Westfield Blog

Finally A Wine Bar - Rosie's in Garwood

2008-03-06T22:30:00.003-05:00

Before CoolVines in Westfield opened, there was some speculation if the place would actually become a Wine Bar. At the time I was very much in favor of this as a real good Wine Bar is dearly missing in the area.

Although CoolVines eventually turned out to be a wine store (with regular wine tastings twice a week nevertheless) I was still very excited about the new source for good and interesting wine in Westfield.

When I recently drove from Westfield to Cranford I was even more excited to see a store sign in the new development across from ShopRite that said "Rosie's Wine Bar". On our way back I stopped to check it out and fortunately got a chance to chat a bit with the owner "Josh Rosenberg" a.k.a. Rosie. He is a veteran in the wine business and finally decided instead of selling wine wholesale he wanted to open his own place. And a nice place it.

A comfortable bar (with coat hooks under the bar table, yes, finally somebody that thinks stuff through..) where you can enjoy 50 or so different wines by the glass, starting at $6.50 for generously poured glasses of good quality white and red wines. In addition, there is a retail section where you can purchase wine to go at regular retail prices or for an additional $15 corkage fee can drink them in the restaurant.

With us moving out of NJ, we wouldn't have much of an opportunity to enjoy the new place so we decided that our last dinner in an NJ restaurant should be at Rosie's. Together with three friends we went there Thursday night (without reservations). The place was pretty busy but we found a nice spot at the bar and began to study the very interesting wine list. With some consulting from Rosie and his team we settled on a variety of interesting whites and reds.

While sitting at the bar we also learned that they have installed a vacuum system that they use to evacuate open bottles at the end of the evening to ensure the wine is fresh and pristine for customers the next day. In addition to the wine they also served a complimentary bread basked which contained a variety of interesting, unusual breads.

Within 15 minutes or so a table was arranged and we set down. The menu is pretty extensive for a wine bar and certainly not limited to the typical bar fair. In addition to burgers and steaks there are also several seafood dishes on the menu. We ordered some appetizers for the group and then 5 entrees. Everybody was really happy with their food, good quality, well prepared, good seasoning. Considering the reasonable price level, the food is a pretty good deal. Not a Manhattan-style steak house, but definitely worth it.

Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement. Although attentive the service was not always refined and at times slightly chaotic. I assume after only a few days of operations this is not untypical and will be ironed out. Rosie was certainly very open to our feedback.

Overall, a great evening at a very promising new place. And lots of interesting wines still on the list that we won't unfortunately be able to try anytime soon.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Brunch at A Toute Heure

2008-03-02T15:30:00.003-05:00

A Toute Heure - a small French Restaurant with superb food and outstanding service in Cranfords up and coming Centennial Village as been reviewed here before, however that was dinner, a pretty excellent dinner to be specific.

Recently we learned that they have now added a Sunday Brunch and as this was our last weekend in Westfield we took the opportunity to check it out. To summarize: This is how you want to start your Sunday. (I like to start my Sunday late...;-)).

The menu is a well balanced but innovative combination between traditional breakfast recipes and ingredients (predominantly egg, bread and "breakfast meats") and elements nouveau cuisine. I'm tempted to call this "french breakfast fusion".

Good food starts with great ingredients. So the bread, meats and the eggs are high quality sourced from local farms and shops. The preparation is excellent and the food is stylishly decorated on the plate. A party of three we had the Fritata, the Croque Madam and the Chili (Yes, this chili goes quite well with breakfast).

All three dished didn't not just look mouthwatering but had their own interesting and refined flavor profile. They give you what you expect from breakfast but go significantly beyond.

In addition to the food, there is fresh OJ, real good coffee, an interesting variety of teas and other breakfast drinks. And the coffe cup is always refilled fast by the attentive service.

When we were there, the sun came out and lit up the room nicely. Together with the smells of fresh coffee, bacon and other breakfast dishes, this creates a really pleasant Sunday morning atmosphere that invites you to hang out for a while.

This was a great start for our last Sunday in NJ.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Leaving Westfield - Leaving NJ

2008-02-29T21:05:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the long hiatus. Lot's of people did complain about a lack of new posts over the last few months. And, no - I didn't ignore all the e-mails, we are just going through a few changes in our life that had a higher priority.

I'm actually changing jobs. I will start to work for a new company as of next week and we will be leaving NJ towards California. Today was my last day at my current company. After having worked there for 11 years, leaving is quite emotional. There is certainly a big sense of loyalty and gratefulness. But then there are new challenges on the horizon.

I will probably come to NJ once in a while but my opportunities to participate in this community and to write about it will be limited. If at all, there will be only a few more posts. I will decide in a few months, what I will be doing with the "Westfield Blog". If somebody is interested in taking it over, let me know.

I will certainly retain my e-mail address (westfieldblog@gmail.com) so feel free to stay in touch as before.

We enjoyed our seven years in Westfield quite a bit. You feel privileged having a chance to live here. We both think this is a very special please. Having made a lot of friends we really feel sad leaving.

Good luck to all of my readers, continue to enjoy Westfield, eat good food, drink good wine, listen to good music and enjoy the arts.

Signing Off

The Westfield Blogger

Northside Trattoria is now "16 Prospect"

2007-10-12T22:30:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok, ok. I'm listening to my readers. Yes, I didn't post anything over the last few weeks and a few of my readers e-mailed me asking what is happening and some even complaining.

Unfortunately, blogging is not my day job and that day job was quite a bit more demanding recently and I had to travel a lot. But still, I'm planning to continue this blog, but maybe a bit less frequently going forward.

Also, my favorite photographer Andrea Ewald who is taken most of the pictures in previous posts is in India for a photo project for almost a months. So I won't have pictures for the next few weeks.

Northside Trattoria has been a reliable source of good Italian food for several years. They recently closed for renovations and a few weeks later re-emerged as "16 Prospect - Wine bar and bistro".

I felt "Northside Trattoria" was actually a pretty good and well established name so I'm not sure why the name needed to change. I'm not a particular fan of this very uncreative and impersonal naming style "Street Number - Street Name". Imagine what would happen if all the place at Elm Street would adopt that.

Interestingly enough their Web site is still operating as Northside Trattoria and "16 Prospect" is nowhere to be found on that side. A new web site does not yet exist.

So what is the difference between a Trattoria and Bistro. A trattoria is typically a somewhat less formal Italian restaurant, but still a full-fledged restaurant. Which was is a pretty good characterization of what Northside Trattoria offered. Now a bistro is in the first place a french concept: It is less than a full-fledged restaurant with a limited menu of rather straight forward food. And yes that is also true for 16 prospect: The current menu is a sub-set of what they had before, with classic Italian offerings. They still have pizza, but they don't seem to promote it much, no specialty pizze only the "basic plus select your toppings" approach. But they certainly are not a French place at all, thus "Bistro" is a bit misleading.

The restaurant in the back of the place has changed much with the remodeling. It is still fairly large with different areas that are more or less separated, each having a different atmosphere. It is not the most comfortable or stylish interior but it is pleasent. Service was efficient, fast and friendly but not particularly refined. Ok, that is what you expect from a bistro.

I had the "House Pasta" salad, which is not really a pasta salad (as in maccaroni salad) but a classic lettuce based salad with farfalle pasta and a pesto type vinaigrette. An intresting combination that could work well. But it doesn't here. There is nothing wrong with it but somehow the combination of ingredients doesn't get beyond the sum of its parts. It feels like what is in the salad doesn't want to work together.

As a main entree I have the maccaroni and cheese. I had these before at Northside Trattoria and was quite impressed. And fortunately they have lowered the price. At $16 for a huge portion (I ate only half of it) this is really a good deal. This "Mac&Cheese" comes with a flavorful combination of italian cheeses, bacon, herbs and few other ingredients. The texture, the mouthfeel and the very pronouced flavor make this a pleasant sensual experience. Yes, comfort food, but comfort food at a higher level.

The bar in the front of the establishment is now larger. In addition to the actual bar there is now a bar area with high tables and stools. (where there was previously some kitchen/operational space.) I didn't have a chance to check out the wine selection or the service at the bar area so not rating of the "wine bar".
Westfield isn't really saturated with bars so this is a welcome addition. Certainly more refined than Jolly Trolley and a bit larger and more "hang out" type than Jeffery's, it is still not the stylish cocktail lounge that I think is truly missing in Westfield. I believe there would be more than enough demand for such an outfit in Westfield.

From a food perspective the metamorphosis from Northside Trattoria to "16 Prospect" isn't that much of an event. Pretty much the same thing with a reduced menu. For the winebar, I need to check that out at one point later.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

Coolvines: A Stylish Competent Wine Source in Westfield

2007-09-19T21:40:00.000-04:00

When I walked through Westfield this evening looking for something to eat, to my very pleasant surprise I realized that Coolvines (on Elm Street, former location of Planet Smoothie) has finally openend. Their web site still says that they will be opening in August and there is currently not much information there, but I'm sure that will change pretty soon.

I blogged about CoolVines before and at one point I stated that they would open end of July. Ok, I was wrong. It is now two months later. And I'm sure it was not their plan to dragg this out. If you invest serious money into building a store, every day you are not open to generate revenue cuts into your profits. So you are very interested in opening as soon as possible. The fact that our bureaucracy makes things difficult for business owners and delays store openings significantly, should make us think and act. It doesn't have to be that way.

As reported before, CoolVines is not planning to be just another wine store. They actually do have an interesting concept that I'm quite excited about. It is not about selection, they are not trying to offer all of the mainstream brands you can get in every liquor store in town. I would estimate they have "only" about 200 to 250 different bottles. That is not a lot compared to other stores. They focus on unusual wines that are a good value at their respective price points. They have bottles in the $10 space as well as up to $50 and beyond and they claim they have them specifically selected to represent something special at the given price.

I was quite impressed with the wines they picked. There were only a few that I had tasted before or where I at least knew the producer. And there is a huge selection outside of the typical Chardonnay, SB, Merlot, CS range, which makes this a very interesting place. For me, wine is all about exploring new tastes, new varietals and new wine makers and CoolVines is a great opportunity to do just this.

Not only is the selection very enticing to me, their staff is also very competent. I briefly chatted with owner Mark Censits and later spent some time talking to head sommelier Arnaud Devolder. He was not only very knowledge about wine but also quite fun to talk to. He has tasted all the wines on offer at CoolVines. So - no surprise - after I briefly explained to him what I liked (and what not) he developed a very good understanding of my taste and preferrence and recommended quite a few interesting bottles.

As I had walked into Westfield, I only got two bottles, one of them a Kerner from Alto Adige which I look forward to enjoying with my wife on the weekend. But I'm sure I will be back, in particular for the tastings they will have on a regular basis twice a week.

They are open till 10:00 pm, so they are also a good source for your BYOB bottle when visiting a place in Westfield's restaurant row. They even do have a special section for wine to match certain Westfield eateries.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Rock'n Roll Legend: Chuck Berry comes to Cranford

2007-09-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

This year's Union County MusicFest was quite an experience. We had a legend on stage in Nomahegan Park: Chuck Berry made his way to Cranford. I think (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) that this is pretty cool. After having one of the all-time great rock bands - Cheap Trick - there last year, they were able to surpass themselves this year and present Chuck Berry!

I will certainly not try to add anything meaningful to the millions of paragraphs that have already been written about Chuck Berry. There is not much I could add. I can only say that I really enjoyed the concert. For me it was the first time to see Chuck Berry live. And even at an age of almost 81 he was pretty dynamic. Of course I would have been even happier had he played for more than the one hour but, hey, I'm not complaining! The rest of the band, which included Chuck's daughter Ingrid on harmonica and son Chuck jr. on guitar, was great too.

Overall, the Union County Music Festl is a pretty cool event. The caliber of bands playing is pretty outstanding. And this year the weather couldn't have been better, even so it sure hadn't looked good in the morning. While we were there it was sunny with a few clouds so it didn't get too hot.

They even sold beer this year, albeit you had to stay in a restricted fenced in area. I really don't understand what the harm would be if people brought some beer or wine and enjoyed it while listening to the music. I'm convinced the majority of people are very reasonable in their alcohol consumption.

Thanks once again to Westfield photographer Andrea Ewald for letting me use her images.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Breakfast at Lora's Tea Room in Cranford

2007-09-08T12:57:00.000-04:00

I have blogged about "A Toute Heure" in Cranford recently. In addition to this place there are a couple of other restaurants in this neighborhood called "Centennial Village". So when we checked it out we also found "Lora's Tea Room". Originally we thought they were more like a British style tea place. But that evening they were closed and so we decided to come for breakfast.

So today, after our early morning workout at the Westfield Y we went back to the Centennial Village. It turns out Lora's is more a Russian style (or at least Eastern European) tea room and not a British one. Not that that's bad, just different. It starts with the decor. It is an interesting combination of somewhat tastefully arranged kitsch (including the obligatory samovars) with a rather sterile and sober overall atmosphere (industrial ceiling with fluorescent lighting and similar floor). But this is actually pretty authentic. ;-))

In addition to traditional breakfast dishes like omeletts and eggs Lora's also serves blini. Blini are an Eastern European version of crepes, thin pancakes that are rolled up and filled with fruit, jams or other fillings. The cheese blini at Lora's are filled with farmer's cheese. In Austria you would call this dish "Topfenpalatschinken". Our waitress specifically points out that they are using farmer's cheese and not cream cheese. In addition to being less fatty we really like farmer's cheese much better. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get here and quite expensive. In many European countries a product very similar to farmer's cheese (typically known as "Quark" or "Topfen") is a staple food that is used for a variety of dishes and is also quite cheap.

So without a lot of deliberation my wife decides on the cheese blini. I go for the vegetable omelette. The blini are really excellent, with a delicate and nice flavor profile. They come garnished with some fresh strawberries and the farmer's cheese tastes as expected. My omelette is a positive surprise. This is truly a vegetable omelette with carrots, mushroom, peas, corn and celery. All the vegetables seem to have been nicely sauteed and seasoned before being worked into the omelette. This adds a very pleasant flavor component. The omelette by itself is fluffy and light. The whole thing is done with a lot of attention to detail. The toast is pretty good also and the butter comes nicely presented in its own little vessel.

But what is really important is the tea. For a tea room a bit disappointing they only do have a limited selection of open tea leaves. We go for the Earl Grey for two. For $3 you get a large stylish china pot of tea, nice glass tea cups and and filter to pour the tea through. The tea was quite excellent. Open leaves and the china pot make a difference. You get a much more delicate but clearly pronounced taste and the bergamot which characterizes the Earl Grey can vigorously express itself.

Overall we were pretty happy with this breakfast and will certainly visit Lora's again to enjoy the tea service for a lunch or an afternoon snack.

They do have nice outdoor seating but only serve the lighter stuff (pastry) out there. You won't get entrees or the full tea service.

Another gripe I have: They put their coffee after it is brewed on a heating pad and it seems to sit there for a while. That is a total faux pas for me. It kills any interesting flavor in the coffee. Unless you have a huge turnover and brew coffee fresh every 5 minutes a thermos vessel is much more acceptable and retains the coffee's taste profile. But then it is a tea room and not a coffee place. So maybe that is acceptable there.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

"A Toute Heure" in Cranford - Nothing Short of Spectacular

2007-09-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

A Toute Heure is a small French bistro in Cranford's "Centennial Village". Centennial Village is a two block main street type business district south of downtown Cranford. I drove through there so many times and never thought much about it. But just recently I noticed this small restaurant and tonight I finally had a chance to check it out.

A Toute Heure actually opened in May of this year already. I'm truly annoyed about the fact that it took me more than 3 months before I realized that the place even existed. The amount of sensual food pleasure that I missed out on is incredible. ;-))

The place is fairly small. They have 10 tables and they can probably seat between 30 and 35 people. The interior is a very good interpretation of a French bistro, comfortable and stylish. Although it is only one open room it did not get too noisy.

Service is friendly, very attentive and efficient, but not overly polished. I actually like that. Sometimes overly polished and refined service crosses over into arrogance and attitude. No danger of that at A Toute Heure.

The menu changes daily and you can check it on their website. On Tuesdays they have mussels, small plates and a large selection of "bites". The bites alone are worth it. Bites are small sub-appetizer dishes at $4 each. But they are still enough to share for a couple. We could have had all 8 bites of the evening, equivalent to a good meal for two and would have experienced a sensual joy ride that would be very difficult to match.

One really interesting bite was the "Grilled NJ sweet peaches, creamy ricotta & garden herbs". A perfect combination of different flavors and textures that in your mouth combine to something incredibly special. The grilled "royal" eggplant toasts and the summer vegetable frites are equally impressive. The garlic-saffron aioli had just the right amount of saffron to complement the garlic without overpowering it.

The small plates are smaller portions of regular entrees at a somewhat reduced price. They are sizable portions for a normal appetite and if you had a few appetizers (a.k.a bites) that is all you need. I'm not a fan of overeating and of wastefully large portions. I had the hangar steak. It was nicely cooked medium and came with a full-bodied, flavorful onion jam. The onion jam was a great match to the very pronounced flavor of the meat and the mustard marinade. The dish came with little potatoes that actually did have a taste of their own (not just chunks of starch). My friend's flank steak (that she let me taste) was just as refined. It came with two different types of corn pudding. One more like grits and the other one done almost like a souffle. Both managed to uniquely express the essence of corn.

In addition to the creative design of the dishes and the expert preparation by Chef Andrea Carbine, A Toute Heure benefits from their local sourcing approach where meat and vegetables come from local farms. This approach also leads to a certain seasonality in what type of dishes can be prepared, which in turn forces the chef to be more creative. And I very much look forward to see more of Andrea's creativity.

For dessert we had the home made ice cream. My friend went for the more conventional chocolate (smooth, refined, pointed expression of a less sweet type of chocolate) whereas I dared to go for the goat cheese ice cream and it was worth it. It clearly has that goat cheese nuance but it is not at all offensive but rather nicely mellowed into a comfortable mouth filling sensation.
Coffee and tea are freshly brewed Coffee comes in an individually sized french press coffee pot. Tea is made in a small glass pot from loose leaves.

At the end of the evening we left very satisfied, having enjoyed a variety of interesting, innovative flavors and textures (some of the them for the first time in our lifes) and we were excited to come back soon to get more (much more) of this.

Overall, A Toute Heure is a great addition to the local restaurant scene. They are not cheap, but for the quality the price-level is more than reasonable. They don't take reservations but you can call ahead when you leave from home to be added to the list. And contrary to the reviewer from the Star Ledger I don't see that policy as a problem. Most of the restaurants in Westfield's restaurant row have a similar policy. Finally, they are BYOB but know how to treat your wine, have decent wine glasses and coolers for your bottle of white.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Ciara's Cup O' Cakes in Cranford is Now Open

2007-09-03T21:56:00.001-04:00

While driving through Cranford this morning I realized that the paper that had covered the windows of a small store opposite to the movie theater had disappeared. For 6 months or so now there was a sign "Ciara's Cup O' Cakes" and "Opening Soon". I honestly, do not remember what business was in that location before. There are a lot of little stores in that strip that tend to change and reopen frequently. But I was curious, as it sounded like an interesting coffee house.

Now, as of today Ciara's is open (24 Eastman St., Cranford, NJ 07016), just informally, but they are serving their customers. I haven't seen any marketing, yet, so I assume they just want to run for a while to refine the operations. Grand Opening will be next Saturday. And they make it a big event, with a DJ, clowns, story telling, a movie and live music and karaoke in the evening. I have already added this to my calendar and we will be there at least for the evening events.

The atmosphere is pleasant, friendly and inviting to hang out and linger a bit. I didn't have time to explore the menu. But they seemingly do have a good food selection in addition to Coffee and bakery items with cup cakes being their specialty. They serve "Seattle's Best" coffee and the one I got was freshly made and pretty good. A more thorough review is to follow as soon as we have some more time to spend at Ciara's.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

The Heart & Soul Cafe is Truly a Special Place

2007-08-25T19:00:00.000-04:00

Another visit to the Heart & Soul Cafe at West Broad Street (corner of Osborn Ave). This time we went there for lunch. Previously impressed by their breakfast, absolutely wanted to try their sandwiches orother lunch items. Fortunately, the very favorable impression from our initial visit was more than confirmed: This is truly a special place. When we arrived there around 12:30 there were a few - seemingly - regular customers at the counter and over the course of our meal a few regulars showed up or stopped by for take out.

Although she is not typically a fan of warm breakfast, my wife was easily convinced by the breakfast special. Fried fish with scrambled eggs and grits. OK let's talk about the grits: Today's visit totally changed my perception of grits. (And it is a rare thing that one event totally changes my view on something). I remember vaguely that I had grits several years ago when we were in New Orleans. I recall it as an amorphous, tasteless mass of empty carbohydrates with a weird texture. I was not at all impressed, didn't understand why this was such a big deal in "The South" and wasn't planning to have it again.

Now with the grits we got at the Heart & Soul Cafe things changed dramatically. The grits there had a unique, pleasant and truly comfortable, mellow balanced flavor in itself (which is enhanced by some butter on top) and a surprisingly good mouth-filling texture. Yes, I'm sure one would still not consider grits a health food, but it is truly enjoyable and absolutely worth it. My wife was pretty happy with the fish and eggs as well.

I had the ham and capicola sandwich. I actually, I had half a sandwich, which easily satisfies a normal lunch appetite. Not only is the sandwich fairly large but it is loaded with lots of meat. And this is not the rather tasteless run of the mill sandwich meat you often get in chain stores but rather tasty higher quality meat. The sandwich bread is baguette like and has a good taste by itself and is slightly chewy and moist, again not what you far too oftent encouter when getting a chain sandwich, tasteless, foam-like sub rolls. As a side you get potato salad. I'm not sure if it is home made, but it certainly has a well rounded flavor and impressive lasting mouth feel and a good texture. The potatoes have a discernible taste of their own, they are not just chunks of tasteless starch. Although the salad is mayonnaise based, the mayo is not overpowering and nicely enclose the other components. For me the high point: It comes with chopped eggs, the one most critical ingredient for a superb potato salad.
Overall a solid, well made deli sandwich which very tasty ingredients and sides. For $5.50 a really good deal.

