Note: Jersey Bites was invited to visit the Blue Pig Tavern and received a complimentary meal.
A summer afternoon enjoying the historic charm of Cape May’s Congress Hall is a quintessential Jersey shore experience. At the Blue Pig Tavern, the hotel’s signature restaurant, Chef Jeremy Einhorn’s homage to the iconic Jersey tomato is his Build Your Own Tomato Sandwich menu. Jersey Bites was invited to sample the Jersey Fresh cuisine on the Blue Pig’s sunny patio, and to tour its sister property, Beach Plum Farm.
The Blue Pig’s classic tomato sandwich, adorned simply with housemade mayo, black pepper and farm lettuce, wisely acknowledges that that a perfectly ripe, fresh-from-the-vine tomato requires little embellishment. But why stop there? Add house-cured and smoked Berkshire bacon, avocado or spicy cilantro mayonnaise. A Caprese sandwich on hearty multigrain bread was bursting with the summer flavors of tomato and basil pesto, topped with fresh mozzarella.
The farm-fresh flavors come as no surprise, as the Blue Pig’s devotion to slow food and sustainable practices takes the farm-to-fork concept to new heights. Those red, ripe Brandywine tomatoes were delivered that very morning from two miles down the road at Beach Plum Farm. The 62-acre organic farm provides Jersey Fresh produce, free-range eggs and flavorful Berkshire pork to the three restaurants owned by Cape Resorts Group: the Blue Pig, the Ebbitt Room at the Virginia Hotel and the Rusty Nail, as well as Cape May’s Louisa’s Cafe.
Beach Plum Farm is the brainchild of Curtis Bashaw, co-founder and co-managing partner of Cape Resorts. Dismayed by the disappearance of small family farms in South Jersey and the increasing corporatization of agriculture, Bashaw was inspired to purchase the then fallow farmland in 2008. “In my mind, it was ‘let’s just grow fresh vegetables for our restaurants,’” he said. “When you’re entrepreneurial, you tend to be pathologically optimistic!”
Bashaw admits that early on “it was hit or miss for our crops,” recalling that the first year’s hopeful bounty of asparagus was entirely ravaged by asparagus beetles. But over time, Bashaw’s vision of “a working farm delivering truckloads of farm fresh produce every day” has also become a must-see Cape May tourist destination. At the new Beach Plum Farm Kitchen, Chef Todd Phillips serves farm fresh breakfast and lunch, perfect for al fresco dining amid the picturesque gardens. The ever-changing daily chalkboard menu highlights the seasonal crops, with summer specialties such as chilled cucumber gazpacho, freshly squeezed carrot-apple-ginger juice and grain bowls topped with poached eggs from the free range chickens foraging just nearby. Post-picnic, explore the meticulously landscaped herb garden and the kitchen garden’s extraordinary array of crops such as shishito peppers, husk cherries and even lemon verbena for the farm’s fresh-brewed teas. Then check out the winding paths through the back fields of strawberries, asparagus and sunchokes, and visit the Berkshire piglets and the duck pond. Seasonal produce, eggs and meat, and the farm’s own tea and honey, can be purchased at the Beach Plum Farm Market.
Back at the Blue Pig, Chef Jeremy’s staff was busy with the latest delivery of Beach Plum Roma tomatoes, one of 13 varieties grown at the farm. Working with sustainable and seasonal ingredients means the chef’s menu changes in response to whatever head farmer Ali Moussalli sends his way, and the whims of Mother Nature.
“It’s one thing to do farm-to-table when you have access to multiple farms. When you’re dealing with one farm, we have to adapt,” like the watermelon gazpacho and watermelon cocktails designed to capture this year’s prolific watermelon crop. (“I got a call from Ali: we’ve got 700 watermelons!”) That bumper crop of Roma tomatoes will be cooked down to sauce and frozen, all the better to top off the brick oven artisan pizzas this winter at the Boiler Room, Congress Hall’s basement music club.
The Blue Pig Tavern
200 Congress Place
Cape May
609-884-8422
Beach Plum Farm
140 Stevens Street
West Cape May
609-602-0128
Opened on July 28, this restaurant (located on the former site of the Forge & Anvil Restaurant) features the vibe of an East Village eatery within the bucolic setting of Hunterdon County. In addition to tasty burgers, pizza, and wings, signature dishes handcrafted by Executive Chef Peter Van Antwerp on the restaurant’s classic bistro menu include the Tavern steak, “a hangar steak prepared with white wine shallot sauce and served with green beans and French fries as well as our salmon paillard, a thin salmon cutlet prepared in a brown butter and caper sauce and served over a beet and arugula salad with orange segments,” said Ben Rosenthal, proprietor and an East Brunswick native and former winemaker. He said, “Our Vietnamese po’ boy sandwich, which features a medley of pâté, pork roll, ground pork, pickled vegetables, cucumber, and sriracha aioli on a baguette, is another popular option and we also offer a wonderful and growing list of Italian, French, Spanish, and American wines,” many of which are available for sale at The Kingwood Tavern at very reasonable prices. Rosenthal confirmed that he’s excited for guests to experience the 54-seat restaurant’s cozy ambiance and looks forward to officially opening its large backyard this September—just in time to host Octoberfest festivities. Overall, he said, “guests will enjoy great food and drink here and leave happy every time.”
