COLTS NECK, NJ — The Colts Neck General Store and Deli is celebrating 175 years in the Colts Neck community.
Founded in 1849, the store was started by the Matthews family and initially built as a mill, according to Colts Neck General Store Owner Mary Pahira.
Though the building has undergone plenty of renovations since its founding, you can still see parts of its original structure today in everything from the building’s rafters to antiques the store has collected over the years.
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At one point, Pahira said there even used to be a trap door that led to the store’s basement.
“Over the years, it’s changed,” Pahira said. “It’s been a deli for the last 35-40 years now, but this place has been a lot over the years.”
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Since its inception, Pahira said the General Store has been a butcher shop, a hardware store, and even a liquor shop. According to Pahira, the store’s roots go so deep that a liquor store around the corner from Colts Neck General got its liquor license from the General Store years ago.
“This place has been a lot over the years,” Pahira said. “It was here before the Civil War, so it’s pretty neat just to have that kind of history tied in here.”
Though Pahira has been the General Store’s owner since 2017, she’s been working with the store and the Colts Neck community much longer than that.
In 2008, Pahira was working at Delicious Orchards when she heard about the General Store for the first time.
Her co-workers mentioned visiting the store for pork roll egg and cheese sandwiches (the store would later be voted as one of the best spots for a pork roll egg and cheese in the state), and Pahira said they often took turns visiting the store to pick up food.
“They’d [her coworkers] always say ‘This General Store, this General Store – you have to go to the General Store,’” Pahira said. “And I was like, ‘What the heck is the General Store?’”
It was late 2008 when Pahira finally got her answer.
Upon visiting the General Store for the first time, Pahira said it wasn’t what she was expecting.
Though she was surprised by the set-up of the store’s interior, it didn’t stop her from coming back. After visiting for a few months, one of the store’s owners offered her a position to work there.
“He said, you know, ‘do you want a job?’” Pahira said. “And I was like ‘yeah, okay. Sure.’”
In March 2009, Pahira officially began working at the General Store. Fast-forward to March 2017, and Pahira took over as the store’s official owner.
“I worked other places over the years, but I always wanted a piece of the pie,” Pahira said.
Since joining the General Store, Pahira said the building has undergone a few makeovers. In 2013, she said they gave the store “a little bit of a facelift” by painting and putting up pictures and decorations.
Yet the true store makeover came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Pahira said they re-did the building’s lighting, ceiling, and more while the store was shut down.
“I did all of the displays where the register is, the flooring, the ceiling — it used to be a drop ceiling,” Pahira said. “We redid all of it.”
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Today, the General Store is a hotspot for the Colts Neck community to gather, eat, and talk with one another, Pahira said.
The store is open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week, and offers everything ranging from food, to custom gift baskets, candles, baked goods, and more.
“I look at it [the General Store] as like the heart of the town,” Pahira said. “You know? At 7 a.m. I open the doors, the coffee’s made, and I’ve got people already waiting to just get in and sit down and take up a whole table.”
“And it’s important,” Pahira continued. “It’s nice being in a small town, being in a place like this — because it doesn’t feel like work. It’s awesome that this is where people want to come and hang out, and it’s an awesome experience to be a part of that.”
To learn more about the General Store, you can visit their Facebook page.
The Colts Neck General Store & Deli is located at 171 County Road 537, Colts Neck.
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