The service was again very friendly, attentive and efficient. Although this place has a lot of regular guests, new comers are welcomed and treated with the same warmth and attention and - I believe - in a lot of cases will become regulars in no time.

The Heart & Soul Cafe is already becoming a favorite place of ours that we will frequent more often for breakfast or lunch. I will still go to Panera when I travel, but when I'm home in Westfield the Heart & Soul Cafe just feels much better than Panera, et. al. and a bit more like home.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

A new Source for Good Bread: Breadsmith in Cranford

2007-08-23T21:09:00.000-04:00

When we recently went to the Car Show in Cranford we also saw that there is a new bread store called "Breadsmith". When I initially drove by I thought the place would become a bank (immediately thinking "No, please, not another bank") as the logo they put up at the store somehow reminds you much more of a typical bank logo than an artisan bread store.

Breadsmith is a Mid Western chain. Most of their stores are in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. The Cranford, NJ, location is their first and so far only store in the Northeast. I'm not sure why they selected Cranford as a bridgehead to conquer the East Coast. But good bread is certainly dearly missing in NJ. Manhattan has Le Pain Quotidien, so the market there is already pretty competitive for high-end artisan bread. NJ probably has more opportunities for them. One might speculate that the site was selected anticipating an acceleration of the current upgrades happening in downtown Cranford.

Breadsmith is certainly a friendly place. The staff is really helpful and attentive. At the left side of the store they have a large rack where all the bread is displayed. There is a little divider/fence in front of that rack as they seemingly don't want people to actually touch the bread. The fence is also a good place to put down the coffee cup that I don't to walk around with all the time. The staff behind the fence will explain and show to you the different breads they have and they will also give you good sized samples of pretty much everything. I really like that. The bread isn't cheap so at least you can figure out if you like it before you buy it.

They do have a few standards that are available every day and a weekly rotation of breads that are only available at particular day of the week. The menu is on their web site. I think this is a good idea and comprise. Their turnover is probably not high enough to afford having 50 different types of bread available all the time. With rotation, you can still get some variety.

After tasting several of their breads (all good but not all really super excellent) we selected the focaccia that was overall the best tasting sample. A firm but somewhat chewy texture with some moisture of the inside. The outside you can't really call a crust. It feels more like a membrane (that keeps the moisture inside) which is exactly what a good focaccia should be. It contains some herbs that give it well round flavor profile. Overall it is a bit heavier than a lot of the super market focaccias but I actually liked that. And it lasted for a long time. We had a piece left after 5 days. It was a little drier than at the first day but it was still a bit moist and had a good consistency. If all their breads lasted that long that would be another bonus.

Although their breads are certainly not bargains their prices are not too much above upscale breads you can get in a supermarket. At least for the focaccia, I can certainly confirm that compared to the supermarket version the one from Breadsmith tastes better, lasts longer and is typically fresher. So the premium on the price is IMHO justified.

I'm sure we will be back to try a few more of their breads.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Breakfast at Java's Brewin in Cranford

2007-08-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

After our traditional early morning workout at the Westfield Y, we originally wanted to go to Bovella's to get some of their sensational croissants. But then we remembered that we had seen a new place in Cranford that looked like a coffee house that also had advertised a variety of food options. Curious as we are we decided to go there and check it out.

Java's Brewin is a franchise concept that is proposing an alternative to Starbucks. With a similar focus on high quality (and high-margin) coffee drinks and a pleasant atmosphere to hang out. However, they have added a much broader food selection. Starbucks typically only has some bakery food items like croissants, scones, muffins, etc. (some locations also have pre-made and pre-packaged sandwiches). Java's Brewin tries to attack Starbucks at that front: It offers a more comprehensive selection of typical breakfast and lunch food items (salads, sandwiches, soup). It also offers free WIFI supposedly at all locations. You can get WI-FI at Starbucks via T-Mobile at a significant fee. With a lot of other places offering it for free, I think Starbucks' approach to WI-FI is anachronistic. I typically go to Panera, Cosi or some other place if I need WI-FI. And I believe I'm not the only customer that Starbucks has lost this way.

The web site of Java's Brewin is more targeting potential entrepreneurs that are interested in a franchise opportunity, not so much the (potential) customer. Some of the individual locations seem to have their own web sites, however not the one in Cranford (yet).

When we came there at 8:15 or so there was nobody else in the restaurant. The atmosphere is nice, well lighted, comfortable and cosy enough to hang out and do some work on the computer as needed.
They actually do have on impressive and interesting sounding selection of breakfast and lunch food items on the menu and on display in the glass counter. The fact that the sandwiches, quesadillas, etc. are on display there also means they are not made fresh to order like at Panera or Cosi.

The menu claims that they are made fresh daily. In my world that would imply that they are also only offered that same day they were made. However, it doesn't say that explicitly, so I'm curious. Next time I'm there, I will verify this.

They told us that the place has opened about two weeks ago. Considering that, they should have gotten over the typical start up operational problems by now. But unfortunately they haven't.

My wife ordered a breakfast wrap. This is pre-made and it took some time to find it among all the sandwiches in the counter. I had a classic ham, egg and cheese on a bagel breakfast sandwich, which is freshly put together, with the (really small) egg patty being pre-made. They seemingly have problems operating the toaster so the first bagel was burned to be pretty much black on one side. I requested it not to be used. The second attempt was better but still not perfect. My wife's sandwich was in the contact grill and seemingly nobody watched over its progress. So my wife had to remind them to avoid it getting it burned, too, and saved them from another small disaster.

The whole process of putting together these sandwiches took a rather long time. I'm curious to see how they deal with their order processing when the customers line up during peak time. Operating the cash register and putting the right items at the right price in was another drama that we got sorted out after a while.

The sandwich wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either, essentially the sum of its parts. I have had much better breakfast sandwiches at other places around here. At $3.00 ($2.25 for the sandwich plus $.75 for the meat) the price is OK. My wife felt the same about her El Ranchero Burrito: Not bad, but nothing special. So what about the coffee? This was a highlight. I really don't like the fairly bitter coffee you get at Starbucks, so I was glad to see that they have a few options at Java's Brewin that are not dark roast and I really liked their house blend.

While we were enjoying our breakfast a few more clients came in and we could observe some additional customer service and food preparation problems. The staff behind the counter is friendly and tries very hard. However, it seems management doesn't care too much about training their folks and refining the operational processes of the place.

Overall, the Java's Brewin in Cranford, NJ could be a very nice coffee house to hang out, enjoy a java drink and have a good breakfast or lunch. Most of the lunch food items on display actually looked pretty good and I'm sure we will be back to try them.

In summary, we have an excellent promising concept that unfortunately is undermined by less than average execution. I'm really concerned that management after only a few weeks since opening doesn't seem to be involved in day to day operations any more and lets an under-trained staff figure things out by trial and error. I'm hoping for the best, as I really would like to see them succeed.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

Dinner at Gauchos with Live Music

2007-08-17T22:21:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about our opening night visit to Gauchos BBQ & Grill at South Avenue West. Now, three weeks later we were once again in the mood for a more meat oriented dinner and we also remembered that Gauchos had live music every other Friday and today was one of these Fridays.
We arrived there at around 8:15 PM and they just had one table available for us. Because of the weather there was no outside seating so all the business had to be accommodated inside. And seemingly they had been quite busy that evening.
Three weeks ago, I remarked on a couple of kinks in their operation that needed to be ironed out for prime time. This evening, I'm glad to report that they have successfully worked on all of them and things work quite well. Despite the evening being fairly busy, the service was as warm and welcoming as the first night but also attentive and efficient. I decided to go for the Brazilian Sausage BBQ platter which they didn't have the last time we were there. My wife went for the BBQ Ribs. My BBQ platter is essentially the same as the Rodizio except that it is just a portion of a certain meat without the all-you-can-eat feature. Certainly enough for a regular appetite. The Brazilian sausage is very tasty and a bit spicy and has a firm texture. It comes nicely grilled. And all dishes come with generous portions of sides. In addition to rice (pretty good), fries (OK, not bad but had better fries) and a choice of red or black beans (try both if you can).
Some people remarked that the full blown Rodizio for $26.95 is actually a bit expensive. I would not agree with that statement. Yes, if you are in the mood for a light dinner you shouldn't get it, as you probably will not be able to eat as much as you pay for and there are enough other options to satisfy your desires. However, if you like meat and you have a good appetite the Rodizio is worth it. Not only do you get the salad bar and all the available sides (including a pretty remarkable fried polenta) but you also get to eat as much as you like from the truly outstanding "Top Sirloin Cap" from the Rodizio skewer. We didn't have that dish, but the owner was kind enough to give us a small slice to try, and it was very good, tender and very flavorful.

Overall we again had a very pleasant dinner there at a reasonable price with a lot of left overs to take home which turned into Saturday's lunch. The live Brazilian music was a nice complement to round out the evening, a bit emotional, tense but smooth. I think Gauchos is off to a good start and we hope things will work out for this place to become a permanent addition to the Westfield restaurant scene.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

An Evening with Cars - Smart Cars and Old Cars

2007-08-15T22:00:00.000-04:00

More by coincidence than based on planning this evening has mostly to do with cars, first with Smart Cars and then with Old Cars.

The Mercedes Dealership in Edison sent us an invitation for a preview and test drive event for the new Smart Cars that will be introduced to the US market next year. My wife likes cute little cars in general and I'm always interested in innovative car designs, two good reason to go there and check things out.

The Smart Cars are pretty hip in Europe and there people buy them as a fashion statement. Financially, they have only been a limited success for Mercedes. Although small, they are not actually that cheap to design and build. The security concept alone required a serious research and development effort. Combined with some other innovative design elements, e.g. the engine in the back, the sandwich design, these cars also became quite complex to manufacture. So when you are looking for an economical small car, the Smart is not for you: depending on what source you believe the basic model will start at between $12 and 14 k. Yes, you heard that right. You can get the Toyota Yaris or the Nissan Versa nicely equipped for the same or a few grand less.

So the Smart is really for people who can afford it as an additional car for driving short distances in the city or the suburbs, easy to maneuver and to park.

We test drove one and I was not at all impressed. The interior feels nice, but the car is very bouncy (despite the fact that the wheels are as far out in the four corners of the car as possible) and not comfortable, the automatic transmission has a serious lack of power for a short period when it shifts and the engine revs quite high when accelerating and is a bit obtrusive.

And with 40mpg the fuel economy is not that impressive, certainly not compared to a Prius which is a much larger car. And then even a conventional car with a Diesel engine gets pretty close to that.

Although the Smart is pretty cool and looks cute, I doubt that we will ever buy one.

From there we went to Cranford to the Vintage Car Show, a.k.a. Cranford Cruiser Night. I remember a few years ago they had vintage car shows in Westfield in the downtown area (Elm Street and Quimby). At one point that stopped and I really don't know why.

Seemingly quite successfully, Cranford has taken over that tradition. Two blocks of Union Avenue are closed for regular traffic and shiny vintage cars are lined up for the interested public to watch, inspect, photograph and admire, but certainly not to touch. Most proud owners are - understandably - quite peculiar about this. It is amazing how many of these cars are still around and in what good condition. Respect to all the folks that invest a significant amount of time, effort and money into keeping these cars in good condition for people to enjoy. I'm personally mostly fascinated by the tail fins that some of these cars had in 50s.

If you like to see vintage cars or just have a general interest in car design these vintage car shows are great fun. Unfortunately, this was the last one in Cranford for this year, but there is a website that lists all of them in NJ. I believe there is one more in Westfield on the parking lot south of the train station on 2007-09-10.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Sweet Sounds Downtown and Dinner at Xocolatz

2007-08-14T22:40:00.000-04:00

Another Tuesday night with perfect weather for "Sweet Sounds Downtown", Westfield's summer jazz festival.

At the PNC Stage we spent quite some time with the Eric Mintel Quartet, a classic refined jazz combo, playing jazz standards from Dave Brubeck et. al. as well as their own (very interesting and innovative) compositions. Most impressive were the sophisticated solos and improvisation parts. For me, who I'm just starting to learn to play the piano, Eric Mintel's mastery of that instrument is incredible.

Next, on the lawn in front of the train station, the Chuck Lambert Band played high-energy dynamic traditional blues. Not a bad performance, but IMHO, I have seen other bands at this same place that I liked better with a more refined and expressive sound.

At the Bombay store stage we had Westfield's own Full Count Big Band perform smooth, energizing big band sound. The very authentic Tom Jones impersonation by one of the musicians (see image) was quite enjoyable. Similarly moving were the vocals of Aubrey Parasolle who in her early 20ies performs stylistically confident similar to some of the old stars of the genre.

The Roamin' Gabriels in front of the Baptist Church were unfortunately just taking a break when we arrived. As we were both somewhat hungry we didn't want to wait much longer and headed back to restaurant row.

We wanted to find a place where we could get good food, sit outside and enjoy the music. And once again we were lucky at Xocolatz. Not only did the owner come outside to welcome us, ready to put out another table, they also had a very interesting sounding "Mexican burger" on their special jazz festival menu.

As usual we got a bottle of wine at the Liquor Basket. As much as I was impressed about the decent selection of white wines, in particular in the chilled section, the last time I shopped for wine there, as much was I disappointed by the somewhat limited selection of reds. Most of what I saw was pretty mainstream, things we've had before. Only a few curious ones can be found on the shelf. I picked a pinot noir from Australia that turned out to be OK but nothing special.

But then the food more than made up for the only average wine. To start it off, I had the navy beans and chorizo soup. It came in a large bowl and was topped with some fresh herbs. The soup tasted very good, full-bodied and just a little bit spicy, comfortable but not boring. The burger then was a handful, size wise and taste wise. It was not one of these mega-pounder burgers that are en vogue in some chain restaurants but it wasn't one of the smallish ones either. I ordered it medium-well as I'm always a bit careful with ground meat and they got it just right. The meat was just a slight bit pink in the middle, nicely seared on the outside to keep the juices and the taste inside. The texture was slightly firm without being dense and dry as it often happens when overcooked. The burger was loaded with bacon, sauteed mushrooms and cheese. The explicit taste of the beef together with the smoked bacon flavors and the mushroom nuances combined to a splendid, very enjoyable burger experience. It came with side of Cajun spiced fries. I'm typically very critical with fries, but these had a good texture and the Cajun flavors only enhanced the experience.

My wife had the quesadilla salad from the regular menu. Previously they had only offered items from the special menu Tuesdays, probably because of the high demand for the jazz festival. They seemingly did change that policy and you can now order from the regular menu which is replete with interesting, creative sandwiches and salads as well as entrees at reasonable prices. My wife was as impressed by her quesadilla salad as I was by my burger. With the decent portion size we decided to skip dessert and instead got a small pastry on our way home passing by at Bovella's.

On Tuesdays for the jazz festival or for any other occasion, Xocolatz is a very pleasant, often overlooked, choice in Westfield's restaurant scene. In particular, it is typically fairly easy to get a table outside. Check out their web site for their hours as they aren't open for dinner every day.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Dinner at a Real German Biergarten (Beer Garden)

2007-08-11T22:30:00.000-04:00

Today was a real beautiful summer day. It was cool (almost chilly) at night so it was still a bit crisp in the morning and then it became increasingly warm over the course of the day, very little humidity and a nice mild breeze contributing to an easy relaxed mood. In Germany they have a name for that type of weather: they call it "Biergartenwetter" (literally beer garden weather), i.e. the type of weather where you want to spend the day in a beer garden. You would typically plan a hiking or bicycle tour with your family or friends with the destination being a nice beer garden to have lunch/dinner and hang out for a few hours and then return home.

If you have never been to a biergarten, it is essentially an outdoor restaurant. You typically have long tables and benches spread out in a shady garden/wood setting with big old trees. You would normally go there with your family or a group of friends. Food is traditional German home style cooking (meat and potato, bratwurst) and beer is served in 1 liter beer mugs.

On top of my list of things that Westfield doesn't have (but absolutely needs to get) is certainly a beer garden. Fortunately, you don't have to look far to find one. The "Deutscher Club Clark" (German Club) has a very nice one. There is a large open area where the typical biergarten benches are lined up under some tall old trees that provide shade. There is also a larger area (aka Festhalle) that is open to the side but covered with a wooden roof in case there is rain. There are quite a few pictures on the club's website that give you a sense of what their biergarten looks like.

The "Deutscher Club" is a private club, that means to go there you need to become a member (which requires an existing member to nominate you), you can be the guest of a member or you can come for a public event when the club is open to everybody. These public events happen roughly every month and there is typically an admission fee of $5. Parking is free.

Luckily, today they do have such an Oktoberfest event that is open to the public. It starts at 4:00 PM. When we arrive there a little later there are already quite a few people but we don't have a problem finding a very nice table in the shade.

They have a very decent selection of typical German food items that you could find in a similar fashion in a Biergarten in Germany at very reasonable prices. (See image). OK, they also have not-so-German hamburgers and hot dogs.

Food is self service. You have to queue at different food counters and pay right there. A small thing: If you want to get food from different areas you have to queue several times. But the queues weren't too bad.

We decide to have the Bratwurst Platter which comes with potato salad, sauerkraut and a roll, the "Leberkaes" platter with potato salad and a side of Spaetzle with gravy.

The bratwurst is nicely seasoned and grilled just to the right point. Potato salad and sauerkraut are good but nothing spectacular. The Leberkaes however is special. This is a very German food item that is difficult to get here in the US. It is technically a meatloaf however the meat is much more finely ground and then processed in a way to give it tighter, firmer more homogeneous texture. Lightly seasoned and baked it is then cut in slices and served. The one we get at the DC is actually quite good. As you can see in the picture the food comes on paper plates and is eaten with plastic "silverware". In recycling conscious Germany that wouldn't happen. ;-))

With the food we obviously have to have some beer. They have a typical German beer selection on tap. There is the Hacker-Pschorr "Helles" (Helles is a standard German Lager), Warsteiner Pils and a Hefeweizen (a wheat ale with yeast in the bottle or keg). And for $3.50 per cup or $11 for a pitcher that is a bit more than 4 cups this is actually not a bad deal. Domestic beer (if you really must have it) is slightly cheaper.

To finish things up we get some German cake for dessert. A "Zwetschgenkuchen" is a flat cake that is made on a baking sheet (similar to pizza but sweet dough) that is covered with plums. Google has lots of pictures.

Bienenstich (literally "bee sting") is a cake filled with a layer of (usually more fluffy) custard in the middle and a thin layer of honey and sliced almonds on the top. Again some pictures at Google.

While we were having our dinner around 5:30 a German band (Buchenauer Lausbuam) started to play traditional German folksy music. Conceptually similar to country pop. Not my kind of music but lots of people love it and it wasn't loud enough to be annoying.

Oktoberfest (and other similar activities) at the "Deutscher Club" are roughly every month during the summer/fall while the weather is good enough. You can find details on their website. So if the weather is nice and you like German food and music, this is a great place to go with friends or family.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

A Great Breakfast at the Heart and Soul Cafe

2007-08-11T10:32:00.000-04:00

The regular readers of this blog know that weekend breakfast is something almost ritualistic for me. So I'm always searching for new, interesting places to have the first meal of the day. And I found one today.
When my wife and I did an evening walk recently we discovered the Heart & Soul Cafe on West Broad Street (corner of Osborn Ave).
It was closed for vacation at the time, but is has since reopened, so today I had an opportunity to have breakfast there after my early morning workout at the Westfield Y.
And its name lives up to the promise. This is a place that certainly has Heart & Soul. It is a small place. Only three tables with a couple of chairs around and a few stools at the counter. The atmosphere is warm and cozy. The service is friendly and welcoming. I immediately liked the place, it is very personal, you feel at home there, a place to hang out and relax for a while.
The menu is typical breakfast as well as lunch deli fare. Nothing spectacular or outrageous but a good variety so it doesn't get boring if you come there frequently. And seemingly there are a lot of regulars that enjoy the food and the friendly surroundings.
The coffee comes in a china mug, it is fresh, really hot (which I like) and has a full bodied solid taste (not too bitter and not to mellow). And the refills come in timely and fast.
For breakfast I had the two egg sausage breakfast sandwich with home fries. The sandwich comes on a fresh poppy seed roll that has a slightly crisp and chewy texture (not the dry soft foamy stuff you often get). That alone tells me that there is attention to detail. The nicely seasoned sausage patties are fried just right so you get the flavorful juices coming out drenching the roll. You actually get two patties on the larger two-egg sandwich. The eggs are nicely scrambled and fried in a way that they are still fluffy and not overcooked. Overall, this is one of the better breakfast sandwiches I had in a while.
But the best thing are the home fries. There are two types of home fries that I like. The crispy, crunchy, browned ones that are best made in a heavy iron skillet. They are difficult to make in large quantities in a restaurant as they often come out not crispy enough or blackened. I like these more for the crisp, crunchy texture than for the actual taste of the potato.
The other type are the ones that are more stir fried with spices and other ingredients, i.e. not crispy but rather covered with a sauce all around. Such home fries are more about taste than texture. The Heart & Soul Cafe has the latter ones. I don't know what spices they put in but the combination between the subtle taste of the potatoes (yes, potatoes actually do have their own taste) and the seasoning is very pleasant and satisfying. The home fried alone are worth a visit.
In addition to great service and great food, the prices are reasonable. The two egg sandwich with meat is $3.50 (one egg is $2.50). Add home fries for $1.75.
They open at 6:00 AM. If I have to get up that early I'm typically not in the best mood. It is good to know that there is a place in Westfield where I can get a good breakfast that early and where people are nice and friendly. They are also open for lunch and then close at 3:00 PM.
The one and only drawback: There is no outside seating. I think there is enough space in front of the store to put up two tables and a few chairs. Maybe I can convince the owner to do something about that.
When I have an opportunity I will come back for lunch to check out their lunch menu.