Opened on August 8 in Newark’s business district, FreeTown Café is a relaxed urban café launched by Owner and Executive Chef Kwame Williams along with his sisters Kanika and Nataki, all of whom are also owners of the two-year-old 
Opened on July 1 by Vietnam native Paul Huynh and his wife, Irene, Saigon Subs offers a range of nine-inch Vietnamese-style sandwiches on toasted baguettes that feature such meats as Vietnamese pork roll, ham, BBQ pork, meatballs, beef, or chicken combined with pickled carrots, cucumbers, jalapeño peppers, daikon (radish), and cilantro along with mayonnaise and a liver paté. Don’t miss the eatery’s popular Saigon Special, “a sandwich with a combination of ham, pork roll, and BBQ pork along with all of our toppings,” said Huynh, a longtime restaurateur who owned numerous Chinese restaurants throughout New Jersey and New York prior to launching this new venture in Morristown. Vegetarian sandwiches made with tofu are also available, as are summer rolls, salads, and a variety of authentic Vietnamese desserts. Huynh said that the primarily takeout restaurant has had a strong following since opening and that guests are enjoying their menu’s fresh, healthy ingredients and flavorful subs made with a Southeast Asian flare.
Celebrating its grand reopening on August 5 with a ceremony including Boonton’s mayor and other local dignitaries, the eight-year-old Vinnie’s Pizzeria & Ristorante has been re-energized by new owner and restaurant industry veteran Mickey Chopra, a Rockaway resident who arrived in the U.S. from India in 1987 barely able to speak English and worked his way up through the industry; most recently, he served as director of operations for Taco Bell’s mid-Atlantic demographic marketing area before taking over ownership of Vinnie’s. Among the signature dishes on the restaurant’s family-friendly menu, don’t miss Nonna’s thin crust pesto pie, a pizza featuring a pesto pie crust topped with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce and drizzled with pesto sauce and fresh basil. The 80-seat restaurant has also launched a new international buffet on Sundays from 1 to 7 p.m. featuring a different authentic world cuisine each week and recently initiated a charitable new program “Feed the Needy,” through which customers can donate meals at discounted prices that are matched 50% by the restaurant. “With our great team, we look forward to providing outstanding food and service while helping to connect people and be a vital part of the community,” Chopra said of this new opportunity.
Celebrating its grand opening on July 16 with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony involving the town’s mayor, the new Chester-based branch of Dean’s Natural Food Market represents the fourth location for the family-owned chain, which launched its first store in Ocean in 1996, followed by locations in Shrewsbury in 2006 and Basking Ridge in 2012. Committed to carrying 100% organic produce and only the highest quality and most environmentally responsible products, the store offers a broad range of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, sandwiches, prepared foods, juices, and smoothies as well as gluten-free and allergy-friendly foods and a wide array of vitamins, supplements, and health and beauty aids. Committed to supporting local charities in all of the communities in which it operates, Andrea Tudor, director of marketing, said that Dean’s was very excited to establish a location in Chester and has been very warmly received by local residents since opening.
Following the opening of its first New Jersey-based bricks-and-mortar restaurant in East Brunswick this May, The Halal Guys will be opening a second location in Newark in late September/early October. Part of a 26-year-old restaurant chain that was originally launched as a popular food truck on the corner of 53rd Street and 6th Avenue in New York City, The Halal Guys is known for its large portions, reasonable prices, and signature chicken, beef, falafel, and hummus platters served with renowned white or red sauce and prepared to Halal standards (e.g., specially treated and slaughtered according to Islamic law). A spokesperson for The Halal Guys confirmed that the restaurant team has been thrilled with the reception it’s received from the community so far and is excited to continue the franchise’s expansion to Newark, noting that future locations may include New Brunswick, Princeton, Montclair, Edison, and more.
Dough has a rich and varied menu and Simmons’s philosophy is to offer patrons high quality, healthy ingredients with excellent customer service, at an affordable price. Obviously, there’s pizza (almost every table orders a crispy, wood-fired pie). But there’s also a creamy stracciatella, served with heirloom tomato, avocado, and watermelon; tender meatballs, and interesting salads (on one of my visits, I had a wonderful escarole and strawberry salad). The new summer menu highlights a quinoa salad dotted with summer squash, radish, blueberries, and pistachios in a lemon-cumin vinaigrette; little neck clam pappardelle served with bacon, Jersey corn, in a white wine butter sauce; Jamaican jerk pork medallions (a special); and the currently on-every-menu- around (but for good reason) poke (raw tuna with jicama salad, crispy wonton, candied ginger, and avocado, shown at right).
Pick vegetables as soon as they are ripe, which often encourages the plant to produce more.
The drive to the Vincentown Diner always feels vintage, like a trip to a place time forgot. Farm stands, endless fields of crops, farmhouses, more farm stands, dairy bars straight out of 1950s Americana. Oh, and my cell usually loses reception, too. (Smartphones just don’t fit in with the scene there.)
Anthony Brown, a culinary student in The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties’ Culinary Arts Training Program, is one of 10 students in the class who will graduate this summer. Brown applied to this program after he was laid off from his previous job and looking for a career change. “This program gave me another opportunity to make a living,” he said. After the program ends, Brown hopes to expand his BBQ catering business, which he currently runs out of his Tinton Falls home. He recently prepared this delicious recipe at 
