"We're also introducing exciting food and dining concepts that will strengthen the plaza's position as a family-friendly destination, such as Raising Cane's, Cuzin's Seafood, Dae Gee Korean BBQ."
That's Jeffrey Fischer, Federal Realty's VP of Leasing, talking about Brick Plaza earlier this year. It reads like standard leasing-office language until you look closer at two of those three names. Cuzin's Seafood is simply adding a third location to a small New Jersey chain. Raising Cane's and Dae Gee Korean BBQ are doing something different: each is using Brick as the place it introduces itself to this part of the state for the first time, and a fourth name that didn't even make Fischer's quote, Gregorys Coffee, is doing the same thing a few doors down.
If you live in Brick Township, that distinction matters more than a list of new restaurant names. It means the corner of Cedar Bridge Avenue you drive past on the way to Trader Joe's or the AMC is quietly becoming the spot where Ocean County meets brands it hasn't met yet. And it's happening on the same calendar as something ending: the Brick Farmers Market's twelfth season, which has five Saturdays left before it closes for the year.
The Three Firsts Landing on Cedar Bridge Avenue
Dae Gee Korean BBQ is already open in the plaza, and it's the chain's first New Jersey location. The brand got its start in Colorado, where it still runs several locations, and has since added two restaurants in Texas and one each in Indiana, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Brick is where it decided to plant its first flag in this state.
Raising Cane's is next, and it's arriving with more construction than a typical restaurant opening. The chain is tearing down the 8,148-square-foot building that has sat empty since Quaker Steak & Lube closed roughly five years ago, and replacing it with a smaller, purpose-built 3,333-square-foot restaurant at 1036 Cedar Bridge Ave, complete with drive-thru lanes. A company spokesperson told NJBIZ the opening is targeted for late 2026, pending local approvals and permits. It's been reported locally as the chain's first Jersey Shore location, which would make the demolition happening on Cedar Bridge Avenue right now the ground-floor moment for a brand that already has a following well before it serves its first tray of chicken fingers here.
Then there's Gregorys Coffee, opening next to Cava. Gregorys is a New York-based company founded in 2006 that now runs 54 locations, almost all of them built as walk-in cafes. The Brick location is different: it's adding a drive-thru, an unusual format for a coffee brand at this tier, and it's being described as the company's first Ocean County address. A higher-end coffee shop choosing to test a drive-thru here, rather than in a denser market closer to New York, says something about how the brand reads Brick's daily traffic patterns.
Layer in Cuzin's Seafood and Clam Bar, which already runs locations in Marlboro and New Brunswick and has a liquor license transfer approved to move into the former Tre and Rosalita's space, and you have four different operators treating Brick Plaza less like a leasing opportunity and more like a proving ground.
What's Actually Open Right Now, and What's Still Behind Plywood
For anyone deciding where to eat this week versus what to circle for later in the year, the timeline matters:
- Open now: Dae Gee Korean BBQ, the chain's first New Jersey restaurant
- Under construction, opening date not yet set: Cuzin's Seafood and Clam Bar, moving into the former Tre and Rosalita's space with its liquor license already transferred
- Approved, construction pending permits: Raising Cane's, which first has to demolish the old Quaker Steak & Lube building before the new one goes up, targeted for late 2026
- Announced for 2026, no confirmed date: Gregorys Coffee next to Cava, and J.Crew Factory and GAP Factory backfilling retail space in the plaza
So the honest answer to "what's new at Brick Plaza" depends entirely on which week you ask. Right now, it's one restaurant. By the time the leaves are down, it could be three or four, plus two retail names that haven't operated in Ocean County before.
The Saturday Ritual That's Already Counting Down
While the plaza fills in gradually, something else in Brick is doing the opposite. The Brick Farmers Market, now in its twelfth year at Windward Beach Park, runs Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and this season closes on October 3. Nearly 70 vendors signed on for 2026, and the township council recently passed a resolution allowing leashed dogs at the market for the first time, a small change that's noticeably shifted who shows up on a given Saturday morning.
As of the end of August, that leaves five Saturdays: the first weekend of September, the two after it, the final one of the month, and the closing Saturday on October 3. If your household treats the market as the default plan for Saturday mornings, this is the stretch to actually use it before Windward Beach Park goes quiet on that front until next May.
The Brick Township website keeps the current schedule if you want to confirm hours before heading over, since the market's actual weekly vendor lineup shifts as the season winds down.
The Two Weekends Filling the Gap
The same early-September stretch that's closing out the farmers market is opening up a different kind of calendar. The Brick Township Historical Society kicks off its new season on September 8 at 7:30 p.m., with a meeting at the Herbertsville Firehouse on Herbertsville Road. The guest speaker is T.J. Fallon, founder of the "Dead History" YouTube channel, presenting a program on the final resting places of U.S. presidents. Admission is free.
The following weekend, September 12 and 13, the Historical Society hosts a Civil War Encampment at its Havens Homestead Museum property, also on Herbertsville Road. The 61st New York Volunteer Regiment sets up camp, sleeps in tents, cooks over open fire, and demonstrates what daily life looked like for soldiers during the war. Society members grill and sell hamburgers and hot dogs on-site, there's a bake sale, and the Lizzie Herbert Gift Shop stays open with specials. It's a rain-or-shine event with free admission, though donations are appreciated. Full details are on the Historical Society's events page.
That same Saturday, September 12, there's an Oktoberfest happening at 150 Duchess Lane featuring entertainer Emil Schanta, and Rosie's Cafe Concerts has a fall lineup that includes Rupert Wates on October 4 and Ash & Eric on October 16, both free shows in Brick.
What This Actually Changes
Put the two timelines next to each other and the pattern is hard to miss. The outdoor, seasonal, nearly-70-vendor Saturday tradition that's defined seven-plus months of the year in Brick is closing out right as a cluster of national and regional food brands, several of them making their first appearance anywhere in Ocean County, finish moving into a shopping center just off Route 70, a short drive from Windward Beach Park.
Nobody coordinated these two calendars on purpose. Farmers markets close in early October because produce seasons end and vendors move indoors or into holiday markets elsewhere. Restaurant buildouts finish whenever permits and construction schedules allow, which is why Raising Cane's is targeting "late 2026" rather than a specific month. But the practical effect for anyone who lives here is the same either way: the free, outdoor, once-a-week routine is about to be replaced by a set of permanent, year-round options, several of which didn't exist anywhere nearby a year ago.
If you've been driving to Freehold for a specific coffee order or to another county for Korean barbecue, that calculus is changing from underneath you, one plaza tenant at a time.
Neighborhoods change in these small, cumulative ways more often than they change all at once. Right now it's a coffee shop with a drive-thru and a chicken finger chain tearing down a building that's sat empty for five years. If you're watching Brick shift in ways that make you start thinking about what your own home is worth in this market, or what it would take to move within town or into a different Ocean County shore community, Camille A Simms has spent her career tracking exactly this kind of local detail. Reach out for a free home estimate and marketing plan whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
