The Stable

The NJ Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owners Club (NJ-AROC) held its monthly breakfast meet on Sunday May 19, 2024, and we finally caught a break with the weather! As anyone who lives in the metro NY/NJ area knows, it’s been a damp and cool spring; many of the wettest days have occurred on weekends, which has been especially disappointing for those who work Mondays through Fridays. Although it was cool and partly cloudy when I departed my house at 8:15 a.m., by the time I reached Bernardsville, about a 30-minute ride, the sun appeared and had warmed things up nicely.

Our host restaurant was a new choice for this group: The Bernards Café, on Route 202 in lovely downtown Bernardsville. While the café is not as spacious as most diners, it comfortably accommodated the 12 of us, helped by a phone call placed the day before by our café contact Gene. I’m especially pleased to report that this was the first NJ-AROC breakfast where I was able to drive my ’67 GT Junior. We had a nice mix of classic and modern Alfas in attendance, as the photos show.

Four classics and a Stelvio; despite the age differences, the styling link is obvious

The size difference can be a shock when seen side by side

The food, in my opinion, was a step up from your typical diner fare. I have nothing against diners, as their extensive menus and consistent quality mean you will almost always find something to please the palate. However, the Bernards Café was a step above, with a great choice of specialty egg dishes, pancakes, and the like. We were arranged in two tables of 6, and were done with our meal by about 10:30. Rather than hang out near the cars to continue the chit-chat, club member Bill D. had arranged a special visit for us, so we caravanned from Bernardsville to Peapack-Gladstone and paid a visit to the classic car dealership known as The Stable.

Tom, the proprietor, was ready for us. He parked a very rare 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900 outside for us, and opened his showroom, workshop, and lower storage area to our wandering eyes. He even had some coffee and donuts on hand, and of course, a few of us had to dip into the second breakfast of the day. Tom explained a bit of the business’s history: The Stable opened inside an old stable (hence the name) in 1973. At that time, there was a Chevrolet dealership in town just down the street. A few years later, the Chevy dealer closed up (or moved), and The Stable moved into the building which the dealer had vacated, but kept its name.

It appeared that every car on the premises was for sale; most had asking prices posted to the glass. The stock is eclectic: the small showroom held a 2012 Bentley Continental GT and two Jaguar XKs; the workshop was a smattering of mostly British and Italian classics, with a few pre-war domestic cars mixed in; and downstairs held mostly Mercedes-Benzes of various models and model years, as well as a C2 Corvette, a ’54 Buick Roadmaster, a Datsun 1600 roadster, and a few BMWs. As one club member whispered to me, “Many of these cars are not really in saleable condition”, a remark made based on the observation that it looked like these downstairs cars may not have moved under their own power in years. Nevertheless, we appreciated the hospitality, and it’s good to remember that The Stable is probably the closest classic car store to my house. We bid our farewells to each other, I climbed back into my ’67, and 30 minutes later I was home. It was a great day, and I can’t wait to do it again!