Boy Bands & Sunken Wedding Bands
Plus elections, an antiques guru, Chart House social media drama, and more!
Hey people — lots of great content below including info about an epic vintage garage sale starting Friday, so do read to the end!
Gonna Get Real Here
After the last issue, we thought about throwing in the towel. Worried we were whistling in the wind. Wondered if anyone cared. It’s been two years and this is still a labor of love, and a losing $ venture.
But in the last two weeks we gained 5 paying subscribers — Cue: balloon drop! — bringing the total to 43. Amazing! And to all 43 amazing people who keep us going, and support the thousands who rely on us for local news and levity, please know we truly appreciate you, and reach out if you want and haven’t gotten your exclusive Weehawken Gazette thank you gift.
You’ll see this edition has an article by a local writer with an impressive resume — and they were paid for with your contributions. And this will not be their only piece — they are working on another as we type. But to keep it going, help keep us growing — consider helping us out. 👇
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🔥 Chart House Closes; No One Agrees About When It Opened—Or When/If It Ever Burned Down
NJ.com, the Bergen Record, and Patch did not report on the Weehawken elections, but they did write about the Weehawken Chart House closing. 🤦♂️
Anyway, the news that our Chart House would close and become a Mastro’s steakhouse (it’s the same parent company) was not surprising to many locals who’d long heard the rumor. However the closing did lead to a lot of debate about when the Chart House first opened, and when/how/why its predecessor, Shanghai Red’s, closed.
AI Is Way Wrong About Weehawken History But So Are Some Who Lived It ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Shanghai Red’s, seen above, was the restaurant on the pier before Chart House, and it closed in the winter of 1994. It was a partnership between Hartz and Specialty restaurants, which incidentally, also owned the 56th Fighter Group, a Long Island restaurant my parents loved. Specialty declared bankruptcy in 1993, Hartz took control, and Chart House opened in the fall of 1994.
In 1998 Chart House caught fire and burned to the ground — or to the river in this case. A wedding was taking place and the wedding rings were never recovered, according to news reports, and might be at the bottom of the Hudson to this day.
Everyone got out safely, which is what matters, but what is it like to have your wedding reception burn down? We tried to contact the couple for comment, but so far, no dice. After this, Chart House rebuilt, reopening in 2000.
But AI said that Shanghai Red’s burned in 1998. And many locals swore it was Shanghai Red’s that burned in 1998, not Chart House. Even the Weehawken Time Machine website, our excellent source of local history, had written that it was Shanghai Red’s that burned down in 1998, which helped feed the AI answer. On our Facebook page, few could agree, but a commenter named Jason Spina weighed in with this:
“Lets get facts straight. The Chart House burned down. I was there. I was the manager on duty that afternoon. Yes , there were several events going on, yes we saved lots of lives by acting quickly, Yes a good number of us lost our jobs that day.”
And on another Facebook page where I asked for help finding the truth, a firefighter at the time, Dave Flood, added this:
The fire broke out while a wedding reception was taking place…After the initial firemen tried getting hose lines in place, all hell broke loose as heavy fire & smoke forced them from the restaurant. I was off duty but called in on the additional alarms. Once the heavy fire was knocked down, I remember assisting with retrieving wedding gifts from the main reception room to bring out to the still on-scene newlyweds. There were others who would know better as they were first arriving.
Still, people argued and disagreed with each other! Facebook is good at that. We went to the library and found ample evidence backing up that it was in fact Chart House that burned down in 1998 from NY and NJ newspapers. It’s also how we learned of the Shanghai Red’s bankruptcy. We aren’t here to shame the people who misremember, but to point out how important it is to have sources, and how important it is to dig for the truth and not blindly trust AI.
We informed the Weehawken Time Machine. They issued a very kind and funny correction where you can also see a Shanghai Red’s matchbook. And now, thanks to that correction, and maybe thanks to this, AI will probably get a clue too.
And now, the important part:
Who wants to go diving for wedding treasure? Race ya to the scuba gear. 💍
Old-School Cool: Bruno Desbonnes Brings Antiques Back To Life
Continuing our recent deep dive into the hive of talented artisans working inside the Yardley building, The Weehawken Gazette presents Bruno Desbonnes of Antiques Design & Associates.
Union City’s own master carpenter and furniture restoration expert, Bruno Desbonnes was born in Guadeloupe, trained in Rouen, and now operates out of a sunny studio on the third floor of the Yardley building, repairing and polishing up antiques of all varieties. If it ain’t Baroque? He’ll still fix it.
Desbonnes greeted me on a recent visit with an espresso and a quick demonstration as he worked on the intricate inlay of a tabletop made from 17th-century parquet.
“Like the floor at Versailles,” he said in his rich accent, before launching into an explanation of how the difficulty of maintaining the marble floors of Renaissance palaces gave rise to the comparatively low-maintenance, but still elaborate, inlaid hardwood in Louis XIV’s digs.
