Paramus's Sunday rule closes the stores at Garden State Plaza. It does not close the kitchens, and in 2026 Westfield started treating that gap as a feature. The mall publishes its own Sunday guide. This year's openings lean toward coffee, tea, pastry and quick bites. September brought the Plaza's first restaurant week, and the long-range plan for the property is built around an outdoor main street. Put together, the busiest shopping address in Bergen County is turning into a dining address that happens to keep running on the one day the shopping stops.
What the Sunday law actually covers
Bergen County's blue laws ban nonessential retail sales on Sundays. Clothing, furniture, home decor, appliance and building supply stores have to stay closed, but restaurants, grocery stores and entertainment venues can open. The county's own retail page says Paramus strictly observes the laws and that the major malls and other retail stores close on Sundays.
The borough's case for the rule is the quiet it brings. NJ Spotlight News described the weekly pattern on the Garden State Parkway and Routes 4 and 17, which are usually jammed with mall traffic that spills over into residential streets. Paramus is defending that quiet in court. The borough is suing American Dream, Bergen County, East Rutherford and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, arguing that Sunday retail sales at the East Rutherford megamall break the county's blue laws. On June 9, 2026, Judge Gregg Padovano heard arguments on motions to dismiss and reserved his decision, saying an opinion would follow "shortly." We found no reporting on a ruling since then, so the case is still pending.
None of that touches a plate of food. The law leaves an opening on Sundays, and Garden State Plaza's food and entertainment tenants are built to use it.
Westfield publishes its own Sunday guide
Westfield's general hours page lists Garden State Plaza as closed on Sundays. A separate page on the same site has its own heading:
OPEN SUNDAYS. Eat. Drink. Play.
The page lists more than 30 businesses. The sit-down side includes Eddie V's Prime Seafood, Fogo de Chão, Grand Lux Café, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Chili's and California Pizza Kitchen. The quicker options include Kura Sushi, Dumpling Cafe, Yong Kang Street, Tojo's Kitchen, Ruby Thai Kitchen, Suki Hana, Shake Shack, Five Guys, Pokéworks, Gong Cha and Real Fruit Bubble Tea. For non-food plans, it names Dopamine Land, Go Playland, Horae Play, Planet Playskool, Slimee and AMC Theaters.
Westfield's tenant pages give these Sunday hours:
- Grand Lux Cafe: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Eddie V's Prime Seafood: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., through an exterior entrance on level 2
- Fogo de Chão: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Dopamine Land: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., on level 1
- Kong Dog: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Firehouse Subs: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the chain's store locator
AMC is the exception to check yourself. It appears on the Sunday guide, but its tenant page on the Westfield site shows Sunday as closed. Before you plan a Sunday movie, look up showtimes for that date on AMC's own site.
This year's openings fit the Sunday pattern
Look at what has opened at the Plaza since early 2025 and the pattern is clear. Most of the new arrivals sell something you eat or drink, and several are concepts making their first New Jersey appearance here.
Kura Revolving Sushi Bar opened on February 25, 2025. It serves dishes on a revolving sushi belt and an express conveyor, and drinks arrive by robot. By June 2025, Vive La Crêpe had opened its first New Jersey location, the New York City brand's made-to-order sweet and savory crêpes. By late September 2025, Salt & Butter was open on Level 2 as the mall's first kosher restaurant, a full-service dairy eatery.
The 2026 additions are smaller formats meant for a quick stop:
- HEYTEA was scheduled to open March 5 on Level 2, serving matcha, boba milk tea and fruit tea.
- Sweet Kitchen, a bakery and café that started in Montclair, had opened by early June on Level 2 near Macy's. Its menu includes baklava, tiramisu and sticky toffee pudding.
- Kong Dog opened in the Food Court District around the same time. It serves Korean-style corn dogs with meat, cheese or plant-based fillings.
- Blue Bottle Coffee opened its first New Jersey café on Wednesday, September 9, in Space 2162. It lists Sunday hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Liv Breads is listed for an October 2026 opening. The Millburn bakery has run its flagship downtown since 2018 and is known for slow-fermented sourdough and laminated pastries.
Blue Bottle's 9 a.m. Sunday opening puts a specialty coffee counter inside a mall whose stores won't open until Monday. Sunday hours for HEYTEA, Sweet Kitchen and Liv Breads haven't been published in anything we reviewed, so check each one before you go.
Foodie Week showed how Westfield now sells the Plaza
From September 16 to 27, Garden State Plaza ran its first Foodie Week, with deals at 24 restaurants. Matt Cortina's NorthJersey.com preview ran under the headline "Restaurant week in a mall?" and opened with: "Time was that the only food we'd eat at the mall were the free chicken teriyaki samples and maybe an Orange Julius. Boy, times have changed."
The deals ran from food-court snacks up to full meals, much like a downtown restaurant week. Neiman Marcus's Rotunda offered three courses for $40. Seasons 52 did a three-course lunch for $30 or dinner for $39. The Capital Grille offered a two-course lunch for $32, and Fogo de Chão set a $54 per-person meal. In the food court, Shake Shack gave a free shake with a $10 spend, and E.A.K. Ramen took 25% off food. The promotion has ended, but the list holds up as a map of what the Plaza offers at each price point. Many of the same names appear on the Sunday guide.
Getting in when most of the doors are locked
Westfield doesn't publish a complete list of which doors and garage gates open on Sundays. Its pages do give a few fixed points:
- For the movies: use Entrance 1 or the escalators at Entrance 17, which Westfield names for cinema access.
- For Eddie V's: use the exterior entrance on level 2.
- For parking: Westfield counts more than 10,000 spaces on site, including two parking decks, plus covered parking under AMC. For short visits, Westfield suggests the west lot off Route 4 or levels 4 and 5 of Deck B.
- For Dopamine Land: book a ticketed session in advance. The operator confirms parking is available at the mall.
The plans for the property point the same way
The next big Plaza tenant is a restaurant too. Yard House, the Darden chain known for more than 100 draft beers, is coming to the two-story, 30,000-square-foot former Pinstripes space. NorthJersey.com reported on September 17, 2026, that it would open "next summer," which means summer 2027.
The larger change has already started. On April 29, 2026, Westfield broke ground on the first phase of a redevelopment calling for 575 apartments, a one-acre town green and an outdoor main-street district with restaurants, conveniences and services. Westfield expects the first residents in 2028. An outdoor main street with restaurants is the same layout the Sunday guide already promotes, just moved outdoors.
Paramus's other Route 4 center follows the same calendar logic. Bergen Town Center holds its fourth annual Fall Festival on Sunday, November 8, from noon to 5 p.m. It will have food trucks, a beer garden, crafts, mini-golf and NFL RedZone. Family tickets cost $18 for two adults and up to three children under 16, and the rain date is Sunday, November 15. Being allowed to open on Sunday doesn't mean every restaurant does. Canton Rodeo, the Korean barbecue spot at 605 Bergen Town Center, lists Sunday as closed and is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday hours come down to each owner, so check before you head over.
Paramus has kept its quiet Sundays, and Garden State Plaza has built a growing dining business inside them. That mix shapes how the borough spends its Sundays, and it is part of what a Paramus home offers. At Links NJ, we follow changes like these to Route 4 and the Plaza because they come up when Paramus homeowners talk with buyers. If you're thinking about what your home is worth here, request a free home valuation and we'll show you how this market reads right now.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