This is a mid day blog post. We are planning to go to a very interesting place for dinner. So stay tuned for more to come later today.
Thanks again to Westfield photographer Andrea Ewald for letting me use her photos.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

Dinner at Freshwaters in Plainfield

2007-08-03T22:12:00.000-04:00

After I came home from my traditional Friday Power Yoga class at the Westfield YMCA, that put me in a very relaxed, centered and a bit mellow frame of mind, we weren't in the mood for home cooking. One reason: It was a pretty hot and humid day and we don't have central air in our house. So the idea of working in the hot kitchen wasn't particularly appealing.
We initially contemplated to go to Gaucho's again to check out the Friday live music. However, we both did not feel like large portions of meat. After weighing our options we decided to try Freshwaters in Plainfield for the first time. Fellow blogger sivyaleah had recently recommended Freshwaters on Chowhound and she even has it listed as one of her Top 5 restaurants.
My wife is a big fan of Southern food, in particular seafood, whereas for me it is not typically top of my list (but I still enjoy it) and tonight my wife was the decision maker.
Freshwaters is certainly an interesting place. The service is very friendly, welcoming and warm. Nevertheless it is also attentive, efficient and professional, a combination you rarely find. They must have developed a very effective way of hiring the right personalities for their wait staff and to motivate and train them properly.
The interior is an amazing and eclectic balance between kitch and style. By themselves some of the decoration would be a weird or cheesy but in combination it actually works quite well and creates an open and warm atmosphere. You almost feel like you are in somebody's living room. The only thing I personally didn't like (and a lot of people disagree with me on this) are the glass panes on the tables. IMHO, food just tastes better with table cloth. The glass on the table somehow alters you mental frame towards food, at least for me.
The menu has classic Cajun/Southern food, not much fusion or creativity. Which is perfectly OK, as we weren't looking for fusion but for traditional well-made Southern home cooking. And that is what you get.

I had the corn chowder which was well composed and intensely (but not overbearingly) seasoned and had the right thick creamy texture that you expect. Then I had the Cajun Chicken Pasta. An interesting combination of sauteed chicken, spaghetti type pasta and a Cajun Alfredo sauce. The sauce is really what makes that dish work. It seemingly consists of heavy cream, some cheeses and a variety of Cajun spices. This creates a heavy (but pleasant) full-bodied flavor that fills your mouth and sticks to your palate for a long time. Voluptuous is a good term to describe the sauce. But don't ask for the calories. And there are lots of sauteed pieces of chicken in and on top of the pasta. I also liked the very tasty, slightly spicy interestingly seasoned okra -tomato side that I selected from a long list of side dishes.
My wife had the crab cakes and the pecan-crusted catfish. I'm not really into fish, so I don't want to comment on these items. My wife liked them and felt they were well made, very tasty and certainly above average but - to quote her - "The cat fish at Mojave Grill is better." But then Mojave Grill is southwestern fusion and not Cajun.
In summary, Freshwaters is probably as close as you can get to authentic Southern cooking in this area. It is a pleasant and satisfying dining experience if you like Cajun food. However, it is not upscale dining and it does not claim to be. A lot of restaurants would benefit quite a bit if they learned from and adopted Freshwaters' notion of customer service.

Prices are just about still reasonable, it is not a bargain dining experience but I wouldn't consider it overpriced either. The place is BYOB. If you like Southern cooking it is almost a must to try it. On Saturdays they have live piano/jazz music.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Construction Action at CoolVines

2007-08-01T21:56:00.000-04:00

When walking through Elm Street in downtown Westfield today, I finally saw some action happening at Coolvines, at the former location of "Planet Smoothie". I had previously blogged about this new wine store and my conversation with the owner Mark Censtis about his plans. At the time they were still hoping to open by the end of July, but that didn't materialize.
For a long time I didn't see any action. Finally, now things seem to get going. Several people were working in the store and seemingly at an aggressive pace. If things go well, we could be looking at a grand opening within the next few weeks. While peeking into the store and observing the construction activities, I realized how fairly small the space actually is. I'm curious to see how they will arrange things to create an appropriate retail space for wine.

And I certainly like their Philosophy about wine. Wine indeed is poetry.....

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Another Great Jazz Evening with Sweet Sounds Downtown

2007-07-31T22:30:00.000-04:00

It is Tuesday again and we are actually not that much in a mood for a big dinner but we still want to go to Westfield to enjoy the music that is all around downtown as part of the summer jazz festival.

In addition to the pleasant weather there was really great music.

Walking into town from our house we first reached the "PNC Stage" where the Framework Jazz Quartet played vocal jazz classics including some Jobim classics with a very versatile instrumentation. The lead singer's (according to the web site this would be Lauren Shub) strong and precise but nuanced voice contributed to the elegant velvety sound. We also really enjoyed the inclusion of the violin into the instrumentation which added some depth.

Next stop was the "North of the train station" stage. This is typically the stage with the most people and because there is an open lawn area we also have somewhat of a dance floor that is mostly used by smaller children. Still, the music performed by Scarlett Moore (or according to the web site the "Scarlett Lee Moore Band") had the rhythm and energy that would encourage me to get dancing. The band around lead singer Scarlett who impresses with her dynamic expressive blues voice, performs in-your-face blues and R&B type music.

At the "Bombay Store" stage we have the David Aaron Quartet. A competent classic jazz combo, except that the music is a bit more eclectic. In particular, the addition of a clarinet gives them an authentic elegant style that is a good fit for leisurely evening exploration.

Finally in front of the Baptist Church we sit down for a while to listen to the Glenn Alexander Trio (also at myspace). They have a more modern, groovy, rock but still jazzy sound. It guess that would be called fusion. Listening to his music Glenn Alexander is a pretty versatile guy. He even has a song called "Westfield" on his self-name album. I didn't find it too flattering for Westfield, as it is a bit too close to elevator style music, but you can listen to a clip of it here.

On our way back home we stopped again at the PNC stage to listen to the remainder of the Framework performance. Fortunately, the friendly folks from Rockn' Joe gave out discount coupons for a frozen drink for $1 for the small size (compare this to $3.35 without the coupon). A pretty good deal considering that the drinks are quite flavorful, tasty and not too sweet. And you have a good selection that goes far beyond Starbuck's Frappuccinos. We had the vanilla chai which is very recommendable and certainly even worth the $3.35 without the coupon.

Thanks to Westfield photographer Andrea Ewald for letting me use her photos.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

First Day Review: Gauchos BBQ and Grill

2007-07-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

Gauchos BBQ and Grill on South Avenue West finally opened yesterday. I started to write about Gauchos about two month ago when I realized that some work was getting done at the location of the former Taxco Grill. At one point I speculated that Gauchos would be opening by the end of June. And I was looking forward to it. With the demise of Samba Grill (at the location where we currently have Cosi) several years ago, there was a void of BBQ restaurants in Westfield. So I felt good that one was coming that is not a chain.

Now end of July Gauchos opened after a few delays and we certainly had to check it out the day of the opening. They didn't do any marketing or announcements to avoid being overrun and to sort out the initial kinks first.
We went for dinner at around 8:00 PM and there were a few other guests dining both in the dining room and at the side walk tables. The first issue was that the air condition didn't work well so it was a bit hot inside. With the temperatures outside being OK and the humidity bearable we decided to sit outside.
Service is very friendly, attentive, pro-active and trying very hard to accommodate the customer's desires. It was not always efficient but for first day operations it was remarkably good. Because of the heat we decided not to go for the full all-you-can-eat Rodizio but rather have individual BBQ dishes. These are the same meats as the Rodizio (i.e. they come from the skewer), however it is just one particular meat and not the all-you-can-eat feature. These BBQ menu items come with beans, fries, rice and salad bar. Considering this, they are actually very reasonably priced. E.g. the Brazilian Sausage BBQ plate that I ordered is $10.95. My wife ordered the pork ribs which were only slightly higher.
Our order was taken and after we made our way to the salad bar it turned out that they were out of both meats. I guess they had underestimated the amount of first day patronage. The owner came out himself and apologized and helped us to find alternative options. My wife had the Rodizio sampler, for $10 you get samples of some of the different Rodizio meats they have with rice and fries. Also not a bad deal. I had the Onion Steak which also comes with fries, rice and beans. The meat was actually pretty good but done quite a bit more than medium which is what I ordered. OK, let's say this was another day one kink.
With both our alternative selections the salad bar was now not included but we already had it. No questions asked we were not charged for it.
The salad bar is fairly small but good quality and fresh. In addition to greens and vegetables there were three pretty good prepared salads: pasta, potato and vegetable/tuna.
For dessert we had the flan. Very well done and for $4.50 almost a steal. Gauchos manages to captured the essence of flan quite well. The taste is full bodied but not overwhelming, the texture is smooth and firm but neither too creamy nor too heavy. It comes with a chocolate sauce that is not poured on the flan but around it. So if you don't like the sauce (like my wife) you can just eat the flan.
When talking to the owner (who clearly likes to talk to his guests) it is very apparent that he sees his restaurant as more than just a business. We certainly felt very welcome as customers and guests.

In summary, for a first day operations quite impressive. If they can retain their very customer oriented attitude, maintain or even increase the high food quality and iron out some of the logistical and food preparation kinks, this could become one of my favorite restaurants in Westfield. This would be pretty cool, as from where we live this is the closest restaurant to walk to. Not to mentioned outside seating and BYOB.

We were also told that there will be live music every other Friday, so that would be next Friday and "Grand Opening" is targeted for Saturday next week (2007-08-04). If our schedules work out, we will be back next Friday.

Siging Off - The Westfield Blogger

Who Needs Another Bank in Westfield?

2007-07-26T22:58:00.000-04:00

In recent years more and more banks have set up shop in Westfield, just recently HSBC and Citibank almost next to each other on North Ave and WaMu on Elm Street. I was always wondering why this is and how all these banks can make a living, in particular with the fairly expensive retail space in Westfield.
10 years ago or so, when online banking started to become popular, everybody felt that branch/retail banking would be on the decline as most people wouldn't want to go to their banks but rather do things online or via phone. And for a while it seemed like that was actually happening.
But then a few years ago an opposite trend emerged. Banks were aggressively opening new retail branches or were even building whole business models around consumer banking with retail branches at every corner (e.g. Commerce Bank), what some people call McDonald's Banking. I still don't understand how that model can be profitable but somehow it must make business sense for these companies. For myself, I hardly ever visit my bank branch and do as much as possible online or via phone.
I find good eateries or quirky specialty stores much more intriguing than chain bank branches and they also contribute more to a vibrant community. So I had hoped the "Banks are Taking Over Westfield" trend we have seen for the last few years was running out of steam. Unfortunately, it hasn't. I just realized that on South Avenue, next to Tutti Bacci, another bank will be opening where there the bicycle store used to be. Not sure which bank it is going to be but if you look through the windows you can clearly see a wall opening for an ATM.
I would have rather liked to see a great Greek or Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant with some tables on the sidewalk. Banks are certainly not on my list of things that the Westfield scene is dearly missing.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Unexpected Visit To Sweet Sound Downtown

2007-07-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, I wasn’t too happy that I had to be on a business trip Monday and Tuesday this week, anticipating that I would have to miss today’s Jazz Festival in Westfield. I was originally booked on the 6:00 PM Acela from Washington, getting me back into Westfield at around 9:00 PM. Fortunately, my meeting in Washington was successfully completed much earlier, I made it to Washington Union Station in no time and was able to catch a train 2 hours earlier, got a great quiet seat in the train and the train even arrived early. This must be my lucky day. Usually, when I'm traveling I'm on the plane that is several hours delayed and then gets rerouted.

By the way, besides NJ Transit, I haven’t used many trains while here on the east coast, particularly not AMTRAK for intercity service. So my trip to Washington via train was a first and I’m actually quite impressed. It is certainly much better than flying. Even in coach you have more space and it is much more comfortable than a domestic first class seat on a plane. The Acela even has a dedicated quiet car which is great when you want to get some work done and you have standard power outlets for your laptop at every seat. There is less hassle to get to and from the airport as well as at the airport/station. If you need to travel up and down the north east, I would absolutely recommend AMTRAK.

Back to the Jazz Festival. We started at the PNC stage with Arturo. Relaxing, warm, sultry Latin jazz very well performed. The female lead singer (unfortunately I don't know her name, it is not given on their website) comes across as very convincing and authentic with her cool voice and confident performance. We enjoyed them quite a bit and our expectations for the rest of the evening were raised.
At the Baptist Church, Richard Reiter’s Swing Band provided a menu of swing classics. Judging from their web site Richard Reiter is quite a versatile musician, performer of many instruments and composer/arranger of very different styles. We only saw the swing side of this talented group. Certainly worth exploring more of his music.
We skipped the Bombay Store stage, as we didn’t particularly like the music, but that is certainly not a statement about the quality of the band.
So we went straight to the South Side Stage next to the train station where Jim Dean and the Solid Jackson Groove Cats played under the shady Christmas tree. I particularly like this stage that is typically only played at every other week. I have seen many excellent more classic or traditional jazz bands with solid performances play there over the years. This evening is not different. Jim Dean focuses on classic jazz tunes and renders them in a very skillful and sometimes innovative way. After spending quite some time with Jim Dean we got a bit hungry and headed back to the North side.

Fortunately, very fortunately for such a busy night, we had no problem to get a table at Xocolatz close enough to the stage north of the train station to see the band and listen to the music. We have been to Xocolatz many times before and IMHO, it is one of these underrated, overlooked places that are often referred to as "best kept secret".
The dining room is pretty small (but has a decent ambiance) and I guess they see themselves more as a catering business than a full restaurant. Nevertheless, personally, I think they are easily in the same league as some of the other places on the restaurant row. I like their menu which has lots of reasonably priced, innovative sandwiches and salads that are available even for dinner. (Note: Dinner after 7:00 PM is only served Thursday, Friday and Saturday and seemingly during the summer on Tuesdays for the Jazz Festival). In addition to that they have some reasonably priced more dinner type entrees (steaks, chicken pasta, etc.) And there are daily specials (available on the web site) that are typically worth exploring, sometimes quite creative ones like the "Cajun seasoned grilled swordfish over a bed of fresh mango, cucumber
and cranberry couscous" that my wife had.
Tonight, unfortunately, they didn’t have their full menu but a special limited one for the Jazz Festival. I was initially slightly disappointed as I had my appetite set on the steak with potato gnocchi that I had seen on the menu before. But the special menu also had a variety of interesting items. I had the Vegetable Focaccia which was an interesting take on a nicely grilled open-faced focaccia sandwich with a well-seasoned grilled vegetable medley. Excellent flavor profile and good execution. My wife also liked her swordfish. She remarked on the couscous with cranberries and mango to be an intriguing side dish.
The service is friendly, attentive, efficient and accommodating, trying very hard to make things right and proactively cater to the customer.
Xocolatz is a BYOB place so we got a bottle of Chard-No-Way (Chenin Blanc). I had this rather unusual wine before and liked it. Chenin Blanc (at least in the US) is a seriously underrated grape that has a lot of potential and when well made can easily compete with much pricier Chardonnays (assuming oak is not that important for you).

While at Xocolatz, we were listening to the band playing North of the train station: "Scott Hunter and the Soul Searchers" which had more Soul & R&B style music, some classic tunes and some innovative ones. Great finale for the evening.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

The Weekend - Mostly Outside Westfield

2007-07-22T18:31:00.000-04:00

Besides an early morning workout at the Westfield Y and a visit to the Farmer's Market this weekend we haven't done a lot in Westfield. At the Farmer's Market the little pies from the Amish Country Bakery looked pretty good. So we got the strawberry rhubarb one. For my taste, it is far too sweet and has a very "cooked" taste. Instead of the fresh, zesty combination of strawberry with a bit of sourness from the rhubarb that I expected, the filling tasted extremely sweet with a jammy berry-ish note and only hints of the essence of strawberry. For the rhubarb, if you didn't know it was supposed to be there, you would not notice it. For me, a rather disappointing experience.

For the rest of the weekend, on Saturday we went to New York. First we visited the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. On Saturdays the brewery is open for tours and beer tasting. The tours are every hour on the hour and you get a 30 minute introduction into the amazing (and at times bizarre) history of the Brooklyn Brewery. In addition there is a bar where you can sample pretty much every beer they have for $3 per glass. There are enough tables and benches and lots of people bring pizza or other food from a restaurant nearby. Although it is a bit crowed I actually like the atmosphere which reminds me a bit of a Germany beer hall, just the music is better here.

For a late lunch we went to Fornino on Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg's main street. They tout themselves as a gourmet upscale pizza place, however IMHO they are only partially succeeding but there is room for improvement. The idea is great, the menu items sound innovative, interesting and invite to explore. Just the execution of the idea is a bit inconsistent and this despite the fact that it was not very busy at all.

The ambiance in general is nice, upscale (inside) and the patio in the back of the building is a great place for a relaxed time to eat and hang out during the summer month. You can also see all the fresh herbs that they're growing there.
Service is friendly and trying hard to accommodate the customer although not always competent. Overall the food is pretty good. We ordered a polenta, mushroom, blue cheese appetizer which turned out to be a very rich and pleasant taste experience. I had similar dishes before, but from the intensity of the flavors and the smooth but not creamy texture, this is probably one of the best interpretations of this concept I have had so far.
The pizzas are thin crust with a reasonable amount of toppings, certainly not too much but also enough to have a full flavor experience so the pizza is not reduced to a flat bread. Instead of allowing you to select your own toppings they have (seemingly skillfully) arranged combination of toppings that promise interesting flavor profiles. Some are classics some are quite creative. I had a pizza with different mushrooms, cheeses and truffle oil. The flavor profile was - as expected - pretty intense and refined, I really love truffle. However, the pizza was in the oven for a bit too long so some areas of the crust were black and burnt and tasted accordingly. It required some manual intervention to separate this area from the one that was good.
My wife's pizza with prosciutto (which turned out to be rather bland), some cheeses and asparagus was not burnt but it was missing the asparagus. After we finally got the attention of our wait person, the response from her was a somewhat puzzling "That has happened before". (?!!?). Later the chef came over and offered us another free pizza to go in exchange (which we declined as we didn't want to schlep it back to New Jersey). Instead, my wife asked for blue cheese to be added to the rest of her pizza and after some more minutes in the oven it came back as requested.

On Sunday we went shopping around New Brunswick and when we felt a bit hungry and in the mood for a late lunch we decided to check out New Brunswick downtown and we found Piquant Bread Bar and Grill. It is one of those modern Indian fusion places that promises to be much more than it can deliver and execute and so ultimately disappoints its customers. An innovative sounding menu, stylish plates, an above average food display and rather high prices are not enough to pass for a real upscale restaurant. Overall not a bad Indian restaurant, with average service and good but not spectacular food. But in IMHO a bit overrated and seriously overpriced. Compared to one of their Manhattan influencers (which is way cooler (Bread Bar at Tabla)) I feel they are priced even higher. Good Indian food but at these prices not enough reasons to come back.

For this Weekend: Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Sweet Sounds DownTown

2007-07-17T23:18:00.000-04:00

Tuesday last week I was, unfortunately, on a business trip, so tonight was only the second time this year that I had an opportunity to enjoy "Sweet Sounds Downtown", a.k.a. the jazz festival.
This is a very special event and I'm glad that the Downtown Westfield Corporation has sponsored it for quite some time now. It happens every Tuesday between the Fourth of July and Labor day between 7 and 9 PM at 4 (or sometimes 5) stages in downtown Westfield.
The first stage this evening is in the new mini-park just west of PNC that has been created after PNC redid its parking lot. There, Carrie Jackson provides an impressive repertoire of summery jazz, blues and swing standards. With her impressive soulful voice she creates a warm relaxing atmosphere. A good start into the evening.
Next is the Dave Leonhardt Trio in front of the Baptist church opposite Bank of America on Elm Street. Things are a bit more jazz and more modern and avant-garde here. You can clearly see the skill and experience of the musicians that perform very well as a group together. We stay there for a while. There are typically enough chairs to sit down or you can sit down on the lawn. Some people even do a picnic there, getting a pizza or a sandwich from one of the eateries close by. The only thing that is missing is a chilled bottle of good white wine. OK, I'm dreaming, unfortunately local legislation doesn't allow that.
Finally we make our way back south to the stage next to the Bombay store where The Tone Masters present soulful jazz music towards R&B and New Orleans. They are able to engage the audience quite a bit and there is lots of energy and dynamic in the air. We hang out for a while to enjoy the show and the walk over to the train station.
This is the final stage for the evening. I honestly forgot the name of the band as it was a bit unimpressive. The program says Gordon James, but there have been changes before. The music is more of the mellow, elevator, smooth jazz type style that I don't particularly like. But then again that is my preference. Some other people liked it.

So after a short while we move on. For a refreshment before we walk back home, we make a stop at Hi 5 Candy & Ice Cafe. I blogged about the gap that Planet Smoothie is leaving in Westfield before, so we decide to test the newly added Smoothie offering at Hi 5. There are a few different flavors (peach, berry, green tee, etc.) and we decide to go for peach. Now the smoothies there are not made with fresh or even fresh frozen fruit, so technically I guess they wouldn't count as real Fruit Smoothies. Rather there is a flavor base that comes from a canister (imported from Italy) that is freshly blended with ice. Considering that for Hi 5 smoothies are not a "core competency", the results are actually pretty good. The drink has the right consistency and texture, there seemingly are actual pieces of fruit in the base and it has a well balanced pretty authentic peach taste. This is far better than the artificial, flat taste that you often get when drinks like this are made with industrially produced artificial aroma syrups. $2.99 for 16 oz is OK. There are no larger sizes available. We decide that we will come back to try the other flavors over the course of the summer or even do a smoothie comparison.

On the way home we stop again to catch a few more songs from Carrie Jackson. We really enjoyed the evening, pleasant weather, beautiful music and a surprisingly good smoothie. And it is only 10 minutes to walk back home. Next week, unfortunately, I will be on a business trip again.

Signing off - The Westfield Blogger.

Saturday at the Farmer's Market in Westfield

2007-07-14T23:52:00.000-04:00

After the usual early-morning work out at the Y, which turned out to be a little later this Saturday, we decided to go to check out the Westfield Farmer's Market that is happening during the Summer months on the south side parking lot.

For some reason Westfield is a little late in starting the Farmer's Market. E.g. the one in Scotch Plains started about a month earlier. The weather is certainly good enough and I believe the demand would also be there.

