in Morristown, he investigated the possibilities.
“I started walking around the Green asking, ‘Where can you get a nice chopped salad?'” he recounted on Saturday. Invariably, he said, people gave the same response. “They said there’s a void here. There’s nothing like this here.”
This is The Salad House of Morristown, which officially opened its doors at 40 Market St. over the weekend, to fanfare from family, friends and dignitaries.
The guest list even included Chan Gailey, the New York Jets new offensive coordinator and former head coach of the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys. (He seemed very nice; not offensive at all.)
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A silent auction of sports memorabilia also raised money for Team LeGrand of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, supporting research to cure paralysis. The charity is named for Cioff’s friend Eric LeGrand, the Rutgers football player paralyzed in a 2010 game.
The Salad House of Morristown is leasing 2,000 feet of space on the ground level of the Metropolitan luxury apartments, next door to Carlo’s Bakery of Cake Boss fame. The Cake Boss sent over a cake designed to look like a salad as a welcome to his new neighbor.
Cioffi got a taste for the restaurant business from his father, an immigrant from the Naples area of Italy, who opened an Italian deli in Springfield in 1981. Joe Cioffi and his brother Jerry run it now. The Salad House in Millburn followed about four years ago.
A key Salad House feature is the ability for customers to design their own salads. But there’s more on the menu, Cioffi said.
“It’s not just salad,” the Livingston resident said. “I believe eating healthy is a good thing. But everyone should live a little and splurge, and have a sandwich or a pizza.”
Some of us appreciate the fact that he takes the time to support our local merchants and many other activities.
Doesn’t the mayor have anything better to do that attend grand openings? Seriously.
Hope they do well!