Grasshopper Too, steeped in Irish values, plans al fresco pub expansion – NorthJersey.com
WAYNE — Luck can get you only so far in the restaurant business.
That is why Thomas Fitzpatrick and his four siblings have built their small empire of Irish brewpubs, known as the Grasshopper, on something much more reliable.
Consistency.
The same friendly faces serve the same loyal patrons, who return each day and park themselves at the bar on the same exact stools to consume the same beverages. And sometimes, they will order beer-battered scrod and chips — a generations-old favorite — or slices of corned beef over a bed of cabbage, another staple of Celtic cooking.
On St. Patrick’s Day, however, some regulars will have to scooch over for the expected crowd. It will be the first time in three years that the holiday is celebrated indoors at the Grasshopper pubs, and Fitzpatrick has predicted a party of pre-pandemic proportions.
“I’m an optimist,” said Fitzpatrick, 59, who runs the local pub, called the Grasshopper Too. “I think that it’s going to be like the Roaring ’20s.”
The family also owns locations in Cedar Grove, in Morristown and in the Newfoundland section of West Milford.
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Grasshopper Too, at 26 Erie Ave. in Wayne’s Mountain View neighborhood, opened in October 1988 in a building once occupied by The Penguins, a seafood restaurant. Fitzpatrick’s father, the late Edward “Chief” Fitzpatrick, established the location in Essex County five years earlier.
Fitzpatrick said the Wayne bar and restaurant has planned a full slate of special events for this weekend, including performances by a pipes-and-drums band and The Eamonn Ryan Showband.
Even though the Grasshopper Too clings to traditions, Fitzpatrick said he knows when to move ahead with the times.
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The Planning Board recently approved a 1,592-square-foot addition to the existing dining room, a project that will add 52 seats, for a total of 166.
The new space will have ceiling fans and roof cover, and it will also provide customers with an al fresco experience. Six garage doors, to be made out of tempered glass, will open or shut to the elements.
Fitzpatrick said he decided to invest in the project because the COVID-19 pandemic has caused that type of dining style to be more in demand.
“For the past two years,” Fitzpatrick said, “people have seemed to look for that.”
But Bruce Piaget and others who make up the establishment’s steady flow of clientele said they’ve already found their seats.
“I run unsuccessfully for the mayor of the Grasshopper every year,” Piaget, of Wayne, said in between quaffs from a pint glass of Yuengling.
“I get here every day at 2,” he added, “and I leave every day at quarter after 4.”
Christopher Sedlacik, an ironworker from Wayne, said he has been a regular of the bar since it opened. “I’ve known Andy and Jethro since the B.C. times, I call them,” he said. “You know, Before Children.”
Renée Alonso-Knick and her boyfriend, William O’Donnell, both of Wayne, visit there at least four times each week. They are so chummy with everyone that the waitstaff even surprised her with a cake on her birthday, she said.
“It’s home to us,” she said. “It’s our second home. It’s like a family.”
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: devencentis@northjersey.com