The Newarker returns!

[rlibkind]

To anyone of a certain age The Newarker brings back great memories of food served on fine china, birthday cakes with sparklers, and live chicks at Easter. (The chicks were there merely as decoration, not food). This restaurant at Newark Airport epitomized fine dinning in that era.

The Newarker was the first fine-dining entry of Restaurant Associates in the early 1950s, created and managed by Joe Baum with a menu conceived and executed by Albert Stockli, who later teamed for RA in creating The Four Seasons.

So, after a trans-Atlantic flight and not wanting to drive back to Philadelphia that evening, we overnighted at the Hilton across from EWR. We were bleary-eyed and suffering from westbound jet-lag, having awakened at 5 a.m. Oslo time (midnight EDT), so I wouldn't even take the car out to get a pizza at Spirito's or Santillo's in Elizabeth. Therefore, we settled for the hotel restaurant.

The food was middling hotel food. Certainly edible, but hardly worth a special visit. What was special was the name of the restaurant: The Newarker.

What memories that brought back. Too bad Hilton usurped the name of a great, landmark restaurant. only to put out pedestrian food. It's a shanda.