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Hi everyone. I'd like to get some jalapeno bagels for some students at the school where I teach. Does anyone know where I can get some? Bergen County is preferred, but I could possibly consider some place in Passaic or Essex counties. Thanks!

This place seems to be in business now. Has anybody been to this restaurant? Their web site seems to be fully operational. Menu looks good and the prices seem moderate. Any thoughts?

Eric, We are definatley NOT set on S. Jersey or Princeton area. Today's jaunt was a part of our "leave no stone unturned" campaign. There is, however, a bit of urgency involved in finding a second location though. Unfortunatley, in Verona, we tripped and fell after a mere 40 days of business by having an unexpected electrical fire in the middle of the night, closed for 9 weeks in order to rebuild from scratch, what we had just built a month prior, re-opened to a "ghost town" of a summer, and have been clawing our way back, trying to regain what once was. Truth be told, we are holding our heads above water in Verona, but are doing a fair amount of head scratching around the question "where did all those people who originally came out to enjoy AHD in droves, disappear to?" We have a great loyal fan base and a steady stream of new people every day, but still nothing like when we first opened. Now I understand the initial rush and excitment of a new restaurant with lots of people wanting to try it, and would expect a small percentage drop in customer attendance, but the drop has been substantial. Bigger than we imagined. Again, we are doing OK in Verona,except the last 2 days; slowest days we've ever had, but can handle ALOT more volume. We put out customer "comment cards" hoping that people would feel more comfortable anonymously writting negative experiences on paper and slipping them into a comment box, rather than confront us face to face, but besides a few "toast the bun" comments, ALL the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People RAVE about our food; they tell us that they were told about us by (fill in the name of a friend or loved one), and that they tell all their friends about us, etc.. We just haven't been able to figure out what has changed. (boy did this post turn into a doozie, LOL) I am open to ANY and ALL feedback you or other Egulleters may have on this topic, after all, you guys have been with me since day one and I value your input. Lastly, I am doing a little cooking demo at the Bloomies in Hackensack on Dec 15th in the houswares dept. Stop in and say hello. Eric ← Eric, I don't know if you tried this already, but maybe you could drop some menus and keychains off at the Student Center at Montclair State University. As a Montclair State alumnus, I can tell you that we always went cruising down Bloomfield Ave. for eats. College students love free knick-knacks like keychains too. Maybe you could take out a small ad in the Monclarion, the student newspaper too, with a coupon. That should really whip up business. The college is about 5 miles away from your location, straight down Valley Road. William Paterson isn't too far away either.

After seeing an ad in The Record yesterday with some great prices, I decided to check out this place for the first time. All I can say is... WOW! WOW! WOW! This store is great. It is the working-class version of the Market Basket in Franklin Lakes, with prices on most items about 40% - 50% of what they'd cost at the Market Basket. I like Market Basket, but it's a pretty high fallutin' crowd there, with high fallutin' prices to match. Maywood Market seems to sell very similar stuff, with a mostly medium fallutin' crowd and low to medium fallutin' prices. They have a tremendous variety of cheeses, and I bought a bunch... Fresh mozzarella, $4.99 per lb. Hot pepper goat cheese, I think this was $3.99 a pound Havarti with dill, $3.99 a pound There is a tremendous variety of prepared foods as well. I got some linguini with white clam sauce, sesame spaghetti, and angel hair with garlic and oil. Most of these items were about $3.99 - $4.99 a pound. They would have been double that at the Market Basket. I also got some sweet sausage for $1.59 a pound, and some chicken cutlets for $1.99 a pound. I got a bunch of other stuff too, including some salmon and an eel/avacado roll from their sushi bar. They are very easy to get to, just off of Passaic Street, about a mile east of the Rochelle Park Shop Rite. The place was clean and the staff was helpful. I will definitely come back here regularly. What a great find!

