Comestiblog

The Cake Lounge in Little Ferry, N.J.

When I received an invitation to try a brand new restaurant called The Cake Lounge in Little Ferry, New Jersey, I wasn't sure quite what to expect.  Walking past Palermo's Café & Bakery, and ascending the steps to the floor directly above it, I assumed this would be an intimate evening spot for desserts, drinks, and live music.  Ah, but this charming place turned out to be so much more than, well, a cake lounge.

With a nod to their native home in Sicily, the Bruno family established Palermo's Custom Cakes & Bakery some thirty years ago in the Garden State.  Having earned wide recognition for their superb confections over the decades, they felt it was a propitious time to extend their brand beyond cakes and pastries.  "We wanted to open up something where we could combine our background in sweets with the savory front-end [Italian] cuisine," co-owner Paolo Bruno explained, adding, "We wanted to keep it as authentic and as upscale as possible for the area."

Dining area with Cake Gallery and full-service bar in the background

Eclectic is perhaps best way to describe this contemporary Italian restaurant.  Though seemingly random, the disparate collection of elements in the dining room was curated, with careful attention to detail, to afford an exquisite setting for dinner, dessert, drinks, or, as was the case for my Comestaccomplice and me, a fabulous evening out.

Before we even looked at our menus, two important aspects of the overall experience revealed themselves.  First, the dining area was designed for the visual, physical, and auditory comfort of the diner.  There was an emphasis on contrasting materials and textures throughout; the interplay of different woods, granites, and limestone in various shades of cream and black, together with a skillful use of glass and mirrors, created a stunning yet calming environment.  Replicas of famous landmarks and a statue of Buddha stood out among the diverse sculptured confections on display in the unique Cake Gallery along the dining room's southern wall.  "We wanted it to be upscale contemporary with a bit of an urban chic feel to it," Mr. Bruno told us.  Grounding this setting was the creamy-soft leather upholstery of the chairs and banquettes.

Further punctuating the tone of casual opulence was the tasteful, live background music—comprising mostly Italian-American standards—that alternated between vocal and instrumental.  (On our Thursday visit, we were treated to the musical stylings of John Micalizzi.)  The only off-note in the vibe was the pair of televisions mounted over the bar—one tuned to sports news, the other to European football games.  A glass partition between the bar area and the dining room did little to abate the distraction of the large screens.

The second memorable aspect of our evening was the impeccable service.  We were greeted warmly and treated graciously.  After declining two tables, we were finally settled, most elegantly, into one of the best in the house: a semicircular six-top reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood.  The headwaiter, Gennaro, came here from Sicily specifically to lend his hospitality skills to his family's new venture.  He and his assistant were flawless in their service; they were informative and solicitous without being obtrusive.  When one of us, attempting to exercise frugality, ordered an inexpensive wine, we were made to feel good about the selection.  While many other establishments patronize the patron at this juncture, Gennaro made us feel comfortable.

Video: Gennaro describes I Piatti del Giorno

Perhaps the best part of this agreeable atmosphere was the absence of the rarefied air that typically excludes all but a privileged few; in less than three months, The Cake Lounge has established itself as a welcoming place for all.  "We didn't want to create something that was outside of its own demographic," Mr. Bruno told us.  That sentiment was also reflected in the reasonable menu prices: generous appetizers and pasta dishes were priced in the teens; mains ranged from the low 20s into the 40s.

We began with complimentary bruschetta, an appetizing start to our sumptuous banchetto.

Bruschetta

One of the most telling aspects of any restaurant experience, at least for this diner, is the quality of the bread, and yes, the butter.  The Cake Lounge scored highly in this category.  The bread was crusty, creamy, and yeasty in proper proportion.  While I prefer olive oil with my bread, I simply had to taste the butter as well.  The burro had a rich, farm-fresh flavor, though possibly a grain too salty—but certainly not enough to lose points.

Stuffed Artichoke

Almost all our dishes were selected from the chef's menu.  Our starters, though quite sapid, did not really provide an accurate indication of what was to follow.  While the Stuffed Artichoke—a whole flower head, stuffed with Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and garlic—was rather tasty, its unctuousness made the dish slightly heavy.

