dbrociner

Just wondering if any of the restaurant professionals among us could weigh in on what the economic impact of the impending smoking ban will be to their business? Please refrain from replying to this topic to post your opinion of the ban, ie: thank God there's no more smoking in restaurants etc. I'm not interested in people's opinions of the merits of the new law just how it will register on the bottom line. Thanks. edited for grammer

Tried to go here tonight for takeout. They weren't answering the phone so I stopped by. The place was mobbed. I couldn't even get in the door to place an order. Now this was Saturday night at 6:30 so bear that in mind. If this placed has slipped the word has yet to get around. FWIW, ended up going to Bensi which is just down Valley Road. An Italian food factory sort of place with outposts popping up all over northern NJ. Food was ok, about what you'd expect and a big letdown from the Thai food I was craving.

I believe that Pop's is in Madison, just off Main St. down the block from the Madison movie theater and the post office. I know that most of us egulleteers look down on chain restaurants but for BBQ I really like Famous Dave's. They have NJ locations in Mountainside, North Brunswick, Brick and one more that I can't think of. Google Famous Dave's for their website. I really like the St. Louis style ribs. Good potato salad and spicy cole slaw. The brisket leaves something to be desired and the corn on the cob they give you with your order will remind you why you hate chain restaurants but those ribs will keep you coming back for more.

I didn't realize this connection. I thought that the sister restaurant of Il Mondo Vecchio was Scalini Fedeli, are all three of these places related? The one time I ate at Il Mondo Vecchio, this was years ago, the place was very loud. The food was good but I never did go back. edited for spelling and grammer

I thought about this place too but wasn't sure if they were still around. I haven't been in a while but always thought the food was very good. The service was a little slow and we waited for too long on two occassions to get the check. Strange, I thought once you were finished they wanted you out so they could turn the table. I think I'd still go to Tim Schafer's for a Morristown BYO and Cinque Figlie is a lovely restaurant but their wine list is expensive.

Is Pierre's a BYO? I had thought of them but I thought they had a liquor license.

You? Who? Me? Huh?

Menton and I are on the same page and the same schedule. We were writing/posting at the same time. Great minds think alike.

For BYO maybe Tim Schaeffer's across the street from the Headquarters on Speedwell. In Basking Ridge you might want to try Asada, in the Lyons Mall, which tries to be Tex Mex or just upscale Mex. You'll end up with chips and salsa and some better than average versions of that type of cuisine. I'd bring beer. The other places in BRidge that are BYO aren't worth the trouble, imo.

I've been thinking about this move to the much larger Livingston location and I'm wondering how they're going to go from serving 40 customers to serving 200. Its gotta be a huge transition. Any of the restaurant people who read this want to weigh in on how hard thats gonna be and how long it will take them to pull it off?

Lou, you rock and of course it isn't Rosie, a blind man could see that. Talk about a quick bite.

Have been here 3 times, once for lunch and twice for dinner including a quick stop last night. Small dinning room with only 10 tables. They bend over backwards to make you happy. The menu is imaginative for a small neighborhood place, too many dishes with nuts for me (I'm allergic), but the chef has an idea of what he wants to do and I've liked what I've had. Big news for these guys: they will close in Madison after Feb. 28th and will re-open in the new Livingston Centre in mid April. The new restaurant will have 200 seats plus outside seating on a terrace. It will still be BYO. I wish them well.

Haven't been there for a long time. We used to get Italian combo sandwiches there. I always wondered how the guy made a living in such a small place with no real parking. Yet, he persists so either he's very busy or very creative.

I've now had lunch from here three times. First I went and got take out: a grilled chicken sandwich on foccachia (sp?) with mozzerella and brocoli rabe, second I had them deliver an italian combo sandwich on ciabatta with more mozzeralla, roasted peppers, oil and balsamic, and third I had lunch there where I had the chicken parm sandwich on pizza bread. The first two were excellent the third wasn't so great. I also had soup with the chicken parm, pasta fagioli which was full of everything except taste. Split a canoli for dessert and couldn't recommend that either. All sandwiches were $7.99, the soup was $4.50. They have a soda fountain with Boylan's brands, I'm not sure of the price. There are no bottled sodas which they told me they are thinking of changing as they are getting a lot of demand for them. The verdict: good with potential to be the best takeout place in the area. Now that isn't exactly hitting lofty hights but we sure need a really good place on/around Rt. 10 at the Essex/Morris border. I do give them high praise for quick delivery. Our food arrived with-in a half hour of ordering and they had to navigate Rt. 10 traffic to get to us on 10 west in East Hanover. Also, I signed up for their mailing list and was rewarded with a $5 coupon.

