COCKTAIL CULTURE: NEW BRUNSWICK BAR SCENE IS ALWAYS CUTTING EDGE

When I transferred to Rutgers University in 1981, I was eager to find New Brunswick’s coolest bars. Having spent previous summers as a waiter at one of the best restaurants at the Jersey Shore, I had developed an early fondness for imported beers like Harp Lager and Pilsner Urquell.

A number of students recommended a bar on George Street. I’ll never forget the first—and last—time I pulled up a stool and inquired about the beer selection. The bartender gestured to two taps.

“Michelob and Mich Dark,” he said.

“That’s it?” I said.

“That’s it,” he said.

My exploration of the city’s bar scene might have ended there, were it not for a series of fortuitous events that proved, in retrospect, that the saying “Timing is everything” isn’t merely a cliché.

The first event came to benefit all city dwellers. Johnson & Johnson had recently completed construction of its new world headquarters in downtown New Brunswick, triggering a wave of development that included a Hyatt hotel. And across the street from the Hyatt, a new restaurant with an intriguing name: J. August Cafe.

J. August was unlike any bar or restaurant I had experienced. (Although I was only 21, the drinking age was 18—so I had experienced more than a few!) The space was visually stunning, with high ceilings, dim lighting and a beautiful polished-wood bar. The music of Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong played in the background.

The menu included unfamiliar fare like hummus, pâté and mussels steamed in white wine and garlic. The drink choices were no less alluring. There, I had my first taste of Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale—an experience that inspired an abiding affection for English ales. There, I had my first sip of Macallan, still my favorite single-malt scotch.

Because of J. August, my sense of the city changed. No longer was it a second-rate college town that offered few reasons to venture off campus. Suddenly, there was life and color and style—and all kinds of strange and wonderful things to nibble and sip.

The second fortuitous event involved me directly. A hip restaurant called Ryan’s opened on George Street. The owners were committed to creating a sophisticated urban vibe that would appeal equally to students and faculty, lawyers from the Middlesex County courthouse and executives from J&J.

I applied to be a bartender. Soon, I found myself at the epicenter of the city’s new nightlife, surrounded by coeds and young professionals standing three deep at the bar, as the sounds of live jazz and blues filled the high-ceilinged room. Working next to me was a 20-year-old Rutgers student named Jim Gandolfini, who, even then—judging by the stares of the women at the bar—was preternaturally charismatic. And, I would soon discover, a party animal.

The third event was the opening of The Frog and The Peach. Chef-owner Betsy Alger and her young assistant David Drake were among the first practitioners of New American cuisine in New Jersey. Betsy’s husband, Jim Black, was a brilliant designer who transformed a 19th century industrial space into a gleaming dining room that was at once classic and thoroughly modern. And the bar? Well, that’s where I fit in.

A few weeks before the restaurant opened in June 1983, I applied for a job as a bartender. I was hired as an assistant to the general manager. The GM quit only six months later, leaving me with what felt like an awesome responsibility to maintain a bar scene and wine list commensurate with the menu and atmosphere.

I did a lot of “research,” regularly attending wine tastings hosted by vintners or importers. It was quite an education—one I came to enjoy substantially more than the one I was getting at Rutgers. Soon enough, I traded my college ID for a full-time paycheck.

My education continued after hours with new friends, including Gandolfini and a red-headed Rutgers student named Mario Batali, who earned drinking money making crazy-good stromboli at Stuff Yer Face. After work, we’d end up at the Melody, a cutting-edge bar that was spiritually attuned with the punk-inspired nightlife then emerging on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The Melody employed a DJ named Matt Pinfield, who would soon gain national attention via a new cable channel called MTV.

After a few years in the nocturnal trenches, I took my parents’ advice and quit the restaurant business for a “more respectable” career as a newspaper reporter. Batali and Gandolfini also moved on. Mario opened a small Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. Jim became an actor, securing an understudy role in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” then getting into film before making television history in the role of Tony Soprano.

I might have lost touch with New Brunswick’s bar scene if it weren’t for one more fortuitous event. Not long before I quit The Frog and The Peach, I hired Rutgers student Francis Schott as bartender. Francis didn’t know a martini from a Manhattan, but he was a great talker, wicked smart and eager to learn. By the time I left, he was teaching me things.

A few years later, Schott opened Stage Left at the corner of George Street and Livingston Avenue with partner Mark Pascal. That restaurant took its place alongside The Frog and The Peach as one of the best in central New Jersey. Schott and Pascal opened a second restaurant upstairs called Catherine Lombardi. Schott has since earned a reputation nationally as an authority on rare wines, fine spirits and craft cocktails. He’s become my best source on the wine-and-spirits beat, which I’ve been covering for 30 years.

Soggy Dollar/Destination Dogs

Parasol/Catherine Lombardi

COCKTAILS & CONFIT: NB'S BAR SCENE 2019
 

New Brunswick’s bar scene has come a long way from the days when J. August was the only game in town. Years of investment and development by J&J, Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the New Brunswick Development Corp. have transformed the city. Today, the challenge is no longer finding a bar that serves respectable food and drink; it’s deciding which, from more than a dozen sophisticated nightspots, to choose.

