restaurant adds new dynamic to Downtown Jersey Cityâ€s dining scene

 â€œWhen searching for dining and retail concepts to fill the ground-floor space at The One, we were committed to ensuring that the establishments we welcome here are well positioned to meet the needs our buildingâ€s residents, as well as those of our neighbors in the Powerhouse Arts District,” said Lloyd Goldman, principal of BLDG Management Co., Inc., which developed The One in a joint-venture partnership with Ares Management, L.P. and Urban Development Partners. “While The One has experienced a high level of success due to its unique residences and unparalleled building amenities, I believe that bringing in high-quality establishments such as Jimmy Johnâ€s, and the resulting enrichment of the surrounding community, is the projectâ€s most significant accomplishment.”

Residents of The One enjoy next-level luxury amenities, including a world-class fitness center with its own yoga studio, media theater room, childrenâ€s playroom, gaming room, virtual golf, residents†lounge with catering kitchen and billiards and additional storage space. Outdoor amenities include a pool with private cabanas and an expansive landscaped sun deck, picnic and lawn area, barbecues and fire pit. Additionally, sitting 37 stories high, a sky lounge with a kitchen and adjacent roof deck provides residents with a perfect place for entertaining guests with a direct view of New York City.

For commuters, The One is just a short walk from Jersey Cityâ€s Grove Street, Pavonia/Newport and Exchange Place PATH stations. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stop is conveniently located right outside of the building, which is also just a short drive to the Holland Tunnel. Residents also benefit from the presence of an on-site parking garage, bike storage, an immediately adjacent Citi Bike station, as well as a 24-hour attended lobby.

RKFâ€s New Jersey office is located at 301 Route 17 North, Suite 707, Rutherford, New Jersey 07070 T: 201.842.7700. www.rkf.com

The post Jimmy John’s Sandwiches Celebrates Opening First Jersey City Location first appeared on River View Observer.

The second Jersey City is those areas are usually seen as crime ridden and to be avoided as much as possible. However, there have been reminders recently by residents that those sections of New Jerseyâ€s second largest city are deserving of respect and attention.

In July, a group of artists and activists called the JC Peace Traveling Crew did a “peace walk” in the cityâ€s Bergen Lafayette and Greenville sections at the end of a difficult week following the shooting death of Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago to engage fellow citizens to be part of the solution to stop the violence affecting where they live.

In June, members of a neighborhood association took a city official on a tour of several blocks spanning across Ocean Avenue in the Greenville section to point out how this neighborhood is thriving but needs some help from the city to continue in that direction.

‘We Want Peaceâ€

The afternoon of July 19 in Arlington Park at the corner of Ocean and Arlington avenues saw the kind of sight that would not be completely out of place in any other Jersey City park. Adults and children gathering in the gazebo to create signs with color markers and imagination, playing and talking, and getting out into the fresh air.

However, there was a purpose amongst the participants as they were preparing for a two-mile plus walk taking them through areas that on initial glance would be shunned by many only aware of Jersey City as the site of hip new restaurants, home to a young, energetic mayor whose political star is on the rise, and location of some of the tri-state areaâ€s most expensive real estate.

Celeste Ragland, one of the organizers of the walk, spoke about the goal of their movement.

“This is a peaceful movement and that we are not just a presence that [residents] saw and itâ€s out of mind,” Ragland said.

What the group of over 20 individuals, who encompassed various age groups, nationalities and sensibilities, did turned out to be memorable as they carried banners with slogans such as “SPEAK LOVE. BE LOVE. SPREAD LOVE,” shouted “STOP THE VIOLENCE, JOIN THE MARCH, WE WANT PEACE,” and stopped at various spots to perform spoken word poetry.

19-year-old Rashad Wright performed his piece, “Generation Degenerate,” at the HUB Plaza on Martin Luther King Drive. Wright saw his involvement in the walk as a way of giving back to his hometown.

“This is my city, Iâ€ve lived here my whole life, and I have never had a chance to make change,” Wright said. “I am thinking about all the lives we could be saving now.”

Making Ocean Avenue Better

“This area is not as bad as some areas north of here. There are a lot of things that can be done here.”

Martha Larkins addressed members of the South Greenville Neighborhood Association on June 13 as they gathered at the corner of Ocean and Cator avenues for a walking tour of Ocean Avenue.