They also now have a hand-carved applewood smoked ham, absolutely wonderful. At $7.99/lb, it's a real bargain. I have returned for it several times. Re/King's Ridgewood: I chatted with an Asst Mgr at Cresskill, and he said that the Ridgewood Kings is too small and is not one of their key Bergen County stores. Cresskill and Hillsdale are the ones that they have done the most changes with in Bergen, said he, and in Essex the Short Hills Kings is supposed to be the star player. ← I went to the Midland Park store the other day, and I didn't notice much difference. The store looks exactly the same to me, except for some new signs and a few relocated items. I got some of the applewood smoked ham too, and I agree, it's outstanding. A good, reasonably priced high fallutin' treat. (It was $6.99 per lb. in Midland Park.) I then asked the clerk cutting the ham about whether they had a kosher deli as advertised in the flyer, and he said no. When I asked which stores had a kosher deli, he called the manager over, who basically told me what the Cresskill manager told you. Apparently the Ridgewood and Midland Park stores didn't receive major upgrades, as they're considered too small to do major renovations to. It appears that the Cresskill store is going to be the flagship store, and received the most upgrading. I think the Record article mentioned that the new CEO lives in Cresskill, so I guess he hooked his homies up. I'll have to take a jaunt over there one day.

The restaurant in West Orange you're thinking of is the Ponderosa. It's the last one in NJ, although there are still plenty of others throughout the country. I do go there about once or twice a year. It's not great, but it's OK for a cheap steak meal. It seems to do pretty good business most days. Not everyone wants to (or can afford to) spend $75 on a steak, no matter how good it may be. I used to love Alexus Steakhouse for a cheap, good steak, but the quality has gone down and the prices have gone up quite a bit in recent years. It's still good, but not like it used to be. Back when they opened the Clifton location in the early 90s when I was at Montclair State, however, they rocked. It was $9.95 for the 24 oz. steaks then. The price is probably about double that now, and it's much worse quality.

Although I haven't been to Kings since the upgrades, I noticed that something was afoot a couple of weeks ago with a signifcantly resigned flyer. I'm more of a Shop-Rite/Pathmark man myself given my frugal nature, but I do like to go to Kings every one in a while for some high fallutin' treats or the (very) occasional sale item. There is a Kings in Midland Park less than two miles away from the Ridgewood location, and it's quite a bit bigger and nicer inside than the Ridgewood store, with much better parking. I don't know how the two stores can stay in business together so close to each other, but I guess there's enough business for both. I much prefer the Midland Park store myself, however. With that being said, I'm under the impression that all of the stores have been upgraded. Prices on everyday groceries seem to have been lowered a bit, but they are also placing an even stronger emphasis on high-end and exotic foods as well. The flyer advertised some truly interesting things, such as exotic fruits (some of which I've never heard of), fine cheeses, and a Kosher deli. I think I saw them advertise Kobe beef a few weeks ago too. I really need to get over there and check it out. Kings isn;t a supermarket that I would shop at regularly, but if they have some good stuff I'll definitely treat myself once in a while!

Does anyone know anything about Windy Brow Orchards in Newton? I'm trying to plan a school trip for some elementary students. I talked to them on the phone and they seemed promising. Another teacher at my school recommended Melick's. Which is better? Thanks for any information!

OK, everyone. Siam Ruby Cafe needs our help! While getting some dinner for takeout tonight, I had a nice long talk with one of the owners of this place. She said that her business has been very slow and she may have to close up for good! She closed for a few months a while back and decided to give the restaurant another shot, but she needs more buisness! If you like Thai food, please give the place a shot. The food is excellent, and the prices are very low. I told her I would scan the menu to place on EGullet. I never uploaded photos on EGullet before, so I hope this works: Please try to give this restaurant a shot. I need to go there more myself. There aren't many Thai restaurants in Northern NJ, and of the few that are around, several are very expensive. Siam Ruby Cafe offers great food for low prices. They are in a tiny little strip on W. Passaic Street near the Shop Rite, along with a few other small stores. The sign is hard to see from the road, but they're there! Please try them and tell your friends. It would be a shame to lose this restaurant. Thanks for your help!

Although I have never eaten at the Montclair location, I believe that there is a Bricks Pizza (aka Arturo's) on Bellevue Avenue in Montclair. The Bricks locations in Bergen County, in Wyckoff and Glen Rock (the Glen Rock location is now aka Aldo's) make my favorite pizza hands down. True brick oven pizza. Although I believe at one point there were about 6 Bricks locations in Northern NJ that seemed to be part of the same company, I only know of the locations in Montclair, Wyckoff and Glen Rock now and they all seem to be individually owned and operated now. (I think there was one in Tenafly at one point, but I'm not sure if it still exists.) The Wyckoff and Glen Rock locations make pretty much identical pizza despite the different names/owners, so I would imagine chances are good that the Montclair location make the same pizza as well.

