The Little Italy of New Jersey?

The other day, I was driving down Essex Street when I noticed that the former location of Sono was going to be the home of a new brick over pizzeria, Locali. In other words…an Italian restaurant. Let me start by saying I have nothing against Italian food. As a matter of fact, I love Italian food. Went to Italy on my honeymoon just so I could eat Italian food. Eat Italian food at home at least once week. Go out for Italian food all the time (ate at Libretti’s in Orange last weekend). I just don’t think we need another Italian food establishment in town.

Let’s look at the facts. Starting at Enzo’s and going down Millburn Avenue until you get to Gian Marco, I now count 13 Italian restaurants and/or pizzeria’s on or within one block of Millburn Avenue.  This includes 2 new establishments which are not yet open: Clemenza’s (love that name), which is the same folks who now own La Cucina which will be closing when the new restaurant opens (so that's a wash), and Locali. It also does not include the new salad place that will be opening where Semolina (also Italian) used to be even though it’s “Salads by Cioffi” (Cioffi's in Union being a family fav) making it sound Italian but that would make me seem exceptionally picky, don’t you think? I do reserve the right to increase my count to 14 when this place opens if it becomes appararent that Salads by Cioffi in an "Italian" salad restaurant.

For quite some time, I’ve been wondering why are there so many Italian restaurants in Millburn? Our diverse community has plenty of Italians but certainly not so large to warrant this kind of culinary domination. I for one would love to see some diversity in town and I know I’m not alone. How about a Greek Restaurant, Middle Eastern food, a BBQ joint or a real Jewish deli, which I’m sure would go over big in my house? Isn’t there someone out there who’d like to open a restaurant in town that serves something other than Italian food?

I just can’t seem to figure the whole thing out but at least you can get good Italian food while your getting your hair and nails done at the many salons that seem to be everywhere (but that’s a whole other story).