If Desbonnes is a history buff, it’s a product of his training. The French can make anything formal, and carpentry is no exception. After completing training as a menuisier (cabinetmaker) he graduated to ébéniste (furniture maker) before completing a three-year program in restoration.
Since he relocated to the States, and set up shop in the Yardley building 15 years ago, Desbonnes has found a client base of antique dealers and the occasional upscale home stager.
He describes his approach as “conservative.” He is a purist who uses the methods and materials of the past to bring the gleam back to furniture of a certain age.
The restraint he employs in his restoration work makes the other side of his business all the more interesting.
“I do some special pieces,” he explains, “I build furniture.”
Half of his studio is dedicated to innovative pieces of his own design.
Projects underway during my visit included metal plaques he chemically corroded to achieve brilliant shades of turquoise to be added to a future piece. The black, square base of a coffee table sits ready to be topped with parchment, and the bases of two vintage barbershop chairs are stacked by the window, waiting to be upcycled.
A pair of end tables he built are almost ready for sale, but still missing something, according to Desbonnes.
“I will find a way to give them this beauty,” he says. “For now, I’m thinking about it. I don’t know yet.” He’s considering epoxy, or a veneer, maybe something else.
“Usually inspiration comes when the work is very slow” on the antiques side of the business, he says. Happily, that’s not usually the case.
➡️ Need a collector’s item restored to its former glory or searching for a one-of-a-kind piece? Find Bruno and ADA Antiques via his website, Instagram or Facebook.
About the author: Jennifer Doherty is a journalist and writer based in Union City. She has written for Newsweek, The Guardian, Eater and other publications. You can usually find her in person pushing a stroller or walking the dog. Learn more at jenniferdoherty.net.
Related: Earlier we profiled Flor y Cafe, a bespoke florist that is now in the Yardley building, and Jono Pandolfi, a luxury ceramics studio that occupies a large swath of the building.
Weehawken & UC Municipal Election Wrap Up
12 municipal elections in NJ were held in May. We’re only going to focus on two. Some of the other towns have newspapers or websites covering them.
I subscribe to NJ.com and the Bergen Record, but neither wrote articles about the recent elections in Hudson County before they happened. And a 31-page guide to NJ municipal elections on a site called NJ Insider focused on three races and then on page 31 had half a page devoted to the nine other towns holding elections. Weehawken and Union City each got one sentence. Here are a few more than that:
Union City Swears in Brian Stack for Mayor
Union City had no challengers on the ballot, but more than 10,000 people voted for Stack, and his four commissioners each received nearly as many votes, according to the County Clerk. According to Stack himself, in this swearing-in video, they had nearly 1,000 campaign volunteers. Again, this is for an election with no challengers. As of November 5, 2025, there were 33,728 registered voters in Union City. Unless we are doing the math all wrong, this means nearly a third came out for a uncontested election.
The day before the election, NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill showed up to an election eve rally for Stack. Heck, she even helped give out Stack’s free turkeys last Thanksgiving. No doubt he’s a power player, and he even played a part in the Weehawken election.
‘Weehawken And You’ Slate Wins Again
The Weehawken And You campaign secured all five spots on the Township Council in the recent non-partisan elections. As we profiled in the last issue, there was only one challenger for one town council seat on the ballot. Tina Iordamlis ran against Susan Morales Jennings to fill the seat being vacated and she was the first challenger on the ballot since 2014.
Unofficial results posted by the Hudson County Clerk for Ward 2:
Susan Jennings: 500; Tina Iordamlis: 272; Write-ins: 8
The Weehawken And You campaign supported Susan Morales Jennings with posters, mailers, videos, website/social media, and events. Brian Stack’s “Stack for Senate” fund supported her/the slate with (at least from what we saw) posters and text messages.
Tina Iordamlis told the Gazette she spent approximately $250 on her campaign, which included signs and some tacos from her Bagels On Park neighbor Urban Tacqueria on election night. We don’t know how much the other side spent. Perhaps a real reporter could inform us.
Waterfront Voters A Washout?
If you don’t want to geek out on data, move along, but here’s some info…
Ward 2 District 4 is tiny, about 1.5 blocks up the cliff (pictured with shading on the right, below), and in this latest election, in the race between Susan and Tina, they had 136 total votes.
By contract, Ward 2 District 1 is a wide swath, and includes the blocks of the Bluff, RiversEdge at Port Imperial, the Brownstones, Henley On Hudson, and The Declan (a new building of 298 units, and 95% occupied, according to them) — and turned out only 158 votes. But granular info with voter turnout % is not available yet for 2026, or we can’t find it.
Hudson River Views Eclipse Political Views?
We wanted to know: does the waterfront show up to vote less, compared to the other parts of Weehawken?
Although numbers are understandably smaller in a no-challenger situation, in Weehawken’s 2022 municipal election, Ward 2 District 1 — the only part of Ward 2 that includes the waterfront — voter turnout was less than a third of what it was in the other three districts. Basically, in Ward 2, District 1 has the most voters, but they didn’t show up.