OK, guys, mark the date... The Paramus Trader Joe's opens August 28. Get ready! P.S. Anonymouze, sorry about your mother's passing. You have my sympathy.

Glad you discovered the wonderful world of Minado. I love this place, even though it's a bit expensive. But in this case, you truly get what you pay for. As far as lobsters, they only bring out lobster tails, and usually rotate it with the giant prawns. They go very quickly, and they are slow to replace them. You're not missing much, though. I didn't think they were that great. Crab legs are cold, and kept on the salad bar. You can get the hand rolls simply by asking one of the sushi chefs to make them for you. Hope you enjoy your next visit even more!

Some of these openings are still a while away. Trader Joe's should be open very soon, but the other places are still several months away from opening, I believe. I am excited about PF Chang's and the movie theatre at the Plaza, because there isn't one decent movie theatre in the entire northern half of NJ. BTW, for those interested, they're opening a Panera Bread in Fair Lawn. It should be opened in October. I don't know if Fair Lawn is a Panera Bread town, but I'm certainly rooting for it to succeed.

Here in Fair Lawn, Petak's Deli has apparently opened a Dr. Pickle store within a store (along with a kosher pizzeria, kind of strange!). Is this the same guy as everyone else is talking about? I tried to get some the other day but the pickle section was closed.

Very sad news. It's a shame how all of these mom & pop stores are being run out of business by greedy corporations. Will any of these businesses be left in 20 years? BTW, are there any other Tabatchnick restaurants around? There used to be one in Fair Lawn many moons ago when I was a kid (probably closed down around 1980 or so) and I thought there was one in NYC, but information seems to be sparse. I know they have a frozen food line, but I'm not sure if the restaurant in Livingston is the last one.

Oh, I remember that stuff, and the Chun King products too. It was good stuff, I wonder why they don't make them anymore as they seemd to be pretty popular.

Up for an adventure, my brother and I decided to try this place a few days ago, and boy, "retro" is the right term for this place. But I loved it! We tried the "family special", which allows you to pick certain items and have them served family style, for $16.50 per person. We got General Tso's Chicken and roast pork fried rice. The chicken was great, nice big pieces of white meat chicken in tempura covered with a flavorful sauce. The rice was good, but it had too much "stuff" in it for my tastes (especially onions, which I can't stand. The rice looked plain to me in Jason's pictures, which is why I was so excited to try this place). Oh well, next time I'll tell them no vegetables and then I'll be sure to devour the rice too. The meal also included a choice of soup and appetizer. I got won ton and a roast pork egg roll, and both were great, the egg roll was the best I've had in a long time. My brother got the dim sum as an appetizer, and it didn't go over too well with him. It kind of looked like a scallion mato ball covered in light brown gravy. We each got a wacky drink too. I got some pineapple drink, my brother got some blue vodka drink. My drink was good and strong, but not too sweet. This place reminded me of my youth, when my father used to take us to the Garden State Plaza on Saturday nights (just after they converted to an indoor mall) and my brother and I would get $1.25 plates of fried rice and $1.00 egg rolls for dinner from the food court Chinese food stand. (I guess egg rolls are an inflation-resistant food!) We loved the stuff and my father was always real happy that he was able to take us "out for dinner" for less than $5. Total bill was about $47 before tip. A bit more than I expected, but the food was very good, the portions were large, and I would definitely return.

Now that's some good looking eats! That fried rice looks delicious. A few months ago, I asked a local Chinese take-out place to "cook the fried rice longer in order to brown it better", and I envisioned something just like what was shown in Jason's pictures. They thought I was crazy, so I had to forget about it. Now I know where to go to get some decent fried rice and other good Chinese food!

Hot Bagels in Fair Lawn is the best! Its one of those things I miss about North Jersey. I've been living in South Jersey for over 20 years now and when my sister comes down from Fair Lawn I insist she brings bagels from Hot Bagels. I still remember waiting on line there on many Sunday mornings. Once I even was in back of one Nixon's Secret Service guys sent down from Saddle River on a secret mission for bagels. I've tried in vain to find good bagels down here but it is near impossible even with a fine community like Margate nearby. If someone knows of one please share! ← Right on. Those who have had them know they're the best. I also heard stories about Nixon's agents coming down to Hot Bagels to get him some bagels on a few occasions. I guess the bagels in Northern NJ are so good because so many people here are of Eastern European/Jewish descent, and they're the masters of this craft.

