Visuals to Victuals
The Space: Part One, and Our Spring Menu
Califon, New Jersey, has an “uptown” (Aqui Shopping Center, etc) and “downtown” (Rambo’s Deli, Bex Kitchen, post office, etc). The downtown area boasts the Columbia Trail running north and south, an unusual dog/pet photography studio, a physical fitness business in the old bank building, and a space that has changed hands/identity over the decades. This latter space is now Bex Gallery, an expansion of Bex Kitchen that will host group events in a laid-back elegant atmosphere.
Time, Space, and Sun: a History
The space, at 56 Main Street, is a long, narrow, wood-floored area that has hosted an art gallery, a woodcrafts store, and now the Bex Gallery event space with food cooked next door at the Bex Kitchen. Most of the proprietors have been female, including the art gallery incarnation in the early 2000s, Solaris. It was run by Debbie Cutler, an entrepreneur with a background in things as diverse as the corporate world from modeling to journalism. She founded Solaris in the early 2000s and ran a successful art gallery until the financial crisis of 2008 created challenges. “It was a great ten years,” Debbie says, “and I loved the idea that I was supporting 100 or so artists.”
Change is Natural
Cutler employed a part-time framer, hosted occasional film screenings and bands, and loved the feeling of community and camaraderie amongst Califonites, including Chef Becky. In the adjacent building, now a consignment store, Cutler had a kiln. “The kiln provided nice ambient warmth in these cold, dragging-on, valley winters,” she recalls. “A lot was going on in downtown Califon in the early 2000s,” Cutler remembers, “but times change and the town goes through busts and booms. One business can’t provide the social hub communities seek – it takes synergy and teamwork and multiple places.”
Rosie the Riveter Comes to Califon
A nickname for Califon is “Galifon.” The town has a growing history of female-owned businesses, including the former bookstore (RIP) and its phoenix-from-the-ashes new iteration, KetoLicious, a keto-centric bakery. Califon has a Norman Rockwellian bucolic charm, and you’ll often see dogwalkers taking a stroll (while the cats rule the roost back at home!).