Now, the Westfield Farmer's Market is nothing dramatic or even impressive. It is typically 6 vendors, two produce stands, two bakeries, one pickle/olive and one mozzarella/focaccia/ravioli.
So it is not like a real town market that you would typically find in a European city. And even when we lived in California the farmers markets there, in towns similar to Westfield, where quite a bit larger and more diverse. Still, for New Jersey it is actually not bad.
Because of the limited amount of vendors, competition is not working well and prices are bit on the high side, so this really feels more like a gourmet market than a normal weekly market where you would go for good deals and the ability to bargain. For me a gourmet market would mean that you can get specialty/unusual items that are not typically available, as well as produce that is fresher and better quality than in the supermarket. The Westfield Farmer's Market, IMHO is somewhat of a hybrid. The prices are at the gourmet market level and there are a few specialty items that are not easy to get elsewhere in town. The quality and freshness is probably above average but not that much. And the vendors are typically not that open a bargaining attempt.

Picklelicious is one noteworthy vendor there. They offer a variety of pickles and olives. Good quality and a few unusual flavors and tastes. You can sample almost everything and the merchant is helpful and friendly. You buy by volume (half pint, pint, etc.) and they are really stuffing as much as possible into these plastic containers. Quality is pretty good although the olives are bit too salty for my taste.
At the next booth we got some sun-dried tomato focaccia. It looked good at the display. At $4 for a fairly large bread prices are OK. At home we realized that somehow the sun-dried tomato didn't benefit from the long baking process and half of them were blackened and had a bitter taste. So to really enjoy the focaccio which was not that bad, you had to manually remove the blackened tomato topping.
A poppy-seed pastry from the Lithuanian bakery was good but nothing special and almost a bit too chewy. The produce we got was pretty decent and above super market quality.

In summary: If the Westfield Farmer's Market really wants to be a gourmet market, it has to grow up a little bit both in quality and the amount of vendors.

The other thing I don't understand: Why is market on the South Side. I would suspect that it would get more "walk-in" shoppers that happen to do some business in downtown Saturdays and then more by coincidence go to the market. With more shoppers in the market it would also be more attractive for additional vendors. I could see the market happen on the parking lot North of the train station or on the one south of Trader Joes.
Or if one really wants to be bold we could close a street as some towns in Europe do. E.g. Quimby street comes to mind. I could imagine that this would create a nice atmosphere and also benefit some of the jobs there.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Restaurant Review: Dinner at Brick Oven and Dessert at Bovella's

2007-07-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

Thursday was a beautiful evening and I managed to leave work at a reasonable time. Although we were originally planning to cook at home, we made a swift decision to instead get a bottle of good white wine from the fridge and to walk into Westfield for dinner al fresco.
Originally, we were targeting Xocolatz were we had several real good dinners before. Unfortunately, they had only two table outside that were already taken. Because of shops being open till 8:00 PM they couldn't place some more tables in front of the store next door which they usually do. So we checked out the other places in the area and apparently, we were not the only people that had the idea to have dinner in downtown Westfield that evening.

At The Brick Oven we just managed to find one available table outside. The first time we visited the Brick Oven was about 6 years ago when we had justed moved to Westfield. We assumed that for a restaurant that is called "Brick Oven" the pizza is something special. We were a bit disappointed as the pizza was not the style we liked. In addition, we were low on cash and were a bit annoyed when we learned that they only took Amex and not Visa/MC. So based on that experience we only came back a few years later with some friends and we had pretty good pasta dishes and salads than. So till now it was not really a favorite place of ours. But that may have changed tonight.

They still don't accept Visa/MC and really don't understand why that is. I heard that the cut that Amex takes from the merchant is actually higher than for Visa/MC, so they shouldn't have any incentive to only take Amex. For me this is clearly an annoyance, but that may be different for people that prefer Amex.
We saw the party at the neighborhing table enjoying a really interesting looking spinch appetizer. It didn't take a lot of convincing by our waiter to make us order it.
This warm appetizer for two is a combination of sauteed spinach, portobello mushrooms, roasted smoked salmon served in a poppy seed sauce. We never had this combination before and we were delighted about this innovative, flavorful and delicious dish. The individual ingredients clearly fit together very well and the combination leads to something that is more than the sum of its parts. The idea of roasting smoked salmon is pretty cool. The distinct flavor of smoked salmon is not only retained but in my opinion enhanced and the texture is a bit crisper which is a nice counter point to the softer spinach and mushroom.
As a second course we ordered a the Pear, Pecan and Blue Cheese salad to share. We liked the proactive customer service of already putting the salad on two smaller plates (without an extra charge). The salad again showed an expert combination of ingredients to create something bigger. One thing to improve: The pears were still a little unripe, so that their contribution to the flavor profile was bit underwhelming. Pears at the right maturity had made this an even better dish.
For the third course, we didn't even get there. Originally we were planning to share a pizza. But with the fairly large appetizer portion and the good bread you get with dinner we felt very happy and satisfied after only two courses and we still wanted to have a desert. So unfortunately that also means: No update on the pizza situation at the Brick Oven.

The service was friendly, knowledge, attentive and efficient. Pretty much all you want from a good waiter. The place is BYOB and the Liquor Basket is right next door.

While we were dining Al Madison was playing live music. In an earlier blog, I complained about the live music at Acquaviva Delle Fonti being too much elevator music and my suspicion that it would rather drive away customers than attract them. Now this is very different with Al Madison.
Al is a versatile cover singer with a good repertoire of well known songs (seemingly 60s through 90s with a focus on blues) that are not elevator-style but also not too intense for dinner accompaniment. There was also some engagement between Al and the dining customers and he is taking requests. He was able to create comfortable, relaxing vibe, not an embarressing one. Al is not the best cover musician that I have ever seen, but he is certainly pretty good and one reason why dinner at The Brick Oven becomes more interesting.
He performs there on Thursday nights regularly but sometimes also on weekends. He also mentioned that he performs at the Westfield Farmers Market on Saturdays once in a while.

In summary, The Brick Oven is a pretty good option for an Italian BYOB dinner with innovative, refined food, plenty of outside seating and good service. My only grievance is that they only accept Amex.

How does it compare to other places in Westfield? The other BYOB Italian place is Cosimo. IMHO, The Brick Oven is much classier with a more innovative menu and refined service. Cosimo is more family style with a mostly standard selection of dishes and only a few outside tables. Ferraro's is IMHO only slightly above Cosimo's, they have a license and enough outside seating. The ambiance inside however is a bit basic, cold and loud, so not match for the Brick Oven. Finally, North Side Trattoria is at the same level of cuisine and refinement as The Brick Oven, they do have a license (and a bar) but the outside seating is somewhat limited.

So after leaving The Brick Oven we walked around a bit discussing were we could get some dessert when we remembered that Bovella's is now open late on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We got a very good cappuccino (that is served in an actual china cup) and some goof pastry that we ate at one of the nice tables in front of the store.
I'm really glad that Bovella's made the decision to stay open late. The idea of having dinner at one place, then stroll around a bit and closing the evening with a coffee drink and some pastry at Bovella's is quite appealing. And seemingly we were not the only ones that felt that way. I just wonder if Bovella allows for BYODW (Bring your own Dessert Wine)?

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Saturday: Lunch at MaMa Lou's and a Relaxing Massage

2007-07-07T23:28:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago I had a somewhat disappointing and overpriced breakfast sandwich at MaMa Lou's on South Avenue. You can read about this in an earlier blog entry. At the time I decided to give them a second try for lunch as the sandwiches sounded interesting.
This happened yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised. I had the "Big Lou", which is an Italian meats sandwich on focaccia bread. The full sized one for $7.50 is clearly generous. You can get a half size for $5 which should satisfy a normal lunch appetite. The meat (prosciutto, cappicola, sopressata) was very tasty and had a tender, very pleasant texture (not the cheap supermarket type quality). In addition you get real mozzarella and succulent flavorful red peppers. The focaccia bread wasn't bad but nothing too special either. The sandwich comes with a small bag of chips. Service was friendly and attentive.
In summary, Mama Lou's is certainly not a bad place for lunch both for a normal portion and if you are hungry. Even more so when you want to take advantage of the nice outside seating area in the shade.

In addition to lunch at Mama Lou's I also decided to indulge myself with a relaxing massage, something which I hadn't done in a while but truly enjoy. I feel it helps me to relax and to release tension in the neck and shoulder area that builds up over time. For the last year or so, I have been a loyal customer at "Natural Therapy of Westfield" at South Avenue and Boulevard.
Originally I was a big fan of the Dharma Center at Lenox Avenue that unfortunately closed more than a year ago. Neil (the owner) managed to create an atmosphere that was relaxing, warm, welcoming and a bit spiritual while at the same time providing professional high quality massages. And for a while I was a very loyal customer and went there once a months or so. So when it closed (I understand they lost their lease) I was really sad and hoped they would reopen somewhere else. Unfortunately, that never happened so I had to look for a different massage option.
Shortly before that I had seen some ads for "Natural Therapy" and so with Dharma closing I decided to try them. You also get a massage there but their approach is very different. The ambiance is at best effective (and worst you can say it is a bit cold), nothing spiritual, no aromas or sounds to soothe you. The music is most of the time neutral and sometimes annoying. The massage tables are covered with paper. You don't get new linen/cloth and there are no table warmers. But then the massage is what counts. And that is usually pretty good although it varies.
The turnover of massage therapists (MTs) seems to be pretty high, so you don't always get the same person and you hardly have a chance to build a relationship so that your MT gets to know your problem spots and can focus on particular areas. I can't really say anything about the quality of the MTs. I have gotten massages there that felt equal or better to what I had somewhere else (say at the Dharma center) and then I had a few that were so-so or felt a bit rushed or standard.
I like a firmer massage of my back and some of the MTs there didn't seem to have the physical strength but some others coped well. Communication with the MTs is sometimes an issue as English is not typically their native language. It may take some back and forth to clarify what you want and where they should focus. So if you want a truly therapeutic massage or even have special instructions from your doctor (instead of just a general relaxing massage) this place may not be for you. Some of them then seem to adapt their program to what you told them and some - at least that was my impression at times - stick to their standard program no matter what.
Pricing is very decent. 60 minutes for $55 and $75 for 90 minutes. And you actually get this amount of time or more. They have stop watches that are set when the actual massage starts (not when you step in the room to undress) and they usual work a few minutes longer to finish what they were working on after the alarm has sounded. So paying for 60 minutes you actually may get 65 minutes worth actual massage. Compare this to other places where the time before and after may count and you may only really get 50 minutes of actual massage.
Service in general is friendly and efficient although sometimes a bit superficial and I have the feeling that it went down a bit in the last few months. The only significant issue I had there recently, was when a new MT - in no uncertain terms - told me that the tip was too low and she expects more despite the fact that the massage was good but nothing truly special. It was the same amount that I had always given at that place and IMHO was certainly adequate if not a bit generous. Reservations are usually not a problem even short notice and they typically can accommodate walk ins.
In summary, not a bad place for a relaxing, reasonably priced basic massage. If you want it a bit warmer, sophisticated and inspirational or if you want something special with spa ambiance or a truly therapeutic massage it is probably not your first choice.

With some recent service issues and increasing turnover, I'm planning to check out a few other massage places in the area to see what the market has to offer and I will report back. I also would like to hear from my readers what their experiences and recommendations are in regards to massage places in and around Westfield.

Before I started to visit the Dharma Center I went to the "On the Side" Spa on South Avenue West a couple of times. The actual massages I got there were pretty good but the place is a little expensive and some of the staff had (at the time) an attitude of self-importance and I felt they took themselves a bit too seriously. I got this notion that I should be grateful that they actually served me there which I really didn't like. Finally, it has this vibe of more of a place for women so as a male I personally felt a bit out of place. Now, they have been in business for a while so they must do things right overall and certainly I plan to give them another try.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Sweet Sounds Downtown with a Great Dinner at Jeffrey's

2007-07-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

"Sweet Sounds Downtown" is a Westfield institution also known as the "Jazz Festival". And every year I look forward to it when it starts in early July and I'm really annoyed if I have to go on a business trip and can't be home Tuesday night to go to Westfield for this event. So between 4th of July and Labor day every Tuesday there are usually 4 or 5 stages around downtown Westfield where there is life jazz type music from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. What I like in particular is the fact that you can just wander around, check out the different bands, if you like it stay a bit longer, if not move on.
The first evening is always a special event. This year it was particularly special as Tuesday 2007-07-03 was also the day before the holiday and so it was technically a Friday.
Some really good friends that we met in Westfield years ago and that in the meantime had moved to Michigan stayed at our house for a few days. What better opportunity than to go to "Sweet Sounds Downtown", meet with some other friends that live here and have a great dinner. For a Jazz Festival day I like Jeffrey's in particular as you can sit outside and it is close to the "stage" in front of the Bombay store across the street to listen to the music. For all the other stages that night the restaurants with outside seating were a bit further away.
I blogged about Jeffrey's before and the last time I was there I was a bit disappointed about the pretty average chicken croissant. Nevertheless, we had outstanding dinners there before so we didn't mind to try itagain and we were not disappointed tonight.
Everybody was pretty happy with their main entrees. Well prepared, high quality, good flavor and texture and a nice layout on the plates. I had the Kobe Burger from the lighter fare menu that is served outside and at the bar. And it is certainly worth the premium over the regular burger. It came medium well exactly the way I like it with a slightly crisp but not chewy outside that keeps the juices (and the flavor) of the meat inside. And the toppings (blue cheese and bacon) were added in a way that truly combined the different flavors into something that creates an almost overwhelming taste experience. My friend who had the regular burger was equally satisfied. And the burgers are pretty good deal for dining. (Sorry not available in the dining room).
The dishes from the dining menu are usually a bit more complex, unusual and higher priced. A plate of asparagus risotto for $23 seems a bit expensive even for Westfield but you get something pretty special.
On the other hand the appetizers were pretty underwhelming. We had onion rings and jalapeño poppers. The poppers were pretty average and rather bland. No particular taste or texture. I'm not sure if they are home made or just fried from a deep frozen package. The onion rings were a disappointment. The batter was more doughy and not crisp and crunchy at all. No particular spices or flavoring detectable. Finally the onion rings disintegrated almost immediately when you touched them. One of my criteria for judging good onion rings is how well the batter and the onion stay together as the pleasurable experience comes from the combination of both. Jeffrey's onion rings pretty much failed that criterion.

So far, entrees excellent, appetizers disappointing. So what else is good (or bad) about Jeffrey's:

The Service: The service was as always very friendly, very accommodating, listening to the customers and trying to be attentive and efficient and even proactive. And it would have worked, hadn't they been overwhelmed by the busy evening (see below).
The Beer Selection: Jeffrey's offers frequently changing selection of local and other unusual beers on tap at reasonable prices. To explore some new beers alone is usually worth a visit.
The Wine Selection: The wine menu and the wine cellar is quite impressive. A few years ago Jeffrey's father gave me a tour of the cellar. In addition to some really interesting high-end wines, Jeffrey's also has a good selection of mid-priced wines and a really good "value" selection. For $24 to $30 you can find a good bottle of white and for a little bit more a bottle of red. And these are not cheap ones that retail for 4.99 but good wines that are adequate matches for the food.
Menu Variation: In addition to the normal menu (that also changes once in a while) they have a good list of daily specials that are often innovative and worth exploring.
Desserts and after dinner drinks: The desserts are very special. There is always a "Crème brûlée" of the day and home made sorbets are also changing frequently. Finally, they have an amazing variety of after dinner drinks including black sambuca which is somewhat difficult to find.

What is not so good about Jeffrey's

The Service I: As hard as they were trying that evening, they were a bit overwhelmed. And they were telling the customer that they didn't expect it to be so busy. Come on! It is the day leading up to 4th of July, the weather is beautiful and it is the first Jazz Festival event in Westfield. How can you be surprised by the fact that you get a lot of business that night? Something must be wrong in the way how Jeffrey's does their staff planning. OK, they dealt with the situation gracefully (as they have done many times before) and even Jeffrey himself came out to clean tables. Still, plan better and your customers will be happier. It is just not very professional and it is also unfair to the waitstaff to have them be overwhelmed.
The Service II: It helps if the waitstaff knows a little bit about the items on the menu. When I wanted to order my second beer, I asked what lagers they had on tap. The wait person didn't know at all but was quick to check with the bar tender. When he came back he quoted the selection among them a "Black Wheat Lager" which sounded pretty unusual and interesting. So I ordered it as I do like dark lagers and I assume a black lager would be a dark one. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a blackberry wheat lager. Besides the fact that in general I believe it is not really such a great idea to add fruit flavors to beer, in particular to lagers, this was far from what I expected. It was just a very basic light lager with some blackberry aroma. I don't think it is too much to ask for the restaurateur to spend a few minutes with the wait staff before the evening begins to introduce them to what is on the menu.

Besides these minor issues we had a great dinner at Jeffrey's and a great evening in Westfield. And I'm sure we will be back.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Saturday on South Avenue and Lunch at Tutti Baci

2007-06-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

Last week was pretty stressful in my business and so we didn't actually do a lot of things worth reporting in Westfield. For this Saturday a few observation from South Avenue and a review of lunch at Tutti Baci.
On the west side of South Avenue and already in Scotch Plains (close to the intersection with Hetfield Ave) there was a Friendly's that closed several years ago. I had a few breakfasts there and they weren't impressive or even memorable, typical chain-restaurant type food. After they closed the restaurant, the building was empty for a long time and I was always wondering what would happen as the location was a bit an off-prime for a chain place. Finally, today seemingly something starts to happen as there is serious construction equipment on the lot now and there are seemingly construction workers getting busy. I'm not sure if they will remodel or demolish the building. I will keep my eyes open and report back.

Further east, Gaucho's (see earlier blog) seems to make some progress in building up his Brazilian BBQ and Grill, although not as fast as planned. As mentioned in the earlier post they were planning to open end of June. That opportunity has passed. Locking at the state of affairs I would think it will take at least another few weeks before the grand opening will take place.

Finally, it seems after some stop and go things finally seem to get momentum at Mario's Italian Deli (see earlier blog). There is serious work happening inside and I had a chance to talk to one of Mario's brothers. Yes, there is an actual Mario. They are planning to open towards the end of July. I was told very proudly that the family is first generation Italian, the food will be all home made, authentic and tasty and they will have everything you could ever want from an Italian Deli including breakfast. Also, Mario is not related to the folks from Tutti Baci across the street.

And one more thing on South Avenue. Even the Subway a little east of the station now has outside seating. It is a chain, so nothing fancy, but reliably decent. It's about time that they join into the "al fresco" movement that is now affecting South Avenue. ;-))
After a busy morning where I essentially skipped breakfast and being on South Avenue already, I decided to head over to Tutti Baci for lunch. I had coffee and pastries there a couple of times before but never lunch and I heard from other people that they had interesting paninis. In addition, with the beautiful weather (warm but not hot or humid) I could enjoy the outside seating there. I ordered the Roma Panini with prosciutto, mozzarella, arugula & tomatoes.

Overall not a bad sandwich but nothing special and considering size, quality and taste for $7.95 a bit overpriced. The sandwich comes on a ciabatta type roll that is grilled on a contact grill. It is not grilled long enough for the ingredients to get warm, what I would actually have liked as it enhances the taste. The bread is ok, although for my taste a bit to compact and heavy. The prosciutto was generous and of good taste, but I had prosciutto before that had a more pronouced flavor profile and was bit more tender. The mozzarella was the real one, the fresh one (not the presliced "American Mozzarella" you often get.) Greens and tomatos were unremarkable and I missed the specific nuance that arugula typically adds. No additional sauce, flavors or spices detectable. Finally even for lunch standards the sandwich is a bit small. OK bread, OK ingredients and average preparation combined with a small size leads to an average sandwich.

Rockn' Joe has a similar sandwich on the menu for the exact same price, that in my opinion is larger in size, better made and better tasting and even comes with small side salad instead of a bag of chips. I had it a a few month ago and it was much more satisfying than the one at Tutti Baci.

In summary my personal opinion: Tutti Baci is not worth coming back for a panini. Not a bad foundation, but Tutti Baci should really try a bit harder to delivery a better product, better flavor, a bit larger in size and better execution. They also should work at the price or add a small salad, especially when looking at the competition on the other side of the railroad tracks and the emerging competition of Mario's just next door.

I will continue to get some coffee and pastries at Tutti Baci and I also like to try the pizza that looked pretty appealing in the display. More on this in a later blog post.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Highlights of a Weekend in Manhatten - Part 1

2007-06-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, this blog is about Westfield. But it is also about our surrounding area and it is about some of the adventures/experiences that my wife and I have that might be worth sharing (even if they are not in Westfield). With some good friends staying in Manhattan for vacation we went to NYC twice this weekend to meet them, for drinks, for dinner and to enjoy some music and other performing arts. So here is a brief summary of the highlights for Friday. Part two will cover Saturday.

On Friday for Dinner we wanted to make it Burger Night. New York Magazine had a list of the best burger places and we selected "Stand". Stand calls itself "The rare well-done burger restaurant". And not only the burgers are worth it.Their web site is rather basic, simply communicating the slogan and the address and not much more; not actually worth visiting.

Burgers at Stand come a la carte, i.e. without sides. Their is a selection of different meats (beef, turkey, chicken, salmon) or vegetarian options. And no, they don't have a Kobe Burger with shaved truffle and seared fois gras (not even an "American Kobe"), these are for snobs and parvenus that don't get the point that something skillfully prepared with quality ingredients can be very satisfying even if it is not high priced (and if the cow doesn't get a personal massage.) Nor do they have the triple-decker-pounder where you get a photo and a special price when you actually manage to stuff it down. Besides the obvious waste of food, I find competitive eating pretty disgusting. These would be for the gourmand.

The absence of these gimmicks at "Stand" is a good thing. In addition, the burgers come with defined profiles of toppings. I'm sure they will accommodate certain special change requests, but there is not an endless selection of 250 different toppings that would allow you to design your burger in 10^80 different ways. (Which happens to be more variety than there are atoms in the universe).

