Tag Archives: restaurants

What’s your favorite restaurant in Rahway?

We’ve done polls on your favorite pizza, favorite burger, favorite bar, but with several “Best of” restaurant stories lately, it occurred to me that while we’ve polled readers about the types of restaurants they’d like to see in Rahway, we’ve never blogged about their favorite existing restaurants.

We’ll have the usuals like Luciano’s, The Waiting Room and Cubanu, and others outside of downtown, like Beana’s but since I hate to leave out any establishments, we’re open to suggestions on what places to list in the poll — either post in the comments below or send me an email [rahwayrising(at)gmail.com].

For this poll, we’ll stick to the larger, sit-down places and leave the smaller eateries and takeout joints for another, separate poll. Either way, it gives us something to do during the slow summer months, like while I’m on vacation.

I’ll give you a few days to come up with some ideas and suggestions and post a new poll by next week.

Beana’s nabs third place for Best Mexican

Beana’s Mexican Restaurant on St. Georges Avenue took third place in the Mexican category of Inside Jersey‘s “Best of N.J. Restaurants” feature this week.

New Jersey Monthly has its annual critics’ and readers’ restaurant poll but no word on how the top three were selected by Inside Jersey.

Casa Borinquen grand opening Friday

Casa Borinquen will have a grand opening on Friday after several months of interior renovations.

Specializing in Puerto Rican fare, the restaurant will replace Taste of Portugal, which closed in 2009 after more than two years at the East Cherry Street location. At one time the space housed the popular Eat To The Beat Cafe.

Casa Borinquen is family owned and operated by Rahway residents. I met the co-owners while I was strolling downtown on Sunday and they were putting some finishing touches on the place.
The building is among several East Cherry Street properties owned by Dornoch.

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The grand opening of Chess Mates, originally scheduled for March 1, was postponed. No new grand opening date has been set, but construction has been delayed due in part to the recent inclement weather.

The chess cafe will occupy the second retail space in Park Square on Irving Street, next to Eyes On You.

Irving St. restaurant slowed by sewer fee dispute

A dispute over sewer connection fees apparently is holding up development of an Irving Street restaurant and bar.

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier told commissioners Wednesday night he was told by partners in the Station Bar & Grill that they could not do the project if they had to pay the city’s total calculation. The city doesn’t want to stop the project, he added, but is willing to work within the confines of the ordinance.

The calculation for the connection fee range, set by city ordinance, is based on a property’s historic data and previous occupants. The amount the developers want to pay, according to Pelissier, is about a quarter of the calculation by the city’s construction official. The developers, he added, have shared their calculation with the city and what they think they should be charged.

The Planning Board approved a minor site plan for the 6,900-square-foot project last June.

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In case you somehow haven’t yet heard about “Rahway’s snow babe,” it first appeared Saturday via CNN’s iReport, before getting picked up in Wednesday’s Star-Ledger, and then on and on.

Happy hour: Friday, Feb. 26 at Flynn’s

As kind and benevolent dictator of this fine blog, I hereby decree that the next Rahway Rising happy hour will be Friday, Feb. 26 at Flynn’s Irish Pub, 1482 Main St. Let’s say, 6-ish?

Thanks to readers who offered their suggestions in comments and emails on where to meet. We decided to keep it downtown but rotate the location, and since we were at The Waiting Room the last time, we’ll just sashay over to Main Street.

We had a nice turnout in November and I hope to see some more readers who couldn’t make it the first time around. Come meet your neighbors and fellow Rahway Rising readers — see you there!

Suggestions for next happy hour gathering

It’s been two months, is it time for another Rahway Rising happy hour? It’s already mid-January and I figured I should put some more planning behind the next event. As always, I leave it open for readers to offer dates and locations for our second happy hour. I’m thinking sometime in February.

I’ve already had discussions in passing with readers who’ve proposed rotating locations to “spread the wealth” to other bars or bring it closer to the other side of town to a St. Georges Avenue establishment. Feel free to use the comments section of this post for your preferences and suggestions, or email me at rahwayrising(at)gmail.com.

I’ll be back to post some assorted news items later this week.

David Drake closes, plans new location…?

The renowned Restaurant David Drake closed this week.

A sign in the window of the Irving Street eatery reads:

“Restaurant David Drake has closed. Look for the NEW Restaurant David Drake in the spring in a new location. We would like to thank all of our local customers for all of their support over the years. We look forward to welcoming you back later this year.”

It’s unclear whether that new location will be in Rahway. I haven’t been able to find out much more since Tweeting about it Thursday but Drake told New Jersey Monthly‘s Table Hopping with Rosie yesterday: “I’m not sure what is going to happen, or not happen. It may reopen in the near future but perhaps as Bistro David Drake. We shall see because I’m totally focusing on doing good things at Alice’s in Lake Hopatcong right now.”

Thanks to reader Mark C. who emailed the heads-up on Thursday. Way to crowdsource!