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New Jersey is serious about food. From one end of the state to the other, you can sample foods from all over the world, but these cuisines live in the shadow of the foods local New Jerseyians grew up with. Whether it be classic diner dishes, bagels, or Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches, everyone has their favorite place to go. New Jersey also has a ferocious love for the pizza slice. Every town has its local pizzerias, and every pizzeria has its own unique dough recipe, personality, and style of pizza making. The new Corner Slice Pizzeria, located at 419 Boyden Avenue in Maplewood, is quickly becoming a local favorite because of its love of community and commitment to only the best ingredients. Read more about Corner Slice, its owner Mike Bergemann, and the journey that landed him in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Corner Slice, located at 419 Boyden Avenue, Maplewood, is owned by Mike Bergemann and his partner, David Poran. Mike’s path to pizza making is not a straight line, but it is enjoyable and inspiring.

Mike is originally from Mahwah, and like many people from New Jersey, he is proud of his roots. After high school, he went to college in Philadelphia and quickly realized that University life was not for him. He instead pursued his love of music and worked in construction. One of Mike’s first jobs was building a farmers’ market. He eventually made his way out to Portland, Oregon, to continue to pursue music.

Read More: Carrello Di Cannoli Opens ‘The Cannoli Shop’ in Fairfield

For work, Mike took a job as a dishwasher in an Italian restaurant, which led to a job working at Ken’s Artisan Bakery. Mike and the owner, Ken Forkish, had an immediate bond, as they are both Jersey boys and enjoyed talking about their love of pizza. Here, Mike was taught artisan baking skills and learned to focus on quality rather than quantity in ingredients and products. Here, his love of cooking blossomed.

Eventually, Mike moved back to the East Coast with a childhood friend in Brooklyn. He worked in restaurants and began building restaurants, ultimately working with Ivan Orkin of Ivan Ramen in New York City. Mike helped Ivan build his restaurant at 25 Clinton Street and cooked for him.

Mike also had the opportunity to travel to Japan. It is here that he realized the cultural similarities between ramen and pizza. The flavors and recipes of both cuisines reflect the personality of the chef. Both are inexpensive street foods located at train stations, near Universities, business districts, and local neighborhoods. The food is simple and satisfying, and everyone has their favorite spot. Mike had a realization. His lifetime love of pizza, cooking, and creating restaurant spaces would lead to having his own space to make his version of the pizza slice.

In March 2017, Mike opened Corner Slice in Gotham West Market at 45th Street and 11th Avenue in New York. Mike perfected his craft of the square pizza and gathered a strong following of adamant pizza lovers. When COVID hit, the atmosphere changed. Even though the restaurant was doing well with delivery, everything felt different. He and his wife had just moved to Morris County, and Mike liked the food vibe growing in New Jersey. Coincidently, he saw an Instagram post for an available restaurant space for lease in Maplewood. He looked at it the next day and signed the lease shortly after. Mike then closed Corner Slice in New York and moved it to his home state.

Corner Slice is an enduring representation of Mike’s Journey. Everything in the restaurant has a story or a reason that lends itself to an inviting community. The space is genuine and nostalgic, but not formulated. Mike’s favorite old-school pizza spots and their deeply rooted history influence the square pizza slices he serves. There is even a large pizza sign in the restaurant that came from the Fire Place Restaurant in Paramus, a favorite pizza spot of Mike’s growing up, which has since closed.

Mike’s pizza dough is as unique and thoughtful as each slice served. On the menu, customers can find various types of New York square pies — ranging from plain and pepperoni to vodka and Buffalo. The unique toppings include options like house sausage, shaved red onion, garlic confit, fresh jalapeño, and Calabrian chili bomba (hot pepper sauce). The White Pie was definitely one of our favorites.

Stop by to enjoy a corner slice and, more importantly, the community.

See More: Is Sticky’s in Hoboken Closed?

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Mike Bergemann never thought he was coming back home to New Jersey.

The Mahwah native had a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. He’d enjoyed a successful run as the chef at acclaimed Lower East Side noodle shop Ivan Ramen. And Corner Slice, his slice shop in Manhattan’s Gotham West Market, was quickly becoming the toast of the town. In 2017, Eater named it the best new pizza in New York.

But Bergemann wanted to open a standalone operation. And if he was going to do that, he wanted it to be in his home state.

“It was a dream to open in New York. I loved my life in Brooklyn and the city was really great,” Bergemann told NJ Advance Media. “But for me, success is (about the) community around the space, and I just felt like there was more opportunity for that. In Jersey, I feel like people really just ride for the places that they love and give back in a really unique way.”