I believe the idea of "Design-your-Dish-at-the-Restaurant" is a really bad idea. I want to be able to rely on the chef to combine different ingredient/flavors into a satisfying dining experience instead of doing it myself. Yes, you could put guacamole, truffles and blue cheese on a burger, put why would you? It just is not a good match. Not every permutation of ingredients and flavors works well. Actually most combinations don't work well. That's why I like to trust the professionals in the kitchen.

At Stand the combination that I have (Mushroom Burger) works well. In addition to the onion marmalade (which I feel is a major advance beyond uncooked white onions on a burger) there are some sauteed mushrooms on the burger and porcini sauce on the side. The sauce has a refined pretty intense mushroom flavor which is what I like. If you don't want it that mushroomy, don't use all the sauce. The bun is a bit more like a ciabatta roll, very good texture and the right amount of moisture. The beef is medium-well as requested. It is not the very best beef patty I ever had but it is certainly up there, done in a way that results in a firm but not too chewy texture while at the same time retaining the flavor and the juiciness. My wife has the Blue Cheese Burger which is equally satisfying.

A good burger needs onion rings or fries. Both are certainly above average. The onion rings are very tasty, not too fatty and with a crunchy texture. The fries are pretty decent although not spectacular.

But the burgers are not the only highlight. A great selection of local micro brews and international beer, some interesting well-made and not too gimmicky cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks, e.g. a rosmaryade invite to experiment. Deserts are innovative and pleasurable. We share the Lime Yogurt Parfait which feature an intense lime taste and a smooth-silky texture which in combination create an assertive but refreshing mouth feel.

Service is attentive, efficient and friendly. Stand is equally a place for a quick but refined burger or a place to hang out with friends for an opulent dinner and some drinks afterwards.

After leaving Stand we hang out in some great life-music places like Arlene's Grocery in New York and eventually get home taking the last train out of Penn Station to Westfield.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

"Dark Dining" - Dining at the Edge

2007-06-20T23:54:00.000-04:00

Camaje is a small fusion type place in the West Village in NYC and it offers a dining experience that even for adventurous people is truly exciting: “Dark Dining”, i.e. Dining with a blindfold. For a few hours you get to experience how a blind person must feel.

When you lose one sense – like your vision – the other senses become much more perceptive, at least you would think so. Without vision you would assume that smell and taste in particular get more intense and granular. But not only that. You also focus much more on the tactile sensation of the food in your mouth and even on the sounds around you, sounds of the silverware touching the place or sound of chewing crusty bread. Without the visual sense, dining becomes a truly sensual experience, something very very enjoyable.
Camaje is offering such a program every few months and they usual sell out fast. When you arrive at the Restaurant at 7:00 PM (sharp) you are greeted by your hosts. They hand out blindfolds (very comfortable ones called “Mindfolds”) that you can adjust to the size of your head. You get some instructions and then each group of guests is led to their table in the restaurant already blindfolded. You never get to see anything inside the place except for the bathroom if you need to go (and the staff will guide you to it and you only can take off your blindfold after you are inside and closed the door).
After you have been seated they serve you an exclusive, very tasty four course dinner with the matching wines. This is pretty much like a normal upscale dinner, except you don’t see what is coming. The wait staff will talk to you and tell you that a new dish is in front of you. It is a weird feeling hearing and sensing all the things that are going on around you but not being able to see them. At one point I didn’t at all realize that the waiter had poured some more wine into my glass. I was just very surprised when my wine class suddenly felt heavier than before.

We started with a Chilled Tomato and Red Pepper Soup. Very tasty and good exciting starter for the evening. And amazingly easy to eat with a spoon even without any vision. The appetizer (chicken & morel mousse with watercress salad) is another spectacular experience in your mouth, in particular if you don't see what you are actually eating. Trying to eat salad that you don't see with a fork is somewhat difficult and so eventually you switch over to using your hands which only enhances the tactile experience.

For the main dish then (pepper-crusted hanger steak) we don't even really try using knife and fork. Not being able to see what you cut, it becomes a cumbersome trial and error type experience. Using your hands to eat doesn't feel so bad when you realize that no other guest sees you and they probably all do it as well.
Finally the evening closes with a sultry full-bodied ricotta cheesecake with strawberry compote. Another interesting experience: You would think that certain very distinct flavors (like strawberry) are very easy to identify. In reality, without seeing the strawberries it is actually amazingly difficult. It took me a while to make that determination, it was not immediate.
Between the courses, the hosts had arranged an eclectic selection of music that was performed by two different artist. Finally, you also get a short massage/back rub by your host Dana Salisbury.

If you are in search for an unusual experience, something that is a bit more off the beaten path and if you like sensual things, we would highly recommend to try Dark Dining at Camaje.

The actual Dark Dining programs are hosted by performance artist Dana Salisbury. She seemingly has quite some experience with setting up dark dinners (and other performing arts events) in restaurants all over the US.
Dana's idea of combining different sensual experiences based on different forms of the performing arts (in the wider sense), i.e. the culinary arts, the art of wine and live performance music into a three hour sensual joyride is nothing but brilliant. And then if you take away vision, absorbing all of this with your other - now more alert - senses becomes most pleasurable.
Now back to our hometown Westfield. Would something like Dark Dining work here at least as a special event once in a while? I believe it could if done the right way. I would certainly be more than excited about it. The audience in Westfield is a bit smaller (compared to Manhattan) but then a restaurateur should think beyond just Westfield. I feel this would attract people from all over Union County and probably beyond that all over New Jersey.
Maybe Jeffrey can pick up the idea and do a dark wine dinner at his place. His restaurant with a fairly small dining room, upscale food that is already focused on sensual pleasure and a good wine selection has an almost ideal foundation for such an undertaking. Or the Stagehouse could use one of its smaller rooms for such an event.

With a sensual overload...

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

A light but Unremarkable Dinner at Jeffrey’s

2007-06-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

My wife was out for a business meeting tonight and I really didn’t feel like staying at home and having dinner by myself. I would rather be outside, enjoying the nice weather. So – as I often do – I went to Downtown Westfield looking for a place to get a light evening meal. My original target - “Xocolatz” - was unfortunately closed. I thought they were open for dinner all week, but they seemingly are not. There was a daily menu for Monday in the window but I guess that was only for lunch. It would certainly help if they actually had some store hours posted outside. OK, their Web Site has the answer. They serve dinner Thursday through Saturday.

Moving on, I realized that pretty much all outside tables in Restaurant Row (a.k.a. Elm Street) were occupied, except for Sweet Water Steakhouse. And although Sweet Waters is typically not a bad place for steaks, it was not my idea of a light dinner neither from the selection of dishes nor from a price perspective. So I ventured further East and fortunately Jeffrey’s had its tables outside and only one party was sitting there.

I have been to Jeffrey’s many times before, for a full-blown dinner, to hang out in the bar, for a light dinner to listen to the music of “Sweets Sounds Downtown”, etc. And the experience was sometimes outstanding and sometimes just so-so. Jeffrey’s has the potential to become a great restaurant and could be one of my favorite places in town if it only managed to execute consistently. It has an inviting bar area (and there are not that many in Westfield), an outstanding wine cellar, a dining room that is small but has a good atmosphere and a chef that knows his art and is creative, innovative and seemingly really cares about his customers.

When I arrived today they were not all that busy. In addition to the one party outside there were only two additional parties in the dining room inside. Service is friendly but not particularly effective and attentive. Sometimes it takes quite a while for things to happen (get a refill on my coke, get my bill processed). Outside they serve both the dinner menu plus the lighter fare items. I only get the lighter fare menu after I ask.

This lighter fare menu is similar to a lunch menu with salads, sandwiches/burgers and appetizers. I had burgers at Jeffrey’s several times before, and they are truly good and consistently so. Today, I’m in the mood for something else, so I go for the Grilled Chicken Croissant. I like the fact that you can substitute the fries that normally come with a sandwich for a side salad (at no additional cost). And the side salad is not (what you often get in a more average restaurants) the cheap greens with the most mainstream dressing, but rather a nice portion of high-quality green mix with a light but tasty Italian type dressing. The sandwich is only so-so. I expected something a bit more sophisticated. It feels more like a basic combination of ingredients on the same plate not like a composition that creates an experience that goes beyond the sum of its parts. The croissant is actually not bad as such, it is still fresh and fluffy. The brie is OK. I feel there should be a little more and one that has a more pronounced flavor profile, otherwise you hardly notice that it is brie and not any other cheese. The sauce was OK (something with honey mustard) but once again a more pointed flavor would help. Finally the chicken meat – which should be the highlight of a chicken sandwich – was pretty much unremarkable. It was a bit dry (I expected something juicier, nicely marinated) and it wasn’t grilled in a way that the grilling flavors made any contribution to the overall experience. What is the point of grilling meat if you don’t notice that fact when you taste it?

In summary, I’m not disappointed. For $10 I got a decent sandwich that can certainly compete with some of the chain sandwich places in Westfield. With a bit more focus the good sandwich could have been a great sandwich. And based on how Jeffrey’s presents itself that is not an unreasonable expectation.

Signing Off – The Westfield Blogger

Tutti Baci and Piano Lessons

2007-06-17T10:01:00.001-04:00

Saturday promises to be a really nice day. In the morning it is crisp, cool and blue sky, not much humidity. After my almost ritual early Saturday morning work out at the Westfield Y, I change my breakfast routine for today from Bovella's and head over to Tutti Baci instead. Now that they have inviting chairs and tables out in front, it seems like a good place to have a coffee, a croissant or some other breakfast sweets, sit outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and read through the papers.

I have been at Tutti Baci a couple of times just to get coffee to go and the coffee there is quite good. It is typically fresh brewed, they have some flavored versions that I enjoy (e.g. Hazelnut) and when you "eat-in" you can have it in a china mug instead of a paper cup. I would probably rate the coffee at close to the level of Ahrre's Coffee Roastery (which is the benchmark in the area) and certainly above some of the other decent chain standards in the area (like Panera or QuickChek).

I had a croissant from Tutti Baci to go at one point before. They are ok but nothing special. They are a far cry from what you can get at Bovella's. They don't taste as fresh (even if you get them early in the morning), have a more compact heavy texture (as compared to the light fluffy one's at Bovella's), they are not as buttery and you just don't get this sense of utter satisfaction from such a more average croissant.

So I don't even try them again today and rather go for something else. The cheese turnovers (not sure what the official name is) look appealing and fresh. And yes they are good. Whatever they do, they manage to get the cheese filling just right, not an easy task. It is not heavy or crumbly as you often see, it is rather light, with a smooth consistency and a very intense mouth feel. The taste is not too sweet and balanced with a slight citrus nuance. The dough is also right to the point. Certainly worth another try.

After a leisurely breakfast at Tutti Baci, I drive to Scotch Plains for piano lessons at the "Scotch Plains Music Center". This is another institution in the area and a very special place. And maybe it is good that it is not in Westfield. With the retail rent inflation in Westfield downtown, a place like the Scotch Plains Music Center might not be able to survive in Westfield anymore.

There are quite a few stories about the Scotch Plains Music store and its legendary owner Greg Natic, that I will save for later posts. One thing however that is remarkable right now are the Saturday concerts that Greg is organizing outside in front of the store on Park Avenue in Scotch Plains. He calls it the "Annual Music on Park Ave. Series" and this year is the 8th year this event is happening. During the summer months Greg uses his network of contacts in the New Jersey Music scene to get one band to Scotch Plains every Saturday and to introduce these bands to the locals as well as people shopping Scotch Plains. After my music lessons, I typically hang out bit longer, with a coffee (or an iced coffee) to enjoy the music.

If you want to enjoy some cool jazz on Saturday morning and early afternoon, head over to Scotch Plains.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

A Place for Fine Arts - Unfortunately not in Westfield

2007-06-15T22:13:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned many times in this blog, I believe Westfield has a lot to offer as community and as a town. But still, a few things are missing. E.g. a place for fine art, for visual art to be precise. As both my wife and I are really interested in photography, paintings and sculpture, to us this feels like a bit of a gap. So tonight we ventured out to the "Visual Arts Center" in Summit.

For a town of the size of Summit, the building as a venue to display art is quite impressive and can easily compete with some more famous museums and galleries. Not only is it a great venue for displaying art, it is also an institution for the formation of an artist community, for the training of artists and education of the public about art. From what see, it has managed to attract quite a following of people interested in visual arts from all over New Jersey and beyond.

Tonight there was an opening of the annual "Members and Students Show" where the community that has formed around the Visual Arts Center has an opportunity to show their particular style of art. The exhibit is an eclectic combination of photographs, paintings, sculptures and other installations that represent a huge range of styles, techniques and topics. Some of the objects are truly impressive and could be found in a big city are museum, then some other - for my taste - are closer to crafts than to fine art. But that is what makes this show interesting and engaging to the observer.

The curators have a done a fabulous job to displaying the objects in the exhibit space in a way that doesn't feel too overcrowded while at the same time contrasting or complementing art objects from very different artists into new experiences, creating aspects of artistic perception by combing individual artistic statements into a larger networks of meanings.

The show will be open till 2007-07-20. Even if fine art is not your main interest, I would recommend a visit to this show just to get a flavor for the breadth and quality of contemporary visual arts created in New Jersey. Monday to Thursday, the galleries are open till 8:00 PM. Visiting the exhibit first with some friends and then checking out the restaurants in Summit downtown could make for a very nice evening.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Cool Vines Coming to Westfield

2007-06-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about some speculation of what will be happening in the former Planet Smoothie location. With a little sign posted at the door saying "cool vines" the theories ranged from a wine bar, a liquor store to a flower shop.
Now here is the answer. It is going to be a wine store. But careful. It will not be your typical around the corner liquor store. "Cool Vines" will be something special, something very special I believe.
Yesterday, I had a chance to chat a bit with Mark Censits, owner and brain behind "Cool Vines". One of my key questions was: "How is Cool Vines different from other winestores?" and I got a few answers. It really just focuses on Wine (and not on any other liquor). It seemingly is not trying to cover the full range of wine from cheap-in-large-containers to high-end-a-fortune-per-bottle. It rather will have a carefully selected assortment of wines that are good value but a bit off the main stream. Maybe even something to explore. Price range would be from below $10 to into the $50s or so. In addition to the selection, they will focus on helping the customer find the wine they like and explore similar wines the way a sommelier would do it in a restaurant. So wine knowledge and service is an important element of their business model.

That actually sounds pretty cool. Imagine the following scenario. You could order your food at - say - Mojave Grill and then walk over to Cool Vines describe what you ordered and they would help you select the perfect wine to complement your dinner. Maybe, they could even have the menus of the BYOB places in town available at the store with some recommendations prepared already. I think, that would be a pretty valuable service to Westfield BYOB diners.

Like any real good wine store, they don't just want you to buy wine, they want to educate you about wine. Mark tells me that wine tastings will definitely be part of the program, they will even build out a section of the store for that purpose. That would be a first for Westfield. Besides the educational wine seminars at Classic Thyme, to my knowledge, no wine store in Westfield actually offers wine tastings.

In addition to the store, Cool Vines also is planning to make a similar offering available online, if you will, a virtual sommelier. This may come a bit later, and will allow you to consult their web site for wine recommendations. You can build a profile of your taste preferences by rating wines that you enjoyed already. Then an application based on neural network technology will match your profile against a knowledge base that is modeled after a wine professional and will come back to you with recommendations.

So when is Cool Vines going to open in Westfield? Mark didn't want to give me a concrete date as this depends on a variety of factors and they have an aggressive plan to do the remodeling in the store. However, end of July seems to be their current target.

I look forward to the grand opening, will check out their wine offerings and report back here.

One more thing: An interesting question that came up during my chat with Mark was: "Are Westfielder spoiled by Trader Joe's wine prices?". I'm glad to pass this question on to my readers. Let me know what you think.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

This and That in Westfield on the Weekend

2007-06-10T18:45:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I drove along South Avenue and saw busy construction activity going on at the site of future "Gaucho's BBQ and Grill". I blogged about this new place a while ago. So I used the opportunity, stopped my car and went in to see if there is somebody I could chat with. And I guess I found Gaucho (if this is his real name). What I learned is that Gaucho's is planning to open end of the month of June. It will clearly be Brazilian style cusine with a sit-down type environment, not just a take out, nice atmosphere and service.
The owner knew about Samba Grill failing on the other side of Westfield. He feels he has a better concept. I wish him all the best and we will certainly be at the grand opening and blog about it.
For the other new place on South Avenue, Mario's Italian Deli, nothing seems to happen anymore. After I saw people there several times engaged in construction work, it got quiet again during the last few weeks. (See earlier blog for more details). I'm still waiting for a good authentic Italian deli.
Right next door across the street at Tutti Baci some good things are happening. They put some table and chairs out on the sidewalk for their customers to enjoy the currently pretty nice weather. If you read my blog for a while, you know about my obsession with outside seating, so this is certainly appreciated. I guess this might also be a reaction to Bovella's having chairs and tables on the side walk now.

Finally, on the North Side of town, Northeast to be precise, Annie's Gourmet Kitchen has opened. That also was in the making for a while. From some earlier information I was pretty confused about their business model, but the current version of the web site is a bit more explicit and I think I get a better feeling for what they are trying to do. The idea is to take the hassle out of preparing meals, like shopping for the ingredients and preparing them including the mess that comes with it. So you assemble the ingredients (that they provide) at their place, put them in convenient containers and then you only have to finalize the dish at home. So it is home cooking with less effort.
Actually not a bad idea and Westfield is probably a good town to create some demand for this. We will sign up, test it an report back.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Restaurant Review: La Pasteria in Summit, NJ

2007-06-05T22:35:00.000-04:00

Today after work, I had to drop of some art at the Visual Arts Center of NJ in Summit. With the nice warm evening and really nothing else to do, I decided to stroll through Summit. I had been there a while ago, but I never really took the time to explore the shops and restaurants.

And there are quite a few restaurants that serve unusual cuisines or have innovative concepts on more common cuisines. I need to come back as there are several worth exploring. However, interestingly enough, there are not that many places in Summit that have outside seating which is a pity. I believe Summit could create an ambiance and style similar to Westfield during the summer months with a lot of activity in the street.

One restaurant that had a nice inviting side walk patio is "La Pasteria". Originally, I was a little hesitant, because on the first glance it looked like a typical Italian standards restaurant. But when I looked at the menu I was convinced and had to have dinner there.

La Pasteria is a bit different. Although it has some of the standard Italian dishes on the menu, most of the items are innovative, creative new creations that you rarely find or that I never heard of before at all, like Risotto Balls. I certainly prefer the interesting, the unknown and unusual to explore over the well known and established, in particular when it comes to food.

So I needed to have the Risotto balls. What you get is a fairly well made vegetable and proscuitto type risotto that is maybe a little bit more gluey than risotto you would normal get on a plate formed into a spherical shape and topped with a pretty tasty marinara sauce. You get two tennis ball sized balls. This is a great appetizer to share.

In addition to the already interesting regular menu they also have daily special which (at least that day) came across as even more creative. I forgot the actual name of what I had, but it was fusili pasta with a light brown sauce with a ragout of mushrooms, veal and pork. Sounds pretty unusual to begin with, but certainly is an interesting combination. The sauce was creamy but not at all heavy. The mushroom and the meat ragout combined to a full bodied, slightly pointed but comfortable taste. The texture of the sauce had a very good mouth feel and the taste remaind on palate for a while. Needless to say the pasta was perfectly al dente.

Remarkably also, you can order each pasta dish in three sizes: Bambino, Regola and Famiglia. I had the bambino, which is more than enough for one person if you are not really, really hungry or if you also have an appetizer. I took a third of it home. These are prized around $10 to $12 which is a really good deal. Regola (from what I sauce from other guests) is easily enough for two to share with appetizers (prized at $13 to $17). I haven't seen Famiglia, but priced at $25 to $35 it must feed a large family. Salads and entrees are also available in two sizes.

What I would like to do is a multi course pasta feast with a small group of friends and then order 5 or 6 bambino sized pasta dishes to share one at a time during the course of the evening. This would be great opportunity to enjoy the different flavors, textures and smells of the interesting pasta they have on their menu.

Service is friendly, attentive and mostly efficient. The bread you get is solid Italian type white bread. This is a BYOB place.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

A Liquor Store, A Wine Bar, or what?

2007-06-04T21:16:00.000-04:00

I just recently blogged about the demise of Planet Smoothie in Elm Street. When I walked by the empty store today I saw a little sign at the door saying "Cool Vines" and then something about where to drop of deliveries for this address.

So what is happening here? Are we getting a wine store, competing with the liquor basket across the street? Or will this become a wine bar, which - to my knowledge - would be a first for Westfield? Or is this something totally different, like a flower shop?

A Wine focused liquor store that would provide some effective competition to the liquor basket wouldn't be a bad thing. It would keep prices in check and it would increase the wine selection for all the BYOB restaurants in downtown Westfield. In my opinion, for a small neighborhood type liquor store the Liquor Basket actually does have an OK selection even for a customer with some interest in wine. Only if you are peculiar about a chilled white wine (and don't want a Chardonnay) you may have to make a compromise.

Would Westfield be able to sustain another liquor store in downtown? I guess this depends on the model. If it would focus on more high-end wine and specialties, has a decent selection of non-traditional chilled whites and knowledgeable service they probably had a chance.

Or a wine bar? I would certainly like and welcome this idea with open arms. A wine bar with a good selection of reasonably priced wines by the glass and some appetizer to complement is a very appealing place to hang out in the evening. If done the right way, I think something like this would certainly fly quite well in Westfield.

To shed some light on this I did some research. If you look for "cool vines" not much useful comes back, but for "coolvines" there actually is already a Web Site. And this pretty much confirms the idea with the wine store. The site has very limited information right now. But it seems they want to build there business on simplifying the process of selecting wine with a systematic approach. OK, many smart people have tried that before and failed, but their approach actually sounds plausible. One slogan is "We didn’t take the nuance out of wine, just the confusion." I like that idea. Based on some other sources it seems they are pursuing a national approach, so this is not a local store and combine online and local retailing. A post in another forum provides some additional information. Still, their business model isn't totally clear to me.

