Urban Table Opens With 'Something for Everyone'

New restaurant replaces 'Ciao,' offers diverse menu and 'urban' setting.

If the new Urban Table restaurant just opened at Riverwalk Village Center in Basking Ridge looks familiar, you may have seen it on a trip to Morristown. The decor is similar — although not identical — but the menu is the same, including not only an extensive burger area, but also a selection of sushi, Mexican specialities and salads. This Urban Table is the second among Harvest Restaurants' list of restaurants in Somerset, Morris and Union counties, including 3West Restaurant, which is next door to the new eatery off Martinsville Road. Harvest Restaurants also owned Ciao Restaurant, an Italian restaurant that had occupied the space that now has been extensively renovated and transformed into Urban Table. Some of the restaurant's Morristown…

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Show Your Passion for Thai

Don't be fooled by the unassuming exterior of this Main Street restaurant.

Neatly tucked between the Chatham Post Office and the Chase Bank on the south side of Main Street lies a little thai place well worth looking—and walking—into. Thai Passion at 225 Main St. has developed a loyal following since they opened in June 2010. The dining room is rarely full, which means you can almost always get a seat near the front window looking over at the Library of the Chathams. Besides the usual assortment of drinks, they also have hot teas and Thai iced tea. The selection of appetizers, entrées and desserts is subject to change, but most standard dishes, such as Pad Thai, Tom Yum soup and Red or Green Curry, are reliable and delicious options. Green curry, in my opinion, is a highly underrated Thai option, and it is …

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Woodland Bakery Roots for the Home Team

Super Bowl-inspired baked goods at one of Chatham's oldest bakeries.

With Super Bowl fever hitting the area, residents are getting ready for Sunday's big game with all the usual accoutrements: chips and dips, pretzels, meat and cheese platters and assorted drinks. Every good meal needs dessert, though, and Woodland Bakery has concocted cakes and cookies with the colors of the New York Giants that will be sure to please your Super Bowl guests. Large football cookies are available for $1.50 each, in small or large orders. The cookies are decorated with blue sprinkles and pink icing, and are large enough to satisfy the most salacious appetites. For larger parties, the bakery offers a Giants football cake, decorated with blue icing and the words "Go Giants!" on the side. Cakes must be pre-ordered and are …

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Good Food, Familiar Surroundings a Hallmark of Florham Park Pizzeria

Italian specialist a familiar face nearby.

Patch will make a startling admission right now: We love pizza and pizzerias. Greasy, cheesy, give it to us easy — it’s all good. If you were raised in North Jersey like Patch, then you know there’s no such thing as bad pizzeria pizza. In fact, it was only in its adult years that Patch came to appreciate, for example, the Reservoir of South Orange, its pizza soaked in olive oil and cooked at such a high temperature that the cheese bubbled and charred, leaving the surface looking like a Sorrento moonscape. But Patch doesn’t judge a pizzeria solely by its namesake food. A true pizza joint must have atmosphere and creature comforts, such as the ever-present TV — usually balanced precariously on the refrigerated soft drink case — and always, …

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Il Mondo Vecchio a Savory Choice on Madison's Restaurant Row

Excellent contemporary Italian fare for lunch or dinner.

There's a simple bit of logic when it comes to hyperlocal journalism and municipal meetings: The more evening meetings Patch can cram into its busy schedule, the more it will be dining out on the company's dime. So it was one recent evening in the Rose City. Facing some such council or board convo likely to stretch into the late hours, Patch sought a sit-down supper, preferably in a locale with a quiet, out-of-the-way corner table, and thence to enjoy some good grub. The choice was Il Mondo Vecchio, where the contemporary Italian menu tempted even Patch's pedestrian palate. [And by pedestrian, that means occasionally mixing two brands of canned tomato sauce, passing it off as some culinary labor of love from the Patch kitchen.] But what to…

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Elizabeth McConnell

9:12 am on Friday, January 20, 2012

I love this review and that you somehow slipped in Abbie Hoffman by way of Rick Santorum and a tennis coach. Where else but Patch indeed? Also, I feel bad even putting my iPhone on the table there! Did people leer at you?   more ›

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Great Sandwiches, and More, at Main Street Submarines

An impressive menu to tempt the palate.