READ MORE: New Jersey’s 101 greatest pizzas, ranked

The 36-year-old Bergemann closed his New York location in the November 2023. On Feb. 1, Corner Slice opened its New Jersey outpost in Maplewood.

The Big Apple’s loss is clearly the Garden State’s gain, as this terrific Essex County pizzeria immediately ranks among the state’s best.

While Bergemann fondly remembers crushing whole pies from Kinchley’s in Ramsey after little league baseball games, the pizzas he serves at his Boyden Avenue shop don’t at all resemble those Bergen County bar pies.

Instead, his slices are square, a nod to how he first started making pies in New York, angling to separate himself from the thin, triangular staples of John’s of Bleecker Street and Patsy’s in Harlem.

“I just felt like, ‘Hey, let me do something totally different than this, so that way I can achieve being the best,’” Bergemann said. “I’m not in direct competition. I’m a different category, and I wanted to kind of make my own category.”

Inspired by his time working at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, Oregon, Bergemann crafted a pizza that looks Sicilian — but thinner, lighter and airier. The dough is so hydrated that Bergemann couldn’t hand-toss it even if he wanted to, its needs to be baked in a pan. But all that water yields a shockingly delicate and crispy pie.

While doughy Detroit-style pies overloaded with toppings are more popular than ever, Bergemann is baking his own trail. Thoughtful toppings and a flavorful, airy crust set Corner Slice apart from just about every pie being made in his home state.

Corner Slice’s relatively sparse menu features nine different pies — currently only offered by the slice, but whole pies are coming soon. The upside down slice was the most impressive of the bunch, an excellent showcase for the sweetness of the tomato sauce and the crispness of the crust. The buffalo chicken pie, packing a punch with five different dried chilies in its homemade sauce, could convert the most stringent pizza purist. The margherita pie is topped with basil oil, an homage to La Gondola Pizzeria in Ramsey, is a standout as well.

The pizza isn’t Corner Slice’s only tribute to Garden State food culture. The massive yellow sign inside the restaurant might look familiar to some New Jersey residents — it came from The Fireplace in Paramus, which closed in 2021 after 65 years as a North Jersey landmark. The bright yellow sign was listed on Facebook marketplace. After going back and forth with his business partner, David Poran, they decided they wanted the giant thing in their store.

READ MORE: The NJ.com Pizza Trail is complete. Here’s what you need to know.

“We immediately drive to my parents house, borrow my dad’s truck, get a piece of plywood to help support it and some ratchet straps,” Bergemann said. “We go pick it up from the dude, try and do it before it gets dark. We have this thing hanging out the back of the truck illegally, we’re driving like 20 miles per hour on back roads to get it back.”

What also might stand out to customers? What Bergemann calls his pizza. Because despite being a New Jersey native serving west of the Hudson River, the top of the menu describes the pizza as ... “New York square pies.”

New Jerseyans might scoff at it. Heck, even as I was enjoying the food, I bristled a bit. But while Bergemann’s pizza journey has landed him in New Jersey, he doesn’t want to forget where it started.

“I’m really prideful of all the work we put in and having a place in Manhattan for so long, not to mention through COVID and everything,” Bergemann said. “The recipe was first developed in Brooklyn in my apartment. We had the shop in Manhattan, and I didn’t want to lose that story.”

Whatever you call it, Corner Slice’s pizza is remarkable in a state that knows a thing or two about elite pizza. And Bergemann is thrilled to be serving it here.

“In Jersey, since we’ve been out here, when we say we’re opening a pizza place, everyone’s like, ‘hell yeah!’” Bergemann said. “It’s just that passion that everybody has, I just love that. I feed on that. It’s special.”

Currently in its soft-open phase, the pizzeria is open Thursday through Monday, from 12 to 8 p.m.

Related coverage:

• New Jersey’s 101 greatest pizzas, ranked

• The NJ.com Pizza Trail is complete. Here’s what you need to know.

• New pizza festival coming to one of N.J.’s top food towns. Here’s how to get tickets.

• Inside the unlikely pizza capital of N.J., teeming with terrific pies

• The Jersey Shore’s best new pizzeria makes the state’s top white pie

Looking for more New Jersey food coverage? Subscribe to the free Jersey Eats newsletter here!

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeremy Schneider may be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.

Maplewood may see some snow. Essex County has called a "Code Blue" that will last throughout the week.

Patch Staff

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood will see some frigid winter temperatures this week, with a chance of some snow, weather forecasters say.

Winter weather advisories have expanded to 21 counties in New Jersey ahead of a messy storm that is expected to coat the Garden State with ice, sleet, snow and freezing rain. Read More: ‘Dangerous’ Ice Storm Winter Prompts New Weather Alerts Across NJ

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a winter weather advisory and a hazardous weather outlook for the Maplewood area that will be in effect until Thursday afternoon.

