HobokenFoodCritic

The other night we headed over to Black Bear Bar & Grill with a couple of friends to grab some dinner and drinks. We have had many good experiences at Black Bear as an after work hangout because of its consistently good bar & grill type food and fun, casual, laid-back atmosphere.

Since I had eaten an uncanny amount of red meat throughout this holiday season, I was in the mood for chicken. Although I’m a big fan of the Adirondack Chicken Sandwich at Black Bear, which is topped with bacon, cheese, sauteed onions and barbecue sauce, this time I went for another of my favorite Black Bear sandwiches–the Chicken Cheesesteak. One of our friends also ordered the same.

Black Bear’s Chicken Cheesesteak is a step above what you might get at other places because, rather than giving you a chopped up chicken steak-um, they actually give you sliced pieces of grilled chicken. Top that off with some carmelized peppers, onions, and cheese, and you have a winner.

The fries at Black Bear are also pretty good. They are nice and crispy, which is how I like them. Although we had a Heinz bottle on our table, a quick pour of the ketchup revealed that the Heinz bottles were obviously refilled with a cheaper, more watery brand.

Ashley had been craving ribs, so she opted for the 1/2 rack of Baby Back Ribs. Although her ribs were tasty and had a pretty good “fall-off-the-bone” quality, there simply wasn’t a lot of meat with them. Ashley managed to easily finish off the 1/2 rack, and despite her slender figure, regretted not ordering the full rack.

The service at Black Bear has always been pretty consistent for us. The wait staff is friendly and on top of things. Keep in mind that it is a busy place, and the bar area always seems to be crowded, so sometimes drinks take a bit longer than usual to arrive to the tables.

After dinner, we hung out at the bar area for a few drinks. We could hear roars upstairs from Black Bear’s weekly “Rock, Paper, Scissors” tournament. Black Bear has all kinds of weekly events and specials–one of my favorites being Wednesdays, when they have specials on their delicious Mini Burgers (aka “Sliders”), along with drink specials.

On weekends after about 9pm, Black Bear betrays its rustic decor and becomes the same kind of “hip-hop central” place that most of the downtown bars sadly become. So we stay away during those times. However, Black Bear is a great place to go after work, or for dinner when you are in the mood for bar & grill type food such as burgers and sandwiches.

Being not-too-impressed by the produce, deli, and seafood sections of the ShopRite in town (which is where we do most of our grocery shopping), we sometimes take the walk down to Garden of Eden (on Washington St. between 2nd and 3rd) to get the hands-down freshest groceries in town. So, when we wanted to cook a meal that was a bit more daring and exquisite than we are typically used to (we were thinking seafood), we hit up Garden of Eden in search of some fine ingredients.

Garden of Eden is (to stick with the biblical references) like heaven on earth–at least when it comes to specialty food markets. Much like the story of Adam and Eve, one can easily be seduced by the mounds of colorful, perfect fruit arranged outside the front window that seem to beckon you to come inside.

Walking around inside Garden of Eden is as much of a feast for your eyes as it eventually will be for your stomach. It is a relatively small food market, as compared to ShopRite, A&P, and even the Kings’ in town. But the place is impeccable, clean, neatly arranged, and, as I mentioned, colorful and appealing. It’s the kind of place that you walk into and want to buy everything. The fresh fruit and vegetables look so perfect they almost appear to be fake. I couldn’t resist the asparagus.

They even have some unique, reasonably-priced, pre-packaged veggies that can save you some prep time. I found a package of 3 different kinds of sliced zucchini–regular, yellow, and light green (I don’t know the technical names)–which I thought would be a good compliment to seafood, so I grabbed it and threw it in my basket.

Then came the seafood section. Since this would be the main course, this was the toughest decision. The fact that all their seafood looked amazing didn’t help. So, I did what any Hobokenite would do when faced with a buying decision. I splurged. I bought 1 pound of Chilean seabass, 4 huge sea scallops, and a crabcake. Probably enough food for 2 people.

It was difficult to control myself from buying more food as I walked through the hot prepared foods, fresh breads, cheeses, and the deli section (which features meats from Applegate Farms in Montclair). Somehow, I managed to make it through.

The total cost of what I bought was $49. As I left, I couldn’t help but think that we could have dined out, saved ourselves the work, and had a professionally cooked meal for not too much more money than what I spent. But what fun is that?

