Rosie

Where is this restaurant? Were you at Le Petit Chateau?

Do they take reservations?

They had that wine dinner already. The next wine dinner 2/24 will be Pinot Noir--Old vs. New. The wine dinners are on the last Sunday of each month. You can call Chef David for more information.

I know it is off topic but the Sopranos were filming yesterday and way into late last night at the Pleasantdale Chateau. Heavy security.

Closed Sunday!

Or if the same places win this year.

What about drinking? ;)

Yes, that was the best part of the meal.;)

More info. Please do not put in 100 Main Street. If that address shows up too many times, the auditors will assume it is fraud, probably on the part of the restaurateurs. 200 Main Street, 150 Jones Lane, are fine. Also, New Jersey Monthly DOES NOT sell the names of people who respond, nor do they mail to them. Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. In any case, thank you for your participation in this survey.

We recently had dinner at Blue Sky Café, 400 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair. Foccacia with a bowl of chopped onions and tomatoes were placed on the table when we were seated. For appetizers we had addictive Heinekin beer battered onion rings with a spicy dipping sauce and a yellow and red diced roasted beet salad with a goat cheese timbale and frissee radish salad. This salad was beautifully presented as a tower with the colorful beets forming the base, then the goat cheese topped by the greens. Delicious. We all ordered fish but next time I would like to try the grilled duck breast with ginger honey whipped sweet potatoes or the grilled marinated pork loin with scallop potatoes, caraway scented cabbage and apples with a red wine and peppercorn reduction. This is what we did have! Lowell ordered the pan-roasted Louisiana catfish stuffed with shrimp mousse on a bed of vegetable risotto with creme fraiche and caviar. I kept asking him for more tastes. I’m not big on catfish but this was excellent. I’ve been on a salmon kick and had a wonderful pan roasted Atlantic salmon with pears and honey on a bed of toasted egg barley and vegetable stir-fry. Our daughter had the North Atlantic scallops and PEI mussels in a lobster and white wine sauce with roasted garlic whipped potatoes. The scallops were huge and she took half of them home. All of the entrees were scrumptious and beautifully presented on different shaped glass plates. For dessert we shared a blueberry tart with ice cream. Chef David Joseph always creates interesting dishes with sauces that are bread dipping good. Phone: 973-746-2553 (Edited by Rosie at 8:47 am on Feb. 7, 2002)

This is getting very interesting!:o

Lou--You can be my date also. I love men whose names begin with L! ;)

Here is the update. You do need to put your e-mail address on the form if you are voting on the internet. This is to prevent fraud. The other option is to buy the magazine and mail in the card. You don't have to put your e-mail on the magazine insert.

Ouch. I'll let them know. Thanks. You can just put in your home address the same way you would with the card that is in the magazine.Or buy the magazine and fill out the card. Leave out your e-mail address. They need a name and address to be sure that the same people are not voting twice. (Edited by Rosie at 9:58 am on Feb. 5, 2002)

Let us know which restaurants you voted for. I would be interested in any sleepers--best undiscovered restaurants-- that you frequent.

Wrong restaurant =Mark. We are talking about Cafe Matisse in Rutherford not the one in Belmar. Two different owners.

No to both. Been to Smoke in Englewood and didn't like it.

I am hoping that once eGullet gets to page 1 I will also get more hits. You CAN vote more than once. If you redial into your server you can revote.

Service was very good. Water glasses were refilled and the waitress was fine.

Thanks Casey. What did you wear? I'd go back there also. Great place.

I can count on one hand the steak places that I like in NJ: Sammy's, The Park, River Palm and Ruth Chris. Now Frankie & Johnnies in Hoboken can be added to my list. There were six of us and every dish was top notch. There were only two appetizers ordered--oysters and tuna tartare. The tuna was spicy and presented on taco style chips. I would have been happy with it as an entrée. Warm Italian bread, foccacia and rolls along with butter and olive oil which we requested were placed on the table when we were seated. I wasn't thrilled with the bread but everyone else seemed to like it. Hoboken has some great bread bakeries and this bread didn't taste like it came from any of them. An adequate lettuce and tomato salad comes with dinner and it keeps you busy while waiting for your order. I can highly recommend the outstanding and perfectly cooked porterhouse steak for two. And whoever gets to gnaw on the bone is in for a treat. Both a veal chop and a sea bass were reported to be excellent. I had four fabulous loin lamb chops. Sides were extra and we shared sautéed spinach and fried onion rings. No one had dessert. Now the down side. This place is painfully noisy and very smoky. I don't know if they have a non-smoking section but we certainly weren't sitting in it. We are so used to non-smoking restaurants that we never even asked for non-smoking when we made the reservation. I would return here very early on a Sun., like 5 PM, in the hopes that I could enjoy a smoke free quiet dinner. With 2 apps, 6 entrees, no desserts, two coffees and one inexpensive bottle of wine the bill was โ a person.

Ouch!!! What are you going to do?

When we were there Lowell wore a jacket and tie but there were men in sweaters and jackets without ties. I would say that clothes are required. I didn't see anyone wearing Tommy's jellyfish shirt.Let us know what you wore and how you enjoyed the food. I've always had memorable meals there.

Now you can vote online for your favorite New Jersey restaurants on the New Jersey Monthly annual Readers' Choice Restaurant Poll. Just go to http://www.njmonthly.com/issues/Feb02/restpoll.html to take part in this survey. The entry deadline is March 15, 2002 and the results will be posted in the August New Jersey Monthly magazine and online. Three regions are being represented: North: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Union, and Warren counties Central: Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Somerset counties South: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem counties The Readers' Choice Restaurant Poll is your chance to decide which are the best dining spots in the Garden State. By submitting a ballot you also become eligible for a prize to be awarded by random drawing: dinner for two at the restaurant named Best of the Best in your region. All responses are confidential. Your name, street address, e-mail address, and phone number are required for your ballot to be counted, and this information will be used to notify you if you win the drawing. Restaurants assisting in the submission of poll ballots and restaurants distributing ballots or magazines containing them will be disqualified. New Jersey Monthly reserves the right to reject ballots that appear to have been submitted improperly.

Oy Gevalt! Only 60 votes a week. Why not 60 a day? ;)