Tag Archives: Cuban Cuisine in Jersey City

 THE COMEBACK KID- Hard Grove Café Re-Hangs Its Cuban Star on First Street

  Hard Grove Café Re-Hangs Its Cuban Star on First Street

 After 3 Years, Traditional Cuban Dishes Are Back in Downtown JC

 

By Sally Deering

 Its been three years since Cuban cuisine-lovers could duck into the Hard Grove Café in Jersey City for a traditional Cuban sandwich. Well, good news!  On June 26, Hard Grove opened its new restaurant & bar on First Street off Newark Ave, and so far, customers are stopping by for Hard Grove’s traditional Cuban fare and a freshly mulled Hemingway Mojito. 

“June 26th was our ‘soft’ opening,” owner Evelyn Padin says, “In this industry, it’s not smart to rush into a grand opening.” Continue reading  THE COMEBACK KID- Hard Grove Café Re-Hangs Its Cuban Star on First Street

HARD GROVE CAFÉ IN JERSEY CITY RAISES THE BAR

   Delicious Cuban/Latin Cuisine Ranks High Above the Norm

 By Sally Deering

Jersey City's Hard Grove Cafe  When the Hard Grove Café’s original owner Domenic Santana opened the Jersey City restaurant  on Grove Street in the early 1990s, the neighborhood was not as affluent as it is today and Santana offered locals more of a diner menu where you could get a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for a buck ninety-nine.

Times have changed and the restaurant has changed hands a couple times. In 2005, Evelyn Padin and Carmen Mendiola—two practicing lawyers and Jersey City residents – decided to try their hand at running a restaurant and purchased the Hard Grove Café. They kept on Chef Rafael Valdespino and the trio created a menu of Modern Latin Cuisine that is refined and delicious. Instead of the soupy beans and sticky yellow rice typically found at many local eateries, the Hard Grove Café’s beans are light, the rice is fluffy and both dishes are seasoned gently.

“Carmen is Cuban-American and I’m Puerto Rican and we were looking for something,” Padin says. “When we saw this place, Carmen didn’t want it closing down. Like everybody in the neighborhood, we’d known Domenic for years. So Carmen said let’s give it a go.” Continue reading HARD GROVE CAFÉ IN JERSEY CITY RAISES THE BAR