Not sure what their plans are exactly for Westfield, but it would be cool to have their pioneer store in town.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

Real Fruit Smoothies at WindMill and Dinner Desert at Bovella's

2007-06-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my reader Nora for pointing out that you can actually get real fruit smoothies in Westfield, at a place that is somewhat unexpected: The WindMill Restaurant.
Curious about that, I decided to check this out today. I went to the local WindMill several years ago when we moved to Westfield and I wasn't impressed at all: Unremarkable fast food, in a basic slightly run-down environment at rather high prices (compared to other fast food chains). At the time, I was wondering how long they would survive. Today, they are still there, so there must be something peculiar about them why their customers come back. I guess I need to go there for lunch or dinner to check it out again. Maybe the food did get better.
But let's not talk about the regular food at WindMill. Let's talk about the smoothies. Considering that Smoothies are not WindMill's core competence, I didn't have the same expectations that I would have for Planet Smoothie or Jamba Juice. Starting with that standard, I was not disappointed. Meaning, the smoothie was actual not bad (for a fast food joint).
To be clear, it was a far cry from what you would get at a smoothie chain both in terms of refinement of taste and in terms of the right texture, i.e. the smoothness. The smoothies are not listed at the web site menu, so I assume they maybe a specialty for the Westfield location.
I got the "Very Berry" smoothie. The person behind the counter is clearly not making smoothies all day long. First he had to check the instruction for a long time to figure out what to put into the mix, then he got confused where the ingredients were actually located. After he finally also navigating some difficulties operating the blender, I eventually got my smoothie. The large one for $4.99 is a reasonable deal.
The fruit is not fresh nor fresh frozen, it rather essentially canned fruit. But that is actually OK. The final product is slightly watery (probably because they put a lot of ice in there) and the taste is a bit unbalanced. The acidity of the fruit is a bit too noticeable. The smoothness of the texture clearly has quite some room for improvement, but it is smooth enough to be called a Smoothie, and the blender technology maybe a reason for this.
And, no, you can't get an "Immunity boost" or "Acai" supplement. The guy would be totally confused.

On my way home I passed by at Bovella's and have to report some good news. They are now open till 9:00 PM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The idea of having dinner in more "European" style, i.e. app and main dish in a restaurant, then take a stroll through town or through the park and then enjoy your desert a bit later at a different place, actually appeals to me. And the pastry items at Bovella's are mostly between good and outstanding. With the upgraded coffee and the availability of espresso drinks, they could become a real desert after dinner destination.

Will they allow "Bring your own desert wine"?

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

More Happenings on South Avenue and the Demise of Planet Smoothie

2007-06-02T20:41:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago, I talked about things happening on the South Side of Westfield. Today I drove down South Avenue towards Plainfield and realized that the little deli next to Peterson's Wine (see earlier post about Peterson's) has placed tables, chairs and umbrellas out in front of the shop and quite a few people were sitting outside seemingly enjoying breakfast. I didn't have time in the morning to stop, but decided to walk over in the afternoon from where I live to check them out.
I had noticed that place several years ago, but it always looked like an unremarkable neighborhood convenience store so I never felt the need to go in. The fact that they have quite a few comfortably arranged tables outside now tells me that they are getting more serious about people wanting to have good food and eat there.

The place is called MaMa Lou's Deli and it does have a web site that claims it to be an Italian deli. I was still in the mood for breakfast and luckily they serve breakfast all day. I ordered the egg, cheese and ham on a roll sandwich and took an Ice Tea from the fridge. The menu is standard deli with a focus on typical hot and cold deli sandwiches, wraps, etc. a few salads and a variety side dishes. They have a few Italian type meats on the menu, but in my opinion that alone doesn't make it an Italian deli. On the outside they also have a sign announcing pasta, but I couldn't find any on the menu besides the pasta salad.

The breakfast sandwich is below average. The roll is basic and too fluffy. There is only one egg and minimal cheese on it and two very thin slices of almost tasteless ham. Considering that the premium for meat on a breakfast sandwich is $1 I had expected a little more. Overall an very unremarkable breakfast sandwich and for $3.50 clearly overpriced. I will certainly not repeat this experience. For the same amount of money you get a really good double egg, double meat breakfast sandwich on better bread at QuickChek or on a fresh tasty bagel at Manhatten's. Nevertheless, service was friendly and attentive and the atmosphere is pleasant for a deli. And the outside seating is really a high point.

I don't want to dismiss them based on just one visit. I will go back at one point to check out the lunch type sandwiches and report back at this blog. This is another of these place at an off-prime location. To thrive they need to provide something special or a particular value to make the customer come back. So far I haven't found that special thing.

Walking further into town I saw more activity at Mario's Italian Deli. I look forward to their opening, although, looking at the state of their construction activities, I believe the opening of this place is still some time away. I hope Mario's will turn out to be a true Italian Deli, beyond what Italian means for MaMa Lou's. With a variety of Italian meats, real good Italian type bread, specific Italian toppings and some Italian dishes that go beyond just sandwiches. I believe there would be enough demand for this in Westfield.

With the weather getting quite hot, I really start to miss Planet Smoothie. A real well done refreshing Smoothie is a good meal on a day like this. Unfortunately, with the demise of Planet Smoothie there is (to my knowledge) no other place in Westfield that serves real fruit smoothies.

At one point this summer we will be doing a test of smoothie equivalents. Several of the ice cream places in Westfield offer fruit shakes that could be considered equivalent to a smoothie. We will compare taste and value and report back here.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Review - "Time to Eat Diner" in Bridgewater

2007-06-01T23:02:00.000-04:00

Friday night, I met with a friend in Bridgewater for coffee. Somehow I felt quite hungry at my way home, so I stopped at the "Time To Eat" Diner in Bridgewater. I had driven by this place many times before and I actually found the name somewhat original, but I was never enticed to stop and actually eat there. It looked like a typical NJ Diner and I have eaten in too many of them. With a NJ Diner you are rarely disappointed. They are almost all pretty good and seemingly are trying to meet the same standard. But you also rarely find one that is innovative , interesting and gives you a reason to come back and explore more dishes.

Now tonight, it was literally time to eat at the "Time to Eat" diner. And I was not disappointed nor was I blown away. It is a very typical example of a NJ Diner. The building looks like recently remodeled, so it all looks pretty modern, fresh and clean. The interior is nice and the ambiance is comfortable for Diner standards. Service is fast, efficient and competent and reasonably friendly. The menu has everything you expect from a Diner menu and that is exactly what you get. There is virtually nothing on the menu that is unusual, interesting or innovative. Even the specials are the typical specials.

Still execution isn't bad. I had fettuccine carbonara which came with a soup. I selected the onion soup which was a bit bland and missing the grilled cheese on top. There was just one slice of baguette or some other bread swimming in the soup. The fettuccine were nicely al dente and the sauce was quite good. The flavor was very pointed and expressed the concept of a carbonara sauce quite well. Good texture and mouth feel. For $10.95 (including the soup) not a bad deal if you happen to be in the area and hungry at the time you drive by but nothing too special.

According to their web site, they have been voted "Central Jersey's Best Diner" since 1997 but it is not clear who does the voting. Anyhow, they may as well be right. However, in my experience it is just a slightly above average NJ diner.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Restaurant Review - Cosimo

2007-05-30T23:40:00.000-04:00

Tonight I met with an old friend to catch up and have something to eat. Cosimo's seems to be her favorite restaurant in Westfield, so when we drove by and saw an empty table outside and a parking spot right there, we thought we were in luck and went right for it.
I had been to Cosimo's quite a while ago but at the time wasn't that impressed. In the meantime they have extended/renovated the place and made a real restaurant out of the former "take out pizza with a few tables" place.
The service is effective, friendly, mostly attentive and trying hard to please the customer, but sometimes they seem to be a bit disorganized and trip over each other.
The menu has all the typical Italian pizza-pasta-meat-and-sandwich-standards with a few unusual additions. The specials however are really interesting and innovative. It seems, there, they give the chef a chance to be creative and show what he can do outside of the daily routine.
One example was the stuffed grilled pear appetizer that we had. The pear with the blue cheese, grilled just right, to give the blue cheese this special taste and texture, to create a perfect combination with the flavor of the pear. This combination is served on a crisp bed of greens with a special dressing.
My friend had the penne with meat sauce. The meat sauce was good, even slightly above average but nothing special. Yes, not everything has to be special.
We also had the bruschetta pizza because we both like the real bruschetta. The pizza is not a true replacement for the original but overall not bad. The menu touts a thin crust but it turned out not be that thin. We ordered the version with cheese. So what you get is essentially a cheese pizza with the typical bruschetta toppings. Actually not a bad idea and well executed, except for the crust that could be thinner. For regular pizzas that type of crust is absolutely OK. Also, the bread they serve is pretty nice and goes well with the salad.
Overall, Cosimo's is a good place for a casual dinner in Westfield with good outside seating. Wine is BYOB. When you are in the mood for a good pizza or other Italian standards at reasonable prices it is a good recommendation.

Siging Off - The Westfield Blogger

Things are Happening around South Avenue - Gauchos is Coming to Town

2007-05-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

Everybody that lives in Westfield knows the less fancy side of the town south of the train station, appropriately named South Avenue. In most towns this would pass as half a main street. A main street with houses and shops only on one side and a big parking lot on the other side. (Historically it would be interesting to know what was there before the parking lot).

On the South side of the town, there are a variety of interesting and peculiar shops and restaurants that probably couldn't make it with the higher rents on the North side. But then there are also quite a few empty store fronts right now. I guess the retail rent inflation on the North side is also starting to affect the stores South of the railroad.

With the nice hot weather on Memorial Day, I decided to take a stroll into town but I decided to change my usual route and walked along South Avenue (instead of North Avenue) which I haven't done in a while. From a restaurant/food perspective I realized three noteworthy things.

1) Classic Thyme has moved to a house on the West side of South Avenue. In my opinion, Classic Thyme is an important institution for Westfield, and I believe it is worth having a few posts about it a later time.

2) Something is finally happening at Mario's Italian Deli. This is an empty store where there was Duke's Deli before at the corner of South Avenue and Summit Avenue. Duke's closed several months ago (maybe even half a year ago, soon thereafter the "Mario's Italian Deli coming soon" sign went up but then nothing ever happened. Today, I saw a few people working in there. So I hope Mario is going to open soon. A really good Italian Deli in Westfield would be more than welcome. At a later post I will share my theory about Italian Delis.

3) In the little strip of shops on South Avenue just west of West Broad Street something is also happening. Gauchos is coming to town. But who the heck is Gaucho? ;)

At that location there were previously several deli type places and then just recently a Mexican place (that I believe was called something like "Taxco Grill" and before that "Cafe Taormin".) They seemingly all weren't that interested in getting customers and subsequently failed. For a restaurant's success location is critical and this particular strip of shops is not a prime restaurant location. Hence, to be successful you have to a) do a lot of marketing/advertisement b) offer the customer something special to give them a reason to come back. This would be either a good price, exceptional food or great service (or a combination of these). If you are just another "me too" type place, you won't survive as a restaurant in a secondary location like this.

Seemingly the previous owners didn't get this very basic message. They didn't do a lot of marketing and they didn't give me any reason to come back after I had visited them once. The deli's in there were just normal basic slightly below average sandwich places with normal prices and uncommitted service. The Mexican restaurant had an interesting sounding menu, but the ambiance was not at all welcoming and it smelled weird. And for that type of place the prices were actually quite a bit high. (Certainly higher than chain competitors like Tinga or Qudoba on the North Side of town)

Now I hope Gauchos is doing a better job and has more fortune thriving as a business at this somewhat disadvantaged place. The sign in the window says "coming soon" and touts it as "Brazilian Cuisine". From the outside you can clearly see that some work is being done to remodel the place. It is not clear yet to me if this is more a take-out/to-go type place or if you can actually sit down and have lunch or dinner. I certainly hope for the latter one. I like Brazilian food and it doesn't always have to be Rodizio, which IMHO is often overpriced and sometimes overrated for what it is.

A somewhat authentic Brazilian Restaurant would certainly be a welcome addition to the Westfield Restaurant Landscape. Gauchos has already registered the appropriate domain http://gauchosbbq.com/ and set up a basic web site that consist only of one photo of the place. And that photo is seemingly a mock-up of what Gauchos wants the place to look like after the renovation. A few chairs and tables outside in front of the place may not be a bad idea.

From the registrant information for the domain you can see that the person who registered the domain has a phone number and mail address in Brazil (but this could also be a company on whose behalf it was registered). So let's hope we get authentic Brazilian cuisine there.

There has been a Brazilian Restaurant in Westfield (partially Rodizio style) several years ago where there is currently Cosi (and before that Wild Noodles). It was called Samba Grill and was actually quite good and reasonably priced. It even had life Brazilian Music on the weekend. They had big crowds during the weekend but I'm not sure how well they were doing during the week (and for lunch). I do not know why they gave up. They had quite a following in Westfield at one point.

We will test Gauchos as soon it opens and report back here.

Good Luck to Gauchos. And maybe in the long run another viable Restaurant Row will develop on South Avenue in Westfield.

Sigining Off - Westfield Blogger

Saturday Routine and Bike Ride in Paulinskill Valley

2007-05-26T19:43:00.000-04:00

I'm almost back to my normal Saturday routine. Early in the morning, a good workout at the Y and then fresh Croissants at Bovella's and this time I actually had to wait to get them fresh from the oven. And I was not the only one who had to wait. Because of the Holiday the Music School in Scotch Plains was closed so this means another week without Piano lessons.
Westfield has a lot to offer, but one thing it does not have is mountain bike trails, or any type of decent long enough bike trails for that matter. Therefore, for of my passions I have to look somewhere else in NJ.
There is a book a book by Christopher Mac Kinnon, called "Mountain Biking in New Jersey" that lists 50 off-road bike rides in the state, a significant amount of them in central and northern Jersey, i.e. fairly easy to reach from Westfield. I have done a few of them last year and are planing to explore the rest of the state this year. The description and the maps are pretty accurate, detailed enough and easy to use. For the interested mountain biker, I would certainly recommend this book.
BTW, in addition to buying the whole book you can read intros to the individual rides at the site and then download the full description and the map for a fee. This is actually not a bad idea for people that are not frequent bicyclist.
I decided to do the Paulinskill Valley Trail, to be precise a part of the eastern section of the trail starting in Stillwater New Jersey. A detailed trail description is at the book's web site.
The Paulinskill Valley Trail Committee has a somewhat basic site with limited information and no trail maps. Come on... How can you be the "Paulinskill Valley Trail Committee" and don't have a map of your trail? For me this is almost too obvious, if you want to use a trail the key thing you need is a map. TrailLink has some photos and reviews but no map either. NJ Skylands has a good article and a very basic map, good for an overview but too basic for actual usage when biking on the trail. Not even the NJ State Park System has a map on their site. But there must a map, I have seen it: along the trail there are several information boards that do contain a fairly decent trail map.
For me, the map that came with the book was good enough. This trail is the on the right of way (ROW) of a former rail line of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad (NYS&W), a.k.a. "Susi Q". This railroad still exists (even in New Jersey) and is thriving, but they abandoned this particular line in the 1960s.
I don't have enough stamina to do the whole eastern section of the trail through to the end at Sparta Junction. So after about 10 miles or so I turn around and head back.
Overall, a fairly easy track, except for a few places where the bridges over roads have been removed and you have to do a detour, often meaning to walk your bike. You can also see a few railroad remnants: the foundation of a water tower, a section of track in the woods in middle of nowhere, the ruins of a telegraph office. And if you are very observant you can actually reconstruct Swartswood Junction in your mind. About midway on the eastern section this was where railroad line of the Lehigh and New England Railroad branched off heading further North towards toward Sussex and then into New York State whereas the trail follows the NYS&W towards Sparta and then on to New York. If you compare the photo against today you start to appreciate Nature's ability to take back what we have taken from her.
Although this not true mountain biking as it is technically very easy, I stilled enjoyed the trip quite a bit. This a very beautiful part of New Jersey that one rarely sees. Even if your are only an occasional bicyclist the Paulinskill Valley Trail is definitely worth a visit.
After returning to trailhead I decided to explore the area a bit before driving back home. I was also in search for a nice restaurant to get some early dinner. Fortunately, I found the "The Boat House" restaurant and bar in Swartswood on road 521 right at the shore of Swartswood Lake. It looks like it has been recently renovated with a very nice deck for waterfront dining being added. (The google map satellite doesn't show the deck, yet, so it must be fairly recent).
Good service, the menu has refined but typical bar and grille type food. I vote for the burger. Nice portion, well made and seasoned, good toppings and excellent french fries. All of that for a very reasonable price and you can sit outside and enjoy the view of the lake. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a web site.

I'm sure to visit again when I come back to the area to do the rest of the Paulinskill Valley trail.

Signing Off - Westfield Blogger

Friday is Yoga Day and al fresco at Tosca in Kenilworth

2007-05-25T22:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the holiday weekend my company did close a little earlier this afternoon. This afforded me the opportunity to take a brief afternoon nap. Unfortunately 15 minutes into it a telemarketer called and woke me up.
Anyhow, after my little nap I was pretty relaxed. And then having a Power Yoga session immediately thereafter, got me into an even better mood. One purpose of yoga is to focus your mind, to remove all the clutter that is happening in your brain all the time and put you into a state of relaxation. If you are already relaxed when you start your Yoga session, getting into this state is even easier. Maybe that was one of the reasons why tonight some of the postures that I struggled with before felt much easier. In particular, with some of balancing postures I was able to last a lot longer. The full version of the tree pose (vrksasana) was not a problem at all.
Motivated by my unexpected improvements and totally relaxed for the weekend, I was in the mood for a fancy dinner. A few weeks ago I drove through Kenilworth and saw the newly renovated Tosca, that looks like a somewhat eclectic Italian mansion in Florence. I'm sure some people think it is a little overdone, but I actually like the style. What I liked in particular was the tables they had on the sidewalk to enjoy the warm weather, dining al fresco.
So I went back there this Friday. Getting a table outside wasn't a problem. For some reason most people sat inside. (I just don't get it). The service was friendly, attentive and competent although at times a bit edgy. The menu offers innovative Italian fare at reasonable prices. Maybe for Kenilworth a bit on the high side. But then quality is really good.
Unfortunately, for the wine they only no half bottles (and I was by myself) and a very limited "by the glass" selection. One gripe that I have with restaurants here is that they often don't put the wine-by-the-glass on the wine list, so you don't know what is. And when you ask, they often only tell you "red or white" and if you are lucky the varietal. If you ask for more (like the producer, country, vintage) it usually gets complicated. At Tosca they at least knew the varietals. Just put it on the list and you may actually sell more wine by the glass.
So instead of a glass of wine, I had a Martini. At least there you can specify the vodka. After I order, they brought a nice selection of breads. I was impressed. Not the basic Italian bread that you often get. At Tosca, they had a real tasty artisan type Italian bread, a tasty moist whole wheat type bread and then some type of flat bread. All very good. In addition to the good bread they give you a small plate with some olives and Parmesan cheese. That is what I call a good start into a very enjoyable dinner.
As an app I selected the Tricolore Salad which came in a Parmesan cheese basket. The combination of the fresh greens, the vinaigrette type dressing and the grilled Parmesan was pretty cool. My main dish was the pasta special. Spinach tagliatelle with mushrooms and lamb sausage based on a recommendation of the waiter. When I ordered I asked a few questions, and the waiter seemingly understood my reasoning and decision making process and he insisted that I try the special instead of my original selection. And he was right. This was one of the best pasta dishes I had in a while. A refined combination of flavors. Innovative but comfortable. Full-bodied but not overwhelming.
I skipped the desert which they show you on a desert tray. They all looked good, but they didn't have my two favorites: Tiramisu and Crème brûlée. Still the cappuccino was certainly above average and it comes with a fairly large selection of biscotti.
Overall, Tosca is certainly worth exploring more. They seemingly trying hard to make this a special place and to have the customer enjoy the time there and leave with a pleasant feeling. A always there is some room for improvement:

1) More wine by the class and list them on the wine list so I know what I get.
2) A sheet of glass on the table on top of the cloth. I now why they are doing it, I still find eating on table cloth just adds are certainly stylishness to the meal.
3) The cocktail olives in the martini were a bit bland. OK, if I have to criticize these type of minutiae, that means it is difficult to find real important things to criticize.

With a sense of a satisfaction that comes from a really good meal I'm

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Food Test: Pizza at Cosi

2007-05-24T21:50:00.000-04:00

My day at work was pretty cramped with all kind of important projects despite the fact that in theory it should be quieter because of the upcoming holiday weekend. So I was glad to go to the Y for my workout and take my thoughts off of work. It wasn’t particularly busy at the Y either, so I got through my routine fairly fast.

After that I was really hungry and with the weather being as nice as it was, the only choice was to look for a place in Westfield where I could sit outside, work a bit on my computer (like writing this blog entry) and maybe meet a few friends.

I was in the mood for pizza and hadn’t tried the one at Cosi before. So the decision was made without hesitation. (Now, this does not mean that Cosi has the best pizza in Westfield. Comparing the different pizza places in Westfield would be an interesting exercise)

Cosi is a Sandwich, Salad and Pizza place that started in Westfield several months ago at a location where over the last few years several other restaurants had failed. The ones that failed were both individual place and chain restaurants. I hope it works out for them as I feel it is a nice addition to the Westfield Restaurant landscape. And it being there will ensure that Panera doesn’t loose its focus on the customer. Competition is good for the customer.

I ordered the meat lovers pizza with pepperoni, sausage and bacon. The pizza arrives in a timely manner and fresh and hot from the oven. But for my typical pizza preferences it is a bit disappointing. The taste is actually good. The different ingredients combine quite nicely. But the dough is a bit too thick and chewy. I didn’t expect a thin-crust pizza, but a little less dough would have helped. And for the price ($13.95) it was actually a bit small. The diameter was a bit larger than what you would call an “individual pizza” but not that much larger. It was certainly significantly smaller than the pizza you would get at the neighboring Cosimo (not related to Cosi at all). It is enough for a hungry individual like me but for a couple even with reasonable craving it is not sufficient at all. So if two people have to order two of these pizzas, it actually gets a bit expensive and a full service restaurant becomes a better deal.

