Food that?s ?Magic!?
Magic Johnson Marketplace restaurant opens in Exchange Place
by Gene Ritchings
Reporter correspondent


NBA basketball legend Earvin ?Magic? Johnson paid a visit to the new Magic Johnson Marketplace restaurant at 95 Greene St. in the busy Exchange Place area of town Wednesday.

Johnson chatted with customers and fans, toured the restaurant ? the first Magic Johnson Marketplace in the nation ? spent time meeting with the staff at the location, and sampled some of his favorite menu items.

The eatery is open for breakfast and lunch. It offers fresh salads, grilled entrees, made-to-order deli sandwiches, coffee, and ?grab and go? options.

On Wednesday, the line of fast food customers and basketball fans began forming around the block at 8:30 a.m. in front of the restaurant. Beginning at 11:30 a.m., the former star of the Los Angeles Lakers spent about three hours signing autographs for the first 200 guests in line.

Customers are surrounded by imagery and artwork that tells the Magic Johnson story.

The restaurant opened for business in January, and according to Tara Baten of SodexoMAGIC, the cafe?s management company, business has been ?terrific.?

Here he is from the web:


AND The Jersey Journal just wrote about this:

Bringing a little Magic to Jersey City dining

by Jamie Schuh
Wednesday March 11, 2009

This afternoon, basketball superstar Earvin "Magic" Johnson celebrated the grand opening of his Magic Johnson Marketplace, a new dining venture in downtown Jersey City. The cafe-style restaurant offers salads, grilled entrees and made-to-order deli items.

Fans lined up as early as 8:30 a.m., when 200 tickets were distributed and patrons could pick up mini-basketballs for Magic to sign. The line was still going steady until it had to be cut off at around 1 p.m.

Magic happily greeted fans, signed basketballs, even posing for photos. He arrived at the restaurant at 10 a.m., staying at the meet-and-greet portion for a good three hours.

"It's really unusual for a celeb to stay more than half an hour," said Steve Liebowitz, a cameraman with Video Dimensions, who was filming the event. He was impressed that Magic would devote so much time to his fans

So what's Magic's goal for this new venture?

"Servicing people in the area, making sure they have a good dining experience," he said when he sat down with Jersey Journal reporter Jacob Kamaras. He then described the different meal options available, and stressed the importance of choice when catering to diners.

"We're very excited," said Tara Baten, a spokesperson for SodexoMAGIC, the company behind Magic Johnson Marketplace.

If the grinning faces of fans leaving the meet-and-greet was any indicator, the new venture should prove to be a success.

For the full Q&A session with Magic Johnson, pick up tomorrow's Jersey Journal.

I'm not sure what he owns on Green Street but it seems Magic' Johnson has at least one other restaurant downtown - it turns out he bought the whole Fatburger chain -- maybe the food court cafeteria IS his new restaurant - because I read that he does also own some food courts branded with his name.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_43_35/ai_79524272

Quote:

I did not actually go in. He was signing the autographs in the cafeteria across from where the 95 Greene bar/restaurant was. 95 Greene had paper covering the windows, so maybe it is still a work in progress. I am not sure if the whole thing (cafeteria and bar) will be Magic's or just the old 95 Greene site or what.

What is the menu like? I couldn't find a home web page for the restaurant either.

Just saw him in the restaurant. There are about 50 people in line. This was not really advertised or else I'm sure there would have been many more.

'Magic' to sign autographs today

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Jersey Journal

Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson will be in Jersey City today signing autographs for customers at his recently opened waterfront restaurant, Magic Johnson Marketplace, a spokesperson said.

The restaurant is located at 95 Greene St. and the first 200 people in line will get autographs. Johnson is scheduled to sign autographs from about 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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