Caprese

The Caprese was presented as a tower of alternating fresh mozzarella and tomato slices, culminating in a crown of fresh basil leaves, with roasted peppers encircling its base.  This beautiful interpretation elevated a simple salad to artistic heights.  Because this starter was listed on the regular menu, I should like to try it again when tomatoes are in season.

Rack of Lamb alla Romana

Our secondi were truly a main event.  The Rack of Lamb alla Romana—brushed with Dijon mustard and sprinkled with seasoned bread crumbs—was outstanding.  Upon determining what rare meant at this restaurant, my dining partner ordered her lamb medium rare to ensure the rack would be red rather than blue.  It proved to be the right choice, for the doneness of the eight chops varied considerably—from medium on the outer ones to rare on the ones inside.  The meat was as tender as could be, imparting deeply grassy and pure flavors as it melted in the mouth.  While a mustard application can often overpower such a dish, the light touch of Dijon complemented the lamb's flavor in perfect measure.  A glass of Villa di Capezzana Carmignano—with its medium firm dark fruit, hints of smoke, and smooth tannins—was the perfect wine pairing for this viand.

Fillet of Salmon with artichoke hearts, Boursin, and bread crumbs

My Fillet of Salmon—topped with artichoke hearts, Boursin, and bread crumbs—was a pleasant departure from the usual preparations.  The creaminess of the seasoned cheese, together with the mild acidity of the Mediterranean thistle hearts, matched the rich flavors of the perfectly cooked salmon, without overwhelming them.  A glass of Primarius Pinot Noir—a light-medium-bodied Oregonian, with berry flavors and slight smokiness—was an exquisite wine partner to this fish dish.  As with the lamb, this generous serving was plated artistically with its accompanying mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.  Both mains were as delightful visually as they were gustatorily.

To even think of forgoing dessert at The Cake Lounge would be utter folly.  One look at the tray of luscious dolci immediately overpowered any possible resistance we could have offered.

Dolci (l-r): Cannolo, Lobster Tail, Double Chocolate Cake with Ganache, and Tiramisù

Lobster Tail

My Comestaccomplice's initial reaction to the confectionery Lobster Tail was, "Wow, that's one serving?" After a very satisfying meal, it seemed almost too decadent to contemplate such an enormous portion.  Upon taking her first bite, however, any misgivings dissipated quickly.  This creamy crustacean was a marvelous marriage of flaky, buttery pastry with thick, rich whipped cream.  Its perfect sweetness was achieved by judicious restraint in the use of sugar; there was just enough to distinguish the dairy flavor of the cream from that of the crust.  While both elements were deep and rich, their flavors were clean and pure at the same time.  When dairy becomes even slightly old, it imparts a faint barnyard flavor—before turning sour.  The components of this sweet Tail were clearly fresh.

Lobster Tail with Espresso Martini and coffee

My companion's luxurious Espresso Martini was so seductive, she wanted to sip it all night.  Martinis are not only specialty cocktails here, they're also confections.  In addition to serving cake-inspired martini drinks, The Cake Lounge offers signature martini desserts—e.g., Strawberry Shortcake, Tiramisù, Nocciola, Red Velvet, etc.—crafted and served in martini glasses.

Tiramisù

For my final course, I chose the more traditional Tiramisù.  As with everything that preceded it, this lovely layered dessert was fashioned into a delicious work of art.  The flavors of the coffee-infused ladyfingers, creamy mascarpone custard, and cocoa, paired exquisitely with a cup of espresso and a large snifter of Sambuca con la Mosca (literally, "Sambuca with the fly").  There were indeed "flies" in my liqueur—in the form of toasted coffee beans.  It was a marvelous cap to a highly satisfying evening.

Tiramisù with Sambuca con la Mosca

Launched just eleven weeks ago, The Cake Lounge has enjoyed an auspicious start.  "As we move forward in the next few months, we'll be doing wine pairings, spirits pairings, cocktail pairings, along with dessert pairings," said Paolo Bruno, adding, "We're going to be introducing dessert flights with spirit, beverage, and cocktail flights … something you can't get anywhere else."  The future surely looks sweet.

