Sunshine Lounge

One of two bars in Camden that were known as Niewinski’s Cafe, this bar was at 1898 River Avenue in Camden’s Cramer Hill section, and was owned and operated in the 1940s through at least 1959 by the Niewinski family. Benjamin C. Niewinski and his wife Clara are listed there in 1947, and Benjamin A. Niewinski in the 1959 New Jersey Bell telephone directory. The other Niewinski’s Cafe was operated by Leon and Mary Niewinski at 400 Mechanic Street in South Camden in the 1940s.

In the mid-1960s the bar was known as Walt’s Place. In 1970, the New Jersey Bell telephone directory shows the bar as Gretta’s Inc. There were no phone listings in the 1977 directory. Around 2000 the bar again changed hands, and opened up as the Sunshine Lounge, catering to a Hispanic clientele. It closed very quickly, however, after a murder occurred on the premises.