New restaurant coming to Camden County but is property cursed?

I can’t imagine the level of confidence and hope it takes to open a restaurant in general, let alone to open one in New Jersey.

Our business climate here is not friendly. Layoffs at a wide range of businesses have been a thorn in Gov. Sherrill’s side. The restaurant industry?

A whole other animal.

person eating food

Restauranteurs face slim profit margins and long hours. Unless everything goes right eateries can come and go quickly.

WalletHub ranks New Jersey 46th out of 50 states for startup success, driven largely by high labor costs, expensive commercial real estate, and property taxes.

A commercial kitchen with stainless steel appliances, hanging cookware, and a central aisle

The failure rate for new restaurants in the Garden State is around 60% in three years and 20% in the first year alone.

So when you hear that a new restaurant is opening in a Camden County property that has been the home of two failed restaurants in a decade and sat vacant for several of those years you have to root for them.

Audubon Crossings via Google Street View

Empire Buffet is coming to Audubon along the Black Horse Pike at Audubon Crossings shopping center according to 42Freeway.com.

Not much is known about the new buffet style restaurant but a banner has been seen out front that the business will be opening soon but with no clear date.

It’s in the same space where Tang Asian Cuisine very recently closed. That restaurant only survived two years after opening in 2024. Before that the building sat empty for a long time after a Golden Corral restaurant also couldn’t make a go of it.

Let’s hope the place isn’t cursed and that the third time will be the charm, because Jersey could use a win.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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