Below is a snapshot of the 2022 municipal election. The 3 districts that saw turnout of 5% or less are the only 3 districts that include the waterfront. They voted, at best, at half the rate of the other districts.
Waterfront Sez What?
One reason for this disparity could be that some people on the Weehawken waterfront don’t have nearby polling locations. For many of them, polling places are a hike (with about 150ft of elevation) or a short drive. Weehawken also has only one early voting location, and it’s uphill at Tower Plaza. Before you crit Weehawken’s early voting access, know that most Hudson County municipalities only have one early voting location, even Bayonne which has four times more voters than us. Union City has an eye-popping 10 (yes 10!) early voting sites — so it’s not just Stack’s turkeys that help boost turnout. See all Hudson County early in-person voting locations here.
Anyway, whatever, it’s not like we have more elections coming up—oh, right...
🇺🇸 June 2: US House Primaries Are Coming
Are you fired up to participate in our democracy yet? You have another chance to do so. Find your US House District on this map. Then see who is running on the Repub and Dem sides in NJ via the links below and find your polling place here. In many cases there is no challenger candidate. In our district, 8, no Republican filed, but there’s still a primary between the incumbent, Robert Menendez Jr., and a challenger, Mussab Ali, who ran for Jersey City mayor in 2025 and finished 4th.
ballotpedia.org/United_States_House_elections_in_New_Jersey,_2026_(June_2_Democratic_primaries)
ballotpedia.org/United_States_House_elections_in_New_Jersey,_2026_(June_2_Republican_primaries)
📺 Celeb Makeover Show Seeks North Jersey Homeowners
If you want to apply to possibly get a room renovation from a reality show, this was sent to me via a TV producer pal:
North Jersey friends — Do you have 1 room in your house that you’d like renovated for free by an expert team in only 1 week to be featured on a tv series with an amazing host? Also an added bonus if you’re a NKOTB fan! If so, Apply here: instantupgrade.castingcrane.com/
Related: NSYNC members Lance Bass and Joey Fatone were recently filmed dancing on the Hoboken waterfront:
According to Patch, this was related to the fact that they were in NoHu filming a show called E! Cocktail Wars.
Audition Alert: Weehawken Town Crier
Gosh this was a lot of reading, right? We at the Gazette have decided to deliver information and occasional sponsored content in an additional format, live and in person.
People yelled out information back in ancient times, but the job of the town crier really got going in the Middle Ages to announce the news and other important information. This was because, according to Historic UK, most people “were illiterate and could not read.” Many more can read today, but we also need a new, old way to spread information, particularly when it can be hard to trust information online.
This is real. To be clear, it’s a Weehawken Gazette initiative, and is not an officially-sanctioned town crier. Fun fact: There are no town criers in Hudson county. There is one in Bergen county, and as of 2010 there were 5 in all of NJ.
We will supply the costume and bell. All types encouraged to audition. Fill out the interest form right here and we’ll be in touch with more info.
Classifieds
Chris Tsakis, former punk band member, radio host, Coney Island Mermaid MC, antiques store owner, and current Elks karaoke host is having a blow-out liquidation of his vintage finds right here in Weehawken, NJ. Sale starts Friday May 29at 10A at 60 Hudson place. See some of the stuff here. You can get more backstory with a fun video about the old antiques store here on his Instagram.
New Cafe Alert: The Alchemist’s Table
Coming to the former Two Crepes space at 4031 Park Ave in Union City: a new cafe called The Alchemist’s Table. North Bergen native Erin Icaza told us she’s “opening it with her dad.”
The soft opening was Saturday May 23rd, and they have Lavazza coffee, exciting cold drinks, pastries. Future offerings to come when they officially open include sandwiches, and they mentioned focaccia and arugula, so that bodes well. Follow them here: instagram.com/alchemisttable
NY Times Writes About NJ Relaxing Airbnb Regulations For The World Cup & Illustrates Article With Weehawken Photos Even Though We Are Not Relaxing Anything
Gift link to the article here. The lead image and the final image are of Blvd East in Weehawken, but Weehawken is not mentioned in the article. We called town hall and they said they didn’t think we were relaxing anything. Does anyone know differently? Let us know. Fun fact, one of the houses seen above is the famous Halloween house we wrote about. Check it out and we think you’ll agree our photo is way more fun.
Enough Already!
🎾 We gotta bounce. Anyway… many thanks to our TWO unpaid copyeditors this week, Hugo, and the one who wishes to remain anon. Without their help we’d look dumber. Some of this was copyedited while watching Roland Garros.🎾
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Susie
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My favorite issue of the Gazette so far - both fun and filling a serious gap in coverage of local affairs. If you are not a paid subscriber and can afford to do so, please subscribe - local journalism is vital to democracy and democracy needs all the help it can get these days.
More people might vote if they had a choice and the machine candidates didn't run unopposed. Just sayin'
I didn't see anything about boy bands!