Sounds really good. Guess I'll have to get a cooler ready and make the trip sometime this summer!

Fro those interested, I asked the Jam Man today what other shows he does. Sadly, the only two shows he does in NJ are Ridgewood and Fort Lee. He does shows in Nyack, Bronxville, Tuxedo, and Peekskill as well. I guess between Ridgewood and Fort Lee (and perhaps Nyack too), pretty much anyone in Bergen County can go to one of the markets without having to make a crazy trip.

I was going to ask the same question!

The Jam Man charges $6 per jar or $10 for two jars in Ridgewood. In Nyack, he was charging $5 for one jar or $9 for two jars, the same price he charged in Ridgewood last year. He raised his prices a bit in Ridgewood this year, probably to cover gas and other rising costs. Each jar is usually 8 ounces, and he offers samples of all his flavors at the markets. His stuff is not cheap, but it is wonderful and worth the money. Here's a phone number form him: Steven Geisel of B and B Jams 845-709-6014 He doesn't have a website (ironic, because when I first met him, he told me his full-time career was in computers!), but I believe that he does ship jams and does gift baskets too. As far as going further south than Ridgewood, I saw his name mentioned on a site for the Fort Lee Farmer's Market. I'll ask him Sunday what other markets he does when I go to the Ridgewood market.

Well, I took a ride to the Nyack Farmer's Market today, based on Menton's advice. It was pretty impressive. Here's a breakdown of some of the more interesting vendors: Soul Food Vendor: - The labels say Scotty's Soul Food. This guy was awesome. He had chicken wings, barbecue sauce, collard greens, macaroni & cheese, cornbread, and butter pound cakes, to name a few things. Different, and stuff seemed to be very high quality. I bought a pound cake and some honey vanilla cornbread. The mac & cheese looked great, but the ingedients listed onions, which is a deal breaker for me. He told me the only farmer's market he does is the one in Nyack. Too bad. Cheese Vendors: Two ladies, one specializing in goat cheeses, one specializing mostly in sheep cheeses. Both were good. I bought a small garlic & herb goat cheese log from the one vendor and a small piece of some mixed cow/sheep's milk cheese (forget the exact kind) from the other vendor. Bakers: There were actually two baked good vendors, but one of them was really interesting, selling all kinds of knishes and stuffed breads in addition to the usual fare. I got some knishes and a sausage & pepper pocket. Panzarella Pasta/Seafood: This is the group that does the River Vale show too. I bought some cheese ravioli and eggplant rollatini from them. They also sell marinated shrimp, crab cakes, regular and smoked mozzarella, and buffalo burgers. I may get some buffalo burgers next time! Pickle Vendor: This vendor sold pickles, olives, and green tomatoes. The pickles were very good (he offered samples), but not quite as yummy as Picklelicious's pickles. No wacky pickle flavors either (horseradish, hot & spicy, etc.). Barbecued Meat Vendor: I think these guys were cooking up eats to eat at the market. The food looked delicious, but it was too early for me to eat lunch! I'll definitely try them next time. Organic/Natural Lotion Vendor: I didn't buy anything here, but it looked like they had some neat stuff. Do they belong at a farmer's market? Sure, why not? The Jam Man: Yup, my pal The Jam Man works Nyack in addition to Ridgewood. (I think he's based out of New City, so Nyack is a hop skip and a jump for him.) If you haven't tried his jams, you don't know what you're missing! I got some mango jam and some sour cherry & pineapple jam today. Should be delicious with Scotty's pound cake! Oh yeah, there were produce vendors too None of them blew me away, but they had some nice lettuces for $1.00 each. No basil though. All in all, it was a nice trip, although traffic was a bit heavy and parking was tight (and metered). I did get there around 11:30 am though. Next time I'll make sure I'm there earlier. I don't know if it's worth the 25 mile trip from Fair Lawn on a weekly basis, but it's definitely something I can do every once in a while and I will go back. Thanks, Menton!

Well, it still looks like it's a go for Trader Joe's, although it won't be as soon as we expected. My brother's been making signs for them at his job, and he said they're definitely still coming, although he told me the woman he spoke to told him they would open in August at the earliest, and it may get pushed back further. They have also advertised on quite a few job sites online. Until then, Westwood it is!