Raritan Liquors Closing; Business To Re-Open Under New Ownership

In a few weeks, the keys to Raritan Liquors at 79 Morristown Road in Bernardsville will pass to a new owner, who plans to renovate and re-open it under a new name. 

"We're retiring from the business," said Mark Sturges, 50, of Bridgewater, who runs the 7-day a week Raritan Liquors store with his cousin, Bill, 59, of Chester. "We're going to both take a year or two off and then try other things." 

On March 10, The Borough Council of Bernardsville will hold a public hearing on the liquor license's transfer to the new owner, William Agathis of Berkeley Wine Company of Berkeley Heights, NJ.    

Raritan Liquors, a family owned business, has a long history in Bernardsville. Three brothers from a Greek-American family opened the shop downtown in 1952 next to the town movie theater. Two years later, it moved to the center of town and after a devastating electrical fire when the business burned to the ground, settled into its present location in 1967. 

Mark Sturges has been a fixture in the shop since he was 15, when people bought whiskey to go with their smokes. "Over the years things have changed," he said. "Back in the early days, there was no such thing as light beer. No such thing as microbrew beer. All you sold was jug wine. Now, you have things like pineapple-infused vodka." 

Bill Sturges remembers when there were just two banks in town, and the shop kept blank checks behind the counter for customers' convenience. 

But the biggest change in the bottle shop industry was the deregulation of liquor pricing in the 1980s, which forced retail shops to compete on the margins. "Before that everybody charged the same price, and service was very important," said Mark Sturges. "Once the rules loosened up, all the sharks came in. But we were able to thrive because we've always had loyal customers." 

The owners are proud the store has never closed, not for Christmas Day, snowstorms or even Superstorm Sandy, when they moved 8 tons of ice shipments over 10 days to homeowners who had no power. 

In the 1990s, the shop passed to the three sons of the original owners. Eventually Steve Sturges, 56, of Flemington, left the partnership to own and run Peapack Fine Wines.

The remaining Sturges cousins have been working six days a week each, for more than a quarter-century. When Berkeley Wine Company approached them with a proposal, the cousins found it too hard to refuse.  

Berkeley offers tens of thousands of wines, spirits and microbrews on the Internet and through their retail store at 500 Springfield Avenue in Berkeley Heights. The renovation plans will require the closure of the building for a period of time. 

Mark Sturges said he'll miss the daily interactions with the friendly customers he's come to know -- the affluent folks from "up on the mountain," the local hard-working families, and the blue collar workers that make up the revolving door of the clientele. "The nicest people I've ever met," he said.

Bill Sturges added, "I feel the same way." To the longtime customers, he said, "Thank you for a wonderful ride."