Two storefronts on Ringwood Avenue in Haskell are under new ownership right now, and both are open for business. That's worth pausing on, because the two spaces in question have opposite histories. One held a working restaurant before the current tenant moved in. The other sat vacant for years before it reopened. Both are now full again, and both are doing real business. That pattern, not any single opening, is the story on this stretch of road.
The Same Address, a Different Kitchen
At 1069 Ringwood Avenue, Buona Sera ran as a BYOB Italian spot for years, the kind of place where reservations were more suggestion than requirement and the dining room filled up on its own reputation. It's closed now. In its place, Il Gusto has taken over the exact same address, and by diners' accounts the interior was gutted and rebuilt rather than lightly touched up. The new restaurant kept the format that worked in that space: family-owned, BYOB, Italian, with hand-tossed brick-oven pizza and handmade pasta on the menu. It's not a coincidence that the format carried over. A BYOB Italian restaurant in that particular storefront had already proven it could pull a crowd on Ringwood Avenue, and Il Gusto's owners bet on the same equation with a different kitchen behind it. The business has since expanded to a second location in Wayne, which suggests the bet paid off.
That address sits inside a small plaza that does a lot of the daily work of feeding Haskell. Tokyo Sushi Restaurant and Best Cellars, a wine and spirits shop, share the same building at 1069. King's Deli and a Bubbakoo's Burritos are steps away in the same complex. Walk another storefront or two down the block and you hit Kitchen and Beer Bar at 1093 Ringwood Avenue and Prime Pizzeria at 1116. This isn't a single restaurant succeeding in isolation. It's a plaza where multiple food businesses are operating at once, which only works if there's enough regular foot traffic to support all of them.
The Storefront That Took Years to Fill
A few minutes up the road at 72 Haskell Avenue, the story runs in the opposite direction. Before it became The Celtic Knot, that storefront sat vacant long enough that one Tripadvisor reviewer opened a write-up with a single line: "This place took years to open." Another review describes the space before the current ownership as run-down.
What's there now is a sports bar and Irish pub open from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. seven days a week, serving an Irish breakfast alongside cheesesteak sliders that regulars have taken to calling the million-dollar sliders. It hosts karaoke nights, live music, and trivia, and it's picked up enough of a following that at least one guest staying at the Holiday Inn Express in the Haskell-Wayne area wandered over after striking up a conversation with a couple walking out the door. That's a small detail, but it means the bar is now pulling in people passing through the area, not just residents who already knew the address.
The contrast between these two spaces matters. One replaced a restaurant that had already built a following. The other filled a storefront that had been vacant for years. Different starting points, same outcome: money went into rebuilding both interiors, and both reopened doing enough business to stay open on unusual hours or expand to a second town.
The Rest of the Block Isn't Standing Still Either
Ringwood Avenue's food scene doesn't start and stop at these two addresses. The Lantern Charbroil Grill, a family-run diner at 1138 Ringwood Avenue, serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a drive-thru option and a full ice cream counter, the kind of business that depends on repeat weekday customers rather than destination diners. Down at 1185 Ringwood Avenue, Pizza One and Lonestar Bakeshop & Bagels share a building, giving the strip both a pizza-by-the-slice option and a bagel shop within the same storefront run. Firestix Greek Grill sits further along at 897 Ringwood Avenue.
None of these are new openings in the way Il Gusto and The Celtic Knot are. But their continued presence matters to the same thesis. A commercial strip with this many food businesses running at once, each depending on local traffic rather than passing tourists, only holds together if the surrounding storefronts are also occupied. Haskell doesn't have a downtown in the traditional sense. Ringwood Avenue functions as the closest thing to one, and right now that function is intact.
There's non-food evidence of the same pattern. Wanaque Lumber Landscaping & Garden Supplies has operated at 1434 Ringwood Avenue for years, supplying topsoil and landscaping materials to a corridor that's clearly still building and maintaining property, not one in decline. And the Passaic County Clerk's satellite office sits at 1237 Ringwood Avenue, a government service that requires an appointment and draws its own steady midday foot traffic to the same stretch of road. A courthouse-adjacent errand and a lunch stop at The Lantern aren't unrelated activities when they happen on the same block.
Further south on Ringwood Avenue, a small commercial storefront at 901 was still being marketed as of early June 2026, described in its own listing as high-visibility retail space with roughly ten new parking spaces being built out in the rear. Whether or not that particular space has since leased, the fact that someone was investing in new parking capacity for a Ringwood Avenue storefront this year says something about what landlords expect from the corridor going forward.
What the Turnover Actually Signals
None of this means every storefront on Ringwood Avenue is thriving, and it would be dishonest to suggest a couple of restaurant openings prove a boom. What it does show is a specific and useful thing: when space becomes available on this strip, whether through a business closing or a long vacancy finally getting addressed, someone has been willing to invest real money into rebuilding the interior and reopening under a workable format. That's a different pattern than a corridor losing tenants faster than it gains them. Haskell was formed in 1898 as a company town for a smokeless powder mill, and the commercial spine that grew up along Ringwood Avenue since then has outlasted the industry that built it. The current round of turnover is a small continuation of that same habit: the road keeps getting used, even as what fills its storefronts changes hands.
For anyone who lives along this stretch, the practical takeaway is simple. If you haven't been to Il Gusto since the remodel, or haven't stopped into The Celtic Knot since it opened at 72 Haskell Avenue, both are worth a visit. The block has more going on than a quick drive-by would suggest.
If you're curious what a changing commercial strip like Ringwood Avenue means for property values in Haskell, The Only Orly Group can walk you through what's actually moving in this corner of Wanaque Borough. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