Patch can recall a simpler time when life’s joy was a roast beef sub with lettuce, tomato and russian from Campus Sub Shop in South Orange. Later, Patch went native with a shrimp loaf — a loaf of white with the bread scooped out and filled with fried shrimp — from Casamento’s in New Orleans. Life is no longer so simple but finding a first-rate sub in Madison is, at Main Street Submarines, 187 Main Street. The menu lists 54 varieties, from pressed ham, salami and cheese, to meat loaf and cheese, to sausage parmagiana (pronounced without the last “a” back in the old neighborhood). You can get your sandwich dressed how you like with peppers, mozzarella and of course, pickled eggplant. Half- and whole-sandwich prices range from $5.35 to $14.36…

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Dr. Sam Romano

9:16 pm on Thursday, December 15, 2011

Try the chicken cheese steak! Ralph makes a great sandwich.   more ›

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Smashburger Succeeds in Burger Race

Florham Park eatery a cut above fast food.

You don’t have to look far in northern New Jersey to find a great burger. But, not everyone has the time or wants to go through the hassle of waiting for a table at the local diner or greasy spoon, or resort to the local fast food outlet. Enter Smashburger, the fast-growing Denver-based chain that touts itself as a “fast-casual restaurant”. Looking for a quick dinner ahead of a borough council meeting, Patch stopped in at the Florham Village Smashburger at Columbia Turnpike and Ridgedale Avenue in Florham Park. The place has been popular since it opened, but Patch had wondered for some time if that wasn’t just because it was the new girl in town. Happily, there’s more to Smashburger than just a pretty face. The chain’s name, it says here, …

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More Than Sandwiches at Chatham Sandwich Shop

The Main Street eatery has salads, burgers, entrees and desserts.

Along Main Street in Chatham Borough sits the unassuming Chatham Sandwich Shop, a culinary stop for many residents and employees in town. The shop's specialty is stated right in its name, but in truth it offers a lot more than what the name alone implies. Through the Chatham Sandwich Shop's doors await a daily selection of soups, with three sizes available (small $2.95, medium $3.95, $7.95). The moderately-priced entrees including: $7.95 for rigatoni ala vodka, tortellini alfredo or jumbo chicken quesadilla; $8.95 for grilled London broil, homemade meatloaf, chicken or eggplant parmigiana over spaghetti or chicken fingers with French fries; and $9.95 for veal parmagiana over spaghetti. All entrees come with a range of side dishes. If hot …

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Cafe Beethoven a Borough Staple

An elegant escape, right along Main Street.

At the intersection of Fairmount Avenue and Main Street, Cafe Beethoven is one of the borough's prominent businesses. Don't be fooled by the small tables and wooden bench in the front of the cafe: this place does much more than coffee. Cafe Beethoven offers a full lunch menue Tuesday through Sunday, and dinners Tuesday through Friday (the cafe is closed on Mondays.) A dining room in the back, with an option for outdoor seating during fine weather, allow for a more private dining experience than the floor-to-ceiling windows along Main Street traffic can offer. The menus change with the season, but in these warm summer weeks they include a fresh spinach and nectarine salad (with pecans and blueberries, $9.50) and a sliced turkey and avocado …

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Pizza, Pasta and Knots at Hickory Tree

Hickory Tree Pizzeria offers more than basic pizza fare.

There's a very simple maxim I find absolutely essential for my physical wellbeing: Never cook yourself when other people can do it for you. I find this rule justified in places like Hickory Tree Pizzeria, which, despite its whole-in-the-wall first impression, ended up being a pretty enjoyable experience. The garlic knots were heaven in a plate – or rather, bowl, since a bowl was required for the garlic and olive oil sauce with endless chunks of garlic, and the bread was steaming hot with airy deliciousness. The chef's salad was pretty much what you would expect from a pizza place, iceberg lettuce with deli meats and cheeses and fresh tomatoes. Among the available entrees are a wide variety of chicken, veal and seafood options, including …

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