The Cake Lounge

389 Liberty Street (CR 503), 2^nd Floor (NE corner Harding Pl)
Little Ferry, N.J.  07643-1008  (map)

(201) 336-9819

http://thecakelounge.com/
https://twitter.com/The_CakeLounge
https://www.facebook.com/thecakeloungenj
https://plus.google.com/115930657381864915451
https://www.pinterest.com/thecakelounge/

Pals Cabin Steaks Its Claim in West Orange

Not so many restaurants can boast of a history as long as that of Pals Cabin in West Orange, New Jersey.  This "heritage of hospitality" began as a summertime venture by two friends during the Great Depression.  Martin L. Horn and Bion LeRoy Sale obtained permission to squat on a bank-foreclosed property at the busy intersection of Prospect and Eagle Rock Avenues.  On 18 May 1932, "Marty" and "Roy," as they were known, began selling 10-cent hot dogs from a 10-by-12-foot stand they had constructed.  "It was better than selling apples on a street corner," Martin Horn was wont to say.

Following their initial success, the pals enclosed the hot dog stand as the first of many expansions to their cabin.  Within three years, Pals Special, a highly popular 50-cent charcoal-broiled steak, was added to the menu.  By 1936, Pals Cabin had become a full-service restaurant, and the price of its signature steak had risen to 75 cents.  Numerous additions over the years have resulted in the current space—a vast edifice that reveals little of the restaurant's humble beginnings.

Pals offers several areas in which to dine and unwind, including the Tap Room, the formal Winchester Room, the counter, and The Cabin.  With its high ceiling, exposed beams, stone walls, and capacious wooden booths, The Cabin is the restaurant's core and mainstay.  Were its scale not quite so grand, one might consider it cozy.  But let's just call it very comfortable.

The Cabin

Occupying a category between family and formal, this was the sort of place at which I seldom dined as a young child.  Any gustatory recollections of Pals Cabin derive from my so-called adulthood.  My earliest impressions were based more on fantasy and speculation than on direct experience.  I remember it as a prominent landmark that stood across Eagle Rock Avenue from the now-defunct Korvette City, a large shopping center that my family frequented.  In certain respects, however, Pals does evoke childhood memories of dining out.  The service, in particular, is reminiscent of my early years.  It is extremely gracious without being affected or overly formal.  There appears to be none of the trite, artificial familiarity that has become so inexplicably fashionable these days.  Instead, the demeanor of the staff is warmly polite, yet conservatively respectful.  It comes as a refreshing change not to be addressed as, "you guys."   Perhaps it is this old-fashioned deportment that most reminds me of dinners out as a child.

Pals Famous Cream of Mushroom Soup

Among the 15 starters on the menu, one is a must: Pals' velvety, justly famous, Cream of Mushroom Soup ($5.50).  Its rich velouté of roux and chicken stock, combined with an abundance of chopped, sautéed mushrooms and finely chopped shallots, is irresistible.  I order it without fail.  Many soups of this sort emphasize cream at the expense of a deep mushroom flavor in the broth.  Pals', however, offers both the cream and the rich, earthy flavor I seek.  It's easy to understand why this award-winning soup continues to be a customer favorite after more than seven decades.

Included with my main course was Pals' double salad, a somewhat ordinary bowl of tossed greens with croutons.  The homemade bleu cheese dressing continues to be the best option.

Hungarian Goulash

My Comestaccomplice and I both ordered the Hungarian Goulash over egg noodles ($19.95) as our main dish.  The recipe of is said to have been "handed down from generations of the Horn family."  To be honest, it could have been stewed—but even more critically, allowed to marinate—significantly longer.  Although the flavors were very fresh, the cabernet-infused sauce was noticeably under-salted.  Furthermore, the cuts of beef were slightly tough and not optimally integrated with the sauce.  The goulash should have been prepared at least a day in advance, and cooked till the meat opened up to allow the sauce to tenderize each chunk.  Tenderization occurs only when the meat is permitted to rest awhile; the longer it sits, the more flavor permeates each grain.  The portion, incidentally, was so large that my Comestaccomplice took home most of hers.  The leftover goulash lasted her three days, a period during which it developed an increasingly deep and rich flavor.  By the third day, it was a remarkably good goulash!

