Tenafly, NJ: A Small Town with Big Appeal

ONE GREAT TOWN:  In January of 1894, Tenafly was incorporated as an independent borough by a vote of 137,130.  At that time there were less than 1600 residents in the town.   The first borough election promptly followed and the first council meeting a week later. At the time it was said that what is now Bergen County, was suffering from boroughitis!! Bergen County is now comprised of seventy towns.

Tenafly is a small and charming town. For a property buyer, it checks s a lot of boxes. The schools are some of the best in the US. The neighborhoods are attractive.  The architecture is Victorian to mid century to ultra-modern.  Unfortunately some of the most gorgeous older homes have been torn down, replaced by newer, but not always better homes. There are some condos and apartments. The town changed after the pandemic with some stores and the small but great movie theater closing its doors.  There is an obscene number of restaurant choices, diverse and mostly pretty good - Axia, The Brasserie, Simply Vietnamese, Pizza Nova, the Tenafly Classic Diner and beautiful Cafe Angelique in the old train station. If one is kosher, there is the excellent Tavlin and many others. You can travel the world by walking two blocks in any direction. In town you will see many real estate offices, most being franchises, and a lot of nail salons. Some of the retail stores survived  the pandemic such as MINT and the watch and jewelry store Orogio,   Each facing one other on the corner of Washington and Railroad streets. 

MINT is owned by Simona Kornberg, a person who has had some good surprises in her life.  While walking one day when she was a teen in her native Israel, a man stopped and asked her if she wanted to model. Yeah sure, she thought, but, she bravely followed him to his home office and the rest is her history. She became a big model in Israell. An American man had seen one of her commercials and flew to Israel to meet her. They fell in love, married, and moved to the states.  Both had a strong interest in fashion and so opened a couple of successful boutique shops in New Jersey.  Eventually they, for family reasons, had to move back to Israel.   After four years, Simona. recently divorced returned to the states. She opened MINT in a small apartment in Englewood and then, eventually, moved to her present location in Tenafly. The shop is elegant and beautiful, with many gorgeous items.  She carries vintage and almost new, Chanel, Yves St. Laurent, Gucci etc.  Everything is, forgive me, in mint condition.

Tenafly is the epitome of suburbia. It has beautifully maintained lawns, pristine streets and good in-town parking. What makes it so special are the many parks serving  all segments of the population.  For two to five year olds there is Froggy Park at 1 Foster Road  at the corner of West Clinton. Davis Johnson Park and Gardens is  a dreamy, beautiful place with flowers, sculpture, walking paths and some benches on seven acres. It is on Westervelt, right off Engle Street, and dogs are allowed. Roosevelt Commons, within Griffin Park makes you feel like you are walking in the woods, even though the police department is across the street.  Just do not look.  There are sweet walking paths and tennis courts.  The parking lot is on Jefferson, adjacent to the high school field.   And, here too, dogs can play. The Tenafly Nature center at 313  Hudson is quite large with about seven miles of trails.  Dogs are not allowed there, but this town’s dogs also have a park of their own, creatively called the Tenafly Dog Park at 147 Grove St.  These are but a few of the green spaces within this beautiful borough. Had to say ithe word at least once.