Here’s the latest local forecast for Maplewood, according to the NWS:

Wednesday Night: Snow, mainly after 4am. Low around 28. Calm wind becoming southeast around 6 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Thursday: Rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet before noon, then a chance of rain between noon and 3pm. High near 37. Wind chill values between 20 and 30. East wind 5 to 7 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 41. Northwest wind 10 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. West wind 5 to 7 mph.

Saturday: A 30 percent chance of snow after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 38.

Saturday Night: Rain and snow. Low around 30. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 42.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 23.

CODE BLUE IN ESSEX COUNTY

Essex County officials have declared a “Code Blue” for the week. It will begin at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5 and end at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12 (during nighttime hours only).

Code Blue protocols are enacted when the temperature is forecasted to drop below 32 degrees or due to inclement weather. Shelter is offered to local residents in need, or people experiencing homelessness.

Here’s what happens, according to county officials:

“When a Code Blue is declared, a network of warming stations operated by the county and its municipalities and shelters operated by the community-based organizations will be opened. The warming stations identified include a variety of public libraries, senior centers, civic and community centers, school buildings, houses of worship, firehouses and first aid squad buildings. Warming stations are generally opened during the day and may not provide overnight accommodations. Shelters do provide overnight accommodations. In addition, shelters that regularly require occupants to leave during the day will suspend that practice so people can stay indoors.”

For participating shelters and warming stations, view the graphic below or visit www.nj211.org.

“Providing our homeless residents with a warm place to stay during extreme weather conditions is important for their safety and well-being,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

“We thank our participating shelters and warming stations who are working with us to open their doors in these times of need,” DiVincenzo added.

Essex County Sheriff Amir Jones said that cold temperatures and inclement winter weather puts the health and safety of homeless residents at risk.

“We appreciate our partner agencies opening their doors to provide a warm and safe place for those in need,” Jones said.

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New Jersey American Water wants to replace 2,000 lead or galvanized pipes throughout Maplewood, beginning in April, and to conduct tests on 3,000 with unknown composition to determine if they, too, must be removed. The process will take through the end of the year and could extend into 2026.

“It’s a very big endeavor,” said Maplewood Township Administrator Patrick Wherry during the Township Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 18. “We just found out about it last week.”

Watch the discussion about the lead service line replacement program here, beginning at the 1:20 mark and ending at the 1:35:20 mark.

NJAW will bring in four crews to work in different parts of town, Wherry said, working on one block at a time. Each crew comes with a significant amount of equipment — trucks, a backhoe, and an excavator — and the construction will require road closures. The more emergent work will be done on a separate contract from planned work done around Maplewood’s road-paving schedule.

“The benefit is that they could be done with all of this by the end of the year,” Wherry said, but the work could stretch out longer if more pipes turn out to contain lead, he said.

A public meeting will be held on April 2 at 7:30 p.m. People can attend either in person at Maplewood Town Hall, 574 Valley Street, or virtually, Wherry said. More information about NJAW’s plan to move water meters curbside will also be presented at that meeting, he said.

Additionally, he said, “We have started to work with NJAW’s communications team to get information out to the public” and residents will receive notifications both from NJAW and the township about the work [see a March 21 press release below]. NJAW will also visit each affected home to drop off information about the lead line replacement program. Notices will be distributed in multiple languages, Wherry said, and NJAW is partnering with the township to ensure that every resident receives notices that they can understand. Residents will receive at least one week’s notice about a crew working in their area.

The testing program will not affect water service in affected homes, Wherry said, in response to a question from Maplewood Mayor Nancy Adams. But in the event that pipes are found to contain lead, “there will be continued contact” with the residents to alert them about the removal process, which will affect their water service and require them to flush the lines after replacement occurs and to follow certain protocols once the lines are replaced.

Township Committee member Deb Engel asked if information about the health risks associated with lead water pipes could also be distributed, because such information has not previously been included with NJAW’s line replacement plan in Maplewood.

Wherry said that residents could check their addresses on NJAW’s website to determine whether their property-side and curb-side lines were known to be lead, not lead, or unknown. Residents can also follow simple instructions on the website to self-identify and self-report lead pipes to NJAW, he said.

Additionally, Wherry said, when lines are replaced, federal law mandates that NJAW send a photo to residents of the replaced line. Maplewood was the first town in New Jersey to benefit from this program, he said.

Township Committee member Vic De Luca asked if only residential addresses were affected, and Wherry said no, “This is everybody.” De Luca then suggested letting the two business districts reach out to their members as well.