After dinner, we took a stroll down memory lane.  In the lower entryway, and scattered elsewhere in the restaurant, the walls are adorned with photographs, menus, and other mementos from Pals' early days.  Among the memorabilia is a bill, from the 1940s, promoting a "sensational young pianist" named Walter Liberace who played the baby grand here for his supper and $50 a week.

Please click on an image above to view an early Pals menu.

The steaks are higher nowadays, as are the hot dogs.  Today, Pals Famous New York strip steak costs $30.95 for an 18-ounce serving; 25.95 for a 14-ounce cut.  A foot-long frankfurter now sells for $7.95.  Though times have clearly changed since the two pals sold hot dogs from their small cabin, this venerable eating establishment continues to draw diners from near and far.  With Martin Horn's grandchildren currently at the helm, Pals Cabin is in its third generation and eighth decade of family ownership.  Who would have imagined that a summer venture would have produced such a legacy?

Pals Cabin

265 Prospect Avenue (SW corner Eagle Rock Av)
West Orange, N.J.   07052-4205   (map)

(973) 731-4000

http://www.palscabin.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pals-Cabin

By bus: 71 (West Caldwell) to Woodhull Av

West Orange Pancake House—a Gusta-Tory Corner Diner

During my early years in West Orange, New Jersey, our family often ate at some of the area's various beaneries.  They weren't all that good or bad, they were simply all I knew.  Most of the old places have long since closed or disappeared altogether.  It was most saddening, for instance, to discover the Claremont Diner and the White Castle in Verona had made way for an automotive dealership.  There is, however, an extant relic from my childhood at Tory Corner, just a few blocks up Main Street from Thomas Edison National Historical Park.  The West Orange Pancake House and Diner, mirabile dictu, continues to serve decent victuals, and now does so round-the-clock, seven days a week.

I knew this 1950s-era stainless steel edifice as the Tory Corner Diner, the initials of which remain inlaid on the floor of its vestibule.  Aside from the name and a few cosmetic updates, little else appears to have changed over the years.  Looking at this place evokes childhood memories of black-and-white television sets, named telephone exchanges (ours was REdwood), drugstores with soda fountains, and life before the Essex Freeway (I-280).  After a warm, enthusiastic welcome from owner Paul Mihalitsianos and his son, Gerry, what could be finer than eating in this diner again after so many years?

While it seems that diners typically offer extensive menus, this one's is so vast as to make it difficult to make a selection.  Its 15 pages offer everything from appetizers to "fantastic finishes."  Though several items entreated, I felt as though I'd discover something even more appealing the moment I placed my order.

West Orange Special

Listed under Sandwiches Paul's Way, my West Orange Special ($11.95)—sliced London broil on garlic bread with lettuce and tomato—was a standout.  The broiled meat was seasoned with a heavy hand, which, under most circumstances could have ruined it.  But the cook understood the fat content and age of the cut with masterly precision.  As a result, the spices were on target for maximizing this steak’s succulence and flavor.  I’ve been served beef in very fine restaurants that was analyzed and prepared with far less skill than it was here.  The accompanying thickly cut onion rings were quite all right, but the reconstituted french fried potatoes failed to measure up to the taste and quality of their plate partners.

Harold's New York-style Deli Sandwich

Harold's New York-style corned beef sandwich ($12.95), my Comestaccomplice's selection, was advertised as the best available.  (Namesake Harold Jaffe once operated the aforementioned Claremont Diner as well as New York's Carnegie Deli.)  Extremely lean and flavorful, the corned beef was piled high between two slices of rye bread and served on a platter that was as almost as big as the menu itself.  While it was very tasty indeed, the corned beef was also somewhat dry—perhaps owing to its leanness.  Fortunately, the accompanying coleslaw and half-sours, both excellent, added welcome moisture between meaty mouthfuls.  The garlic bread was yet another very tasty side.

