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Originally Posted by JackedInPrinceton
Haha you seem to be a wiseguy dessert... but these sections look so safe. Where are the pictures from the Greenville Section? ... Btw like I said earlier Jersey City looks like heaven compared to Trenton, not even a joke... I gotta take a day trip up there soon...any areas/places you recommend? Bars/restaurants?
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Yeah, I'm pretty much a smart ass, often sarcastic, etc. Some of my favorite prose writers include Dave Barry, Douglas Adams, Woody Allen, George Carlin, etc. My own prose is something like a cross between those kinds of "comedy writers" and Tom Robbins, Thomas Pynchon, Clive Barker and Edgar Allen Poe.
I also like a lot of writers who are not quite so over the top bizarre, but just a bit quirky, like Thomas Berger, Harry Crews, Hunter S. Thompson (what is it with Toms?), etc.
I hope to do photo sets of a lot of different streets here; I'll try to do a Greenville street next, after I finish the other side of Montgomery (which I was hoping to photograph today).
Hmmm, for visiting, well, downtown is worth a stroll around, of course--Grove Street and "Manila" (what Grove turns into once you go north of Newark Ave), Newark Ave. itself, Jersey Ave . . . lots of good restaurants on all of those streets (but not usually fancy--although you can still easily spend $15-$20 per person)--my favorite is probably the Brownstone Diner (formerly the Newark Pancake House--crap, or was it New
port Pancake House--that would make more sense . . . anyway, I forgot the old name already), which is on the corner of Jersey and Grand.
Liberty State Park is very nice now (you don't have to worry about turning into the Toxic Avenger there any longer), and the Liberty Science Center is worth visiting. It's also worth strolling around the Exchange Place area. You can actually get there pretty easily walking from Liberty State Park--there is one section as you round the marina that they're still not finished with where you might think you'll still turn into the Toxic Avenger, but it just looks frumpy. The best bet is to kinda follow the marina all the way around, working north. There's a weird little footbridge you have to cross to get to Jersey Ave., then you have to turn south on Grand (right by the Brownstone Diner). When you can go right again, do so, heading to the marina again, now on the other side (if you're going the other way, by the way,
to Liberty State Park, just keep heading south on Jersey past Grand). You can stroll down the waterfront, almost all the way to the Holland Tunnel. There are lots of good (and some fancy) restaurants in the area, including those on Montgomery (many are in the photographs), and others you'll see (including the "high end" chains like Pizzeria Uno, Fuddruckers, etc.) on other streets. My favorite restaurant in this area is Baja, which is on Montgomery (and in the pictures above, but difficult to see if you don't know it). It's Mexican, and moderately priced.
If you like Indian food, check out Newark Ave. between Tonnele and JFK. That's the core of Jersey City's "Little India", and it's also worth checking out during Indian holidays, like Navratri and Diwali--they have big street festivals. The Village (towards JFK, across the street from White Castle) is my favorite restaurant there. And Newark further down by the courthouses has a lot of great restaurants, too--just note that some of them have odd hours, only being open on weekdays during business hours. That's because at least 90% of their business comes from the courthouses. It's a good way to casually meet a lawyer, by the way.
My favorite restaurant in that section is Maya's, which is kind of a "health food deli", but they're one of the ones with those odd hours. There's also a "Little Philippines" in this area, but it's not as well-defined. There are Filipino businesses and restaurants scattered around. The Philippine Bread House on Newark, past Bergen (just east of the courthouse blocks), is a great place to stop.
In the Heights, Central Avenue is worth checking out, beginning at about Manhattan Ave. on the southern end, all the way up to (and a bit past) Union City--tons of stores, restaurants, etc., with a nice "street mall" atmosphere. It's basically a southern extension of Bergenline in Union City (which is worth checking out, too). Whenever I'm in this area, I usually stick to eating at Mama Leona, which is Italian (obviously), and not at all fancy. I used to live in the Heights, and this was my favorite place for pizza, pepperoni rolls, calzone, etc.
As for bars, I couldn't tell you, unfortunately. While I'm definitely not a teetotaller, I'm not much of a drinker either. Lately, I tend to have maybe 10-12 alcoholic drinks per year. It's not that I'm trying to drink that little, I just don't usually get around to it (lol), and when I drink beer, wine, white Russians, etc. (a few favorites), they tend to really fill me up/bloat me, so I don't very often have alcohol if I need to be active, or with food--the last time I tried was a couple weeks ago at The Village; I felt like my wife was going to have to roll me home like the blueberry girl in Willie Wonka. The only time I tend to go to a bar/club is if I'm playing there as a musician. I don't pay much attention to them beyond working, and I haven't played at many places in Jersey City.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Newport Mall is decent . . . there are definitely better malls in Jersey and New York, but this one is nice enough, even if it can get pretty crowded on weekends, and during weekday lunch hours if you're going to the food court. There are also a bunch of restaurants on the street level in this area, including a Chilis on Washington (just south of the mall), another good Indian restaurant (which I keep forgetting the name of--I'm actually horrible remembering the names of local restaurants; I even had to look up a few above that I eat at all the time), and a bunch of restaurants around the Newport area condos.
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