Otherwise, the service is friendly and efficient. The seating area inside is nice and stylish (albeit not actually cozy). Outside seating is what it typically is in Westfield: Chairs and tables on the sidewalk, but that is perfectly OK.

Another drawback of Cosi: They don’t have wireless Internet access. I’m sure they thought about it (as other Cosi do have it and the competitor on the other side is marketing it). I guess they dismissed is. Why would they do that as it is a fairly low-cost item. My theory: As the seating area is a bit small, they probably don’t want to encourage people to hang out during the peak times. That may be one of the reasons why they decided against it. Otherwise they may end up with several individual people sitting there with a computer for hours sipping the free-refill coffee while the tables are not available for higher turnover customers.

Although, I like Cosi in general quite a bit (a review of sandwich and salad will follow), not having wireless Internet, is probably at least on reason for me to get back to Panera also.

Robert Green Ingersoll Lecture

2007-05-23T23:22:00.000-04:00

Most of you probably don’t know a lot about Robert Green Ingersoll. I had heard about him and knew that he was an American Philosopher during the second half of the 19th century. That is pretty much all I knew about him.

Tonight, I had to leave Westfield to learn more about Robert Ingersoll. Actually, I had to drive to Bridgewater. There, at the PeopleCare Center was an educational lecture about Robert Ingersoll. The PeopleCare center is a building – the former Finderne Elementary School - operated by a non-profit Bridgewater, where local clubs, associations, etc. can rent space and host meetings and events.

The lecture tonight was hosted by the New Jersey Humanist Network. They do have a monthly lecture series there. The interesting fact about Robert Ingersoll was that at his time he probably was one of the most influential and controversial philosophers and quite well known. Nowadays, he is still subject to academic research, but by far not widely known although a lot of his ideas and quotes have become mainstream.
And he did influence the intellectual and political process at this time quite a bit in a way that was always in favor of freedom for the individual. In that sense, part of the freedoms we have today are probably at least in part due to Robert Ingersoll.

Even if during today’s lecture I only got a glance on Robert Ingersoll’s life, I’m really excited and curiuous to learn more about him. He seems to a personality the resonates quite well with my own believes. And there is a lot of material on the Internet explore the Philosophy of Robert Green Ingersoll.

Wikiquote has an eclectic selection of his quotes, e.g. "The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men."

Some of his texts are even available for free as podcast to download and play on your MP3 player. And there are a few good books out there, too.

Signing Off – The Westfield Blogger

Sunday Workout, a Breakfast Burrito and an Afternoon Nap

2007-05-20T22:43:00.000-04:00

If I don’t get to workout for a while I really get antsy and irritated. So not having done my workout on Saturday, I was anxious to get to the Y on Sunday morning. I got out of the house early and arrived at the Y shortly after 7:00 AM when they had just opened. And this is actually a good time for a workout at the Y because it is fairly quiet. There are few people so you don’t feel alone and out of place, but only a few, so you don’t have to wait for a particular machine.

With my wife being away on a trip to Europe, I’m not in the mood for cooking and having breakfast by myself at home. So, I decided to go to another Diner type restaurant that I like. The Rise & Shine in Scotch Plains. Unfortunately, I was not the only one with that idea. The parking lot was completely packed and people were waiting in a line at the entrance and outside.

OK, time for plan B. A review of Rise & Shine will follow at a later time. Plan B is Queen City Diner. Yes, I just had dinner there on Friday. But that was different, it was dinner. And I also really like the breakfast at Queen City.

I arrived there at about 9:00 AM and it is amazingly quiet (for a Sunday morning). I can select my own nice booth at the window. The service is extremely fast and friendly. I get coffee (they have new mugs with Queen City branding) and an OJ. Unfortunately the OJ is not fresh squeezed. Fresh squeezed OJ is one of the great things in life and if I ever had to list the criteria for the perfect breakfast restaurant, offering fresh squeezed OJ would be one of it. (I think I need to talk to the owner of Queen City and convince him that we needs to add fresh OJ to the menu).

For breakfast I have the sausage breakfast burrito. For $5.95 you get a decent sized burrito filled with a combination of scramble egg, cheese, sausage, potatoes and tomato salsa. I’m not sure what other spices and ingredients the chef puts into it. The taste is really amazing. Somehow, they manage to make this a really tasty breakfast experience. All the ingredients nicely combine to something that is more than the sum of its parts. I had breakfast burritos at the Queen City Diner before and they were always amazing. As a side you get home fries. I have to admit I had better home fries before, but they are certainly not bad and actually above average. But there is some room for improvement, you could spice them up and make them a bit crisper.

When I leave the Queen City Diner is also pretty packed. I guess the crowds come here a little bit later on a Sunday.

The rest of the day I spend doing all kind of jobs around the house, to make everything look nice, clean and fixed up when my wife comes back. Next week is going to be quite busy and stressful at work so I take an afternoon nap to proactively relax. I haven’t done this in a while and I seemingly forgot how good this actually feels. Just a 30 minute nap in the afternoon and you feel so refreshed and your outlook life gets so much more positive and optimistic. Your thoughts are focused. Most of you know this feeling of anticipation and excitement when you wake in the morning to a beautiful day with all the possibilities and opportunities in front you. It’s a great feeling and you can almost recreate that same feeling (maybe with a slightly reduced intensity) by taking a nap in the afternoon and awake refreshed and ready to take on the second half the day and potentially an interesting evening and night.

Signing Off – The Westfield Blogger

An Unusual Saturday - A Subway Trip to NYC

2007-05-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

This was actually a pretty untypical Saturday for me. I'm a person who I real likes routines and processes. This Saturday morning, I did not go to the Y for my workout, I didn't get croissants at Bovella's and I missed my piano lessons in Scotch Plains. The reason: I had an alternative plan for this Saturday.

For me to change my routine this alternative plan obviously had to be something special and important. And, yes it was. I'm somehow fascinated by railroads - not necessarily individual trains or locomotives, but whole railroads and transit systems.

So when I learned that this Saturday The New York Transit Museum offered a rare guided tour of a Subway Maintenance Facility, I signed almost immediately. And, it was worth it!!!

In this particular case it was the Corona Maintenance Facility in Flushing, NY close to the Willets Point Subway station. All the subways cars for the number 7 trains in NY are maintained and repaired there. The scope of the operation is mindbogglingly. The number 7 subway line alone - although one of the shorter ones in NY - runs at peak 33 trains at the same time. With each train consisting of 11 cars, the number 7 line alone requires more than 400 subway car to operate and large facility to maintain and repair these. 126 people work there just to maintain the number 7 trains. This does not include the motormen that drive the trains, conductor and maintenance of way type people.

If you think of the whole system of the NY subway with many more lines that are often considerable longer you only start to imagine the scope of operations behind the NY subway system.

The tour group was about 40 people, male and female, old and young. There is a certain stereotype about people interested in trains and interestingly enough this group did not totally meet this stereotype. Actually, there were quite a few females that seemed to be very knowledge about the NY subway system. Besides the visitors enjoying the tour, I also got the feeling that the tour guides and the folks that work in the facility were quite excited about the attention they got and really appreciated the fact that people that actually ride on the trains that they maintain, were interested in what they are doing.

There was also a team (reporter and photographer) from the New York Times there which led to an article in the Metro Section of the Sunday Issue. I wasn't very impressed with the reporter. There are quite a few things in the article that he got wrong or that are imprecise. Had he actually listened to some of the explanations given at the tour he could have corrected some of the information. But besides the inaccuracies, I find the somewhat derogatory tone of the article towards the people that were on the tour inappropriate. It wouldn't have been difficult and much more work to give things a different spin. What about some more respect for your fellow human beings. In some form or another everyone is a geek and obsessed with something.

In any case. I enjoyed and learned quite a few new things about the NY subway system.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Power Yoga at the Y and Queen City Diner

2007-05-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

Friday nights at 6:30 I often go to the Y for PowerYoga. And the fact that I haven't blogged about it in more than a months of blogging, tells me that I haven't been there for a while. Even the instructor remarked "welcome back". So I must have been out for a while.

Somehow, there was always something else to do on Friday evenings and I neglected my Yoga routine. Going back today made me realize how much I actually enjoy it and I really should try to do it more regularly.

I like Yoga for two reasons. On the one hand I enjoy the movements, the balance, stretching of your body, i.e. the physical activity. It warms you up, relaxes your body and puts you in a comfortable mellow state of mild physical tiredness. At the same time the meditation, the focusing and the observed breathing leads to a complementary state of mental alertness and emptiness at the same time. If you haven't experienced this yourself, it sounds a bit weird. But in yoga you learn to essentially focus your mind on not thinking anything at all. You keep all the clutter out that your mind is typically constantly working on and focus essentially on your body and on yourself. After a PowerYoga session, the ten minutes or so of utter relaxation at the end (in yoga terminology Savasana) is for me more refreshing than several hours of sleep. Although I have tried, I haven't been able to replicate this effect when meditating at home.

After this good relaxing start into the weekend, I'm in the mood for comfort/diner type food. There are two places in Westfield that compete in that space, however, I'm not that impressed with both of them. (In a later post I probably will argue why that it.) However, with NJ being replete with Diners and similar restaurants, I'm certainly not restricted to Westfield. There many place not far away that seem worthwhile exploring.

One place that we recently discovered and that has proven to be consistently above average is the Queen City Diner in Plainfield. Formerly known as Rena's Diner it seems to have a lot of history, that I really can't say a lot about. We have started to go there about 6 months ago.

Queen City is certainly above average for a Diner. It has a nice clean well lighted atmosphere. The service is friendly, attentive and caring (although sometimes not fully refined). The menu has all the typical Diner items plus some unusual and even innovative additions. Some of them catering to the health conscious diner and some catering to the adventurous person that wants Diner food but not always exactly the same.

The latter description fits me quite well. The quality of the food is really good for Diner standards. (Let's be realistic a Diner is not trying to compete with a upscale dining establishment, so I have realistic expectations). Well-made, refined taste and texture and the display is good. The portions are generous in particular for dinner. The dinner specials come with soup, salad, entree (plus two sides) and desert. Typically, you take half of the entree and sometimes even the desert home.

Today I have the meat lasagna. OK, it is not like you get it al forno as in Italy, but its well made and tasty with a rich tomato sauce, well-seasoned meet and the texture of the pasta is al dente (and not overcooked as you sometimes get it). A few weeks ago I had the meat loaf (and yes I'm a fan of meat loaf) which is certainly worth it. At the time they had risotto as a side dish (which they didn't have tonight). I was surprised and excited, is it not only very rare to find risotto at Diner, but the one at the Queen City Diner is actually quite tasty. I almost contemplate next time to just have a plate of risotto and spinach. I hope the risotto is back as side the next time I'm there.

After this very enjoyable start into the weekend, I'm

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Fine Dining - Close to Westfield

2007-05-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

One of the things on my list "What I'm missing in Westfield" is "a real classy fine dining establishment". At a later blog I will argue why I believe that none of the places in Westfield (that are certainly aspiring to do that) can meet that standard successfully.

So when my wife wanted to take out a very good friend of ours for a little farewell dinner (my wife is leaving for a trip to Europe for a few weeks) and we wanted something really special we decided to visit the Stage House in Scotch Plains, the next town on the west side of Westfield.

The Stage House has a very long tradition as a building and as a classy restaurant. Recently, they introduced everyday $24 two course menus. (With desert you get up to $31 or so). That by itself is not bad considering the quality of the food. On top of that on Tuesday they don't have a corkage fee so you can bring your own wine. (Ok, in this place you better bring something good and worthwhile. They are not snobby at all but if you bring three-buck-chuck the chef may feel a bit insulted.). They will open the wine for you and even give you an ice bucket for the white wine to stay cool. So if you like good food but can't afford to be a big spender, the Stagehouse is still affordable once in a while.

Tonight was a warm spring evening, so outside seating in the patio was perfect. The patio was redone recently and they now have a amazing large outside bar right in the middle of it. Even if you don't want a full dinner, hanging out at the bar for a masterfully mixed drink (and there is an extensive cocktail menu) with a friend or just by yourself to watch people is a cool thing to do.

I would characterize the food at the Stagehouse as Progressive French Continental Fusion. The Prix Fix Menu comes with a variety of interesting appetizers (soups, salads and some other specialties: pick one) and a selection of innovatively composed dishes with a classical heritage. I made the evening a Salmon night:

1) House smoked salmon, pickled fennel, red onion, chive crème fraiche
2) Salmon, sautéed, braised endive, red wine toasted almond risotto, walnut oil, red wine demi

Both were outstanding in all aspects and really sensually enjoyable in the way that you enjoy food with several of your senses, the display, the smell, the texture and the taste. (The sense of hearing is somehow neglected). As I'm not at all a fish person, my positive assessment of this combination should probably count double.

By the way: The almond risotto that came with the entree was the highlight of the dish (and really of the evening). If you like risottos, this was one of the better ones I have ever eaten. My wife had the Yellow Fin Tune which comes with "Blood Orange Risotto" which is equally pleasing. Just having the two risottos as a main dish would be a very pleasant experience. Maybe they should do a risotto tasting night.

There was only one thing that to a degree failed to meet our expectations. The tiramisu was rather basic and a bit disappointing. The dough was a bit dry, fluffy and rather tasteless and somehow it felt like they saved on the mascarpone and their weren't real lady fingers. A tiramisu (in particular in a french restaurant) needs to be rich (yes the real mascarpone and with eggs) and the lady fingers (not just any cake type dough) need to be soaked in a coffee/amaretto mix. Ok, I admit amaretto is probably not the original recipe. Rum or some other appropriate liquor would have been acceptable. But in this the dough was pretty much dry not soak with anything.

For a tiramisu to be REAL, the taste needs to be voluptuous, overwhelming right in your face. It needs to be the closure point of a sumptuous meal. It needs to be able to compete with strong coffee (cappuccino or espresso) and even more it needs to be able to stand up to heavy desert wines. So now you know my - admittedly subject - definition of what makes a tiramisu great. If you know a place where I can get exactly like that, let me know. Please!

After an - almost - perfect dinner we are all in a very good mood and go home happy. Isn't life great?: Good food, Good wine, Good friends enjoying a nice warm spring evening.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blooger

My Traditional Saturday Pattern

2007-05-12T17:07:00.000-04:00

It feels a bit unusal to write this blog so early in the day. Usually, I blog shortly before I finish the day and go to bed. As we have some friends over in about an hour and the night may turn out to be a bit longer, I decided to blog before our friends show up.

This was a pretty typical Saturday. Fitness at the Y. I changed my routine recently and am now training some muscles that were a bit neglected before and I can really feel the pain of my sore muscles but I can also see how amazingly fast the human body reacts to a new stimulus. When you only do it properly and with discipline building muscle is actually not that difficult.

After the Y, I picked up a few croissants from Bovella's. And yes, I'm in luck. They still have some (which is not always the case, even 5 minutes after they open at 8:00 AM) and I get them warm and fresh right out of the oven. What a treat to start the weekend. My wife is still sleepy in bed when I come home. She likes to wake up with the smell of a fresh buttery croissant under her nose and a cup of herbal tea.

Later in the morning I drive over to Scotch Plains for Piano Lessons. More on that in later blog posting.

And then the the rest of the day will be spent on preparing for our little party tonight. We often invite friends over for an (educational) wine tasting. During the course of the evening we open several bottles of wine blind (i.e. wrapped in brown paper). And then we do a tasting. Look, Smell, Taste. With the objective to not only get the color right (;-)) but also country and varietal. Amazingly, if you experiment a bit and train your sense, getting the grape varietal and often even the country right is not actually that difficult.

OK, more work to do.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Wine Shopping in Westfield

2007-05-10T22:22:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it took us almost a month worth of blogging to arrive at this important and most favorite topic: Wine Shopping. Today we will not be reviewing the different places where you can get wine in our town and their pros and cons: This will be a topic for another blog entry. Today, we will look at one particular Wine Store that is a bit of a hidden gem. Peterson's Wines Unlimited.

One remark before we go there. My wife and I a true vinophiles. We are not snobs, we don't really drink a lot and we don't spend fortunes on wine. But in our world a good bottle of wine is an essential ingredient for a good meal. And we are wine adventures. We like to explore new varietles, new wineries, new blends and new regions where the wine comes from. So when we move to a new place, one of the first things we do (after checking out where they have the best croissants) is to check out the wine retail landscape.

From the outside Peterson's could be mistaken as a basic "at-the-corner" liqour store, the ones that have all the mainstream brands the sell well but nothing that is special or interesting. But Peterson's is really much more than this. First off, they have a wine director: Glen. Second: Glen really knows what he is talking about. And I mean really. He is well-traveled when it comes to wine, well-read about wine and he seemingly tasted a lot. And third: The owners of Peterson's seeminlgy give Glen some freedom to explore and experiment with some unusal wines, producers and regions.
Yes, they certainly do have the mainstream type brands and even some of the "value wine". But they also have some rarities and just some, a lot. We were amazed to see a large section of German and Austrian wines. And not just Riesling. Scheurebe, Blaufraenkisch, Gruener Veltliner and even Pinot Noir from Austria. Lot's of stuff to explore. And with Glen's competent, friendly and never pushy advise and recommendations this was actually fun. We spent more than an hour at the store, bought some very interesting rare wines that we never before had and thanks to Glen we learned a lot of new facts about wines from all over the world.

Regardless if you are into wine or just an occassional drinker and regardless if you are looking for high end wine or for some reasonably priced picks, Peterson's is a cool place to shop for wine. This time we focused on Germany/Austria and South Africa. So there are some good reasons to come back to explore what they have from other regions.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Dinner Al Fresco at Acquaviva Delle Fonti

2007-05-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was a beautiful day and the evening turned out to be still warm and comfortable. I managed to get out of work at a decent time and both of us just weren't in the mood for spending time in the kitchen. So we decided - as we often do - to get a bottle of wine from the cellar and to walk into Westfield for Dinner.

We had original set our target at Xocolatz, part of "restaurant row" in Elm Street. We had been there before many times, food is typically quite good, prices are reasonable and it is usually easy to get a table even outside. Unfortunately, seemingly for a private party they were closed this evening.
So we roamed around in Westfield and as many other people had the same idea, at most restaurants the outside tables were all taken. We finally ended up at Acquaviva Delle Fonti on Elm Street. They do have a nice patio for outside seating which is also BYOB. (Interestingly enough they sell wine if you sit inside). And somehow it was easy to get a table, actually a very nice table.
We have been to Acquaviva before and typically enjoyed it but we were never truly excited, the Wow effected that we had at some other places (in Westfield) for some reason never materialized there. Tonight was not different and it isn't really easy to pinpoint the reason, it just never turns out "perfect".
The service is very friendly, attentive and even proactive. So no issues here. The food is usually well made, refined (but not necessarily innovative) with a rich taste and high quality ingredients. I had the "Black Angus". I ordered it medium and it came beyond "medium well" and even a bit burned. (Still not a bad steak and I enjoyed it, but just not perfect). The salad "Garden Fresh Romaine" that we shared was the same. Interesting, even innovative and potentially promising from what you could make out of it. But what we got was good but it was missing the last dot on the "I" that would have made it really good. Overall Aquaviva is a good place for dinner, if they just would have a bit more of what I would call "perfectionism" for their operations and true passion for their food, they have a good chance of becoming a real outstanding restaurant. I'm sure we will come back once in a while to check their progress.

An interesting side note on music. At the entrance to the outside dining area, they had life music. It was just one artist with a keyboard. The music he played was very mainstream elevator type background music. And the artist wasn't bad all. Nevertheless, the songs that he played were just background music, basic, at times cheesy and sometimes slightly pathetic. My point is: What is the value of having that type of music life? The artist is not really engaging with the audience, there is no applause or any type of feedback. It doesn't distract you and you don't notice it. There is virtually no difference from playing the same music from a recording. (I just feel bad for the artist. I'm sure he gets paid, but it must be frustrating to just play background music and have no interaction with the audience). And I don't even know if the restaurant gets anything out of this engagement. I would question if they had any additional quest because of the life music. On the contrary, had we not gotten a table far a way from the music were it wasn't that loud, we probably would have moved on.

After the life artist left around 8:30 PM they set up loud speakers around the patio and what they played was now almost too progressive for a more traditional Italian restaurant: Real down-tempo lounge type music.

Regardless, we had a nice evening, enjoyed the outdoors, the warm wind and the smell of spring and a bottle of good red wine that we brought ourselves. When we walked home, we felt good about living in this town and having the option of enjoying a nice evening like this (almost any time the weather allows).

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Great Decisions - "Middle East" - Arguably the best Session

2007-05-07T23:11:00.000-04:00

Monday at the Westfield Library for "Great Decisions" has become a routine that I really started to appreciate and enjoy. Unfortunately, today is the last session. There have been 8 sessions about foreign policy topics that were all interesting, inspiring and usually insightful. The program is certainly worth the time and energy invested.
Of all 8 topics "Middle East" is probably the one that at the same time is most critical for what happens in the US but is equally difficult to grasp in a comprehensive fashion. Prof S. Azmat Hassan, the speaker for tonight, clearly knew what he was talking about. In addition to a lot of points specific to particular country, region and their history, the most important point that he made was: The "problem" of the Middle East is one that has developed over centuries, that has a multitude of sub-problems with their own respective causes and influences, that includes complex relationships and dependencies between a plethora of stakeholders. Meaning, it is not an easy problem.

The inevitable - and very rational - consequence of this observation is: The solution to the problem will not be simple, will not be fast and straightforward and will certainly not be painless. The assumption of some protagonists in politics and media that shape public opinion that there actually is such an easy solution to a problem that is that complex is IMHO arrogant at best and really scary.

This reminds me of a quote by HL Menken:

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and wrong. "

In reality, the "solution" for the Middle East will be difficult, cumbersome, messy. It will take a long time and there will be set backs. It will require patience, openness, knowledge and an understanding of the other side and a lot of diplomacy, dialog, trust building, etc. A dogmatic approach that is mostly based on military might will ultimately fail (and leave everybody much worse off).

