Rail Paul

Yes. There is outdoor seating, directly in front of the place. During the week, it tends to get a bit grimy as the #66 bus rolls by every few minutes, drops off pax, waits for the light, spews exhaust, etc. Nice on weekends, though. Edited to add: Indoors at Epernay is quite nice however. Esp on a cold, rainy evening.

French For Sale

hi tommy. P&O does a significant amount of business with special order wine dinners. A group of high-rollers will dine in the wine cellar which can hold 15 diners or so. The kitchen will prepare a special menu to accompany the wine selection. There's at least one dinner being planned by alumni of this site. Since the wine list reads more like a candy store, the difficulty is in deciding which wines to select. Bayard's in the NY financial district offers similar accomodations from its cellars, some of which came from Harry's of Hanover Square.

The wine list is superb. Here's a link to the first page. Click on the link at the bottom for the 200 page list. deep in 1996-2000 Pomerol, Burgundy, etc. Prices are reasonable for these highly rated wines, if you enjoy drinking them in a high school cafeteria Park & Orchard

Not likely. Liquor licenses in NJ are issued for a particular municpality. You can't move a license from town to town. And I suspect a liquor license in Paramus (they'd have to find an available retail license for sale) is pretty pricey. I would be surprised if the Paramus store had a liquor dept. ← That's what I thought, but was told that by a WF employee when I inquired why the Dept was no longer there. Was told they are only allowed 6 in the state and so they used that one for the RB Store. ← That's a slightly different part of the law. NJ state law prohibits ownership of more than a certain number of alcohol licenses by one individual or corporation regardless of the town. I thought the statewide limit was four, in total, but it might be six. Firms that look like chains ("Shop Rite Liquors") in fact are associations of individually owned stores. If you read the fine print in the ad, they state that, and that the prices are actually set by a single store, and other stores may vary from these prices.

The first formal sign of an appearance is often an application to the zoning or planning board in West Orange for occupancy and site plan discussions. A call to these town departments will determine if an app has been filed or meetings requested. Most options on leases are conditional on receiving these approvals. The town will probably require new parking configuration, landscaping, maybe some interior work, and a traffic study from the county for nearby roads.

Aria is very strong in its veal and fish treatments. It's on Fairfield Road. Another good suggestion, though on the pricey side, is Bellissimo's. Route 23 south in Signac, about a mile south of Willowbrook. Not BYO. In the same price range is Il Tulipano

The Colby with chives is from the Stoney Croft Farm in Lafayette NJ. The Bechtold family also makes a wonderful aged Cheddar (2.5 years) from its closed herd farm of Jersey (!) cattle. I think the Cheddar works out to about $12 a pound, a bargain compared with some other artisanal cheeses.

Brandl is excellent, based on two visits. easy availability during the week, difficult on weekends

Collect your winnings, Andrew. The calves at bobolink were happily walking about in an acre size pen. The two infants were still with their moms in the multi-acre field with the bulls. Jonathan was quite pleased that the drained whey from cheesemaking goes to the calves, it's highly nutritious stuff. I'd definitely recommend a visit to Bobolink. The owners are proud of their property, and very willing to let visitors check it out. And, buy eggs, bread or cheese, too

The floods earlier this year dropped a rich layer of mud on some of the property, creating very lush grass now. The cows loked fine The veal business is coming along quite well. There are nine female calves, and seven male calves so far this year ( plus one or two on the way). Some of the male calves will likely go to veal soon. Jonathan seemed pleased with the developments. We observed the big Kerry bull snuggling up with a Jersey cow, so the beat goes on Ducks and sheep are now on the property, duck eggs are available along with the chicken eggs at the farm's store. There aren't any current plans to add the small number of eggs to the greenmarket inventory Jonathan told tanabutler during our visit that he expects to have the first of this year's Jean-Louis cheese in the greenmarkets and at the farmstore by early July.

Pleasant dinner at Wish last night. Dee had the mesclun salad with strawberries, vinaigrette, nuts, etc. I had the vegetable napoleon, which was good but the very spicy sauce muted the more subtle tastes of the vegetables. Well prepared, attractively plated mains (six riblet rack of lamb and a roasted sea bass). $110 with tip. The place was empty. There were three tables occupied at 745 pm, one was clearing out. About 830, a couple arrived and ordered a burger and a plate of clams. By 915, when we left, just one table remained. I understand weekends are difficult, but our server said the weekday evenings are sometimes pretty dead. There's a $23.95 price fixe during the week, looked like a good deal, although we ordered off the a la carte side

Early in the week, it's not unusual for Trattoria Fresco to be close to empty. I've noticed the lights off in the big room by 830, with just a few filled tables in the first room. My guess is they staff on the light side those nights, which leaves them vulnerable to walk in spurts of traffic. By 915, it's not unusual to be one of just 2-3 tables, based on my regular experience. By 915 on a Tuesday or Wednesday, I've found the service to be exceptional, easily the match of the food I'm not defending their service, though. If they can't reasonably accomodate customers, they shouldn't accept them.

