Five New Restaurants Coming Soon to the Heights

Five new dining destinations are set to hit Jersey City Heights in the near future, continuing the rapid restaurant expansion in the neighborhood. While none of them have announced their official opening date, they are all expected to open their doors within the next two months.

Pizza Vita - Pizza Vita, known for their quick-cooking pizza truck, is opening a brick and mortar space at 435 Palisade Avenue. They currently have locations in Summit and at Harborside Plaza in Jersey City. This location will focus on the pizza, but have a somewhat expanded menu similar to what they offer at their Summit location. 

Construction Update in the Heights - Lo-Fi, Choc-O-Pain, & More

As more and more development takes place in the Heights and more residents flock to the neighborhood, the rate of opening for new bars, restaurants, and food options is steadily increasing. Three downtown businesses are opening new locations, several new spots are opening up, and some long-time Heights businesses are also expanding.

Most recently, The Cliff - a European-inspired and vegan-friendly cafe, and Pampita Meat Shop, an Argentinian butcher shop, opened their doors, but there's a lot more to come. 

Low Fidelity, known as Lo-Fi, is a new bar and restaurant being created with help from the team behind the Archer. Located at 328 Palisdae Ave in the former Trolley Car Bar space, the bar will feature several craft breweries on tap along with a specialized cocktail list and they're hoping to make as much use out of the backyard as possible. There's been a lot of progress in a relatively short time, most recently with awnings going up, and the owners are aiming for a June opening. 

Also soon to open on Palisade Ave, right next to Lo-Fi at 330-332 Palisade, is the newest location of Choc-O-Pain. This location will serve as their commissary and primary baking facility, supplying their other locations and will also have a retail storefront and cafe, offering their fresh-baked bread, pastries, sandwiches (including vegan options) and more. The space has undergone a huge amount of renovation and there have been several delays, but now they're getting very close to the finishing line. The awnings went up last week and they're also aiming for a June open. 

On Central Avenue, there's even more to come. Downtown favorite Cocoa Bakery will be taking over the former Goehrig's Bakery which unexpectedly closed almost three years ago and has remained empty since. Right now, the hope is to open the new bakery space sometime this fall, but there is no definite opening date. 

For those looking for even more baked goods, La Unica Bakery is moving into 454 Central Ave into a former formal-wear shop. An expansion of the Union City location, La Unica is known for their Cafe Con Leche, freshly-baked bread, and cuban sandwiches. There is no estimated date of opening, but considering they're changing from a retail shop to a bakery and based on the level of progress right now, I'd say it will be some time before we see it open.

Further south at 380 Central Ave, Gino's Pizza started construction on a new bar area and should have it up and running within the next several weeks. They remain open and are allowing full service in the meantime. 

Also performing an expansion is Renato's Pizza Maters at 278 Central Ave which will now include 274-275 Central Ave. They currently have both a sit-down dine-in area as well as a casual pick-up space, but they've taken the extra space to further build out their dine-in space, adding room for at least 50+ more diners. The expansion is anticipated to open later this year, hopefully by fall.

There are also plans for at least two more restaurants, a cafe, and another pizza place currently in the works to be opened within the next two years. Stay tuned for more definite dates as the openings get closer and further details on what else is to come!

7 Great Spots for Hot Chocolate in Jersey City

When winter coats start coming out and it takes more than a minute to delayer upon entering a building and then another minute to relayer upon preparing to leave, there's nothing left to do but embrace the season. One great way to do that? Hot chocolate!

Community News

• Cocoa Bakery is now carrying Lemon Blueberry cupcakes which they make annually to benefit Chemo Comfort, an organization that makes and provides comfort kits to chemo patients. The cupcakes will be available until June 12th.
• On Tuesday, June 21st June 28th, Hudson Kitchen is presenting their next Table Talk Live, focusing on how to market food businesses. Tickets are $20/person.
• Speaking of Hudson Kitchen, they recently featured an interview with local company Baonanas. 

Celebrating Passover

Passover begins this Friday and Cocoa Bakery is stocking their shelves in preparation.

Easter Desserts

Easter is coming up and as with all good holidays, it's important to plan ahead for dessert. Here are some of the best options around Jersey City:

St. Patrick's Day This Weekend

St. Patrick's Day is everyone's favorite drinking holiday and the festivities are starting early in Jersey City.

Community News

• Congratulations to The Grind Coffee Shop in Bergen Lafayette who started their soft opening this past Saturday and will be officially open beginning tomorrow (12/14).
• Thirsty Quaker has put together a special Christmas Gift Guide showcasing great gift items from their store.
• Cocoa Bakery has officially released their holiday menu and have started taking orders.

Community News

• Congratulations to Battello for being named as one of New Jersey's 20 Best New Restaurants by NJ Monthly.
• Park and Sixth Gastropub got two and a half stars from The Star-Ledger.
• Porta is now officially offering Happy Hour every Monday through Friday.
• Razza got a mention in the Village Voice for their unusual Pork Pie.
• Congratulations to Porta, Third & Vine, and Union Republic, all mentioned in NJ Monthly's New & Notable Restaurants List.

Community News

• Congratulations to 9 Bar Cafe who had their soft opening this week. To learn more, check out this article from the Jersey Journal.
• Tea NJ is looking for an experienced barista to join their team
• Thirsty Quaker is holding a DuClaw Brewing tasting next Thursday beginning at 6pm.

