North Jersey café helps you step into 1800s

• The family business runs out of a building that dates back to the 1840s.
• The old Vreeland store was named a local historic landmark in 1995.
• The restaurant, inn, and bar serves breakfast and lunch six days a week.

WEST MILFORD — Walk into The Vreeland Store cafe and you find that you've stepped into another century.

Iron utensils hang from iron racks. Vintage glassware basks near the window. White-washed cabinets line the walls above a modern showcase packed with pastries.

“With a building so rich in history, we want to celebrate that,” said Charissa Lanza, The Vreeland Store’s general manager. “We wanted to work with our space instead of just occupying it.”

The Vreeland Store café, inn, and bar on Macopin Road continues a tradition that dates back to April 18, 1877, when the original Vreeland store opened as a post office and general store.

Charles Wesley Vreeland, local postmaster, opened that first store in the 1840s building. On first glance, it looks as though nothing has changed since 1861, said Lanza.

The store entrance protruded into Macopin Road as an invitation to passersby. It nearly still does today.

The customers continue to arrive to the end of Westbrook Road looking for hot coffee, sandwiches, and a hearty brunch of cranberry walnut French toast for $7, with a side of “Taylor Ham” for an extra dollar. The menu also includes specialty mac and cheese dishes for $9 to $11, a quiche of the day and a variety of omelets with home fries and toast for $10 to $12. Dish prices max out at $13, and that's for Cajun crabcakes with a sweet chili sauce.

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Lanza said along with the hot meal and "great" cup of coffee, customers will also get a "warm welcome."

The kitchen serves dinner Wednesdays through Saturdays and is closed Mondays.

Locals, including the town's mayor, have boasted of the food and coffee, but there's more.

It's also an inn.

The Vreeland Store has two upstairs suites for nightly rental. Both feature queen beds, sitting rooms with flat screen televisions and private bathrooms with antique decor.

Restoration and modernization

Though the building’s infrastructure was modernized for its adaptive reuse, the restoration was designed to maintain much of the architectural charm, Lanza said. Bead-board ceilings, a clapboard exterior, scrolled woodwork, and a fieldstone foundation all highlight its age.

Occupied by Vreelands later into the 20th century, the Victorian home was purchased by Lanza’s father, local contractor Vincent Lanza, in 2003 to save it from likely demolition, Lanza said. The family, including Lanza’s mother and sister, then spent the next 10 years planning and restoring the historic structure.

“We wanted to do our best to keep the historic integrity of the space but there was a lot that had to be done to make the space practical for a restaurant and inn,” Lanza said.

Vintage illustrations and newspaper clippings on the walls, a “cigar store Indian” on the porch, and an old cigarette machine near the entrance pop among the locally sourced décor. Café tables were built using old delivery boxes found on the property.

More on the Vreelands

Before the Lanzas took possession, the last of the Vreelands to occupy the house was Emma Relda Vreeland.

A local legend, Emma Relda Vreeland died in 1982 at the age of 103. The granddaughter of Charles Wesley Vreeland, she was one of the first women in the state to earn a driver’s license. She also served the community as a volunteer firefighter and ran a candy shop out of the home that is one of several built or owned by the Vreeland family that still exist near Nosenzo Pond.

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Within a half-mile of The Vreeland Store stand two formerly Vreeland-owned boarding houses: Glen Grove and the Breezy Point Villa. The Echo Lake Baptist Church a few doors down was also built with the help of the late pastor Conrad Vreeland.