2023 – Bye, Bye, Bischoff’s!
………………………………………..(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 2, 2023)
NOTE: Many of these images are LARGE and should be clicked to make them bigger. A few of them – like the note closeups and the panoramic ones – should be clicked TWICE to fully-enlarge. Hit your back button to return.
If you have zero familiarity with Bergen County – specifically, the Teaneck, NJ area – this won’t mean much to you, so you can wait until my next brain burp (but I’m hoping you might find this interesting anyway).
Bischoff’s – THE premier after-movie or after- date destination on Cedar Lane in Teaneck for almost 90 years, has closed its doors for good.
I grew up about 5 blocks away from it, so you know it was a big part of my young life. I even worked there for 9+ months in 1964, thinking that every cute girl who dropped by would show appreciation for an extra dollop of whipped cream on their sundaes (didn’t happen).
I was paid a dollar an hour and – after 9 months – got a big raise to $1.10/hr. I was then fired two weeks later. The “reason”? I was told it was because I was “making too much money” (the boss actually said that!).
That idiocy aside, they still made the best ice cream and continued to be an after-date destination. Check out this petition: https://tinyurl.com/BischoffsPetition
I hadn’t been in there in years, so I was surprised to find out a month ago that they were going to close up shop on the last day of 2022.
It seemed to be a shame, but I didn’t feel inclined to make a final visit. Then I read that they ran out of ice cream a couple of days before closing, so I REALLY had no reason to go there.
(Various stories about Bischoff’s closing: https://www.northjersey.com/search/?q=Bischoff%27s)
THEN, I read that there was a ceremony where part of what was a street two doors away from them was renamed “Bischoff’s Place” (that part of the street had become a pedestrian plaza).
That did it, I had to go take some pictures before the sign was stolen, but I didn’t want to go on the last day – it would probably be a zoo on the 31st – so I went a little after 10am on the morning of the 30th to beat the lunchtime crowds.
The sign:
I then decided to go inside and shoot a couple of panoramic shots. It would take about two minutes to do that, so why not?
Well, here’s why not:
New hours – they wouldn’t open until 11:30am. Now I have to come back later.
In the first picture, did you notice all the colorful pieces of paper in their windows? They were customer remembrances on “My Bischoff’s Story” paper that the store must have collected after the closing was announced.
This was definitely a picture worth taking LARGE, so some of them would be readable. Here are two LARGE pictures to try and read a few of them:
At the bottom of the second one – below the silly chicken/road thing – is an old Bischoff’s yardstick. How old is it? I would guess early 1960s (no ZIP code or phone area code).
I returned just after 2pm and went right inside. I immediately took this panoramic shot of the whole scene once you’re inside the door – fountain on the left, candy on the right and something else right in the middle that was empty space when I worked there:
It’s not sharp in the middle because when I started the camera pan on the far left, the camera focused there, but did not change its focus on nearer or more distant things in the middle. That’s why it’s also sharp on the far right………….it’s equidistant to the far left.
Same thing with the next two PANOs of the dining area and the fountain – sharper on the sides and not so much in the middle:
No problem with the multi-noted freezer that sat right in the middle between the front half and the dining area:
The last picture I took inside Bischoff’s was of the two merchandise-related signs:
The QR code still works, if you’d like to give it a try. If not, you can still get overpriced stuff here: https://www.bonfire.com/store/bischoffs-confectionery/
I actually have a black Bischoff’s t-shirt that I bought years ago – probably on eBay:
But I noticed something that mine has that none of their current offerings has. Remember seeing this sign in the first picture?
“Confectioners of Distinction” has been their saying for as long as I can remember. Why would they drop it? One the one hand, it detracts from their current items, but on the other hand, it makes mine more valuable.
Big deal…………..I’d rather that Bischoff’s stuck around instead.
Say it isn’t so!! Best lemon sorbet EVER. Then, again, it was rumored to be the headquarters of the KKK in the 1920s and the German-American Bund (American Nazi Party) in the late 1930s. Oh well
Semi-fortunately for Teaneck, Bischoff’s didn’t arrive until 1934 (which – semi-UNfortunately – leaves the Nazi question).