South Orange Bar & Grille

[Poots]

New bar/restaurant opening in South Orange. Took the place of The Stuft Shirt. Has been in the works for a couple of years. The bar is now open, which i'll probably check out tonight. I've heard that there's a raw bar that'll soon be open, so Tommy can come and try some Oysters(just finished reading the Legal Seafoods thread and that's an invite if you'd like, as i live blocks away and always open to some drinks and raw fish shell or otherwise) Anyway, just checking to see if anyone's been yet, and will report later.

[tommy]

poots, be it near Gaffer's?

[Poots]

Gaffer's? never heard of it. It's directly behind Toro Loco. Across the street from the South Orange train station. It shares the large parking lot behing Toro Loco and across the street from Cryan's.

[tommy]

oops. Gaffer's be in West Orange. i get all of the oranges confused.

gaffer's has good wings and pretty good burgers, if you're interested. there's mention of them on various threads.

[Poots]

Tommy, confusing the oranges could get you into some interesting neighborhoods

I'll have to try Gaffer's sometime. I think i'm doing dinner tonight at Toro Loco, so margaritas and mole here i come

good selection of tequila there too.

[tommy]

poots, how's this Toro place. i'm meeting some of my boys out that way tonite.

and, does the SO B&G have a number that i could call?

[Poots]

Toro Loco is an Aztec looking restaurant serving decent mexican food. Chips and salsa are free and brought to the table after you sit. Frozen margaritas are kept in one of those slushy machines. Around 8 different tequilas. Plenty of mexican beers available by bottle, i stick to Dos Equis or Negra Modello. I don't know a whole lot about authenticity of Mexican food, but they seem to have the basic americanized choices as well as some more esoteric ones. Pretty reasonable prices, and no dress code to speak of. It's on Valley road, one block from South Orange Ave in the middle of South Orange. South Orange Grille just opened this week i think, and the restaurant is Not open, just the bar. Phone # is 973-275-0044 according to whitepages.com.

[tommy]

do you mean valley *street*?

also, how's to get there from the parkway? i have friends who live on gregory ave, and we usually do the route 280 thing, but perhaps there's a more direct way from the parkway?

Edited May 16, 2003 by tommy (log)

[Poots]

280 is probably easier, get to Scotland road and go straight to South Orange Ave. Scotland and Valley are actually the same street, just on different sides of S O Ave. Toro Loco is on the first corner in from S O Ave. From the parkway, if you know how to get there, you can get off down Newark at South Orange Ave, and just head straight up South Orange Ave towards south orange, pass Seton Hall U around 3 miles and make a left on Valley(don't know street or road), it's the first corner on the right.

[Rail Paul]

if you travel south on Gregory Avenue in West Orange the name changes to Wyoming Avenue when it enters South Orange. If you continue on Wyoming to its end, make a left. Go down the hill, past the Gaslight Pub (good beer brewed onsite, also fine burgers), and under the train trestle. From that trestle, Valley is the third light to the right.

[tommy]

ok. thanks for the directions. found it no problem. saw poots on his way out as i was going in. thanks for clearing that table for us!

wrong thread, i know, but that toro loco place is pretty, um, lively. just what i was looking for. standard fare, i'd say, and decent frozen margaritas. thanks for the rec!

South Orange Bar and Grille looks pretty nice (as far as bar and grilles go), although i'm always leary of places that feel compelled to spell "grill" as "grille." it's the old "we're trying really really hard to be cool" syndrome. it didn't look open at all, although i didn't look *that* closely.

[Poots]

Loco Was pretty happenin last night, wasn't it? After eating at Toro and having a couple of Dos Equis, my friend and i headed to Matrix 2. Great flick. afterwards we headed right back and went into South Orange Grille around 12:30. Had a nice crowd, probably b/c people are looking for something new. Entering, there's restaurant tables to your right and the bar is to your left. A pretty large sized bar with small oval lamps suspended 5 feet above the bartop every 3 ft or so. I think the bartop was marble, or some rock rather than wood. Towards the end of the bar, there's a 4ft(?) square grill Inside the bar area. A rather large exhaust ran is above it. I can't help but think that if they run this grill later on in the night it'll be extremely hot, and bright, but maybe that's just me. I was told that at the far end of the bar would be beds of ice and the raw bar(oysters clams, etc.), but nothing was evident last night. On the other side of the bar were plenty of tables, some tall, and some short. Another, smaller bar was at the far end of the room. I didn't see the kitchen(which won't be open for a little while), or the downstairs, which i was told will probably only be open for private parties. There were no TVs yet, although i was told they're fully wired and such and just have yet to install them. No bar games and such, and i really wish they had a pool table, but the owner said something along the lines of 'i didn't spend a couple million dollars to have people come in here to play pool.' Beers were around 3 dollars. well drinks $4.50, and calls were $6. Expensive for this town, but i'm sure it'll draw. Friendly bartenders, and in my drinks there were ample pours. The sign on the door says 'open bar only 5-1am'. They called last call at 1:45. There were some decent tunes on the jukebox as well.

You shoulda stopped in Tommy, there were plenty of what you were looking for in there

[tommy]

You shoulda stopped in Tommy, there were plenty of what you were looking for in there

plenty of pool tables?