By Dave Zuchowski
CNHI News Service
Frenchtown, N.J., is the kind of town everyone wants to live in.
Small, friendly, sophisticated, rich in captivating old buildings, located on a beautiful part of the Delaware River and close to urban centers like New York and Philadelphia, Frenchtown is both quaint and charming.
Robb Arent and Jessie Krause, ex-Manhattanites looking for a slower pace of life, succumbed to Frenchtown’s charms two years ago after a visit and now are full-time residents. Jessie happily promotes her artwork and greeting cards at her Netherfield Gallery. Robb, once in mergers and acquisitions in New York, frames his wife’s paintings and sits on the town council.
“Frenchtown started blossoming and becoming a cool place to live about 15 years ago, attracting artists, writers, chefs and musicians,” Robb said. “Ten years ago, it also began to become a tourist draw.”
About the time the Arents moved into the cozy, riverside hamlet, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” — a work that sold 7 million copies and has been on the “New York Times Bestseller List” for two years — also moved to town.
If you walk down Bridge Street toward the Delaware and make a left at the Bridge Café, a colorful eatery housed in Frenchtown’s now-defunct train depot, you’ll come across a trail that follows the river. Continue past a string of stately houses from the 1800s and you’ll come to Two Buttons, the eclectic shop owned by Gilbert and her husband, Jose. The 6,000-square-foot emporium may be plain on the outside, but the interior is crammed full of everything from Vietnamese propaganda posters and Buddha statuary to metal singing bowls. They are things the couple collect on their travels, primarily to Indonesia and India.
On their Web site the peripatetic couple writes “Our problem here at Two Buttons is the same as ever: We are obsessed with beauty. In a world where we are ever more surrounded by the manufactured, the plastic and the mass-produced, we have come to believe that the most precious objects to be found anymore are those that are made by hand.”
That might echo the sentiment of many Frenchtown shop owners, starting with Designs for Tranquillity on Bridge Street. Housed in a 140-year-old former funeral parlor, the store is full of contemporary home furnishings, jewelry and art with an Asian flair, all designed to soothe.
Owner Jill Paul travels the country looking for unique items made with tranquility in mind.
Further down the street, Ron Kobli has sold his extensive collection of hand-carved wooden decoys for 21 years out of his expansive Decoys and Wildlife Gallery. Walk in to his showroom and catch an eyeful of wildlife art hanging on the walls and shelves and glass cases stocked with more birds than the National Aviary. His store represents close to 90 artists.
At 16 Race St., Don Hector has been making stained glass installations for homes, churches and synagogues for 30 years. In his leisure time, he plays the charango, a flute-like instrument made from the back of an armadillo, and the kena, a small woodwind, in a band that performs Andean folkloric music.
To see more of Frenchtown’s interesting inhabitants, stop at Mama’s Bakery, pick up your favorite pastry and joe, sit outside on the brick walkway and people watch. Afterward, proceed down Bridge Street to the Open Space Gallery, where the owner rents out the entire gallery to enterprising artists for a month at a time.
During my visit, four vintage choppers stood in the gallery’s front window, alerting passers-by of the exhibit “Art of the Bike,” which features photos, paintings and sculpture with a motorcycle theme.
“For those with a recreational bent,” Arent said, “we also have a 30-mile long bike path that ends in Trenton as well as tubing and kayak outfitters for excursions on the Delaware.”
IF YOU’RE GOING ...
Frenchtown, N.J.
•For more information on Frenchtown, call (800) 866-287-0905 or visit www.frenchtownnj.org.
•For a place to stay, the historic circa 1878 Widow McCrea House at 53 Kingwood Ave. is furnished with fine antiques and features working fireplaces and oversized Jacuzzis. Besides the spacious sleeping rooms in the house proper, the B&B also has a beautiful private cottage out back. A candlelit, three-course gourmet breakfast is served in the morning.
•For a place to dine, the National Hotel at 31 Race St. has a history that starts in 1851 as a stagecoach stop. Recently renovated, the hotel’s restaurant is headed by chef Ronald Rittenhouse with 12 years of prior culinary experience. The emphasis in the kitchen is on local seasonal ingredients and the menu offers small plate and appetizer options for economy minded diners.
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CAPTION: These two Race Street businesses are just part of the charm of Frenchtown, N.J.
