Car Trouble? Just Call Barry's Service Center

My younger brother and I recall when Barry's Service Center was a Phillips 66 gas station when our family moved to this area of Bloomfield in 1969.

A young Barry Maslowski, owner of Barry’s Service Center (97 Orange St.), worked there prior to joining the Marines and heading over to fight in the Vietnam War.

Heck, there were even gas pumps here back then.

The Phillips 66 sign, as well as the pumps, are long gone, but Maslowski is still here, 40 years later.

“I lived in Bloomfield until I was five, and then we moved to Cedar Grove,” said Maslowski, who had owned Barry’s Service Center for 38 years. He even worked for a year in machine maintenance at Westinghouse, also in Bloomfield, before heading back to the station and buying the property in March of 1973.

Ah, memories. I remember many a day bringing my car down to Barry’s to get it repaired. My family lived right up the road on Hill Street, and Barry’s is located – in Maslowski’s words – “off the beaten path” on the corner of Hill and Orange Streets. My brother Gordon still brings his car to Barry, and so does my transplanted-to-Georgia brother Charlie, who, when he occasionally returns to Bloomfield, stops in for a hello and fun conversation.

Now, Barry's Service Center is a New Jersey authorized inspection station and does all repairs except automatic transmission. It services all of the Bloomfield post office and Glen Ridge school vehicles and has one mechanic on duty, the Automotive Service Excellence-certified Nizamudeen Said. Born in Guyana, the 42-year-old Said has worked at Barry’s for 10 years, and he has owned a home in Bloomfield since 2006.

“It’s good for the town,” said Maslowski, when asked for his opinion on having a Bloomfielder in the garage. “A local guy has a job, and he brings people in from the town.”

When I ask what Said is best at when it comes to auto repairs, Maslowski smiles. “He’s the best at pretty much everything.”

“It’s a challenging job,” said Said, who claimed an oil change is the easiest of all car repairs, while repairing a transmission can sometimes be the toughest. He gets it all done, though.

“There’s lots of different things every year," Said said. "They come up with different ways of making cars.”

One thing has remained the same for 38 years: When you bring your vehicle to a local shop like Barry’s Service Center, you get personal service. Said and Maslowski know you, but most of all, they know your car. It’s kind of like a gift that keeps on giving. 

“I still get people returning to me who used to work at Schering,” Maslowski says fondly, recalling the industrial giant that closed about a decade ago, replaced by the current Home Depot. “Even though they closed, people who used to drop off their cars to get repaired when they worked there still bring their cars here.”

And so do the Sears brothers.

Barry's Auto Repair
97 Orange Street
(973) 743-2207
Hours: Mon - Fri, 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Sat, 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.