Schnackenberg's Luncheonette
Iconic Coca-Cola Soda Fountain Sign
Established 1931
Hoboken NJ
2013

1110 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ 07030

2019 ~ Restaurants are a dime a dozen in Hudson County, but when it comes to sweet treats, Schnackenberg’s was a true Hoboken gem that satisfied any sweet tooth {with a definitive old-school charm}. Sadly, the owners of Schnackenberg’s, Joyce and Eugene Flinn, have just shared the news that they will be closing the establishment immediately at 1110 Washington Street, and the space will soon be newly-occupied by Alfalfa, a local salad start-up that had been doing a pop-up in their store on evenings throughout the season. Schnackenberg’s had been “closed for renovation” for the last few days, which now appears to be for good.

Very few ‘Mom and Pop’ businesses survive as long as Schnackenberg’s, which endured 81 years under family management until it changed hands in 2012, when it was renovated and reopened under the same name by Joyce and Eugene Flinn, also former owners of the Elysian Cafe and Amanda’s in uptown Hoboken. Though it closed for good in 2019, the iconic Coca-Cola soda fountain sign above the entrance still marks the spot at 1110 Washington Street, now a specialty salad space known as Alfalfa’s.

https://www.nj.com/hudson/2019/02/in-a-farewell-to-egg-creams-nj-luncheonette-closes-after-88-years.html

Move over egg creams and doughnuts. Sprouts are moving in.
Schnackenberg’s, an old-fashioned luncheonette that for 88 years served classic concoctions of seltzer with chocolate syrup, tuna melts and other staples of decades past, has closed, a victim of what its owner said were changing times and healthier tastes.
An eatery with a different menu and a different vibe will take Schnackenberg’s place on Washington Street, between 11th and 12th streets, under the name “Alfalfa.”

“Doughnuts and milkshakes are not the steady diet of modern Hobokenites,” said Joyce Flinn, who along with her husband, Eugene, bought Schnackenberg’s from the daughter of its original owners just after Hurricane Sandy.

“We had the most awesome doughnuts in town, and people would say, ‘Oh, I love those doughnuts!’ But if you eat one doughnut a month, that’s not going to pay my rent,” Flinn said in an emotional phone interview. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make, and we didn’t make it lightly. It was really a long-considered and painful choice.”

Schackenberg’s was opened in 1931 by the parents of Dorothy Novak (née Schnackenberg), who continued to live upstairs from the restaurant in the family-owned building until she passed away not long ago.

During the height of the Great Depression, Hoboken was a largely working class shipping port that bore little resemblance to the popular night spot or high-rent New York City bedroom community it would eventually become. The food was basic luncheonette fare: burgers, shakes, tuna melts, store-made doughnuts, and a nod to Schnackenberg’s German heritage called the eggtzel, a kind of pretzel breakfast sandwich.

The luncheonette underwent a makeover after the Flinns took control. But, Joyce Flinn said a shrinking clientele and a protracted construction project on Washington Street that discouraged walk-in traffic made it clear that Schnackenberg’s time had passed. It cleared its last plate on Jan. 28.

Some Schnackenberg signage will live on at the Hoboken Historical Museum, where the luncheonette had been part of a 2010 exhibit, “Hoboken and Sweets.” The longtime director of the museum, Bob Foster, said the closing was “a big loss for Hoboken,” but he agreed with Finn that Schnackenberg’s was from a different era, and it no longer fit in.

“If anyone could have made it work it would have been Eugene and Joyce,” Foster said, noting that for years the couple had owned Café Elisian and Amanda’s Restaurant, two Hoboken establishments that remain in operation after the Finns, who live in neighboring Weehawken, sold them both within the past two years.

“For me, personally, it was a really, really sad day to see Eugene and Joyce were closing shop, and I was there when they were sort of taking out the furnishings, and I cried,” Foster said. “I’ve been going there since 1981. And it was one of the things that made Hoboken really special. I used to go in there for my egg cream and use the pay phone to look for jobs.”



Hoboken is a New Jersey city on the Hudson River. Its former industrial port now features parks such as Pier A Park, with Manhattan skyline views. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway links several green spaces. Global eateries, bistros and bars cluster on Washington Street and riverside Frank Sinatra Drive, named after the locally born singer. The Hoboken Historical Museum has local art and history exhibits.