These beloved fast-food joints coming to NJ rest stops

Quite some time ago renovations began on Garden State Parkway rest stops as well as ones on the New Jersey Turnpike. A quarter of a billion dollars has been spent for their reconstruction or renovation. The final four are having the finishing touches put on them now.

Those are the Clara Barton and John Fenwick Service Areas on the Turnpike, and the James Gandolfini in Montvale and Jon Bon Jovi (once the Cheesquake service area) on the Parkway. As these final ones near a reopening in time for summer it’s been a long road looking back. This all started in 2017.

What you’ll find inside upon the grand reopenings will be a bit different. Lots of famous and beloved fast-food options will be available to travelers.

At the Clara Barton will be Chick-Fil-A and Burger King along with Dunkin’ and Auntie Anne’s.

At John Fenwick will be a Burger King, a Dunkin’, a Nathan’s and an Auntie Anne’s.

The Bon Jovi service area on the Parkway will bring back Burger King and Starbucks. They’ll also be introducing three new restaurants. Popeye’s, Nathan’s and Auntie Anne’s.

At the James Gandolfini rest area will be Dunkin’, Burger King, Nathan’s, Auntie Anne’s and would “The Sopranos” actor’s service area be complete without pizza? Fuggehtaboutit. There will be a Sbarro’s going in to enjoy some pizza.

I love that there will be so many Burger Kings in play. They have onion rings, the most underrated fast-food side order, and theirs are great. They even serve mozzarella sticks which is an amazing fast-food find, but I’m not clear on whether there will be more limited menus at the service area locations.

It was under the Christie Administration that all these renovations and reconstruction projects were scheduled. It called for eight newly constructed buildings and six renovation jobs in all. The ones left out were the Bruce Willis and Frank Sinatra rest areas but that’s because those had already been recently renovated.

Drivers paying tolls were spared the massive cost of the projects because HMSHost, the company that operated the service areas, cut a deal under which they would pay for the projects in exchange for a twenty-five year deal to operate the franchised service areas.

For these last four service areas of the multi-year project, New Jersey Turnpike Authority spokesperson Tom Feeney told nj.com, "All four should be open by July 4th."

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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