To narrow the field, my wife, Kathleen, and I recently spent the better part of an afternoon, followed by a long evening, conducting fresh “research.” Because we were hungry, we started at a place called Destination Dogs that came highly recommended by Schott. Don’t let the name or menu (mostly hot dogs) or location beneath an NJ Transit overpass fool you. Destination Dogs offers uniquely creative fare, with a bar to match.

The centerpiece of the menu, available at the long dark-wood bar or at tables overlooking Joyce Kilmer Street, is a selection of 30 or so signature hot dogs. Some are made with all-beef dogs, others with chicken, lamb, duck, alligator, kangaroo or wild board sausage. Everything is homemade.

I ordered a Nicky Newarker (Newark being my second-favorite New Jersey city), with an all-beef dog, fried potatoes, onions, peppers and yellow mustard. Next time I’d be inclined to try the Charles Dog Gaulle, made with duck sausage, duck confit, foie gras, pickles, red onion and Dijon mustard. There are vegan and gluten-free options as well, much to my wife’s delight.

In addition to an excellent selection of craft beer on tap, Destination Dogs has a surprisingly sophisticated cocktail menu. Kathleen loved her Cucumber Gimlet, made with gin, elderflower liqueur, pressed cucumber, lime juice and mint.

If you like the vibe at Destination Dogs but are more in the mood for pizza, check out its sister restaurant, Fatto Americano. The pizzas are first rate, and the bar is plenty interesting. The colorful cocktail menu includes My Cousin Vinnie, made with rye, amaretto, cola reduction, lemon oil and black walnut bitters. After dinner, you can choose from an amazing selection of amari—Italian herbal liqueurs that aid in digestion.

If creative cocktails are your thing, you don’t want to miss Clydz. The setting is straight from a Prohibition movie set, with its below-street- level entrance, dark-wood bar, dim lighting and bartenders dressed in suspenders and ties. And the cocktail menu is encyclopedic, with 12 whiskey-based cocktails, 16 rum-based drinks and 32 vodka cocktails—more than 125 in all.

My wife had the Ward 5 Fizzle, a refreshing Champagne cocktail made with pear vodka and St.-Germain liqueur. I had Monks Gone Wild, with Pimm’s, Chartreuse and fresh-crushed strawberries. I don’t usually go for fruity drinks, but it was delicious—more tart than sweet.

Almost as impressive as the cocktail menu is the selection of exotic meats and game on the dinner and bar menus, including alligator, antelope, bison, boar, even python. We shared an order of deviled eggs topped with duck confit that was off-the-charts good.

Bartender Kyle Burton prepares a “Holiday Inn” cocktail at Clydz restaurant,

New Brunswick’s bar scene has come a long way. Today, the challenge is no longer finding a bar that serves respectable food and drink; it’s deciding which, from more than a dozen sophisticated nightspots, to choose.

Autumn Leaves/Catherine Lombardi

Our next stop was a relatively new place called Salt. Though the name may be plain, the decor and atmosphere couldn’t be more exciting. With large folding windows looking onto historic Church Street, exposed brick walls, handsome lighting and a gleaming marble bar, Salt may be the handsomest dining space in the city.

If you have a passion for raw oysters as I do, Salt is where you want to be. The restaurant is anchored, both visually and gastronomically, by the largest oyster bar I’ve ever seen. We were there on a Saturday night, when two oyster shuckers worked nonstop. In addition to a dozen varieties of oysters, Salt builds magnificent raw-seafood towers, with prices ranging up to $140, depending on the size of your group. I’d recommend the Bloody Mary Oyster Shooters, at $3.75 a pop.

To wash it all down, Salt offers a number of refreshing cocktails, including Anchors Aweigh, made with Hendrick’s Gin, basil syrup, lime juice and cucumber, and Maiden Voyage, with Tito’s Vodka, Cointreau orange liqueur, lemon juice and lavender syrup. The wine list includes an excellent selection of dry white wines by the half bottle—perfect for a couple to split. Choices include Ferrari- Carano Fume Blanc ($14), Louis Michel Chablis ($28) and Grgich Hills Chardonnay ($48).

From Salt, you can just about see The Frog and The Peach, so that’s where we headed next. Since Alger and Black sold the restaurant in 2012, the decor has changed dramatically. The charcoal-gray walls and bare-bulb light fixtures are straight out of SoHo. But the magnificent wood bar Black installed nearly 40 years ago is still there—as is a commitment to sourcing the finest ingredients for both kitchen and bar.

The artful drinks menu includes Smoky the Bear, made with cold-smoked bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white, and a barrel-aged cocktail made with New Jersey’s own Laird’s Apple Jack, Canton ginger liqueur and a spicy French aperitif called Bonal.