Comfort food somehow seems even more comforting when consumed in a familiar environment.  Though I don't return to West Orange often, it's reassuring to know I can still revisit a "living" childhood memory here.

West Orange Pancake House and Diner

270 Main Street (between Prospect Pl & Kling St)
West Orange, N.J.   07052-5617  (map)

(973) 736-8333

By bus: 21 (Main Street) to Kling St

* * *

Special thanks to Michelle Colombaris Berger for sharing the following memories from the days her family owned the Tory Corner Diner:  (Please click on any image to enlarge it.)

"My dad used to tell a story about a family trip we made to Canada in the 60's.  When we got there and checked into the motel there was a book of matches from our diner sitting in the ashtray in the motel room!!!!"

"The two men are my dad, Nicholas Colombaris and an unknown.  The pic is dated May 1962, the year that West Orange celebrated its centennial.  There was a parade and many men grew beards and marched as the Brothers of the Bush (or Brush)."

"Nicholas Colombaris, my dad, sitting in his favorite booth.  This was right inside the front door on the Main Street side of the building."

Hot Dog! Childhood Memories of Verona Park

Each of us has a private, nostalgic universe—that combination of sight, sound texture, smell, and taste that informs our memories.  I say "private" because it is impossible for another person to share our experience, even simultaneously, let alone after the fact, because our personalities and biases shape what is ultimately stored as memory.

Impossible as it may be to share an exact memory, there is a place that is special enough to conjure what my Comestaccomplice termed a "near-memory experience."

Verona Park in Verona, New Jersey was my boyhood haunt.  Nearly every day during the warm months, my grandmother and I made the long walk thither from my house in West Orange.  On the occasion of my recent visit to my childhood home, however, we drove.  As we followed the familiar old path to my little paradise, my friend marveled at how much ground my little legs were willing—nay, eager—to traverse to reach the park.  This alone conveyed the idea that Verona Park had to be very special.

When we arrived, my friend understood how heavenly this place must have been for a small child, with its variety of features to explore: a lovely lake with wetlands, inlets, an island and waterfalls; a playground; a bridge; a fort with a dungeon (or, in grownups' parlance, a bandstand).  My friend dug deeply into her five-year-old self to see this place through my young eyes.  The emotions from her own nostalgic venues were easily accessible as she immersed herself here.  For the rest of our sojourn at Verona Park, she was able to remain in that child's shoes, and experience it as I might have.  Contributing to the magic of this experience was that very little had changed in the decades since my childhood.

Of all the things that had not changed, or hadn't much changed, was the concession stand and the superior hot dog that it offers.  When I was a lad, the snack bar was situated inside the boathouse.  One could eat inside, or enjoy the food outside on the deck overlooking the lake.  Today the concession stand faces out to the deck, and the boathouse interior is closed.  It was a very busy day, yet there were plenty of spots available at the long picnic tables alongside the water's edge.

Consistent with the crowds was quite a wait for our franks (there's an ample menu, but no reason to order anything else).  Finally, they were handed to us across the counter … my Comestaccomplice could hardly contain her disappointment.  It took only one whiff of the hot dog's aroma and a glance at its crackly skin to realize that ordering just one had been a serious mistake.  Two or three would have been much wiser.

The hot dog's appearance—fine as it was—could only hint at just how good it actually tasted.  The grilled skin offers a gratifying snap as one bites into it.  The juice inside is just enough to keep the meat moist without it running down one's chin.  The flavors meld perfectly: good quality beef is blended with just the right amount of salt and savory spicing, and encased in that snappy skin with its slight charred flavor.

It is rare that as adults we can revisit a favorite childhood experience and even find it still enjoyable.  It's truly special when a visit down memory lane is not only pleasant, but measures up to our inner child's expectations.  Amazingly, the hot dog was exactly as I remembered it—how truly remarkable after all these years.  What a treat it was to share such a delectable old memory.

Verona Park

Bloomfield & Lakeside Avenues
Verona, N.J.   07044   (map)

http://www.essex-countynj.org/
http://www.veronapark.org/

By bus: 29 (Bloomfield Avenue)