After Lakewood’s Closure, Only One Charlie Brown’s Is Left In NJ

It feels like the end of an era is hanging on by a thread, with a single Charlie Brown's restaurant location left in New Jersey.

The steakhouse chain used to dot the Garden State, when I grew up in central NJ the local Charlie Brown's was the fancy place to go for celebration dinners, but it looks like the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic may have picked off most of those that remained.

There were a few Charlie Brown's locations here in Ocean County, including Forked River, Toms River, and Lakewood operating as recently as the beginning of this year, in fact an NJ.com article from January 2020 points out that at least a dozen Charlie Brown's were still serving up steaks in New Jersey at the time.

But when businesses started to open back up after the COVID shutdowns this spring, only a handful reopened, including the Route 70 location in Lakewood.

It didn't last very long though, the Lakewood location closed its doors for good recently.

With the shuttering of the Lakewood and Edison locations, that leaves only a single Charlie Brown's restaurant in New Jersey.

According to NJ.com, the Charlie Brown's in Scotch Plains is the lone survivor and is the only location listed on the chain's official website.

The article says that company officials point to the coronavirus shutdowns as the main culprit.

I have to be honest it's been years since I've been to a Charlie Brown's, although I've passed the Toms River and Lakewood locations plenty of times and both always seemed to be busy, but it definitely saddens me to see another long-running company close its doors because of the havoc that's been 2020.

You can read more about the last Charlie Brown's in New Jersey by clicking here for the NJ.com article.