Willow Avenue Café Owner Holds “Grand Re-Opening”

A festive atmosphere reigned Saturday morning at the café on Willow Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets formerly known as Josh & Ive's. Among the colorful balloons handed out to children, the live music and a supportive group of customers and friends, Dwight Thompson, the café's owner, held a "Grand Re-Opening" in which he unveiled the café's new name, as voted by his customers: D's Soul Full Café.

Voting on the new name was held from March 16 through March 29.

Thompson, who managed the café for its previous owners and then bought it from them four years ago, had wanted to re-name the café and re-launch it to be more in his own image and Saturday morning's event was the culmination of that goal.

At around 10:15 a.m., Thompson unrolled the sign featuring the new name. The unveiling was met with a hearty round of applause from customers and then a flurry of breakfast orders. Thompson quickly jumped behind the counter and, along with his employees, started preparing bagels and breakfast burritos to fill those orders.

Some of Thompson's regular customers had been anticipating the Grand Re-Opening while others, like 38 year-old Rosemary Ostmann, were surprised by what seemed like overnight changes.  Indeed, as the smell of fresh paint hinted, the changes were made overnight.

Thompson, with the assistance of a couple of friends, an employee and his landlord, pulled an all-nighter Friday evening refurbishing the inside of the café and preparing for the re-launch. Part of the café's new décor is the artwork adorning the walls, by Hoboken artist Justin Rivenbark. Rivenbark's paintings will be on display and available for purchase at D's Soul Full Café for the next month.

Thompson says he wants his café to be "a community hot-spot" for local artists and singer-songwriters; he'll also feature playlists of local musicians' songs each month on the café's sound system. At yesterday's event, this month's featured musician, Hoboken singer-songwriter Julian Peterson, supplied a live soundtrack by playing a few tunes from his new album "Get On This Train."

Thompson said he was surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response from customers. "Everybody's into it," he said. "It's given me new life."

Ostmann, a Baltimore transplant who has lived in the Mile Square since 2000 and runs a Hoboken-based P.R. boutique, said she's been frequenting the café for many years and is glad to see Thompson take it in a direction that celebrates "a vibrant community" of creative people. Plus, she likes the food and atmosphere.

"I feel like this place has always had the vibe like it's your college bagel place," said Ostmann. "He [Thompson] is taking it to another level." Ostmann added that for her husband and young daughter, D's Soul Full Café is "our go-to place" in the neighborhood.

Cesar Abril, 29, who moved to Hoboken from Montclair, NJ, last December said he used to order bagels toasted, but now, thanks to Thompson, he prefers them pressed. Abril added that he applauds Thompson for supporting local artists and musicians because it jibes with his principles.

"I support local stores," said Abril. "It's going to be great to hear from local musicians at a local place like this."

Graig Procureur, 19, lives across the street from D's Soul full Café and has been working there full-time for the last six months.  He said the new atmosphere of the café makes it a more "inspiring" place to work and that he was glad to sacrifice a night of sleep to help Thompson make the overnight upgrades.

"He's an awesome boss," Procureur said. "Dwight's the kind of guy you want to help out."

Thompson, a former professional break-dancer, is planning to help out the community going forward. Part of the re-launch involves him setting up a nonprofit called "Dancing For Change," to help inner-city youth. A portion of proceeds from the sales the T-shirts he designs along with a percentage of featured artists' and musicians' sales made in conjunction with the café, will be donated to the nonprofit.

And Thompson has more changes in store for D's Soulful Café. He's discussed offering a late-night menu for some of the neighborhood bars, is hoping to add "Singer-songwriter Sundays" as another way to offer local musicians exposure and, as an incentive for people to drop by the café, he just might dust off some of those old break-dancing moves on random occasions.

But first, he has a little bit of sleep to catch up on.