The neighborhood group, which formed in the summer of 2013, has made it its mission to address issues in their area that have included bringing about a revitalization plan for a section of Ocean Avenue, one of the cityâ€s main thoroughfares that runs from Merritt Street near the Jersey City-Bayonne border to Bramhall Avenue in the cityâ€s Bergen-Lafayette section.

South Greenville Neighborhood Association members were joined by Brian Platt, an aide to Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, as they toured several blocks of Ocean Avenue from Cator Avenue to Gates Avenue pointing out the various storefronts and residential buildings that have seen better days, some of which are being refurbished.

Larkins, one of the founders of the association, spelled out during the tour: “One of the things we want the city to help us with is to actually engage with the businesses, we could get a letter to them saying that we are undertaking this, we would like your participation.”

During the tour, Platt said Mayor Fulop has his eye on Greenville but did not offer specifics. However, Platt did say that the city is looking to get absentee landlords to maintain their rundown properties, with several of them seen on the tour.

Taking part in the tour was Army Staff Sgt. Ralph Cordero, an 11-year veteran who works as an recruiter, hoped that the revitalization plan would help make this area more eco-friendly, thus putting the “green” in Greenville.

The post Not Just Talking the Talk but Walking the Walk first appeared on River View Observer.

Step inside Blue Moon Mexican Café on Montgomery Street in downtown Jersey City and youâ€re transported to a warm and inviting Mexican ‘courtyard†with large comfy booths and tables under the warm glow of paper lanterns strung across the dining room and an upstairs balcony of tables that overlook this sexy, spacious restaurant.

 On a snowy afternoon right after the Christmas holiday, I stopped in to meet Carlos Ortiz, who owns and manages Blue Moon Mexican Café with his brother Jose Ortiz. Together with their sisters who help with accounting and marketing and their mother who helped with the overall design, the Ortizes – who are originally from El Salvador – have created a warm and relaxed eatery with a terrific menu of Mexican dishes.

 “We wanted you to feel like you were in the courtyard of some Mexican villa,” Carlos Ortiz says. “We put in a lot of effort to make this place as warm as possible.”

 While the atmosphere is warm, the cuisine is hot and at times spicy. From the appetizers menu, I tried the Crabcakes with chipotle remoulade with mango salsa. The Crabcakes are crunchy on the outside and moist and spicy on the inside and as Carlos says, itâ€s a great mix of sweet and savory playing off each other.

 Blue Moonâ€s version of buffalo wings are the Moon Wings served with blue cheese dressing, carrots, celery and seasoned as hot as you can stand them from mild to ‘donâ€t ask†($8.95-$16.95). Chili and Sandwiches include the Full Moon Chili, a meaty, cheesy Texas-style chili with hot chunks of prime sirloin steak ($ 5.95 a cup; $10.95 a bowl); and ,the Mexican Mayhem Burger served with guacamole, jalapenos, fried onions, salsa, and smothered in pepper jack cheese ($11.95).

 Blue Moon Mexican Café offers many fine traditional dishes and the menu is extensive. Of the taco dishes, I tried Tacos Rancheros, marinated steak topped in ranchero salsa served with Mexican rice, refried beans and white corn tortillas ($14.95).  The steak was tender and bursting with flavor; the rice moist and the beans perfectly seasoned – a great dish.

 “Thereâ€s something magical about the Tacos Rancheros,” Carlos says. “Itâ€s very popular.”

For New Yearâ€s Eve, the Ortizes   are hosting  a terrific New Yearâ€s Eve Party – a ‘Blue Moon Package†that for $125 per person offers an open bar, buffet, champagne toast at midnight and a DJ who will spin tunes and rock in the new year. All you need is a reservation; although if thereâ€s space to accommodate last minute walk-ins, the Ortiz brothers will accommodate.

“We recommend reservations but should there be openings weâ€ll never turn anyone away,” Carlos says.

 With years of experience working his way up the ladder from dishwasher to cook to manager, Carlos says he and his brother have a hands-on philosophy when it comes to running Blue Moon Mexican Café. They believe in building strong relationships with the staff and although the restaurant only opened a month ago, Carlos says he and his brother feel a real bond with their new neighbors.

 “Being here in Jersey City has been interesting,” Carlos says. “The day of Hurricane Sandy was our official opening day. The day after Sandy hit, weâ€re slopping out water and mud, assessing the damage and wondering if we made the right decision coming here. As soon as we cleaned up, people started arriving and completely reaffirmed our decision. The people are warm and hospitable and we already have regulars. Weâ€re looking forward to seeing how we develop along with the city and the relationships we build. It was a smart decision and Iâ€m looking forward to seeing what the future brings.”

