Pizza Vita to Open Today

Photo from Pizza Vita

The wait is over! Pizza Vita, known for their quick-cooking pizza truck, will be opening their new brick and mortar restaurant at 435 Palisade Ave today.

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. 

Community News: Wurstbar offers Dogs for Dogs, Cranbury Kolsch coming soon,

Jersey City

• Wurstbar is celebrating Dogs for Dogs all November long. For every hot dog and can of Ironbound Cider purchased, Wurstbar will donate $1 to See Spot Rescued or Liberty Humane Society. In addition, Ironbound will match any donations made from cider sales. 
• Congratulations to Baonanas on their Grand Prize win of $15,000 from JCEDC as part of their business acceleration program. 
• Per Jersey Digs, Artichoke Basille's Pizza is expanding into New Jersey including Jersey City.

Renato's Pizza Masters Renovation Now Open

After a long period of renovation, Renato's Pizza Masters finally debuted their new and expanded space last week and it looks great.

Community News

Jersey City

• Big Chef, a long time Jersey City staple for Americanized Chinese food, has been replaced by East Village, an Asian bistro and sushi bar. 
• Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is in the initial development stages to open a location at 499 Washington Blvd.
• Basically every pizza place in Jersey City is on this list of Best Pizza nominees. Cast your vote every day until July 2nd to get help get your favorite spot into the semi-finals. 

Get to Know JC Eater: Patty

Welcome to "Get to Know JC Eater" where every week I post a profile of a local resident sharing where and what they love to eat in Jersey City. If you'd like to be featured, please leave a comment below or email me directly.

This week's JC Eater is a food lover who would love some pupusa recommendations.

Porta is Opening...

....and they'll be celebrating with free pizza!

Community News

• Congratulations to Ahri's Kitchen who reached their kickstarter goal! There's still time to add your support.
• Taphaus, the new beer garden opening in Newport, has been busy with final touches and they're aiming for an opening day of October 6th.
• Krispy Pizza has officially opened in Jersey City.

The All About Downtown Street Fair Returns for 2014!

This Saturday is the HDSID All About Downtown Street Fair with live music, family-friendly activities, and over 125 local vendors for you to check out, offering everything from jewelry to furniture to lots and lots of food.

Alex's Pizza on Grove St. Now Open!

On Monday, Alex's Pizza at 346 Grove Street officially opened. Previously occupied by Sava Polish Diner, the set-up remains fairly similar with orders being taken at a counter in the back and tables in the front. It's pretty spacious and it looks like they are trying to encourage dine-in eating.

Community News

• There's a new food truck in Jersey City! The Chopping Block opened today at the Farmers' Market at Lincoln Park, offering gourmet sandwiches and salads. Here's a partial menu pic, courtesy of Twitter friend @amywilson
• Congratulations to Jersey City Veggie Burgers on celebrating two years in business!
• Krispy Pizza, located throughout New York and New Jersey, is coming soon to the Paulus Hook area of Jersey City. Check out The Jersey City Life's post for more info. 

Second Street: Not Just for Sandwiches

Bread + tomato sauce + mozzarella = happiness

This is an equation that has been proven over and over again. Second Street Bakery, already well-established as a wonderful Italian deli, is one more example proving this theory true.

The pizzas available at Second Street aren't what we typically think of when conjuring up the image of a pizza; they're a bit more rustic, more free-form and only come in the most classic variety: bread + tomato sauce + mozzarella. But this is all you need to enjoy a delicious treat.

Favorite Delivery Spots Part II

Jersey City is packed full of pizza places and casual Italian dining spots, so when I started categorizing some of my personal favorite delivery options, I found that I really needed a whole separate list just to cover them. Especially because I, with my very particular tastes, tend to only order certain things from certain places - no one size fits all here.

So - here you have it, Delivery Spots Part II: All About the Italian.

Community News

Sorry for the delay on this week's Community News! I've been away and trying to do a lot of catch-up, but here is the last round of Community News for 2013. Thanks for a great year, Jersey City!

• Congratulations to Thirty Acres for their mention in Eater's round-up of Best Newcomers in 2013! While not new this year, Saveur's Helen Rosner mentioned the restaurant as one that "really came into its own"http://ny.eater.com/archives/2013/12/industry_experts_on_the_top_newcomers_of_2013.php
• Congratulations also to Zeppelin Hall who was named New Jersey's Most Popular Bar by Buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/americas-most-popular-bars-in-2013
• Amelia's Bistro is holding a 5 course Beer Tasting dinner with Saranac Brewery on January 28th. $75/person https://twitter.com/AmeliasBistroJC/status/416639125840613376/photo/1

Another Winner From Razza

A few days ago,Razza announced via twitter that they were bringing back their roasted pumpkin pizza, complete with a mouth-watering picture. Having somehow missed this on the first go-around and having an already proven love for Razza, I knew I didn't want to miss this opportunity again.

However this time around, I found myself with not a lot of time and too many things to do, so instead of missing my chance, I decided to just order take-out which was my first time doing so. I love the dining experience at Razza....but it's really nice to have this option as well. Along with the roasted pumpkin pizza which was listed on their everyday menu, I got their Kale Caesar Salad which is always delicious and remains one of the best kale salads I've ever had.

Congratulations to Rustique Pizza!

Tomorrow, Rustique Pizza, in Hamilton Park on Jersey Avenue and 5th Street, will celebrate it's two year anniversary!  Congratulations to all of you!  While I haven't yet mentioned Rustique here, I've been there several times over the past couple of years and it's a great, intimate place for a friendly, relaxed, and tasty meal. The service is great, their brick oven is impressive, and the garlic spread is amazing.

Why You Should go to La Festa Italiana: An Essay in Photographs

As I mentioned, La Festa Italiana is a really fun annual festival and street fair held in Jersey City. It ends tomorrow night, so you've got two more nights to go (or go again) and here's why you should:

 Live Entertainment

 

Delenio's Menu & the meatballs which were really good. Flavorful, juicy, and in a slightly tart tomato sauce.

Congratulations to Razza!

I wanted to formally congratulate Jersey City's own Razza, who received a well-deserved honor today. In case you missed all the tweets and well wishes, Thrillist named Razza one of the 33 best pizzas in America!

As you probably know, based on this post and this one here, I'm a huge fan of Razza and I'm so happy they were included. They make wonderful pizzas, both traditional and innovative and I am more grateful then ever that they are right here in the neighborhood!

Razza, Round 2 (and 3)

"Wow, you really love this place, don't you?"

"Yes. Yes, I do."  

And so went the conversation during my most recent visit to Razza. It was the third time I'd been there in less than a month and that's because it's true; I do love Razza and there are a lot of reasons why:

• The service is wonderful. On my second visit, the manager came over and talked to our table about the pizza we'd tried which was new that evening, asking for feedback and telling us about some plans in the works. On my last visit, when I was still waiting for my friends, the hostess came out and offered me a table without my asking. Those are just a couple of examples but the staff just go above and beyond and they seem to do so cheerfully. It's something I notice and appreciate every time.

Riverview Park - Peach Pie Competition Results and Farmers' Market

This past Sunday, on a beautiful and sunny day, the Riverview Park Farmers' Market hosted one of the state-wide Peach Pie contests. There were 13 entries in all, and Joleen Crosta of Belleville, NJ took first place with her "Vegan Peachy Peach Pie", filled with Jersey peaches and topped with an almond crumble. Sandy Martiny won second-place with her amaretto crumble topped peach pie and Lara Hartman placed third with a ginger peach pie.