Community News

• Local favorites like Milk Sugar Love, modcup, Third and Vine, and more were featured in an article from Epoch Times about food artisans in Jersey City.
• Sam a.m. is having a special supper club this Tuesday and they've teamed up with Cool Vines in Jersey City to provide discounted pairing suggestions.
• Cocoa Bakery is selling cream puffs for your New Year celebration, so get them while you can.

Get Your Thanksgiving Orders In!

The weekend is here! AND it's the weekend before Thanksgiving so here's a list of  holiday specials around Jersey City.

Choc-O-Pain is offering 10% off all holiday bread, tart, and pie orders (they have gluten-free desserts too) if you order before 7pm on Sunday.

Milk Sugar Love has a special Thanksgiving dessert menu available that you can order from online.

Cocoa Bakery is Celebrating

Congratulations to Cocoa Bakery on their one year anniversary today! After facing quite a bit of adversity (Sandy-related damage amongst other things), they opened up one year ago and have been going non-stop since.

In celebration, they are offering a free treat to anyone who stops by today so go wish them a happy anniversary and enjoy!

Cocoa Bakery - Now With Ice Cream Sandwiches

Last week, Cocoa Bakery began selling a special new item: an ice cream sandwich.

Their first flavor combination was raspberry ice cream with gingersnap cookies but since then, they've also served up chocolate walnut cookies with vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate cookies with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and raspberry with peanut butter milk chocolate chip cookies. 

Still need gifts?

If you're still looking for unique and awesome gifts (and you're not alone in that), why not consider some of the awesome food/beverage options around Jersey City?

ModCup is offering a special box set containing three 8oz bags of whole bean coffee from Sumatra, Kenya, and Colombia as well as a great t-shirt with a hand pull espresso design. Thursday, Dec. 19th is the last day to order in time for Christmas so make sure you snap up this offer quickly! They also have roaster's choice subscriptions, t-shirts, espresso blends and more for sale. You'll be sure to find something to satisfy any coffee lover here.  http://modcup.com/shop/

Event Recap: Jersey City Project: Market

Yesterday was the much anticipated Holiday Market presented by the Jersey City Project and Yelp and Jersey City turned out in full force for the occasion! There were tons of people, lots of great stands and creative gift items around and of course, some delicious food.

The variety and creativity on display was astounding with everything from imprinted goods from Nightingale Project to soaps and cars from Smith and Chang while Kanibal Home brought out some beautiful antique jewelry.

This Tuesday = Awesome

So this Tuesday in Jersey City is turning out to be pretty great! Not only are you able to exercise your constitutional right and vote(!) which in turn led to no alt.side of the street parking today(!), there's been several exciting announcements that I definitely think everyone should take advantage of.

Cocoa Bakery is offering a Two for Tuesday BOGO on cupcakes from 4-6pm today so make sure you stop by and take advantage of this great deal for some delicious cupcakes!

Sam a.m. Cafe will be open until 8:30pm tonight in case you need a little caffeine buzz to get you through your voting decision-making process.

Community News

• As mentioned last week, Soul Flavors is closing (although happily keeping up their catering business) and now it's being reported that Taqueria Downtown will be taking over the space. It will be called Taqueria Downtown Catering Co. and focus primarily on catering and possibly delivery throughout the downtown Jersey City area. They will also offer carry-out and frozen foods and sauces to go. The Jersey Life has more information: http://thejerseycitylife.com/2013/11/taqueria-to-take-over-the-old-soul-flavors-location-on-grove-st/
• Incrediballs has been hard at work on a special Thanksgiving meatball and they are hoping to debut it this week! Additionally, they will also begin carrying a vegetarian chili which is welcome as we head towards the cold weather.
• In other Incrediballs news, Cocoa Bakery and the truck are continuing to enjoy their partnership and they're hoping to arrange some sort of combo or other deal where Cocoa Bakery's cake truffles will be available at the truck so stay tuned for more information on that. 

Cocoa Bakery is open!

Originally scheduled to open last year, Cocoa Bakery, like so much of New Jersey, was devastated by Hurricane Sandy and has spent the better part of a year cleaning and rebuilding while appearing at farmers markets throughout Jersey City and filling custom orders, including fun and beautiful cakes. Midweek last week, they quietly reopened and they've now announced their grand opening for this weekend, culminating with Mayor Fulop attending a ribbon cutting at 5pm on Sunday, October 20th.

Located in a lower level space on Grand Street, with a bright and welcoming entrance patio cheerfully framed by potted plants, Cocoa Bakery has lots of room to sit and linger over coffee and pastries while admiring the busy workers in the kitchen and behind the counter. There is a sense of urban hominess with delicious smells of flour and sugar permeating the air, tempting your senses but what a worthwhile temptation it is.

Community News

• As was widely and happily reported last week, Talde, run by Dale Talde of Top Chef Fame, will be opening a Jersey City location along with a provisions store on Erie Street: http://ny.eater.com/archives/2013/10/talde_team_to_expand_to_jersey_city_next_year.php 
• Cocoa Bakery opened after months of work recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Their hours are not set, but they'll have a grand opening in a couple of weeks. Feel free to start enjoying in the meantime!
• Orale has started delivery service via foodler.com! However, be forewarned, there is a $6 delivery fee. But if the craving strikes....http://www.foodler.com/orale-mexican-kitchen/14680