For years, "dinner in Paramus" meant a chain steakhouse, a diner, or a food court stop tacked onto an errand run. That default is quietly breaking. Between January and June 2026, a run of leases and openings has repositioned the town's two anchor shopping centers as evening destinations, not just daytime ones.
Here's the thesis worth carrying into your next weekend: the interesting food in Paramus this year is concentrated at Bergen Town Center and Westfield Garden State Plaza, and the mix has tilted from mall-standard toward chef-driven and rooftop-oriented. If you already live here, you have fewer reasons to drive to Ridgewood, Hackensack, or over the GWB for a table worth booking.
Bergen Town Center Is Doing The Heavy Lifting
The most consequential shift is happening at the property at Route 4 East and Forest Avenue. In April 2026, Bergen Town Center announced several new tenants covering food, fashion, and fitness, with many expected to open this year. The food names, in particular, read differently than the center's previous tenant mix.
Start with the biggest single lease. Tommy's Tavern + Tap is coming to Paramus as a new 15,000-square-foot location at Bergen Town Center, confirmed by Triple T Hospitality Group CEO Tim Selcov. The build-out is unusual for a suburban shopping center: a rooftop, 400+ seats, and three bars. Timing per the landlord is later than the initial signage suggested. Urban Edge Properties said the Jersey Shore-born chain will open at Bergen Town Center in Paramus by Spring 2027, so this is one to watch rather than book, but the footprint tells you how the center is repositioning.
Two chef-and-concept-driven names anchor the near-term openings:
- Capon's Burgers, from celebrity chef Josh Capon. Signage went up at the mall announcing the 2026 arrival of the eatery, described as a "no-frills burger joint" from Capon, who is known from Food Network appearances.
- Canton Rodeo, a 1,458-square-foot flagship location for a brand-new slow-roasted Hong Kong BBQ concept. Flagship is the operative word. Paramus is the first location, which is rare for a suburban center.
For daytime, the pull is Tatte Bakery & Cafe. The popular bakery and cafe, known for coffee, pastries, brunch dishes, salads, sandwiches, soups, bowls, and plates, announced a Paramus location near the Maywood border as its second Bergen County spot, joining its Ridgewood outpost. Two dates are floating for Tatte depending on the source: spring 2026 per The Bergen County Girl, and May 2027 per ROI-NJ citing the landlord. Take the later date as the working assumption until the doors are actually open.
Rounding out the wave: Nail Art Spa, a 2,211-square-foot second location for popular regional nail artists from Hackensack, and Pilates Addiction, a 1,696-square-foot studio blending classical technique and modern intensity, plus Elev8tion Fitness, a 14,750-square-foot gym with locations across South Florida and an expanding presence in New York and New Jersey.
The through-line: the property is no longer leaning on the anchor draw of Whole Foods, Target, and CVS alone. The lifestyle and dining tenants are being layered on top.
Garden State Plaza Is Adding Snacks, Not Sit-Downs
If Bergen Town Center is going for the dinner reservation, Garden State Plaza is going for the walk-around bite. In June 2026, Patch reported that a mall in Bergen County recently added seven new restaurants and stores, with four already open and three more set to arrive in August. The Paramus mall in question is Westfield Garden State Plaza, near routes 4 and 17.
Two food names to know now:
- Sweet Kitchen, a bakery that first opened in Montclair, is now on Level 2 near Macy's, with a menu that includes baklava, tiramisu, and sticky toffee pudding, along with gluten-free and vegan options.
- Kong Dog, located in the mall's Food Court District, serving Korean-style corn dogs with fillings that include mozzarella cheese, beef sausage, chicken sausage, and plant-based sausage.
There's also a first-in-state coffee arrival on deck. A globally recognized coffee brand is officially making its way to New Jersey for the first time, with a location planned for Garden State Plaza in Paramus. That's worth checking your usual mall route for later this year.
The Openings At A Glance
A quick reference for what's landed and what's still coming, based on landlord announcements and reporting through summer 2026:
| Place | Where | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Kitchen | Garden State Plaza, Level 2 | Open |
| Kong Dog | Garden State Plaza, Food Court District | Open |
| Capon's Burgers | Bergen Town Center | 2026 arrival announced |
| Canton Rodeo | Bergen Town Center | 2026, flagship |
| Tatte Bakery & Cafe | Bergen Town Center | Spring 2026 or May 2027 depending on source |
| Tommy's Tavern + Tap | Bergen Town Center | Spring 2027 per landlord |
| Elev8tion Fitness | Bergen Town Center | 2026 |
| Pilates Addiction | Bergen Town Center | 2026 |
One more note that isn't a restaurant but matters if you're a home cook who runs a side hustle or a small caterer. A new Restaurant Depot is coming to Paramus after leasing more than 91,000 square feet off Route 17, backfilling an existing big-box property at 577 Winters Ave., with plans to open in late 2026. It's a wholesale food supplier with an ID requirement, not a place to grab lunch, but its arrival is another signal that Paramus's commercial food infrastructure is thickening.
What This Actually Changes About A Tuesday
Roundups usually stop at the list. The more useful question is what the list changes about the week.
Three practical shifts:
The "we need to drive somewhere for a good coffee and pastry" problem is easing. With Tatte on the way to the Maywood-side edge of Paramus and Sweet Kitchen already open at the Plaza, the closest weekend-worthy bakery counter is no longer a Ridgewood or Montclair errand.
Chef-branded casual is arriving without the chef-branded price tag. Capon's is being described as no-frills. Canton Rodeo is picking Paramus as a flagship. Both suggest that the operators see the local weekday customer, not the special-occasion crowd, as the base.
Rooftop dining is coming to a shopping center. That's a genuinely new category in this stretch of Route 4. When Tommy's opens, the calculation for a summer evening out shifts.
For homeowners already in Paramus, that's the story worth catching early. New tenants in shopping centers rarely make headlines the way market data does, but they change how a neighborhood feels on a Friday night, which is a slow-burn factor in why people stay in a town and why buyers pick one Bergen County zip code over another.
Watch The Bergen County Food Beat
A few local sources have been reliable on this beat if you want to keep up between openings. The ROI-NJ report on Bergen Town Center's new tenants, the Patch coverage of Garden State Plaza's June additions, and NJBIZ on Tommy's Tavern + Tap's Paramus and Ledgewood expansion each add color the landlord press releases skip.
If you're weighing a move within Paramus, keeping an eye on which corridors are drawing new food and fitness tenants is a better tell than any single quarter of price data. The corridors picking up the interesting operators tend to be the ones holding value best over the next few years.
If you already live in Paramus and are thinking about what a move up, down, or across town might look like against this changing backdrop, the team at Doreen Doyle & The Doyle Group is happy to talk through the block-by-block picture. Contact The Doyle Group — Start Your Naples Home Journey.
