Today we are starting a new series on the blog called To Whom it may Concern. This series will follow us through different towns in New Jersey while we try to find our future home. Oh did I let that slip? We are going to be moving to NJ! Our first little adventure takes us to Montclair where we check out a brewery and have dinner with my parents. We also did a ton of walking around and did not take a single picture of that. Sorry… but if we move here there will be tons more to share.
Montclair Brewery
Our first stop on our adventure was the Montclair Brewery. We arrived in the area a head of them opening up for the day, so, we decided to just walk around the neighborhood. It’s really cute where the brewery is located, but if you venture a little further away it does not seem like the safest part of town, but, we of course, don’t know that for sure.
The brewery is family run by absolutely lovely people! They were so so nice and they serve up some seriously good brews. Their beers feature some seriously cool flavors like fruits from Africa! We definitely want to go back and try more!
Walking Around Montclair
Like I mentioned earlier, we didn’t take a lot of pictures during our walk around Montclair, but here are some highlights.
We first crashed an open house for a one bedroom apartment where we met a realtor who’s going to help us locate our next home!
We took some pictures of a few apartment complexes to refer back to.
Last, but not least, we went into the heart of Montclair where we discovered a super cool book store with a great record selection. There’s also an Anthropology in town!
Dinner at Leone’s
After all our walking we met my parents at Leone’s for dinner. It’s a cute little Italian restaurant on Park Street. We sat outside and enjoyed some Plunger Head wine while we chatted about the possibility of living in Montclair.
We started our meal with the local burrata salad. It had grilled pears, arugula, and a hazelnut dressing. This salad was incredible! I do wish the pears had been a bit sweeter, but sometimes that can’t be helped! All the flavor combos went so well together.
Tom and my dad ordered the penne vodka. The pasta was full of saucy goodness with just the right amount of heat and creaminess.
My mom really enjoyed her eggplant rollatini. She wanted something really flavorful, but not too heavy so she ordered the appetizer portion for her dinner.
I had the penne zucca, butternut squash, brown butter, sage, and ricotta. My pasta was cooked perfectly and the brown butter was delightful. However, my favorite part of the whole dish was the orange scented ricotta. It added such a wonderful flavor and made the dish special.
Dinner was great and all in all we say it was a rather successful day! Will we be moving to Montclair? Only time will tell.
The Cocho Life 