This trendy eatery is coming to Moorestown Mall

MOORESTOWN – John Murphy has wanted to open a restaurant at Moorestown Mall for quite some time but just needed the right opportunity.

That happened when one restaurant closed there recently. Murphy, a Moorestown resident, jumped at the opportunity to open his second Ryfe Bar & Restaurant in South Jersey in March. His first location is in Atlantic City.

“I live in Moorestown so that was a pretty large factor in selecting the location,” Murphy said. “I had known that there was potential to get in the mall at some point. Starting like three years ago, I had been trying to get into that mall space, working with PREIT (mall owners) to see if there was anyone who wanted to leave or a new space they wanted to help invest in to expand the eateries at the mall, that kind of thing and it just took a while for that location at the mall to open up for me.”

The Moorestown space is a leased space, obviously, but they’ve been doing a lot of work to get it ready, everything from painting, flooring, lighting in the space once occupied by the now-closed Hash House A Go-Go at 400 Route 38.

“I have a design person, a Moorestown High School graduate, she’s doing the interior design type work,” he added. “Then everyone’s kind of pitching in just to make the existing space as Ryfe-like as possible for us. I feel pretty good about where we are as far as that goes. I do want to transform the space so it feels like Ryfe. I want to it feel a little more homey.”

That includes having a few lounge areas, in addition to the dining areas. They will also have a private dining area.

Learning lessons from Atlantic City restaurant

Murphy grew up in Franklinville, graduated from Delsea Regional High School, then Penn State. After that, he lived in Philadelphia for a while then in and around South Jersey ever since.

He opened his first Ryfe restaurant at 4101 Atlantic Avenue in Atlantic City at a tough time but it’s done very well and has become a popular destination.

Murphy was able to successfully transform what had once been the location of Sherlock’s Liquor & Pub.

“I spent 18 months, I totally gutted the building,” Murphy said. “I own that building. I had to move a liquor license to that building. I was able to open up but opened up three days before the New Jersey COVID lockdown. In true Murphy’s Law fashion, everything that could go wrong kind of went wrong that. But it all worked out great.

“I always joke around. I don’t really think I have Murphy’s Law, although my last name is Murphy. I think I have the opposite. Things just seem to work out. Everything worked out, but it was not the best timing. That location has done really well and through the success of that location was my inclination to open up another.”

What does the menu look like at Ryfe?

Murphy said they try to create an environment that’s inclusive and attractive to everyone, whether it’s children coming from a sporting event, who want burgers, fries or nachos or someone coming for happy hour to watch the game who may desire wings, cheesesteaks or other bar food.

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“Then there’s also our dinner menu which has more elevated things,” said Murphy, who said the menu will be revamped some. “Our chef does a really good job of taking the best proteins we can get and making those into really good dishes.

“We have a 14-ounce lobster tail. We have an 8-ounce filet. A 20-ounce bone-in ribeye. There’s a 20-ounce bone-in pork chop. The dinner menu, whether it’s date night, Valentine’s Day, whatever it is, they’re our top, really good dishes you can find there in addition to the more common bar type food that we also offer.”

The plan is for the Moorestown location to have a soft opening on March 9 and a grand opening on March 14.

“We’re moving fast,” he said. “We’ve been in that space since about Jan. 1 working on it. We’ve done a bunch already.”

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: This trendy eatery is coming to Moorestown Mall