Prof S. Azmat Hassan didn't have answers to any of the problems, but he was able to articulate very well that we need a more comprehensive strategy, one that is more long term, one that is based on dialog and knowledge and not on short term partisan politics. This problem is so critical to the future of the US (and really the whole world), it seems ridiculous that our political leadership (and I mean all of them regardless what party they are with) doesn't understand this (or doesn't want to understand it for selfish interest) and somehow is incapable of transcending beyond partisan politics to device a true solutions strategies that makes all better off in the long run.

Logic and rational thinking tell us that it should be fairly easy to develop a fact- and experience-based strategy that we pretty much can all agree on regardless of party affiliation. And if we only pursue this strategy with vigor and patience at the same time we will eventually solve the issue.

As much as today's session about the Middle East was insightful and private a good perspective, I'm not much more optimistic that we will actually solve this.

And certainly, I look forward to next year's cycle of "Great Decisions" in Westfield.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger.

Saturday - Busy in Westfield and Around (Part 2)

2007-05-05T23:27:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a short post. I don't have a lot of time, as it is already somewhat late and I need to get a few more things done today.
Originally, I thought I would review two more interesting places in and around Westfield that I visited today. I take piano lessons (although this is in Scotch Plains and not in Westfield) and I good a very relaxing massage. Both are things that I really enjoy and I felt the Music School and the Massage Place that I'm going to might be interesting recommendations for my readers. But if I do review them, I want to give them the appropriate attention and comprehensiveness. But that won't happen today.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Saturday - Busy in Westfield and Around (Part 1)

2007-05-05T10:25:00.000-04:00

My usual Saturday routine: Early Morning Fitness at the Westfield YMCA (a.k.a "The Y"). I typically arrive there at 6:30 AM and do some Cardio and Weight Training till about 8:00. I'm really glad that they open that early even on a Saturday. Even among the commercial fitness clubs, everyone does that. At this time of the day both the Cardio section and the weight machines are still not very busy and you don't have to wait at all if you are a bit flexible with your program. Also, I ran into a friend from Australia who is also living in Westfield.

After the Y, I felt like having a good sit-down restaurant type breakfast and because the weather was really great (this feeling of spring, renewal and anticipation), I wanted to sit outside. Now, this is one of the few areas where Westfield actually does have gap. There are no restaurant type breakfast places where you can eat outside ON THE WEEKEND. During the week the only choice is Rockn' Joe, which opens at 8:30. On Saturday they open at 11:00. Too late for me, it is just about 7:55 AM.

What is left in Westfield for an early weekend outside breakfast are: Panera, Cosi and Manhattan Bagel. All three are pretty good but not sit down style restaurant breakfast. At one point later I will review all three of them, or maybe I write a feature about "Weekend Breakfast in Westfield".

So originally, I thought I was out of luck, but then I remembered that the Rockn' Joe in Cranford (i.e. the original Rockn' Joe, formerly know as Cafe Rock) actually opens earlier, i.e. at 8:00 AM. Don't ask me why there is a difference between Westfield and Cranford. 10 minutes later in Cranford I had a very nice table partially in the sun at Rockn' Joe in Cranford. Service was very friendly and prompt, there actually wasn't much business at the time. I ordered the Rockn' Joe Breakfast Sandwich special (including mozzarella and red peppers). Very tasty, well prepared and nice display. The portions are typically not that big at Rockn' Joe (which I like) and things are done in a way that is a bit more healthy. If you are in the mood for great coffee, a hearty but healthy breakfast and want to enjoy outside spring feeling, Rockn' Joe in Cranford is a really great choice.

And then again, while eating another friend walks by and we chat a bit about this and that. I reflect a bit on the fact that it is not even 9:00 AM and I already met two friends on the street. One of the things I really enjoy about Westfield is the fact that there is a tight-knit community. And it is not difficult to become part of that community. So if you just engage yourself a little bit with the local clubs, etc. after a while you get to know tons of people. So almost every time I go in to Westfield, I run into somebody that I know.

This is an early post. I have a few more things to do today. I may get around to do another post later today.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Our Friends from Germany Explore Westfield

2007-05-01T23:33:00.000-04:00

As mentioned in the previous post, some really good friends from Germany are on vacation in Manhattan. After we had told them a lot about the nice town we live in, they became very curious and so this evening they took a NJ Transit train and made their way to Westfield.

After giving them a tour of our house we did something rather typical for Germans. We WALKED from our house into the downtown area for dinner. We really wanted to sit outside at one of the places in Elm Street to enjoy the flair and the warm spring weather. Unfortunately, it was still a bit chilly and windy so we decided to sit inside at Mojave Grill.

The concept of BYOB was totally foreign to our friends (in Germany selling beer and wine in a restaurant or supermarket is not a big deal) but after we explained it to them they clearly realized the advantage. You either save money on the same bottle of wine or you can get a much better wine for the same price if you don't have to pay the restaurant mark up.

Mojave Grill is old favorite of ours almost since we moved to Westfield and has so far not disappointed us. We go there on average once a months and as they change the menu on a regular basis it is not getting boring (,yet). This evening it was fairly quiet in the restaurant. The service was as usual fast, effective, friendly and very professional. We ordered a quesadilla as an appetizer to share. Very tasty, exactly the right texture. Then we had salads and main entrees. We really like the concept of Tex-Mex fusion that Mojave Grill is pushing to the edge. It allows for a huge variety, innovative creations and often unusually but exciting new combinations of known flavors that one would have not expected would be good fit. Finally, the corn bread you get with dinner alone is worth a visit. Quality and display of the food was excellent. For what you get the prices are actually quite reasonable.

After a very satisfying dinner we walked around in down town a little more and then circled around the lake in Mindowaskin Park. It was a beautiful early spring evening. Our friends really enjoyed Westfield and were quite impressed. That was not what they had expected from New Jersey.

At the end of the day we went back to our house, had another glass of Wine and finally our friends took the bus back to Manhattan. The is another good thing. Pretty close to our house is bus stop that gets you straight to Midtown Manhattan without transfer.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Great Decisions at the Westfield Library - "Children"

2007-04-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

Tonight we have the next to final session of this year's Great Decision series of Foreign Policy talks in the Westfield Library. From all the topics that the Foreign Policy Association has collected for this year's "Great Decisions", the topic of children (early death, medical issues, education, exploitation and abuse) is - for me -conceptually the most difficult to grasp, to understand and to formulate a policy to resolve.
We had two speakers tonight, that were in my opinion, both slightly off topic. One person pretty much gave a marketing presentation of UNICEF with a somewhat limited perspective and a clear intention to stay politically correct and to not truly speak what she was thinking. This limited the ability to have an open fact- based discussion. The other person talked very specifically about problems with the foster care system in Romania. I'm not trying to downplay this issue, but in the grand scheme of things, with millions of children dying every year, widespread lack of adequate health care and exploitation and abuse, this is a different magnitude of problem. It is a very specific issues and not at the heart of the topic.

Overall, this was probably the weakest session in the series so far. I went away with the sense that this a very serious problem, but the evening has not helped me to better understand the issues or potential solutions for them. But then the topic is not really that suitable for the type of discussion and speaker coverage that worked quite well with other topics, like war crimes.

Conceptually, death, suffering and exploitation of children all over the world is not so much a problem per se, but a symptom of other underlying problems, poverty the most important one. Based on that, there are really only two strategies to resolve the issue at the root. Solve the poverty issue, or reduce the amount of children born into poverty. The latter is particularly true as too many children in a family is often one additional factor that contributes to poverty. Solving the poverty issue is not easy and many smart people are working on strategies. Reducing the number of children born into poverty should be easier. It is called family planning. I believe we should encourage the countries suffering from the problems discussed above to seriously engage in family planning support and education. Besides some religious reservations - which we as rational people should be able to overcome for the purpose of a worthy goal - there is no reason not to focus on this. It certainly is not the one and only solution, but it could give a us a good start.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

In NY with our friends from Germany - South Street Sea Port and Tabla

2007-04-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

This entry is a bit out of the norm as it is not about Westfield directly. But even if live in Westfield and like it very much, New York is close and exciting. Some old friends of ours from Germany are currently on vacation in Manhatten. So we took an early train to NY and spent a day there. Unfortunately in Manhattan it was even chillier than in Westfield, only marginally warming up over the course of the day.
This was the first time for our friends in Manhattan so we played tourist and guide. The world trade center site, battery park and than south street sea port. I haven't been to the latter one in a while, so I was amazed how touristy it had gotten, not in a negative sense. It just isn't very authentic. OK, you can argue it is good that we have it so the tourists go there instead of ruining the neighborhoods that the locals really like to go.
For Lunch we went to Harbour Lights. The cool thing about this place is the great view on the East River and the bridges in the north (remember B-M-W). And despite the weather being somewhat unstable we sat outside. Service was very attentive, friendly and mostly efficient. We had a few small plates for brunch and nobody minded that we didn't have the $30 plus main entrees that were also on the menu. The food is above average, good quality, good display but not particularly innovative. For the price level I had expected a little more, but then again it is a touristy place in NY.
After a stop in the east village and a few places around there were you have fewer tourists, we finally went up to Madison Square Park for Dinner at Tabla.
My wife is a coupon freak and she had a $25 off coupon. This was only valid in the dinning room not at the bar. Yes $25-off sounds pretty good on the first thought. But relative to potentially $350 for the a party 4 (including wine) it wouldn't have been that significant. A bit surprised by the fact that they had only a prix fix menu, and shocked by the starting price of $64 a person (and at least for my taste the somewhat uninteresting menu selections) we were contemplating an exit strategy.
So after getting over the embarrassment of having to ask the wait staff to reseat us into the bar (which they did in an absolutely professional fashion) we felt a lot more comfortable downstairs in the Breadbar. The good thing is you can order a variety of small plates, larger plate, indian breads and chutneys and then share them across the table. The food is excellent, innovative around the concept of Indian fusion, good display. The only thing: When ordering plates to share, after having been there a few times you have pretty much tasted everything on the menu and it might start to get a bit boring. But then, most of it is worth having it a couple of times

In addition, we discovered a very drinkable, exciting and rather unusual new wine I didn't have before. Conundrum is a rather untypical blend of Savignon-Blanc, Muscat, Chardonnay and a few others. I find it effective to characterize a wine by comparing it to a celebrity, e.g. actor, as describing flavors and smells with words is not always adequate. So this one would go as "Famke Janssen", yes the one from X-Man, James Bond and Star Trek-TNG. Mysterious, individualistic, somewhat bold but still elegant. Do I have to say more?

In summary the bread bar is pretty cool. Nevertheless, if you want to enjoy the dinning room, go there for lunch. At $25 a person a much better deal.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Photoshow in Clark

2007-04-27T23:25:00.000-04:00

After a somewhat rough week at work, I'm glad it is Friday. Our typical routine is to go to the Power Yoga at the Westfield YMCA. However, this Friday is different as there is an opening of a photo show at Skulski Gallery at the Polish Cultural Foundation in Clark.
I'm not that familiar with the Polish Cultural Foundation, but the Skulski Art Gallery that they host, is something special and we will check out what other exhibits it will have in the future. This is another of these hidden gems in NJ, that most people don't even know is there.

Tonight there was an opening of a photo show by John Wyatt with samples from his tattoo book "Under My Skin". In addition to the black and white picture being pretty impressive, for most of the pictures there was some text telling the story of the person(s) on the photo in their own words. You could clearly see these tattooed people are typically have a strong character, are independent personalities, and are people with a strong sense of the value of freedom. They are individualist that don't care too much about what other people think.

As I also like to think very much to think for myself and as I do value my freedom pretty much above everything else, I felt pretty moved and affected by these pictures. The artist was there and my wife - who is also a photographer could have an expert talk while I enjoyed the pictures and the polish beer.

Not having had dinner before, we were pretty hungry when we left the show around 9:30. Hungry for a burger we went to the Outback Steakhouse in Springfield at 22. I haven't been to Outback that often but I generally liked their burgers.

I wasn't disappointed this time either, truly enjoying the Hickory Burger. And yes, I do like mayo on my burger. But I made the same mistake now for the third time, ordering the burger with fries (i.e. "Aussie Chips"). Isn't it a weird feeling when you remember you made the same mistake before. ("Experience is the ability to recognize a mistake when you make it again").

I just don't like the fries there. They are not bad, but they don't have the crispness, texture and taste that I associate with real good fries and that would make it worth eating them. My Philosophy on fries is: "They are unhealthy, so if I eat them at least I want to maximize the pleasure that I get out of the experience. Eating fries that you don't really fully enjoy is just plain stupid". I hope next time at Outback I will remember.

As much as I don't like the fries there, I absolutely love the "Blue Cheese Bacon Chopped" salad. You can get it as a side for around $4 or with an entree for less than $3. It is an almost perfect salad combination. It blends a creamy, crispy and somewhat firm but also chewy texture, with a taste that it is difficult to describe but that will make you addicted. All the components of the salad are in perfect harmony and what you taste is more than the sum of the parts. The inventor of this salad it true culinary genius. Just having a good soup and that salad makes for very nice meal.

At this particular Outback location, the service is friendly, fast and attentive, the atmosphere is nice and lively but not too crowed and noisy. A good place also to have a drink after a movie across the street.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Saturday Morning - YMCA and Croissants

2007-04-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

On Saturday I usually get up quite early (like at 5:45 AM) to go to the YMCA for an early while it still fairly quiet there. So I usually arrive there by 6:15 and I'm done with my routine (cardio and weight training) around 7:50.

This is good timing, as at 8:00 AM Bovella's Pastry Shop in Westfield opens. Now, I'm not actually such a big fan of sweet pastry items. But we both love Croissants. A well-made fresh, still warm, buttery croissant with cup of really good coffee is one of the great things in life. So when we moved to Westfield about 6 years ago the one of the first things we checked out was the bakeries and grocery stores to see if anybody had good croissants (which unfortunately typically are not easy to come by in America). You can imagine how glad we were when we found a good and pretty authentic interpretation of "The Croissant" at Bovella's, an reasonably priced, too.

Since then I go there on a regular basis Saturday or Sunday in the morning to satisfy my craving. Sometimes, when I arrive there at 8:15 shortly after they open at 8:00 they are already out of them. I guess there must be a few other croissant connoisseurs in Westfield.

Anyhow, Bovella's just recently remodeled there store and I had been there since. I was concerned that with the new management they might have also changed their portfolio of products and in particular was hoping that they hadn't made any changes to the croissants. So when I went there in the morning I was actually a bit excited, but I can report things didn't change the croissants are still great. I got 8 of them, still warm fresh from the oven. Mmh.

Isn't that a great start into the weekend?

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Gelatto in Westfield

2007-04-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

This was the Friday when Spring finally arrived in NJ after a Winter that wasn't that cold but it was certainly far too long. Today, finally the sun came out and it seemed like the overture to a very nice weekend.
We already had plans for a dinner at home so my wife and I decided instead to just walk into downtown Westfield, enjoy the weather and check out the stores and the people. We love to be in Westfield to just hang out, watch other people and may be by coincidence meet other people that we know.
If we weren't going for dinner, at least we wanted to have something refreshing to start the warm season. As it turns out Planet Smoothie is closing right when their busy season supposedly starts. (The location is still on the web site). I don't know what the background is for the store closing, but I was always wondering if Westfield has a large enough customer base to sustain such a place in particular during the cold season when the demand for smoothie is naturally lower.

Still, I'm really sad to see them close as I liked to get a smoothie there once in a while and there is no alternative close by. Personally, I like Jamba Juice better but still Plant Smoothie had a good selection, good quality and usually pretty good service. (I'm not too hopeful for a Jamba Juice arriving in Westfield pretty soon, I guess we will rather get another bank. ;-)).

With smoothies not an option we refocused on Gelatto where we actually have now two options in Westfield. Again, the same question arises: In particular with the current retail rent inflation that Westfield is seeing, can it sustain two Gelatto places? I certainly wish the answer to be yes. We checked out both "Hi-5 Candy & Ice Café" and The Chocolate Bar (formerly La Crema). The prices are roughly the same but subjectively I feel the portions are bit larger at the chocolate bar and at least when we were there they had a larger selection of flavors.

So we I got a cappuccino at Hi 5 (which compared very well against Starbucks and is reasonably priced) and my wife got the gelatto at the chocolate bar. We had bought the gelatto there frequently when it was still La Crema and we were actually pretty excited as we remembered it to be quite good and really really creamy. Today, it was good but not as special as we remembered. Maybe, we need to try different flavors next time. The summer is hopefully long enough to compare the two places a little more. Maybe we should do a flavor to flavor contest.

And I certainly hope Westfield has a large enough revenue potential to sustain both place. I also look forward to Hi 5 living up to its promise to become a true European style Ice Café.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger

Great Decisions: Mexico

2007-04-16T23:50:00.000-04:00

It is Monday night and this is my third blog entry. If you have read so far, you may think this is all about the Westfield Library, because once again I'm writing about an event there. I promise, there will be other topics covered here, one today, as this entry is really a double feature.

Again, Monday night is foreign policy night with Great Decisions from the Foreign Policy Association. (More on this program in my entry from 2007-04-12.) The way the program is structured in Westfield, we typically have a speaker from this region that is an expert in the subject matter at hand. Unfortunately, the speaker scheduled for "Mexico" today canceled on short notice.

So instead of a speaker we watched the respective video from "Great Decisions - TV" which is airing on PBS as an accompanying TV program for the Great Decisions series. The program is a bit stiff and not particularly exciting because it is all interviews and some of speakers come across as a little bit too self-important. Still they make some good points and seemingly are truly experts in their field. You can watch some additional interviews at the site but not the actual program which you would have to buy on DVD.

Nevertheless, I still like the format with the expert speaker a lot more. If for nothing else, the speaker is there to answer questions and provide perspective. So with "Mexico" only being covered in a fairly short video the evening was more a discussion, which had its own appeal. The interaction between the participants was high quality. People tried to stay with the facts, were oriented towards solutions and didn't argue along the typical partisan lines. I really enjoy this type of interaction, so I'm glad we have that in Westfield. In summary, a lot of new insights about this more and more important neighbour to the south.

But the evening wasn't over. However, my time for today is so I will continue with this tomorrow.

The Westfield Diner - A Brief Review

2007-04-16T19:26:00.000-04:00

This is part two of my entry for Monday 2007-04-16.

While I was at the Library for "Great Decisions - Mexico", my wife went to the movies with a friend and unfortunately here, the starter of our car died. So I had to pick them up a little later that night and as we were all pretty hungry, we were looking for a place to eat late in Westfield. The Westfield Diner came to mind.

I had been thereon weekend for breakfast 6 years ago shortly after we moved to Westfield and somehow never returned to it thereafter. This was not because I didn't like it or anything was bad, it just never happened and if you don't go to a particular restaurant once in a while it is almost like it doesn't exist for you. I guess my point is, at the time the Westfield Diner offered normal diner food with effective service, but nothing too special, nothing that compelled me to come back.

Anyhow, yesterday night we had a good reason to come back. We were hungry and it is was the only place in town that was open. And I'm glad we had that opportunity. The food was actually pretty good (for a diner, I'm not comparing it to the Stagehouse in Scotch Plains), the service was not only effective but also friendly and attentive. The Greek specialities are actually pretty appealing and you get good portions for dinner with soup, salad and desert. And there were a few guests: I really don't like to be the only party in a restaurant. I guess there are quite a few reason to come back for a casual dinner soon, especially when it is later at night.

My next reason to go there will be the pasta night they have on Wednesday where they have a good selection of pasta specialities that are not on the menu during the rest of the week.

Again, if you look for good diner food later in the evening (till midnight during the week, till 1:00 AM during the weekend) check out the Westfield Diner.

Maybe, I need recheck the other Diner in Westfield, too.

Signing off - The Westfield blogger.

From Baghdad with Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava

2007-04-15T16:13:00.000-04:00

Friday evening and we are once again in the Westfield Library. Tonight, we have Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman (former US Marine) talk about his book "FROM BAGHDAD WITH LOVE: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava". More on the book can be found on amazon including some pictures of Lava.
And this is another good illustration for the point that I made in my previous blog entry about Westfield and the fact that we do have a great cultural program in this town.
Jay Kopelman spoke for more than an hour about the war in Iraq, his role as a soldier in it and about the dog named Lava. He didn't just read from his book but he actually told a story, a story that was convincing, engaging, at times sad but about everything else credible and thought-provoking. I really appreciated his honesty and straight answers not catering to any political agenda in particular.
I haven't read the book, yet, but from what I understand now, the dog is just a discussion starter and it is really about so much more, in particular the role that our country should or should not play involving itself in the world. And there are facts and thoughts that are rarely heard in our culture of media hype and polarization.
Certainly an evening that gave me a lot of food for thought.

Signing off - The Westfield Blogger

Let's Start a blog about Westfield NJ

2007-04-12T22:12:00.000-04:00

This evening I had somewhat of an epiphany. Ok, you can argue what an epiphany really is. But I certainly had an - what I would call - an AHA moment.
As every Monday evening for the last few months I was at the Westfield Library for "Great Decisions". Great decision is a truly enlightening and very educational program on foreign policy offered by the Foreign Policy Association. This time it was about "War Crimes". The lecturer, Prof. Mark David Welton, was not only very knowledge about the topic but also was able to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic in about an hour. And most importantly and IMHO quite impressive, he was able to do this without using PowerPoint slides while still by interesting and engaging.
I certainly learned a lot about War crimes, the legalities around them and history of law of armed conflict. My opinion on the topic will be a lot more refined and my thinking a bit more differentiated.
Despite the somewhat grave topic, I really felt good about the event, about the evening and the fact that I was able to broaden my own intellectual horizon. And for some reason, I had this aha feeling, that I was actually quite lucky to live in town like Westfield where I have access to this type of event. And this is not the only good thing about this town. This appreciation for the town of Westfield caused me to start this blog to share some of my thoughts and experiences in Westfield and around it.

If you are interested - even remotely - in foreign policy, and everyone should be, I would really recommend the "Great Decisions" program. It is very factual and certainly non-partisan. Nevertheless, the facts are sometimes just partisan. There are not always two sides to a topic. And you get an opportunity to look beyond the headlines and the oversimplified news stories.

Signing Off - The Westfield Blogger