 If you go:

Blue Moon Mexican Café

117 Montgomery St

Jersey City, NJ

www.BlueMoonMexicanCafe.com

201-763-6050

Hours:

Sun-Thurs: Open at 11:30 am; Kitchen closes 11 pm; Bar closes 12 midnight

Fri and Sat: Open at 11 am; Kitchen closes 12 midnight; Bar closes 2 am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Casual Dining in a Beautiful Mexican ‘Courtyard’ “Life is a Fiesta…Eat it Up!” first appeared on River View Observer.

One band, 21 diners, 72 hours and 1000s of Families Helped

The Kindred Souls 3D Tour:Diners to Donate Dollars to End Hunger in New Jersey March 19- March 21st.

Bobby Bournias and his family, owners of the popular downtown Jersey City Brownstone Diner and Pancake House were pleased when selected as the only Hudson County restaurant to participate in an important event this past weekend between March 19-21st that was developed to end hunger in New Jersey.

When told that last year, 250,000 new clients sought help from New Jersey’s food banks, pantries and soup kitchens, while at the same time donations declined by 20%, and that many of the newly hungry come from middle class families, hard hit by the recession and job losses. Bob and his family joined the cause.

The Goal of the overall event was to raise at least $5,250 in 72 hours for the NJ Federation of Food Banks. Enough money to buy 21 tons of food. With the wholesale buying power of the Federation, charitable organizations throughout New Jersey will receive nutritious food supplies to help feed thousands of New Jersey children, seniors and adults.

The way the event was organized was unusual and a brilliant idea. Kindred Souls, a NJ-based rock band, would perform a free 20 minute acoustic set at a diner in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties in a 72-hour period with the goal of raising at least $250 per diner. During the weekend, customers in each diner would be asked to donate a dollar per table while diner owners would be asked to donate a dollar per check. All of the money collected would be donated to the Federation. And as an added motivation to contribute, an offer to get free song downloads with every donation was also included to those who participated.

Kindred Souls, will arrive at the Brownstone on Sunday March 21st at  6:00 pm appearance

 The other diners participating in this event from around the state:

Sussex County – Andover Diner
Hunterdon County – Readington Diner
Somerset County – Somerset Diner
Mercer County – Princetonian Diner
Burlington County – Mastoris

Gloucester County – Five Points Diner
Salem County – Elmer Diner
Atlantic County – Diamond Diner
 Monmouth County – Red Oak Diner
Middlesex County – The Seville
 Bergen County – Saddlebrook Diner
Camden County – Philly Diner
 Warren County – Belvidere Diner
 Ocean County – Ocean Breeze Diner

 Passaic County- Park West Diner

 Union County- Westfield Diner

Cape May County- Dino’s Seaville Diner 
 Morris County- Brookside Diner

 Cumberland County- Delsea Diner

Essex County- The Ritz Diner

The New Jersey Federation of Food Banks, which distributed over 27 million pounds of food to more than 1,800 charitable programs serving people in need statewide last year, including the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Food Bank of South Jersey, FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, and NORWESCAP Food Bank are members of the federation.

Who Are Kindred Souls?

New Jersey based rock band Kindred Souls is an original rock band flavored with blues, funk, jazz, and R&B. The founding members of Kindred Souls, lead vocalist and songwriter Jeff Rafferty and keyboardist Lon Bachrach have been partners for eighteen years. The band features bassist Stan Quincy Adams, guitarist Ted Heman, and drummer Paul Lavenhar.

Kindred Souls was inspired to do the diner tour after a great experience working with the The band’s CD release party for its new EP “Social Ninja” was also a “peanut butter and jelly party” to raise money for the Food Bank.

We were surprised to find out that buying power of the Food Bank enabled it buy about 1,000 pounds of food for $250. We decided we wanted to raise enough money to buy 21,000 pounds of food – 1,000 pounds for every New Jersey county

The post Brownstone Diner and Pancake House Jersey City Selected to Help Raise Money for NJ Federation of Food Banks first appeared on River View Observer.

             HOBOKEN, N.J. (January 11, 2010) – The much-anticipated pancake house, Stacks Pancake House & Café, finally opened its doors on December 11th in Hoboken on trendy Washington Street drawing record crowds and endless lines on the weekend.  Filling a void of offering pancakes for dinner, as well as other reasonably-priced American comfort cuisine, Stacks is bringing families, Hoboken professionals and the late-night bite crowd together to enjoy delicious food in an upscale, trendy atmosphere.  Stacks serves 22 different varieties of pancakes, as well as omelettes, salads, sandwiches and burgers, plus milkshakes, floats and coffee drinks.  Stacks replaces Junior’s Papaya, which closed in 2009.