103 Forest Avenue, Montclair

SP&P is quite good. I'd describe it as Southern and Carribean food. They regularly have goat, oxtails, and lots of hot sauce available. As well as catfish, collards, etc. They are highly reliable for take-out: if they say fifteen minutes, they mean fifteen minutes. I believe the owner (forgot his name) is an accountant, originally from Jamaica. Not much space inside, maybe 2-3 tables. Rocky's West Indian on the Avenue is also good

That's a very nice theory. But if you regularly read Egullet, we have done giant threads both in New Jersey and New York putting serious doubt on Zagat's veracity and credibility. There are some very interesting stories and a bit of inside information about how Zagat can intentionally leave a restaurant off their ballot, their scoring system, and use of their signs "Zagat Rated" in restaurant windows where the restaurant actually got an awful review!! Unfortunately, Zagat now wields tremendous power both with the public and the media... ← My understanding is that the pre-selected places on the Zagat NJ list were recognized by Zagat as having some basic credibility. The write-in votes were not assumed to have that credibility, although some places, like AAG or =Mark's favorite Mexican, surely should have been so assumed. I'm aware that several people whom I've taken to lunch or dinner at AAG offered write in votes. FWIW, I've found Curlz and Lreda to be among the most informed and helpful posters on the NJ section of eG.

Barista reports that the Montclair WF (Bloomfield Ave) will be replaced by a new WF located in West Orange. The reported location is the Pathmark site. So, after all the complaining about tight parking, dented and dinged car doors, etc, shoppers will have the benefit of a large parking lot and a newer, bigger store. If it's as nice as Madison's store, that will be a great improvement. Barista

It's up toward Spring Valley, but still in Bergen County. The Artful Diner liked it. Named it one of his best restaurants of 2003. Third One Down The resto has a website, which doesn't seem to work Esty

The Wall Street Journal has a nice mention of two special wine dinners tieing the foods of Spanish regions to the Daili show at the Philadelphia Museum. Gerry Dawes will be the host of these sold-out dinners. April 22 offers the food and wine of the Levante region, while May 13 features dishes from Castilla-León accompanied by wines of the Ribera del Duero. Dali Show That would seem like a wonderful idea for other Philadelphia restaurants to emulate. Create a palette of Spanish themed wines and food with relevance to Dali's life

I'd describe an "Atkins" or similar alternative and allow the customer to delete the carbo sides altogether. Some restos have a heart symbol which offers a different treatment (broiled instead of deep fried) and other sides (shredded greens instead of onion rings).

Verjus in Maplewood Jocelyn's in Maplewood Center Lilac in Millburn Martini's in Millburn High Lawn Pavilion is very nice. Relatively nearby is the Manor (same owners). Fascino and Corso 98, both discussed on this board, are in Montclair center, which prob pushes the 15 minute limit

Sounds and looks delicious, though a bit of a carbo overload with rice and french fries. Where is it located in Elizabeth? ← Rob - Looks it's just south of Newark Airport, Jersey Gardens mall, and near the CNJ Elizabethport station and shops location. Mapquest Paul

River Horse - Hot Rod's had the smoked ale on tap when I was there, but I understand they rotate selections. It's fresh stuff, they go through a lot of it. ← We made a quick pit stop at Hot Rod's Sunday afternoon. The joint was definitely jumping. The dining room opens at 3, by 330 it was half filled, by 4 pm it was 75% filled. I think the bar opens around noon on Sunday, and several bar patrons looked like they might have been left from last week. Slab of ribs was very good. Dark chocolate coating, very moist inside, rich, slightly juicy grease to it. Not a drippy grease, but enough to let you know this is pork. Half chicken was very wet, but fully pink inside. I'm guessing it was marinated before smoking. Side of garlic mashed potato was OK, but the red beans and rice plate was very good. Current specialty beer is Anchor Steam on tap, it had been River Horse Hop Hazard on my last visit. Price, all in, was $52 including a $10 tip Toby (one of the owners) mentioned they've already begun to expand the kitchen due to volume of business. They're looking for a second smoker, and another walk-in fridge. For now, they've limited take-out on Saturday nights due to the strain on the kitchen, and their need to assure quality control. If any eGers are interested in checking out the place, PM me. (Earlier in the day, we were out in the Poconos. The Delaware River is at flood stage following six inches of rain this week. We saw trees rushing downriver, houses marooned amid rising water, and major damage. Even small streams up toward Tannersville and Cresco were alive with 3x and 4x the normal flow.)

River Horse - Hot Rod's had the smoked ale on tap when I was there, but I understand they rotate selections. It's fresh stuff, they go through a lot of it.

That's a good point, Lou. You'll recall that the process of setting up the sushi lunch involved a public evaluation and discussion of many sushi places which might not have merited a thread on their own. Kyoto, Nikko, Yasuda in Madison, and others. BTW, good luck on the knee. You're fortunate to have a solid team in place at AAG, many owners aren't anywhere near that lucky.