Two doors down from the crepe place that once ended up on Real Housewives of NJ, a family from New Jersey by way of Los Angeles just started serving bhurji next to bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. Juhu opened at 517 Union Boulevard on August 14, and if you've lived in Totowa for more than a summer or two, the location will feel familiar even if the food doesn't.
That's because this is the second independent food business to open on this same half-mile of road in less than three months. And once you start counting what's already there, a pattern shows up that most people driving down Union Boulevard on autopilot never quite register.
The Newest Arrival Wasn't the First This Year
Back in June, Tastes Like Home opened a few storefronts away, a family-owned café and sandwich shop built around homemade specialties and handcrafted coffee. It didn't make much noise outside the neighborhood. Now Juhu has opened with a more specific story behind it: siblings Hemali and Harsh Patel, blending the produce-forward, health-conscious food habits Hemali picked up during five years in Los Angeles with the Indian recipes and flavors they grew up with. The menu runs from bhurji to matcha to house-brewed masala chai, alongside the breakfast sandwiches and salads you'd expect from any daytime café.
Neither of these is a chain testing the market. Both are small, independently run concepts, and both picked the same road within ten weeks of each other. That's not a coincidence worth shrugging off. It's a signal about where Totowa's food economy has decided to concentrate itself.
What Union Boulevard Already Had Going For It
The new arrivals aren't opening on empty blocks. Union Boulevard has been doing this work quietly for years. Kafe Neo, at 650 Union Boulevard, has built a local following around handmade crepes, acai bowls and smoothies, and picked up enough attention along the way to land a spot on both Undercover Boss and Real Housewives of NJ. Fusion 27, at 545 Union, has been serving Latin American dishes as a BYOB spot for years and is closing for its own family vacation from August 28 through September 5 this year, reopening September 6 for lunch. Cyndia's, at 169 Union, has held down breakfast and brunch for years, closed Mondays like a diner that knows its own rhythm. And Union Food Store runs two separate locations on the same road, at 90 and 357 Union, both open past 10 p.m. most nights.
Here's what that stretch looks like laid out side by side:
| Business | Address | What It Is | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juhu | 517 Union Blvd | Indian-American café | Opened Aug. 14, 2026 |
| Tastes Like Home | Union Blvd | Family café and sandwich shop | Opened June 2026 |
| Kafe Neo | 650 Union Blvd | Crepe café | Long-running |
| Fusion 27 | 545 Union Blvd | Latin American, BYOB | Long-running |
| Cyndia's | 169 Union Blvd | Breakfast and brunch | Long-running |
| Union Food Store | 90 & 357 Union Blvd | Grocery, two locations | Long-running |
Six businesses, one road, and two of them are less than a season old. That's not a strip of scattered options. That's a corridor that keeps attracting new independent operators instead of losing them to somewhere else in town.
Totowa Doesn't Have a Traditional Main Street. This Might Be the Closest Thing
Totowa's other commercial gravity sits along Route 46, anchored by places like Restaurant Depot, plus big-box and chain options like Total Wine & More and Kings Food Markets scattered elsewhere in the borough. That kind of shopping serves people arriving by car for a specific errand. It's not a place you wander.
Union Boulevard functions differently. It's walkable in sections, dense with small independent operators, and it keeps absorbing new food concepts rather than sending them elsewhere in the borough. Towns without an obvious downtown often end up with a road that does the job informally, and the last two openings suggest Union Boulevard has been elected to that role by simple accumulation rather than any formal plan.
The Civic Center of Gravity Sits on a Different Street Entirely
If Union Boulevard is where Totowa eats, Totowa Road is where it gathers. The borough's Summer Concert Series runs Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. on the Municipal Building Front Lawn at 537 Totowa Road, free for residents, and it's been the town's default outdoor social hour for years. In July, the Totowa Library Mandolin Orchestra held its own concert nearby, a "Salute to the USA" performance built around patriotic standards. And coming up on September 27, St. James Parish at 410 Totowa Road is hosting an Organ Dedication Concert featuring Maestro Hector Olivera, free to attend with advance ticket registration.
That's two entirely separate axes of daily life running in parallel: a food row on Union Boulevard and a civic and cultural strip on Totowa Road. Neither one is trying to be a downtown by itself, but together they cover what a downtown usually does.
What Changes as Summer Turns Into Fall
A few things worth knowing if you're planning the next few weeks around town:
- The Totowa Borough Council awarded a $364,548 contract to Clifton-based AJM Contractors this July for a fall resurfacing project covering four local streets, so expect paving equipment on some blocks before the weather turns.
- Fusion 27 is dark from August 28 through September 5 for its family vacation, back open September 6.
- The Wednesday concert series on Totowa Road has historically run into early September before wrapping for the year.
- The St. James Organ Dedication Concert on September 27 is one of the more distinctive events on the fall calendar, featuring Maestro Hector Olivera, with free admission but registration required in advance.
None of this requires you to do anything. It's just the texture of what's actually changing in town right now, as opposed to the generic seasonal filler that shows up on every neighborhood roundup.
A Note If You're New to the Area
If you've just moved in and are still figuring out where things are, Union Boulevard is worth treating as its own small errand run rather than a single stop. Grocery, coffee, breakfast and dinner all sit within a few blocks of each other, which is more useful than it sounds once you're juggling a Tuesday morning before work or a Friday night with no plan.
Totowa isn't a town built around one obvious center. It's built around two smaller ones that happen to work well together, and this summer's openings on Union Boulevard are the clearest evidence yet of which one is still growing.
If you're weighing what a specific block or street in Totowa is actually like to live on day to day, beyond what a listing photo can show, that's the kind of local read Joseph D Charles Jr can walk you through. Let's Connect.
