garage bars
THE HOMEY BAR Phil DiGiulio’s Barport is decorated with a painted sign created by 7-year-old Penn DiGiulio.
started
as much
less — just
le
some garages
filled wit
with junk.
In a town like Maplewood, where
many of the homes were built long
ago, the garages are much too small
for the contemporary family’s SUV,
and instead, they become graveyards
for the forgotten junk of yesteryear.
That certainly wasn’t what Garbarino
wanted for his garage. He says he
doesn’t feel the need to “stock up
on every tool,” is not apt to DIY
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BACK TO SCHOOL 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
around the house (unless it comes to
constructing a garage bar), and pays
someone to mow his lawn. “I looked
at what I had in there and it wasn’t
stuff I used often, and I just thought
if I throw some things out, I could
have space in there,” he says.
With a 70-foot driveway, Melvin
wasn’t really using his garage either,
except to store his lawnmower and
the kids’ bikes.
To Garbarino, DiGiulio and
Melvin, their bars represent a grown-
up version of the city life they once
lived — one that’s a stone’s throw
from their bedrooms.
“A lot of people living in
Maplewood are coming from the
city and are used to a certain level of
access,” says Garbarino, who moved
from New York City in 2008 and
completed his bar in 2011. “If you
only have four or five places to go
and someone says, ‘I built a bar in
my garage,’ that sounds like a bet-
ter option, and it can be much more
social.”
Garbarino says many who come to
the GarBar end up walking out with
a few new friends, since “How do