Lunch Box owner John Getchell has closed his business on Broad Street.
BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Lunch Box, a familiar destination for hungry students just across Belleville Avenue from Bloomfield High School, has closed its door. Owner John Getchell, a BHS graduate, Class of 1982, said that, because of the pandemic, help was harder to find.
According to Getchell, he and Anthony Lauro, owner of Anthony’s Cheesecake and Restaurant on Washington Avenue, opened Lunch Box in February 1996. Lauro, who moved on to his own eatery, occasionally still helped out, but Getchell remained as sole owner.
The partners met while both were in college, and, although not attending the same college, they shared similar culinary dreams.
“I was working in a deli, and he was interested in making cheesecakes,” Getchell told The Independent Press on Feb. 11. “He loved baking and we found a spot. This place was a karate school before us.”
Leading to the establishment’s demise, Getchell said, he had been looking for people to work — but no luck. A sister-in-law, Robin, who also works at Anthony’s Cheesecake, was in the kitchen beyond a doorway.
“I lost my cook because of the pandemic,” he said. “We were closed down for four months at the beginning of it.”
Getchell, 57, who lives in Fairfield, plans to retire but will remain in the area. He said the owners of the eatery next door, Manouche & Co., will be expanding into Lunch Box. He anticipated closing the next day, Saturday, Feb. 12, but was maybe going to stretch it until Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. A man in a group of waiting customers shouted out to him to leave at the end of the month.
“It’s not easy leaving,” Getchell said. “I have a lot of great customers.”
He called Lunch Box a cafe, and it did have three or four tables cozily huddled at the window along Broad Street, away from where orders were taken. But an immediate impression when entering was the expanse of open floor space. Racks of treats were meticulously arranged toward the register. Muffins were lovingly displayed within a high glass counter. And behind the counter, with its “For Beer” tip kettle, Getchell would take a customer’s order more often than not on a first-name basis.
BHS senior and football player Vincent Santimone came in and ordered bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel. Getchell called out from the cutting board, “He’s my best customer.” Santimone said he stopped into Lunch Box every morning for breakfast.
“Now I’ll have to cook,” he said.
Vincent came in with his sister, Gianna Garcia, BHS Class of 2014. Garcia wanted a Taylor ham and cheese, no egg, on a sesame bagel.
“I think everyone came here,” Garcia said of past high school students.
Next door, Manouche proprietor Elie Chalet said he would offer the same breakfast sandwiches as Lunch Box.
“We are taking the place over and we want to continue his and our new legacy,” Chalet said.
He said breakfast sandwiches would become available starting Tuesday, Feb. 15, and he hopes to open up a section of wall between Lunch Box and Manouche by April 1.
Photos by Daniel Jackovino
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