dbrociner

Cornellrob, that had better be some great pizza to consider going back after the shabby treatment you were given. I'd have complained and I probably wouldn't go back at all. You have to vote with your feet in a restaurant.

Just had pappardelle yesterday for lunch at Copeland in Morristown. Came with roasted tomatoes and braised short ribs and it was great. There's a current thread for copeland but here's some general info: Copeland Restaurant 2 Whippany Road (inside the Govenor Morris Hotel) Morristown, NJ 07960 973-451-2619 copelandrestaurant.com

We had an excellent meal here two Saturdays ago. Food was excellent, I had west coast oysters and the filet mignon for an entree, wife had Marilin and I can't remember to start. Wine list is long but the first two bottles we tried to order were out of stock. They gave us a third for the price of the second which saved us around $20. Prices are high but about what you'd expect for a hotel restaurant. Very pretty room, very nice bar with comfortable seats. Interesting martini glasses, go and see what I mean, and they had Brooklyn Weiss on tap and it was great. A special event kind of place, my only worry is that on a Saturday night at 8 pm they were less than half full. This was post labor day so no "its the summertime" excuse, I wonder if these guys are gonna make it. I hope so. Also, their website is excellent, I don't have the url handy but you can certainly find it on google. Oops, for the website just look at Rosie's post.

It would be great to have a Mephis style barbeque restaurant in Elizabeth or anywhere else in Union County. The thought of being "down-the-port" at midnight all loaded up on "pigtini's" sends chills through my spine. I caught the tail (no pun intended) end of that Bobby Flay special last night and saw that one of the competitors had a banner that said they were from Linden, is this the crew from the Front Street Smokehouse.

We can also see that you have deep pockets.

Maybe a real deal Italian gets his restaurant listed in Zagat during its first 5 years Just teasing Lou.

I just finished reading a book about Louisiana, all right it was a Dave Robicheaux book, and James Lee Burke talks about how there is no open container law in LA and that the only person not permitted to drink in a car is the driver and that there are drive by daquiri stands and that people just pull in and suck down alcohol the way I suck down Big Macs. Can this possibly be true?

Finally made it to the Brick Oven in Florham Park for lunch last week and have only good things to say. I had a pannini sandwich made with pork, spinach and roasted peppers topped with a small amount of shaved cheese, romano? Service was good and the price was right, $6.99. Room smelled from the wood burning oven in the corner and not in a bad way. Will go back soon and report again.

We eat at BF about once a week. Its in the Rt. 10 lunch rotation along with Friday's, Chili's, Quizno's, Wendy's. God, I eat lots of crap. I always get the "burrito ultimo" with steak and I used to add a side of "pronto guacamole" but stopped when I got a bad batch. I agree that the chips are lame but somehow they rarely make it out of my car before I get back to work with the burrito. The hot sauce they have on the table isn't really that hot or my ability to withstand hot sauce has increased dramatically, I use a few tablespoons on the burrito and never find it getting hot.

Rosie, we stayed at the Virginia in mid September and ate at the Ebbitt Room on the middle night of our stay. The best thing about the meal was the service, I felt that the food was good but the price/quality ratio was way out of wack. I realize that this is a hotel restaurant but for roughly $100 per person things should have been better. I will say that I loved the Virginia hotel. Great location, great staff, great "continental breakfast" served in the room or downstairs in one of the public rooms. Terrific front porch, a nice place to have a drink and watch the world go by. An expensive hotel but worth it.

Had an incredibly imbarrasing moment here, was coming back from the men's room and I stepped out of the way of an oncoming waiter only to knock a wine bucket filled with wine and melted ice into someone's lap. Ouch! Never went back but I remember they had excellent scalloped potatoes, this was in 1997.

I'm not sure it exists here with the exception of chains like Pizza Uno and Pizza Hut which make an unacceptable replica of the real thing. I think you have to go to Chicago. Part of this is because of what Kim said, you have great pizza here that is, I think, a closer cousin to the real Neopolitan pie and so there is no call for Chicago style pizza in this part of the country. I'm sure if you posted on the heartland bb you could find a "good" mail order source though I think you'd need to go to Chicago to have the real thing.

The real reason Lou hasn't made it into Zagat.

Taking over in the spot where Fantastico and Gabe's Grill recently were is a new restaurant called the Brick Oven. The sign says its their third location. They've been doing major renovation to the building. Does anyone have info on their other two locations? Please post. Thanks.

