The Alternative Press

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ – Over the past few months residents have been passing the corner of Willow and East Second Street and noticing a lot of changes, with the opening of the BIGG Café and Party Space.  The Scotch Plains Business and Professional Association will be holding a Networking night on September 20 that will give everyone a chance to see the new space.

“The BIGG stands for “Believe in Girls and Guys”, explained owner Lisa Schiller.  “I have been busy raising children for some years, and one thing that was really lacking was a good place to go for moms, kids and even the whole family.  I wanted to create a space where anything was possible.”

Schiller went on to describe further describe her dream for BIGG.  “We really need to ‘unschedule’ our kids.  They have sports, and memberships and weekly commitments and it sometimes gets to be too much.  This is a space where they can come and just hang out after school, a place where mom’s can come during the day for a play date, and it transforms into a party space in the evening and on weekends.”

‘Music Together’ has started having music workshops several days a week, and there are further plans for cooking workshops, crafts and a myriad of other activities.

Of course, parents are catered for as well, with the Café serving tea, coffee, latte and cappuccino, along with shakes, sparkling water and a few “goodies”. However, Schiller does try and keep things as healthy as possible.

“We have healthy smoothes and instead of giant cupcakes we have cake pops.  We want to emphasis eating right, but we also need to cater for the sweet tooth in everyone!”

“We are planning parent’s night out, where you can send your children and their sitter here while you go out, and we have a special “Tween and Teen night only” on Friday nights with a special dance party,” said Schiller.  “Of course we don’t have this on the third Friday of each month, because we don’t want to be in competition with the Friday event run by the Middle Schools.”

As a party venue, BIGG is a mother’s dream.  “If you want an ‘at home’ style party without the mess and clean up, we are the answer!  We have a very large space and we can simply rent out the space and you can BYOP, or we can do a completely themed party, with decorations and your own menu, or we can refer you to vendors that we are comfortable with – its all about choices!” said Schiller.

For more information about party packages and to keep track of all the events, go to www.biggplaydate.com or call 908.490.1900.