And, sadly, not in Bergen County.

Hey I've been down there recently, a good friend just moved from Montclair to Mt. Laurel (from the sublime to the ridiculous if you ask me) and I don't see what you've got to be snobby about. Moorestown may have won that silly Money magazine poll but they've written glowing things in the past about cities like Duluth, Mn. and you aren't going to move there any time soon and neither am I. Moorestown scored highly because of its proximity to Philadelphia hospitals, colleges, culture, history etc. but otherwise its just another upscale NJ suburb and we've got lots of those up here. Now I'm not going to tell you that everything is wonderful here above that bridge on the GSP but its better than down there. There, I said it.

Here's a theory about why new restaurants fail in Livingston: the customers are incredibly tough to please. I say this because I spoke with the owner of Blue Moon and he told me that of his 4 locations, NYC, somewhere in Bergen Co. (Ridgewood?, Englewood?), and Red Bank? (I'm not sure) that the people in Livingston were by far the most difficult to deal with. I think he was glad to sell off the liquor license and move on. Its curious that places like the Ritz, Eppes, Seymour's all thrive when newer places get held to a much higher standard by the same customers.

Just to be fair, I wanted to report the following: Went back again today for lunch and everything was fine. I had a burger, a really excellent burger, and my wife had the lobster salad sandwich. Both entrees served with fries. Everything was hot and brought out quickly. The service was excellent, attentive but not overbearing. Now, I'll grant you that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to bring out a burger and a sandwich but after having been here recently and gotten a bad vibe and then having read some horror stories on egullet, I was worried. We started out trying to go someplace else, Cinque Figlie, but they were packed with a holiday party so we ended up back at Copeland. The burger is one of the best in the area, I'd go back again to eat it.

I think something is up here. I was there on Thursday night, stopped in for a drink because I was across the street on business. The usual bartenders weren't there and when I asked about them I got a vague non answer that no one knew if they'd be back. Read between the lines and you could figure out they'd been fired. At 6:30 there was no one in the dinning room. There was a private party in the "wine room" and several people at the bar but the vibe was bad. I had one drink and left.

Forget Kampy's Korner. A sub shop and not a very good one. Go to Goodman's and let your sister have the mushroom barley soup or go to Jerusalem and eat vegetarian. Or blow off the whole thing and go to the Carvel on the corner of Elmora and Jersey Ave. Vegetarians like soft serve, right?

No, I guess not. I just thought that if you really hoped they'd thrive you'd go and eat there. I wouldn't, not after the actions of the manager on this thread. The level of arrogance just pisses me off too much. Now if the chef were to come on and say that he'd spoken to the manager and offer an apology for the things said then I'd have a change of heart. Coming forward as a restauranter on Egullet can be dicey. Lou and the people from Fascino have handled it very well. Others have not. This person, we never did clarify gender here did we, has chosen not to seek business but to attack egullet members for their opinions, which is the height of stupidity. Having said this and having read what you wrote, Tommy, I was surprised to read that you hoped the restaurant would thrive. I'm not sure about your thoughts and values on other subjects. I know I respect your opinion about places to eat but after that who knows? How much can you read into someone's values by their knowledge of restaurants? I'm tempted to point out that Hitler was a vegetarian so you could intuit that he abhored cruelty to animals and yet.... You get the point. Its late, I'm rambling. I need a drink, or a good night's sleep.

This I find hard to believe.

Nah, we should attack, attack, attack because, well its just so much fun! And since we're going to be so careful we should keep in mind that occasionally Kim can be a man's name. And furthermore, isn't it easier to believe that a man wrote that post? And finally, aren't we all equally offended by Lou?

Went by here on Wednesday and there was a sign in the window saying that they were temporarily closed for lunch. Too bad because I was hungry.

When I went to college in Evanston, Ill back in the early 1980's we used to go to Walker Brothers in a nearby town (Winnetka, Willmette, some Chicago suburb starting with a W) which people went ga-ga for. I was in the West Caldwell location of the OPS a few years ago and realized, when I saw the apple pancake going by, that this was the same chain. The fuss here is nothing like it was there. I was in Chicago on vacation in 2003 and drove by Walker Bros. on a Saturday and they were still standing in line in the street. BTW, the Whippany location is nowhere near as good as West Caldwell. Since this is the same family running the place I don't understand why but I've been there several times and always been dissappointed. Maybe its time for a trip back. From where I work in East Hanover its not much difference between those two locations. Jason, the place you mentioned in Florham Park was called Vermont and it closed because it was lousy. Great peanut-bean analogy by Menton. You wouldn't consider Jean-George's restaurants part of a chain, a brand but not a chain. Burger King is a chain.