Actually, you don’t have to empty your wallet like I did to get great stuff at Garden of Eden. As a matter of fact, most of the fruits and vegetables are comparable in price to ShopRite–and MUCH better in terms of quality. However, you do have to be careful, because some stuff can be pricey, so it is best to be an educated consumer. Self-control is also key–you can easily find yourself being lured into stuffing your basket full with as much food as you can carry. Nevertheless, if Garden of Eden sold basic household products such as paper towels, cleaning supplies, and garbage bags, I would probably shop there exclusively. But that might take away from its devilish appeal.

In a town where the Italian restaurant scene appears to be dominated by the celebrity-frequented, high-profile Tutta Pasta and the charming, authentic, always-crowded Margherita’s, it can be easy to overlook some of the less flashy establishments along the Washington Street strip. So, for our anniversary night, we ventured to find an authentic, romantic, inexpensive (we had an expensive weekend planned–more on that in a later post) Italian restaurant that we hadn’t already tried.

We decided upon Trattoria Saporito because it seemed both quaint and elegant, and the menu not only offered the standard Italian fare, but also showed a bit of creativity as well. Since it’s BYOB, we brought a bottle of Cabernet that was left over from our visit to the Brotherhood Winery in upstate New York last winter. We opted to sit inside to escape the slight mugginess, though there were a few people who didn’t seem to mind.

At the door, we were greeted by a friendly paisan who looked and sounded like he belonged in an Italian restaurant. He showed us to our table (there were only two other tables occupied inside) and proceeded to recite by memory a specials list that was quite possibly longer than the actual menu. After a few minutes, I had to hold back from bursting into laughter. When he was finished, I asked him to repeat everything.

It is often said that you can tell a lot about a restaurant by the bread they serve before the meal. The bread we received was a step better than a typical Italian baguette–it was obviously homemade and it was warm, which scores extra bonus points in my book (or on my blog, for that matter).

What really impressed us was that even though we did not order appetizers, our waiter brought us two delicious bruschettas to hold us over until mealtime. Keep in mind, I make it a rule not to tell restaurants that I will be writing about my experience, because I want the real experience, not special treatment. I cannot guarantee they will give all their guests free bruschettas, but I will say that they did it on their own. And while it did seem a little strange that we did not receive salads before our meals (especially at an Italian restaurant), perhaps they serve bruschettas instead. I guess we will have to go back again to find out for sure.

The food arrived to our table in a reasonable amount of time. Ashley had the Bucatini alla Giulia, which was pasta with red sauce, lightly fried eggplant, and shaved ricotta. The pasta was obviously homemade and we both thought her dish was delicious.

I went with one of my favorite Italian dishes–Linguine with white clam sauce. It is a dish that you can find at almost any Italian restaurant and even most pizzerias, but it takes real skill to perfect. For that reason, I feel it is a good dish to use as an assessment of a restaurant’s quality and attention to detail. The dish was very good, though not the best I’ve ever had. I liked the way they topped the linguine with a mound of opened baby clams, though I was a little disappointed to not find little pieces of clams mixed in with the sauce itself (which was a bit soupy). All in all, though, it was a hit.

As we dined into the night, the lighting inside the restaurant was dimmed to create a bit more intimate atmosphere. To our surprise, however, the faint music playing in the background progressed from romantic Italian music, to modern pop, with even some 80’s mixed in (I guess you can’t go anywhere in New Jersey without hearing a little Bon Jovi).

The portions were hefty but not un-appetizingly huge. I managed to finish all of mine (hey, it was good), while Ashley brought the rest of hers home to have for lunch the next day. We were tempted to try dessert but we just didn’t have any room left. I guess we should have planned for dessert earlier.

Perhaps the most satisfying part of the night was that, after having such a great meal, I was amazed to see a check of only $32! At that moment, Trattoria Saporito became not only a solid and authentic Italian restaurant, but also one of the best value restaurants in all of Hoboken. If we had ordered salads, appetizers, and dessert the price would obviously have been higher, but for what we paid we were extremely satified (and full).

By the time we left, around 8:00pm, the restaurant had filled to about half capacity, and the streets outside were lively. I guess Hobokenites eat late. Of course, I had to be the one to carry the doggy bag nine blocks up Washington Street during the busiest time of the night.