The selection of wines by the glass is heavy on boutique European estates, including a Rioja blanco from a Spanish wine region better known for its reds, a classic dry Provençal rosé from the Bandol area and a vibrant cabernet franc from the Loire Valley. The by-the-glass list also includes 10 fine Spanish sherries and an extraordinary variety of dessert wines, with selections from France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Canada and California.

If you want something to nibble on with your drink, the bar menu is every bit as sophisticated as the wine list. Among the more savory items are a taco made with duck confit, a lamb’s tongue gyro and spiced flatbread with chickpeas, olives, roasted peppers and homemade yogurt cheese.

We had just enough room left—and energy—for one more stop. The choice was a no-brainer: Stage Left Steak. Both downstairs at Stage Left and upstairs at Catherine Lombardi, Schott and Pascal are constantly in search of the most exotic ingredients, artful recipes and exquisite wines and spirits. We ended up downstairs, where the handsome curved bar has a more intimate feel. The bar at Catherine Lombardi is big and bold and a hell of a lot of fun if you’re with a group.

Decadence/Clydz

Whether upstairs or down, the cocktail menus, spirits lists and wine selections are jaw-dropping. And for beer lovers, there’s a vintage-beer menu unlike anything I’ve seen, including a magnum of Anchor Brewery’s 2011 “Merry Christmas” ale and four vintages of Chimay Trappist Ale.

Over the years, Schott has developed personal relationships with top winemakers in Europe and the United States, giving him—and his customers—access to many hard-to-find bottles. Thus, it’s possible to order wines by the glass at Stage Left that you’d be lucky to find by the bottle anywhere else. Particularly impressive is a selection of older-vintage wines Schott makes available through the use of a wine-preservation system called Coravin. Examples include a 2009 Dageueneau Pouilly-Fumé “Silex,” from one of France’s most renowned winemakers ($100 a glass) and a 20-year-old Italian Barbaresco for $140 a glass.

But nothing tops the restaurant’s collection of fine spirits. The lengthy list of bourbons includes such rarities as 12-, 15-, 20- and 23-year-old bottlings of Pappy Van Winkle (available for $45 to $159 per glass). Fans of single-malt scotch can choose from multiple vintages of The Balvenie, Bowmore, Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Laphroaig and Macallan, among others.

If you appreciate classic cocktails, you’ll find no one more dedicated to the art of mixology than Schott. One section of the voluminous cocktail menu is headed “The Evolution of the Martini.” You can sample an early version created by bartender Harry Johnson in 1888, along with more modern renditions designed by Schott’s friend Dale DeGroff, the first of the celebrity bartenders, and Schott himself. Also available is what Schott calls, with justifiable confidence, the “best Manhattan you’ve ever encountered,” made from two single-barrel rye whiskeys, Carpano Antica vermouth and Angostura bitters.

We didn’t arrive at Stage Left until later in the evening, but if you’re there at happy hour, be sure to check out the bar menu, which takes a unique approach to pub fare. There’s a grilled cheese sandwich with artisanal cheeses and truffle honey, for example, and escargot baked with ramps, butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Francis Schott, co-owner of Stage Left Steak and Catherine Lombardi

NEW BRUNSWICK COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATIONS
 

CLYDZ
55 Paterson St.
732.846.6521 
clydz.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATIONS: WARD 5 FIZZLE, a refreshing Champagne cocktail made with pear vodka and St.-Germain liqueur.

MONKS GONE WILD, made with Pimm’s, Chartreuse and fresh-crushed strawberries.

DESTINATION DOGS
101 Paterson St.
732.993.1016 
destinationdogs.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATION: CUCUMBER GIMLET, made with gin, elderflower liqueur, pressed cucumber, lime juice and mint.

FATTO AMERICANO
338 George St.
732.214.0223 f
attoamericano.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATION: MY COUSIN VINNIE, made with rye, amaretto, cola reduction, lemon oil and black walnut bitters.

THE FROG AND THE PEACH
29 Dennis St.
732.846.6521 
frogandpeach.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATION: SMOKY THE BEAR, made with cold-smoked bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white, and a barrel-aged cocktail made with New Jersey’s own Laird’s Apple Jack, Canton ginger liqueur and a spicy French aperitif called Bonal.

SALT
103 Church St.
732.745.7258 
saltrestaurantnj.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATIONS: ANCHORS AWEIGH, made with Hendrick’s Gin, basil syrup, lime juice and cucumber.

MAIDEN VOYAGE, made with Tito’s Vodka, Cointreau orange liqueur, lemon juice and lavender syrup.

CATHERINE LOMBARDI / STAGE LEFT STEAK
3 & 5 Livingston Avenue
732.828.4444 
stageleft.com

COCKTAIL RECOMMENDATION: THE BEST MANHATTAN YOU’VE EVER CONSUMED, made with two single-barrel rye whiskeys, Carpano Antica vermouth and Angostura bitters. Also, don’t miss “The Evolution of the Martini,” the cocktail menu’s voluminous list of martini options.