Three Westwood Openings, One Street: Center Avenue This Fall
In the past two weeks, Center Avenue has gained one new restaurant and has a second about to open. A third is under construction a short way up the street. These are the downtown Westwood openings our research turned up for this fall, and all three share the street. For anyone who has followed the borough's closings over the past few years, the pattern makes sense once you list who left, who arrived and what kind of business each one is.
Here is where things stand on Center Avenue as of October 3, 2026.
Millburn Deli's Westwood shop is its second in Bergen County, following a Ridgewood location that opened earlier this year. NorthJersey.com described it as bringing "towering sandwiches and New Jersey-style sloppy joes" to town. WDHA traces the business back to 1946. So Westwood's newest lunch counter comes from a deli that has been around longer than most of the storefronts it now shares a street with.
Il Vero is a sit-down dinner spot. The restaurant belongs to Gia Giudice, the oldest daughter of "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice. Its director of operations, Jovy Candelaria, gave NorthJersey.com the October 7 soft-opening date, and booking runs through ilveronj.com. Plan on a reservation for the first few weeks, since that is how the restaurant has set up its opening.
Pneuma, pronounced "NOO-muh," takes its name from the ancient Greek word for wind, breath or spirit. Its plan covers the hours in between. According to Boozy Burbs' August report, the menu includes:
The concept is described as entirely seed-oil free, with pizzas and pastas made from unbleached, unbromated flours from Italian mills. As of that report, work on the space was underway and the team was hiring.
Taken together, the three cover lunch, dinner and the stretch from morning coffee to a take-home dinner. Once Pneuma opens, Center Avenue will have something for nearly every hour of the day.
To see why this is happening on Center Avenue now, start at 515 Broadway, where Westwood Feed Co. closed on March 7 after 142 years. The business dates to 1884. It sat just off the railroad tracks and supplied the turkey farms and small farms that once shaped the Pascack Valley. The current building went up in 1929. Owner Donald DaCosta and his brother Steve bought the business in 1976.
Speaking to Pascack Press from Florida before the closing, DaCosta put it plainly:
"It's kind of a dinosaur. People don't have turkey farms anymore."
He said the clearest sign came during the pandemic, when customers moved to ordering online. He also described his store as one of the last downtown anchor businesses still standing. He named two others. Susan Weinrich's Westwood Pets Unlimited operated at 15 Westwood Ave. until late 2025. Steve Naginsky's LN Grand 5 and 10 Cent Store at 247 Westwood Ave. closed in 2019 after 60 years.
DaCosta's list explains the street map. The businesses that held downtown together for generations sold practical goods, such as seed, suet, pet supplies and five-and-dime basics. Online shopping took over that kind of retail. Food and drink are harder to replace with a delivery, and those are the businesses signing leases on Center Avenue.
One of DaCosta's examples has already been through this change. The LN Grand building at 247 Westwood Ave. is now Five Dimes Brewery. The brewery's own page describes the space as the former L.N. Grand 5 & 10.
It runs a full calendar. Its weekly schedule includes Monday open mic, 20 percent off merchandise and growlers on Tuesdays, JoeTrivia on Wednesdays, bingo on Thursdays and live music on Fridays and Saturdays. The rest of October looks like this on the brewery's posted calendar:
A professional networking night is also listed on Eventbrite for Tuesday, October 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. The brewery's beer list includes a Märzen at 6% ABV and a Festbier at 5.2%. That list is a catalog, so it doesn't guarantee what's on tap on a given night.
Seven years after the 5-and-10 closed, its building fills more evenings than most of downtown. That is the clearest local example of where Center Avenue is heading.
The feed store's building has not followed yet. We checked the Westwood Planning Board agenda for August 26 and the Zoning Board agendas for September 14 and October 5, 2026. None of them lists an application for 515 Broadway. That doesn't tell us whether the property has sold or what is planned for it. It only means nothing about the address has come before those boards in public in that period.
The store's best-known product is in a similar spot. Over the years, DaCosta mixed custom seed blends for customers trying to attract particular wild birds, and one became the no-waste "Westwood Special." Before the closing, his family said it wanted to keep selling the mix and was working out whether that could pay for itself. As of that February report, the plan was still undecided.
The new restaurants sit close to a busy fall calendar. Most of it is at Veterans Memorial Park, at Broadway and Third Avenue, and near the train station. A deli lunch or an Il Vero reservation pairs easily with any of these:
A Veterans' Day service is set for 11 a.m. on November 11 at Veterans' Memorial Park. The Home for the Holidays Parade is December 5 at 6 p.m. The borough has not posted a route. If you ride to the parade, there's a new bike rack outside the Sgt. Christopher R. Hrbek Post Office at Westwood and Fairview avenues. It was dedicated September 13, paid for by Troop 98178 and assembled by postmaster Gabriel Ali.
Pneuma's opening date is the next thing to watch on Center Avenue. On Broadway, it's the first filing for 515 Broadway.
If you own a home near downtown Westwood and are wondering what three new restaurants, a busy brewery and a closed landmark storefront could mean for your property, Keren Abraham follows these changes block by block. Let's make it happen. Get your free home valuation and a straight read on your street.
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