For twenty years, the best view on the West New York waterfront had a dark window in front of it. The end-cap of the Riverwalk Place retail promenade at 45 Riverwalk Place sat empty while a lawsuit between the condo association and the commercial owner ran its course. If you walked past on a summer night, you saw the skyline and a vacant storefront in the same glance.
That window is lit now. And what that means for a Friday in West New York is bigger than one restaurant.
The end-cap that took twenty years
West & Co. opened at 45 Riverwalk Place this spring, a large-scale waterfront brasserie in a riverfront space that had remained vacant for more than two decades before being redeveloped. The doors opened on Friday, May 1, 2026. The project comes from restaurateur Jeremy Casilli and NYC real estate principal Michael Besen, and operations are led by Wander DeBrito, a French Culinary Institute graduate whose background includes Del Posto and Gramercy Tavern.
That resume matters because it tells you what to order. Not the burger. The room is built around shareable classics: mussels and frites, crispy artichokes, a vegetarian "veal" parmigiana, oysters, clams, and chilled seafood towers. The bar list leans into old-school classics like a Brandy Alexander and Sidecar.
The physical space is where the twenty-year wait pays off. The design is a classic American brasserie with Art Deco influences, with warm white oak finishes, curved banquettes, expansive waterfront-facing windows, a large cocktail bar, a glass-enclosed private wine room, and an outdoor terrace overlooking the Hudson and the New York City skyline. Tucked behind the kitchen is The Wax Room, a hidden speakeasy-style space with an extensive vinyl collection and a turntable-driven music program. The dining room holds up to 250 guests.
For residents, the practical read is this: the waterfront now has a serious room that will hold a birthday, an anniversary, a group of eight visiting from out of town, without a reservation into Manhattan.
The neighbors you already knew
The reason West & Co. changes the calculus of a summer evening is that it walks into a promenade with existing gravity. Riverwalk Place is already home to Son Cubano, Ben + Jerry's, Alpha Fit Club, and other local hotspots. The math of a night out shifts when there's a real anchor to arrive at or leave from:
- Son Cubano for a first drink on the earlier side, before the DJ takes over the room
- Alpha Fit Club if the plan started at 6 p.m. with a class and needs to end at 8 with dinner
- Ben + Jerry's for the walk back with kids who negotiated their way through the meal
- West & Co. for the sit-down, then The Wax Room for a nightcap
You didn't have that fourth slot in April. You do in July.
The Bergenline half of the same town
The other half of West New York's food geography runs perpendicular to the river. Bergenline Avenue is a bustling strip that runs roughly 90 blocks through Union City, West New York, Guttenberg and North Bergen. The 4.4-mile portion through those four towns is home to nearly 300 restaurants, cafes, bakeries, delis, and markets. Cubans began settling here in the 1950s, earning the nickname Havana on the Hudson.
If you already live in West New York, none of this is news. What is worth saying out loud in July 2026: the light rail makes the two halves of town one evening instead of two. Between 48th and 49th Streets, elevators on the west side provide access to the underground Bergenline Avenue station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. That's an eight-minute ride from the waterfront to a pupusa without moving a car.
A short list of the West New York stops on Bergenline that reward a repeat visit:
- Parriyas, at Bergenline and 55th, open since 2021, featuring Colombian staples like arepas and tostones, plus burgers and bowls. The paisa is a traditional Colombian grilled-meat plate reimagined in burger form with chorizo, avocado, and plantains; the salchicha bowl combines french fries, hot dogs and quail eggs under a tangy pink sauce.
- La Pupusa Loca, at 5910 Bergenline at 59th Street, one of the best places to sample the Salvadoran dish made with cornmeal, masa, or rice flour, filled with beans, cheese, chicharron or loroco and griddled to order.
- El Farolito, another Salvadoran option at 5515 Bergenline.
- Rancho Mateo for the cazuela de frijoles, a plato tipico bean stew with sweet plantains, meats and chicharron with rice, fried egg and avocado, in a portion big enough to constitute lunch the next day.
- Dulce de Leche at 65th and Bergenline for the chori-pan, grilled Argentine sausage with chimichurri.
- Noches de Colombia, useful because it has six locations on the avenue, meaning one is always closer than you think.
"I wanted to create something for the young people. Fast food, but done well, with a Colombian taste," is how Parriyas co-owner Juan Lopez described the project to New Jersey Monthly through a translator earlier this year.
That sentence is the thesis of Bergenline in miniature. The strip is not a museum of first-generation cooking. It is being rewritten in real time by second-generation operators for their own peers.
One evening, both halves
Here is what the summer of 2026 makes possible that summer 2025 did not:
| The waterfront tonight | Bergenline tonight |
|---|---|
| Reservation at West & Co., seafood tower, terrace | Walk-in pupusas at La Pupusa Loca |
| Curved banquette, Art Deco, skyline through glass | Neon sign, counter service, six seats |
| Brandy Alexander in The Wax Room | Chori-pan at Dulce de Leche, eaten on the way home |
| One check for four, planned a week out | One check for two, decided at 8:45 p.m. |
The point of the table is not that one is better. It is that they are finally the same trip. A drink at Son Cubano at 6, dinner at West & Co. at 8, an 11 p.m. arepa on Bergenline before bed. That itinerary exists in July because the end-cap is no longer dark.
The other reason this matters: the crowd that comes for West & Co. will not spend every evening at West & Co. They will spill into the rest of the town. Bergenline is served by NJ Transit buses to local points and to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal in Manhattan, which means the visitors who arrive by bus for the strip and the visitors who arrive by ferry for the brasserie are now going to notice each other on a Saturday. West New York has been two food towns stapled together for a long time. This is the summer they start reading as one.
What to plan around before Labor Day
A few practical calls for residents holding the calendar:
- Book West & Co. for the actual milestone. The room is designed for the birthday, not the Tuesday. Save it for the reason.
- Use the Tuesday for Bergenline. A weeknight pupusa run at La Pupusa Loca or a Parriyas order at the bar is what a small kitchen wants and what a full workday deserves.
- Take the light rail once this month even if you drive everywhere. The Bergenline Avenue station between 48th and 49th is a rehearsal for the nights you don't want to move your car home.
- Send guests to the terrace first. The waterfront view was the point of the twenty-year lawsuit. Let visitors understand why the town fought for it before you take them anywhere else.
Two halves of one town, connected at last by a lit window and a light rail elevator. That is the story of this summer in West New York, and it is worth eating your way through before September.
If you're thinking about what a West New York address means for you, whether that's a Riverwalk Place condo with the terrace view or a walk-up steps from Bergenline, Staci Manoukian can walk you through what's on and off the market with the same block-by-block attention this town rewards. Get your instant home valuation to start the conversation.
