Places in Jersey That Have Gone Away

As Queen once sang, “Another One Bites the Dust.”

In the wake of DeLorenzo’s Tomato Pies Chambersburg location leaving the area, now another Capitol City landmark will be no more.

Peter Lorenzo’s Café, once a place where the Trenton elite, as well as famous comedians and famed actor gangsters from the Sopranos (great reference there!) will e closing its doors as well.

According to this: a group led by former Senator Robert Torricelli will be developing the site and in its place will be putting up a $20 million office complex.

“New Jersey government was run out of Lorenzo’s for several generations,” Torricelli said.

The restaurant is now closed, shuttered in 2009 by its owners amid problems ranging from a broken freezer that spoiled food to sales slowed by smoking and pay-to-play bans.

Torricelli plans to knock it down in several weeks to make way for first a parking lot and, ultimately, a $20 million office complex.

Lambertville-based Woodrose Properties, a real estate firm in which Torricelli is a partner, bought the site in a bankruptcy sale in September for approximately $450,000, Torricelli said yesterday. The former has developed three properties in Trenton with Woodrose.

But it’s not nostalgia that’s guiding the former senator — it’s the chance to snap up one of Trenton’s premier pieces of real estate.

Demolition is scheduled sometime in the next several weeks.

Now, Torricelli and his company are focused on what can be done with the land.
The state and federal government have invested $40 million in building up the Trenton Transit Center over the past decade, Torricelli said, but the area still hasn’t seen the type of high-rise office building, restaurant and arena construction that’s sprung up around Newark’s Penn Station or Jersey City in recent years.

The only problem? The market for office space in Trenton market is anemic, at best.

And who could blame them.

No one wants to hang out in Trenton anytime after 5, unless you had a place like Lorenzo’s Steak House or Pete Lorenzos’ Café in which to lift a few.

You couldn’t beat Lorenzo’s for the steaks, the steak sandwiches, and for the memories.

It was the first place I played Texas Hold ‘Em and won 15 hundred dollars.

What are some of the places you remember from Jersey's past?