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Business & Tech

Brand New Riverside, Same Old 'Dive'

Cranford's 100-year-old tavern reopened recently, after extensive flood damage.

is no longer the "River Innside." The bar affectionately known as “the Dive” reopened on Friday night after being badly damaged by Hurricane Irene. The doors opened at 5 p.m. By 6, it was deafening. By 7, patrons were shoulder-to-shoulder. The place has a new, improved look, but don’t worry: it’s still the same old Dive.

“We’ve downsized,” said owner Peter Jacobs, known as "Jake" to friends and patrons. “We’re going back to being a tavern. Back to basics, we won’t be carrying 17 different kinds of fruity vodka anymore. If you want fruit in your vodka, I’ll squeeze an orange.”

It is a far cry from the state the Riverside was in at the end of August. On the Sunday morning after the hurricane, Jacobs thought he was in the clear. Despite its proximity to the Rahway River, the place was dry…until a wall of water came rushing down Springfield Avenue and crashed through the basement windows. The water didn’t stop rising until it was knee-deep on the first floor.

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The damage was severe, and the restoration bill was in the low six-figure range. Jacobs managed to keep the labor local, with all of the builders, electricians and HVAC technicians coming from the area.

“They all came to me (offering to help),” said Jacobs. “I didn’t have to ask anyone.”

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Help was to be had in other forms, as well. A November 6 fundraiser at the lodge, known as Divestock, netted so much money that Jacobs is able to donate some of the proceeds to the Cranford First Aid Squad—also badly damaged by the hurricane—and local food banks. He categorizes the support of Cranford residents as simply “unbelievable.”

It was the local labor that helped bring about one of the most interesting new additions to the Riverside. One of the builders working on the restoration was also contracting at the oldest house in Cranford. With the house owner’s blessing, they took 300-year-old floor joists, ripped them in half, planed them smooth, and built the bar top with them. Putting your beer down on the new bar is like touching history.

“It’s an honor to have the wood come in here,” said Jacobs.

The bar joins three hundred years of history at the site. According to Jacobs, the site that the Riverside now occupies was once known as Drake’s Landing in the 18th Century, a trading post owned by Cyrus Drake. The Lenape Indians would paddle their canoes up the Rahway River, bringing oysters from the Arthur Kill Sound. In the early 1900s, the lot was a Model A Ford dealership. It then became a saloon, and during Prohibition a florist was on the first floor while a speakeasy operated in the basement.

“This place is a landmark,” said one patron who was familiar with the backstory. “There’s a lot of history here. People don’t come here for that, but they should.”

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