Even if you know Chef Eric LeVine from Morris Tap & Grill, now you’ll know him even better. Next month, Paragon Tap & Table will open in Clark, featuring Chef LeVine’s award-winning food paired with 20 artisan craft beers on tap. The gastropub experience will be enhanced by friendly and knowledgeable staff, five large-screen televisions in the bar area and a private dining room. The eatery’s goal is to take customers on a journey of that is a regional, seasonal and outside-the-box creative dining experience. I had an opportunity to catch up with the ever-busy Chef LeVine to ask him a few questions about the new restaurant.
JERSEY BITES: What style food can we expect at Paragon Tap & Table?
CHEF LEVINE: We are continuing our focus on craft food, craft beer, craft cocktails, all with a twist, as with Morris Tap & Grill (MTG). We’ll offer seasonal changes plus some of the signature items from MTG, such as our flatbreads, our award-winning craft burgers and selection of wings, vegan selections, hand-crafted pastas, house-cured and smoked meats and fish, gluten-free items. We’ll also have homemade desserts like seasonal sorbet and gelato.
There has to be a twist. What is it?
The twist will come in that we’ll also offer people an elevated dining experience in the P2 dining room. It’s a small dining room that will feature changing prix fixe menus: five-course or seven-course and can be paired with craft beer, craft cocktails or wine. We’ll also have a patio during the warmer weather.
We see many restaurants in New Jersey focusing on locally-sourced, seasonal food. Will Paragon?
Yes, we are lining up quite a few vendors and working with a local poultry farm, Goffle Road Poultry Farm. I am excited to work with Joe and his team. We are also going to work with Zone 7 to source local produce.
The beer list at Morris Tap & Grill is one of the best in the state. Can we expect another stellar lineup of craft beer at Paragon Tap & Table?
Yes. Mike DeSimone, our General Manager, has been the driving force behind the success of the list. Mike is also going to do some things different since this is another restaurant, another opportunity to raise the bar in the craft experience world. Mike has some pretty cool things up his sleeve with a new 20-tap craft beer tower that’s being installed. With that, he can showcase many local, New Jersey beers plus a beer list to rival MTG’s. We did get a Best Beer listing in New Jersey at MTG so I am confident that with his knowledge and thirst—pardon the pun—for success, he’ll be delivering a great product to our customers. It’s going to be epic.
Who are you targeting with this new venture?
We are targeting many different demos for this. We are bringing the craft world to Clark and the surrounding areas in a casual, comfortable environment where the business person having a lunch meeting feels just as at home as the family or blue-collar worker who just wants an amazing craft burger and craft beer.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know about Paragon Tap & Table?
We will be open every day, lunch and dinner, offering lunch specials, and brunch selections on Saturday and Sundays in addition to a craft-beer-inspired specials menu. We’ll offer catering on premise as well as office catering in addition to take out. We’ll also have cooking classes, beer dinners and wine dinners as well.
Paragon Tap & Table (Opening Soon!)
77 Central Avenue
Clark
973-891-1776
Veronique Deblois, Food & Wine Chickie: Veronique is a food and wine writer based in Morris County. As the author of the popular blog, Food & Wine Chickie Insider, Veronique shares recipes, wine and restaurant reviews and insight into the travel industry of which she’s a 15-year veteran. Follow Veronique on Twitter or like her Facebook page.