“This is massive and is going to go on for months, until next year, possibly” said Township Committee member Dean Dafis. “I have reservations” about the planning process, he added, asking if a map existed of the affected areas. Wherry said that NJAW “haven’t developed that yet, but that was a conversation the [township] engineer and I had with NJAW.” Wherry said that he hoped “both the benefit and impact would be spread throughout town.”

“We want to do everything we can to advocate for our residents and to make sure this is done with as little impact as we can,” Wherry said.

From Maplewood Township on March 21, 2025:

MAPLEWOOD TOWNSHIP PUBLIC NOTICE

COMMUNITY MEETING ON 2025 NEW JERSEY AMERICAN WATER LEAD SERVICE LINE REPLACEMENT PROGRAM

On April 2^nd, 2025, New Jersey American Water (NJAW) and Maplewood Township will hold a community meeting to discuss NJAW’s 2025 lead service line replacement program. The meeting will be held at Maplewood Town Hall at 7:30 p.m., and residents can attend live or via Zoom (details below). The meeting will also be recorded and made available to residents.

First things first: Customers can still use their water as they normally would, as the water provided by NJAW continues to meet state and federal water quality standards, including those set for lead.

About the forthcoming meeting: In July 2021, the state of New Jersey enacted legislation that requires utility companies to replace utility-owned and customer-owned lead and galvanized service lines by 2031. In previous years, NJAW scheduled the replacement of lead and galvanized service lines in Maplewood at a rate that would meet the 2031 deadline. NJAW now wants to dramatically increase the pace of service line replacements and complete all of the necessary work within the next year – which means residents will see an increase in NJAW’s work around town.

In light of this, NJAW has coordinated with the Township to hold a Community Meeting to discuss the replacement program and answer resident questions. They are aware that this work requires robust communications with residents who may be impacted by the work associated with service line material identification, service line replacement, and overall construction activity. The Township will work with NJAW to ensure residents receive necessary communications before, during, and after the lead service line replacement program. To learn more about the program, including to find out if your service line is made of lead, please visit www.newjerseyamwater.com/leadfacts.

In anticipation of the expected increase of their work around town, NJAW is strongly encouraging customers to update their contact preferences and opt-in for service-related notifications from New Jersey American Water at www.amwater.com/mywater. Customers can decide how they are notified – via phone, email or text – and can add up to three phone numbers and three email addresses.

Meanwhile, we welcome anyone who has initial questions to attend this joint meeting with NJAW and Maplewood Township, whether attending live or via Zoom.

COMMUNITY MEETING DETAILS:

April 2, 2025

7:30 pm

Maplewood Town Hall, 574 Valley Street

Join Via Zoom:

Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android:

https://twp-maplewood-nj-us.zoom.us/j/89984252017?pwd=UimBdmcV14Y1yJtwQbwaELAiZqSlut.1

Passcode:372589

Phone one-tap:

+19292056099,,89984252017#

Join via audio:

(929) 205-6099

Webinar ID: 899 8425 2017

A New Jersey family is going to church together again for the first time in years. Here's how it happened.

Patch Staff

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Church wasn’t always an option for Percy Losardo.

The 14-year-old New Jersey resident, who has been diagnosed with autism, used to struggle to sit still in the pews, which led him to staying home when the rest of his family attended Mass at his parish, St. Joseph Church in Maplewood.

Now – after his church created a calming sensory room for neurodivergent parishioners – Losardo eagerly goes to celebrate Mass every week. And he’s not the only one.

An article recently published in Jersey Catholic provides some more details about the Still Waters sensory room at St. Joseph, which gives parishioners like Losardo a calming place to go whenever they need a break during the liturgy.

As recounted in the article:

Find out what's happening in Maplewoodfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

“The Still Waters room functions the same as other sensory rooms, which are typically painted in soothing colors and contain tools to help people with conditions like autism, ADHD and anxiety manage their senses when feeling overwhelmed by auditory or visual stimuli. What makes it special is the fact that sensory rooms are exceedingly rare in houses of worship. In fact, the space is the first of its kind in the Archdiocese of Newark.”

The Losardo family has now resumed attending church together for the first time in years – and they’re grateful for the opportunity.

“The room is incredible,” said Percy’s mother, Lark Losardo.

“Percy actually wants to go because of the Still Waters room,” she said. “It’s a refuge for him. He doesn’t have to worry about what other people think if he starts losing focus, and I don’t have to worry about where he is.”

Jim Worth, the pastor at St. Joseph Church, said the new sensory room is yet another step forward for inclusivity.

“We always tell our parishioners that if there’s something they need, just let us know,” said Worth, who added that the parish offers other welcoming initiatives like an LGBT ministry and a basketball program for adults with autism.

“If we have the means and ability, we’ll make it happen,” Worth said.

Read the full article here.

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