BARISTAVILLE BASH

BARISTAVILLE BASH



The good folk who are responsible for Baristanet.com [1]
threw a bash tonight.  It was at a lovely bistro sort of place,
The Church Street Cafe in Montclair, NJ.  Before reading any
further, you should visit Baristanet [1] and check out the neat site.



The site's been around for a year now, so this may qualify as the birthday party [2].  There were all sorts of interesting people there, enjoying each others' company, the wonderful food and drink of The Church Street Cafe [3], and even some very nice live music.



Not only that, but I got a legal parking space just a few doors down from the Cafe.  Always a good omen!



Garden State Dishing



The Garden State takes a lot of ribbing --wait, let's call it like it is: dissing
-- from neighbors across the river, the state line,etc.  I 
have certainly been guilty of participating in that.  When I first
began to look outside of NYC for a place to live, when anyone would
suggest Jersey, I would look at them with shock and disgust, and say
with a scowl, "Jersey?!"  The mere thought of moving to New Jersey was, well, let's call it anathema.



Admittedly, back in the days when I was married and we were looking to
leave our Westchester house and find new digs closer to my office, we
did spend a few days looking in the Garden State.  I was not at
all committed to it, but the ex wanted to check it out.  Nothing
came of it, there was no way we were moving to Jersey.  It was
unthinkable.



Nowadays I live in a town next door to NJ.  I have a ton of Jersey
neighbors.  Gas is always bought on the Jersey side, where the lower tax
base makes it less of a burden to fill up the tank.  My primary
care doctor is in Jersey, and I would change insurance before I'd
change doctors.



Okay, I admit it, there's a lot to like about Jersey.



NJ Highways, Exits, Landmarks . . . and Directions



Debbie Galant, a Jersey resident and the prodigious scribe-in-chief (my term, not hers) over at Baristanet, gave me perfect
directions to the bash.  Lemme tell ya, when you drive anywhere in
Jersey, you need exquisite directions.  Those always include a
major highway and an exit number.  Some discussions among
Jerseyites are almost completely limited to geography, highways, and
exit numbers.  And eateries as landmarks.

• "You live in (name of NJ town?)" 
  
  
• "Yeah, exit 151." 
  
  
• "151?  I thought (name of NJ town) was 64?" 
  
  
• "Nah, that's 287, I use the GSP." 
  
  
• "How do you get to the Turnpike from there?"
• "I take (17 or 4 or 46), past Squadaloupe's Pizza, left at the Home  Depot,and two lights later there you are."
• "Squadaloupe, the one with the orange awning?"
• "No, that's Schurtzenbacher, next door, the meat market.  Squadaloupe has the striped awning, but it is all ripped."
• "Oh, yeah, I know the place.  I used to eat at their other place, the one in Metuchen, you know that place?"
• "Yeah, but the best was the place they had down The Shore, by LBI, before the condos went up."
• "Yeah, that one, was right off exit 261A, on the bypass after the bridge."

If you've been to Jersey, or spoken with Jerseyites, you've heard this conversation, or a reasonable facsimile.



Pretty Towns in NJ



A few months ago I visited a doctor, a highly recommended specialist,
in New Jersey.  His office is in Ridgewood, NJ.  Driving from
here to there (You go past the 287 turnoff, take 17S to Linden . . .) I was struck by the beautiful homes in Ridgewood.  I was also pretty happy with this doctor.



Driving to Montclair this evening, following Debbie's letter-perfect
directions, I was astounded by the breathtaking beauty of the houses in
Glen Ridge.  I've been to Montclair before, and know of the
gorgeous real estate thereabouts.  But, except for knowing of Glen
Ridge as the "suburb of shame" from some messy business there about
twenty years ago, I'd never seen it.



Wow.



Those are some beautiful houses, neighborhoods, lawns.  No McMansions, no cookie-cutter ("little boxes, made of tickey tackey [4]") houses, no conspicuous consumption obnoxo-builds.  Just gorgeous house after gorgeous house. 



Hoo-hah, and ooh, ahh.



I want to go back, drive slowly, and look at these houses again. 
No two houses looking alike, no houses looking like they were all from
a "pick from one of five designs for our subdevelopment" sort of
offering.  All the houses were well-kept.  The main road even
had a defined parking lane on each side, for traffic control and ease
of access.  If you're gonna live in Jersey, check out Glen Ridge!



"Joi Zee"



Not a single person at the Barista Bash spoke like the Joe Piscopo SNL
character, Sylvester Stallone, or Tony Soprano.  I didn't hear
Brue Springsteen's name invoked even once.  No discussion of Jerry
Vale versus Frank, for who is the better crooner.  No mention of
Jersey's famous other Frank, better known as Frankie, as in Valli, of
the Four Seasons.



But I was lucky enough to meet a famous Jersey blogger and builder of websites, the indefatigable Soprano Sue, famous for her site [5]
about that group of Jerseyites who apparently were not in attendance at
the Barista Bash.  Maybe they were over at the Bing . . .