New Jersey

Some dinner reservations get booked a week out. Others get booked a season out, and a few get…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

There are no tables inside, no host stand, and no menu handed over with a smile at a…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

Some restaurants come and go faster than a dinner special, but a few stick around long enough to…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

Just off Route 3 in Lyndhurst, a silver diner with a crimson roof and bright neon lights has…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

Some breakfasts are just meals, and some are a New Jersey birthright. Ask anyone raised between Trenton and…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

Downtown Westfield has a spot where the chrome still shines and the red and blue booths still wait…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 2

Flounder is the fish that Jersey Shore kitchens seem to know best, whether it arrives fried, broiled, pan…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

Summer in South Jersey has a way of ending too soon, but one roadside stop in Clayton seems…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

Some people retire to Florida and spend years dodging hurricanes and summer heat. A growing number are turning…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

Some restaurants chase trends every season, while others simply keep the piano tuned and the steaks coming. In…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

Deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, where the roads run long and the trees seem to go…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

Some people plan road trips around beaches. Others plan them around crab legs, and a surprising number of…

By Samantha Russo · Oct 1

One dollar does not buy much in Jersey City anymore, but on one stretch of Newark Avenue it…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Some diners blend into the highway scenery, and some refuse to. Along a busy stretch of central New…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Some families in northern New Jersey have kept the same lake membership since the early 1930s, and they…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Some restaurants are easy to walk into on a whim, and some are worth a phone call first.…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Some summer habits never go out of style in New Jersey, and a cold root beer in a…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Fall in New Jersey means one thing at the farm stand: pumpkin shows up in almost everything. Donuts,…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 30

Ask anyone in New Jersey where to get a bagel, and you will get a strong answer fast.…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

Every good road trip needs a finish line, and in Flemington, New Jersey, that finish line can come…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

Some meals are worth a detour off the beach path, and one small counter on Main Street in…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

The first cold snap of the year changes what a lot of us want for dinner, and in…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

A good pastel de nata is a small thing that can fix a whole morning, with a flaky,…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

Some people plan road trips around national parks, and some plan them around a hot dog that costs…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 29

Hammonton proudly calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World, and one stop on its busiest road leans…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

Long before anyone waited in line at a truck window for lunch, one Newark counter was already handing…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

In New Jersey, some of the most talked-about pizza puts the cheese on the bottom and the sauce…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

New Jersey has plenty of trendy restaurants, but some nights only a plate of chicken parm, a veal…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

Every New Jersey diner has a soup of the day, but not every kitchen starts that pot from…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

New Jersey has more diners than just about anywhere, and the best ones treat the dessert case like…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 28

Peruvian rotisserie chicken, called pollo a la brasa, has a simple job: crisp, well-seasoned skin on the outside…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

Some of the best baked goods in New Jersey never make it onto a glossy travel list. In…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

Some Jersey Shore traditions refuse to pack up when the beach umbrellas do. In Seaside Park, one small…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

New Jersey gets plenty of credit for pizza, bagels, and diners, but the state quietly holds its own…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

Good jerk chicken does not need white tablecloths or a big bill, and New Jersey happens to have…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

South Jersey has a stubborn streak when it comes to cheesesteaks, and it rarely admits that the best…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 27

Walk into almost any pizzeria in New Jersey and you will see round pies front and center, but…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 26

A real New Jersey bagel gets boiled in a kettle before it ever meets the oven, and that…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 26

Some people will drive past three perfectly good diners just to reach the one that feels like theirs.…

By Samantha Russo · Sep 26