Issue 123: West Side food recommendations
Plus, an extended ICYMI!
Good morning! If you see me shuffling through the neighborhood — or have, over the past month — please know I’ve been dealing with a bunch of different foot/ankle/leg injuries (long story) and I’m now on medication and rest to help get me back to normal. The newsletter is a bit shorter this week as a result, but hopefully still has some things in it for you to enjoy. I hope you have a great weekend! — Amy
Two West Side restaurants I want you to know about, plus an extra
The West Side is known for many things — our beautiful parks, our feisty people (lol) — but one thing we don’t really do well is food. There’s always been exceptions, but the choices available here haven’t been too great over the last few years. But things are changing: slowly but surely, we’ve been adding some options here, while some older standbys have been upping their game. I wanted to point out two places that I think may have gone unnoticed by many but are really great, with the hope that we’ll keep adding more to the mix in the future.
First up, we have Delish Juice Bar (718 West Side Avenue). This opened a few months ago, and not only has fresh juices, but homemade empanadas, coffee, waffles, Acai bowls, all day breakfast, and other treats. It’s the empanadas that really impressed me — I ordered two veggie and cheese empanadas and instead of just giving me something that had been sitting under a hot lamp for hours (which is how many places here serve them), they were made fresh and arrived piping hot. Inside, there was a mix of beets and carrots and just a little dollop of cheese, not the usual mix where it’s 95% cheese and a little veggie thrown in (this is a huge plus for me — I like cheese, but I wanted to taste the vegetables as well). Wait… had I just stumbled across a kind of miracle on West Side Avenue, healthy empanadas?? Since they were deep fried, I can’t really make the argument that they’re all that healthy, but they were delicious and satisfying, and hey I got some veggies in along the way which is always great. The environment of the shop is very simple, but hosts multiple tables and comfortable chairs, and they were playing soft jazz music. I could see it being a nice place to sit with a laptop and linger for a while, as at least two other people were doing.
Down the street is Molcajetes (520 West Side Avenue), a Mexican place that is so delicious it has ruined me for all other Mexican food forever (seriously! I had a burrito in NYC the other day and was just sad at how it didn’t even come close). It has a cute interior and a staff that is just wonderful — the waitress (she’s always there, as far I can tell) is completely on top of things, even when it gets pretty crowded as it often does. I ordered food here a few years ago and wasn’t that impressed, but something has changed and now I dare say this is the best Mexican food on the West Side. My personal favorite is the shrimp burrito, but everything we’ve had there has been great. Don’t miss the hot sauce that comes in the red container — it’s smoky and quite different than other Mexican hot sauces I’ve had; closest to a mole sauce, but with a bit of a kick. Also, the prices can’t be beat — most dishes are $9-$11 and you get a nice serving of food for that. Highly recommend.
(Also — and I’m putting this in parentheses because it’s not technically an endorsement, just yet — I’ve noticed that local Vietnamese place Thanh Huong (533 West Side Avenue) has been hopping lately. They moved to the neighborhood from Chinatown years ago, but did so during a time when I was vegan. Getting Vietnamese food that’s vegan is hard if not impossible, so I didn’t really pay them too much notice at the time but — I’m not vegan anymore! So that will definitely be next on my list. And after years of it looking very quiet, it’s good to its tables being filled on a Friday night. Very, very promising.)
ICYMI, the extended version
There is a very in depth article in New York magazine this week about Senator Bob Menendez and his incredibly cringey relationship with his wife Nadine, in which Nadine’s breasts feature prominently and are mentioned way more than you might imagine, along with lots of juicy fun facts about the dating scene in Hudson/Bergen County that I was previously unaware of. I kind of wish I could go back in time and unread this thing, except that it’s also pretty uh, interesting, sort of? I feel like I learned a lot by reading this, not so much about NJ politics, but about middle aged men. Anyway, here’s the link, and please don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Statewide, Democratic legislators are in a tough race this Tuesday — well, not in Hudson County, where the Dems will sweep everything, but in most of the rest of the state. This was not helped by the last minute “October surprise,” offshore wind farm company Orsted's abrupt cancellation of their plans in NJ. While this hasn’t made much of a dent in our local news, it’s a big deal in the rest of the state, with Dems going all out to support it only to have it unceremoniously taken from them like Lucy and Charlie Brown and that darned football. Point is, lots of political collateral has been spent supporting this controversial deal, it’s now dead, and angry voters may well hold their reps accountable at the polls. Read more here.
Speaking of an October Surprise, Politico writer Matt Friedman turned up the dash cam footage of presumptive County Executive Craig Guy getting arrested for a DUI a few years ago. Not that it matters at this point, but this information would have been great to have during the primary when he did have a challenger.
A reader sent in this TikTok video about a bill headed to committee in NJ later in November, regarding insurance companies and prior authorization and what they will and will not cover, aka a Prior Authorization Reform Bill. Check it out here.
Jim McGreevey appears to be poised to announce that he’s officially running for mayor. Looks like I got things in the wrong order a bit in my Subscriber Exclusive — I was sure Bill O’Dea would be first out the gate, but oh well. Maybe McGreevey felt pushed by O’Dea releasing his fundraising numbers, or maybe it had nothing to do with that whatsoever — honestly, McGreevey is a mysterious guy. Anyway, the whole thing led me to make this meme, as I contemplate our Never Ending Forever Mayor’s Race:
Lastly, the greatest food critic ever, Robert Sietsema, who regularly writes about Jersey City cuisine along with his beat in NYC, has picked a new Best-Of-India-Square restaurant: Swadist (715 Newark Avenue). I haven’t been, but I walk by it all the time so I can co-sign that the interior is nothing to get too excited about (it’s described in the article as looking like “like a Ramada Inn in Kansas City”) but the food sounds absolutely incredible. Soon as I am fully ambulatory again, I will definitely go racing over to check it out!