Last nite, my wife and I suddenly found ourselves with a nite free from the kids and decided to spend it at one of the wonderful Montclair restaurants. After being rebuffed at both Alans, on Valley Road in Upper Montclair ("No reservation? You must be kidding?"), and Epernay on Park (after trying for 15 minutes to grab the attention of someone to see if they could fit us in) it occured to me that Church Street Cafe might now be open for dinner. What a wonderful turn of events! Dinner was superb! The salads, the Church Street salad for my wife, and the Portabello Salad for myself for myself, were wonderful (and huge!) For entrees, my wife chose the "Steak Frites" and I had the Grilled Salmon. Only a few days before we returned from a week in the Hamptons where we ate at several highly rated Zagat restaurants. We both felt Church Street Cafe's food was at least as good as anything we had in the Hamptons. My salmon was exquisite. Perfectly prepared and quite savory. My wife's steak was excellent, as were the accompaniments: "frites," tasty and seasoned "french fries," and green beans. We usually don't notice these because fries are usually greasy and tastless, and beans limp with too much butter, but at Church Street they are given the same attention as everything else, i.e. they are in their glory. For desert I had the very good cherry chocolate chip gelato, and my wife had an excellent cherry tart. Service was flawless, and the decor is relaxing. Unlike many of Montclair's other popular restaurants, the layout of Church Street is such that you can actually have a conversation with your partner and your elbows aren't touching the person at the next table. Pricing was very, very reasonable. This is a restaurant to rave about. Cary