            “I am passionate about breakfast food and always wanted to open my own restaurant,” said Andrew Cohen, day-to-day manager and one of the three owners of Stacks.  “Plus, there are so many restaurants in Hoboken, but no one was serving breakfast.”

Cohen and his two other partners, Elliot Cohen and Scott Handler, decided to fill that void and came up with the ingenious idea of offering a niche product around the clock: pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  In the few short weeks Stacks has been open, diners are flocking, and during the weekend, waiting in lines to get in to the newbie restaurant to try their signature dishes such as a Mama’s family-size pancake, a 16-inch pancake that serves a family of four or the pancakes wraps – appropriately named after Hoboken streets such as Hudson, Observer, Garden, Bloomfield and Washington — which are oversized pancakes filled with your choice of the standard breakfast fare:  eggs, taylor ham, sausages, cheese and vegetables, among others.  For the super sweet tooth, the Oreo Cookie pancakes are a menu standout and are served with Oreo cookies mixed into the batter, as well as crumbled on top.

Other popular dishes include the Belgian waffles and French toast, double-decker deli sandwiches, grill specialties such as a Philly cheese steak, Stack’s burgers and super salads.  Lighter alternatives are available and include whole grain and wheat pancakes and egg white omelettes.  On the  children’s menu you will find pancakes (that come in a variety of shapes:  truck, airplane, flower, Mickey Mouse and a ghost), French toast and waffles, hamburgers and chicken fingers.

 

 

 

 

“Our vision for Stacks is to become a staple household name in Hoboken,” said Cohen.  “We also want to provide our customers with a feel-good dining experience, a place where they can stop to get a great meal, socialize with family and friends and hopefully leave with a smile on their face – not to mention stuffed!”        

            Stacks’ progressive design and upscale ambience was the work Rose Meechan Interior Design of New York City.  Meechan is an interior designer with 15 years’ of industry experience, in a diverse range of styles and budgets.  Educated at Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Meechan has collaborated on projects which have been featured in Architectural Digest, Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, The New York Times, and on NBC’s “The Today Show”.  In addition to projects in the tri-state area, Meechan has worked on projects in Virginia Beach Va., Palm Beach, Fla., Carmel and San Francisco, Calif. and St. Martin. 

“My vision was to incorporate a coziness that worked with the finishes already in place, and was consistent with the comfort food on Stacks’ menu.  I stayed away from flashy, bright colors typically seen in fast food restaurants and diners so that customers feel a sense of warmth from the food and their environment, rather than ‘eat and run’,” said Meechan.

Stacks is owned by a partnership of three entrepreneurs and will be managed by Andrew Cohen.  Cohen, 25, previously worked in accounting and investment banking at Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse Coopers.  He is a 2004 graduate of Adelphi University on Long Island and is engaged to be married in 2010.  He resides in Edgewater and grew up in Bergen County, N.J

The two other partners, Elliott Cohen, father of Andrew, is a former managing director at Banker’s Trust, and Scott Handler, is a former car wash owner and general contractor. For the senior Cohen, he left the corporate world in 1999 to become an entrepreneur after taking a buyout.  Since then, he’s been in the bagel business and has opened several shops in Bergen County.  In 2005, Cohen and his partner Handler, decided to trademark the Wide World of Bagels name and expand the bagel franchise.  Cohen resides in Park Ridge, N.J. with his wife Judy.  Handler resides in Cedar Knolls with his wife, Laurie and three children. The Wide World of Bagels store and corporate headquarters are located in Ridgewood, N.J.

The partners envision franchising the Stacks brand in New York City and surrounding boroughs. “We hope to make Stacks a dining destination around the tri-state area,” said Cohen.

Stacks is open 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. seven days a week.  The goal is to keep the restaurant open 24 hours a day Thursday through Saturday beginning in mid-February. Seating capacity is 49; outdoor seating will be available in the spring.  Stacks does not accept reservations.

            For more information, please visit www.stacksofhoboken.com or visit Stacks Pancake House & Café at 506 Washington Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, 07030; 201.710.5777.

The post NEW UPSCALE PANCAKE HOUSE OPENS IN HOBOKEN – DRAWS RECORD CROWDS first appeared on River View Observer.