Day Seven: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
Hackettstown without James on Main, elite chef Bill Van Pelt’s love song to the ingredients of the Garden State’s plush Northwest, seems a distant memory. Did it ever not anchor the downtown that Route 46 runs through, its actual Main Street? Seems unfathomable, though true, as the intimate storefront with its energetic, yet elegant plates was born only in 2016.
Day Six: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
The new jewel in the growing Dhaba empire is the recently opened Social Hub by Dhaba in Parsippany, where upscale Indian fare sparkles in a restaurant/bar/lounge setting. In Ledgewood, Cliff’s Homemade Ice Cream has been in the hot-flavor scoops business for almost 50 years, and it remains the coolest game in town.
Day Five: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
Family affairs happen in the food world. Not surprisingly so, since gathering ’round a dining table is inherent in family life everywhere. Small storefronts fueled by a love of cooking one’s birthright dishes don’t just charm, they educate in culture – as the members of the Baran family at Rosa-Ly Pierogi in Fairfield and the Andrade clan at Garibaldi Peru-Mex in Parsippany do so well. Chief Photographer Mike Peters' special pictorial report continues today.
Day Four: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
Hand-pulled noodles draw constant crowds to Shan Shan Noodles in Parsippany, where a post-savories stop at Sweet Shansations, the related bakery in the same strip small, is de rigueur. And delightful.
Day Three: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
If the American flag had been designed in 21st-century New Jersey, instead of stars and stripes the symbols we salute may well have been burgers and pizza. We do honor those cherished eats daily, at Steve’s Burgers in Garfield and at Pizza Town in Elmwood Park.
Day Two: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
Start any day at Roast’d in Fort Lee. Head west several miles, till the planes in and out of Teeterboro are directly overhead, and touch-down for breakfast, lunch, dinner and those hours in-between at Runway Diner in South Hackensack.
Day One: Get Your Culinary Kicks on Route 46
A kaleidoscope of eats awaits along a formidable byway that’s unique in America and has much to say about the people who live and work in its midst.
Van Gogh’s Ear Café
You’ll find your favorites at this hub for eats, sweets and myriad caffeinated beverages in the heart of the downtown known as Union Center.
It’s Rabbit, Not Bunny
An extraordinary dish showcases a meat that doesn’t so much have a bad rap as it does an ill-informed one. That’s why rabbit is condemned by those who align with animation over responsible stewardship when it should be revered for being lean, nutrient dense and needing only a small footprint to be happily raised.
Delicias de la Gracia
Costa Rica’s signature dishes are fun, flavorful and even a little bit fanciful. At this convivial family-owned and operated storefront, they are conveyed with a lot of love and just as much wisdom.
Pate, Toujours
When a top-flight livestock farm gives you chicken livers, make a pate for the ages. Like this one. You’ll never pass them by again.
Andrea Lekberg, The Artist Baker
The newest inductee into TPW’s chef-picks-chef club of top toques in the Garden State is multitalented in various art forms, an activist with commitment and passion for her community, and has a background as diverse as her culinary crafts. She’s the consummate Renaissance woman.