Went to the Bloomfield Ave. location after reading this thread. Had two scoops, one of tiramisu which I liked and canoli which I didn't. I was disappointed that they had no straight chocolate gelato just chocolate combinations with nuts (I'm allergic). I'd go again but skip that canoli, it had very little taste and the chocolate chips in it were awful.

Just wanted to add my congratulations. I have to say that I thought the review was really spot on, my only quibble was with the word "good" instead of "very good". Its a shame thats the thing we all focus on: one little word, a star(s) rating, etc. I will give more credence to David Cocoran now that I've read this review. And Rachel is right: NJ Zagat can't keep ignoring you Lou, you've made it to the "paper of record". Any word on the new bar menu? Keep us posted.

Ok. I waited a week. Here's some preliminary thoughts on Ombra which has the same address and phone number as Bella Rosa. Concern #1: the waitstaff is the same. I am happy about this as we were always treated well in Bella Rosa. The kitchen staff is new, this should prove to be a good thing as the food at Bella Rosa was very inconsistent. Concern #2: the kinks have not yet been worked out. We went for lunch yesterday and we were given the lunch/dinner menu when seated. Only items under $10 were 2 salads and a few appetizers. No pasta dish available for under $10. This is fine for dinner but expensive for lunch, imo. The waiter then came over and told us that they have less expensive choices on the takeout menu but they are not handing that out because they need to have it reprinted to remove some items. For instance, pizza is listed on the takeout menu but the chef has had the pizza oven removed from the kitchen to make more room. Ways Ombra is better than Bella Rosa: when seated we were presented with two different kinds of bruschetta. One was the traditional chopped tomato/onion mix, the other was a roasted pepper and black olive blend. Both were good, the tomato was better. We were also given a bread basket with rolls, sliced bread and packaged bread sticks and some nice compound butter. We both ordered off the takeout menu. I had a cajun chicken wrap, $5.99, which was excellent. Co-worker had a chicken parm sandwich, $7.99, standard Italian takeout fare, he was underwhelmed. On the way out I did see other people eating off the regular menu and the dishes looked interesting. I'll go back for dinner and report again.

I'm waiting another week so they can work out the kinks. I will report back.

Will this affect the Livingston farmers market which was behind the Walgreens next to this plaza?

RS, Origin is on South St., right? China Moon was across from the Train station as described so I think this must be a new place. I didn't have a good experience at Deja Vu. It was one of those restaurants you get brought to by someone who swears how great it is and then wonders if the mediocre meal you just had was somehow your fault, like bad karma or something. I'd give this a try based on the review.

Here today gone tomorrow. Bella Rosa in East Hanover has closed and a new restaurant, Ombra, has opened in its place. Its still Italian, ho hum. Different owners, different and larger menu. I'll report back when I go for lunch in the next week or so. Looking at the menu I can't say I was enthused. I'm sorry to see Bella Rosa go, it wasn't a great restaurant but the staff was always very accomodating and that can make up for a lot of short comings.

Did An American Grill make it this year? I hope so for Lou's sake.

Wrong. The previous post had it exactly right. If you're turning left on to Rt. 10 east out of the parking lot that Penang shares with Home Depot, etc. you are staring at the spot where Wegman's is going. Yes, its already a nightmare at that light particularly on the weekends. Yes, its only going to get worse. Yes, Rt. 10 is way too congested, take it from someone who works two blocks down on the west bound side of the highway and has to deal with it every day. Still, I'm happy to have Wegman's coming. Particularly for their fish department. I find the fish from there to be much better than at the other supermarkets I shop in. Right now we only eat fish on Monday's because its the only day of the week my schedule allows me to go to the Bridgewater Wegmans. As for the "Morristown" issue, who cares? Call it the Timbuktu Wegmans for all I care. Just pay off the right East Hanover officals and get the damn thing built.

Agree that it is packed, so when I go its on off hours. Great on a weekday for a late lunch, 2pm ish. The chef published a book about her childhood summers on the Maine coast and her food reflects this. You could probably get a great slice of blueberry pie at the Pearl in another month. As for the food, its always been good when I've eaten there. They have a small selection of oysters but the price is right: half a dozen for under $10. Compare with $2.50 each at Aqua Grill and you've got enough to pay your bar tab with whats left over. Also they have a delicious Lobster roll at the Pearl and the fish of the day was good both times I had it.

i'm a big fan of oysters in my bloody marys. in a shot glass, of course.