Collingswood grocery proposes restaurant

A long-awaited food market in Collingswood may offer more than just groceries.

McFarlan's Market, expected to replace the long-vacant National Market on Haddon Avenue, wants borough approval to operate a restaurant.

The market also would offer sidewalk seating and off-site catering, according to co-owner Peter Burgess.

Collingswood's zoning board will consider the grocer's requests at a Nov. 5 meeting.

Burgess said the restaurant — which would operate during evening hours — is not an immediate goal for the new venture.

"We're going to ask the board for everything we might consider doing there," he observed. "That way, we won't have to go back for new approvals."

Burgess and partner Janet Stevens currently operate a McFarlan's Market in Merchantville. They agreed in August to buy the run-down Collingswood site in a transaction engineered by borough officials.

Their second store will operate as a traditional grocery, offering dry goods, produce and prepared foods, according to a legal notice for the zoning board meeting. It also will have a butcher department, deli and commercial kitchen.

Pending approvals, the store will have indoor seating for 20 people, as well as three to four tables on the adjacent Washington Avenue sidewalk, Burgess noted.

He said the restaurant's menu would likely draw on steaks and other items carried in the butcher department.

"In the future, there will be a limited restaurant component during evening hours," says the legal notice.

The notice adds that a schedule "and the extent of this component will be established by customer demand."

Agreements of sale were executed between the borough and the current owner and between the borough and 741 Haddon LLC.

Under a three-way deal intended to remove a persistent eyesore, the borough is to acquire the store from its current owner, then sell it to Burgess and Stevens for $400,000.

Settlement won't occur until 30 days after zoning board approval, said borough spokeswoman Cass Duffey.

Pending borough approvals, McFarlan's could open next spring.

"We're primed to go," Burgess said.

McFarlan's would be the restaurant-rich borough's second venture to combine groceries with meals to go.

Local Market and Cafe is expected to open Nov. 15 in a former Woolworth's on the other side of Haddon Avenue.

Reach Jim Walsh at jwalsh@courierpostonline.com or (856) 486-2646. Follow him on Twitter @jimwalsh_cp.