JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – After 16 years, one of Jackson Township’s most beloved restaurants is closing. Surf Taco, once seen as the anchor restaurant for the Jackson Crossing plaza at the intersection of Hope Chapel Road is one of the few remaining longterm businesses in the plaza.
Surf Taco did not state why they are shutting the Jackson store. The news comes after rumors of a closure during the 2020 pandemic shutdown spread on social media.
Things are changing. The plaza, once owned by Vito Cardinale of Cardinale Enterprises, has been sold to new owners. In the past few years, there has been a demographic shift in the plaza toward Kosher restaurants and businesses catering to the growing Orthodox Jewish community in the area.
The surrounding area has changed a lot, too, since the restaurant opened. Where a Jewelry store once stood on the north side of East Veterans Highway, a thriving strip mall that caters to the Orthodox Jewish community is thriving Liberty Plaza.
A massive new storage facility is currently under construction on the opposite corner. Just a few years before Jackson Crossing was built, the intersection was a sleepy wooded intersection between Jackson and Lakewood.
Nearby was a Geman restaurant, Huller’s Black Forest, which has also been gone for many years. Down the road to the west was Just Plain Jane’s, a notorious biker bar in the 70s and 80s. It shut down about ten years ago too.
On April 23rd, a “Farewell to Surf Taco” event is being held with a performance by acoustic soloist Billy Simmons. Simmons regularly performed at the Jackson restaurant.
It’s not certain what will take the place of Surf Taco. One thing Jackson does not have yet that is a very popular attraction in Lakewood is a coffee shop. The space is ideal for it.
