by Sally Deering

 

Dave  and his sister Anne Marie carved a niche on Grove Street with their handsome little restaurant, The Merchant, where the bar is cozy, the drinks are yummy and the food is All-American delish! It’s a great place to go for a business luncheon, watch a game or hang out with your friends and talk about life.

 Dave and Anne Marie decided to try something a little more upscale and 2-1/2 years ago they opened The Embankment, a beautiful fine-dining restaurant nestled in the heart of 10^th Street in the Hamilton Park neighborhood, where friendly neighbors drop by for brunch, dinner and drinks with friends.

 

 

A truly beautiful restaurant, The Embankment is a jewel in Jersey City’s crown with a warm and inviting dining room that seats 80-100. It’s a wonderful place for private parties, wedding receptions, christenings and corporate functions where corporate heads want to show their employees some class. There’s a sexy upstairs lounge, too, with low-lighting and cozy seating for 40. It’s best to get a reservation, Dave O’Brian says, because on Friday and Saturday nights the upstairs lounge is always booked.

 

The Embankment’s elegance is reflected in the menu – American-style dishes with added flavors that are a little bit French, a little bit Italian and a touch of Mediterranean. For entrees, how about Fried Catfish with Cajun Fries or a Rib-Eye Steak with mashed potatoes and mushrooms? For pasta lovers, you might try the homemade fettuccini primavera – that’s right, they make their own pasta! (Appetizers range from $6-$12; entrees from $18- $26.)

 

For an assortment of different flavors, you might like the Tapas – mini servings of flavorful dishes like marinated artichokes, mushrooms and olives. The Embankment offers 12-15 Tapas to choose from. For light eaters, a cheese plate with five different types of cheeses will definitely satisfy the palate and go beautifully with their vast array of wines from affordable to high-end. The O’Brian siblings also serve a large assortment of beer including cold draft beers – including Guinness, of course!

 

And then, of course, there are the burgers!  In 2009, “New” magazine cited The Embankment’s burger as No. 1 in Jersey City. The secret?

 

“We use high-quality ground beef, well-seasoned and cooked to perfection,” O’Brian says. “It’s simple, but it’s the best.”

 

The Embankment

234 10^th Street

Jersey City

201-222-6115

www.theembankmentnj.com

 

The post Dining Out – The Embankment Restaurant in Jersey City 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.