Ricalton’s in South Orange to Reboot into South Mountain Tavern

and Newark right next door...

While I'm not expecting a small town to feature a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, although with the surprise healthcare bill in the works it might be a good idea, it is odd that few restaurants here offer many veg options.  Even if you are a devout carnivore, you usually have some veggie friends or family members. We are close to the city geographically but our choices are miles away.

I wish South Mountain Tavern much success. It's great that @Quicny11 posted on this thread. It would be nice to have another good restaurant in town. 

Good luck!

South Orange contributed ALL the international cuisines at First Night 2014...

-s.

we've been through this many times.  there just aren't enough PEOPLE out here to support every type of restaurant.  Combined Maplewood and South Orange have fewer people than one neighborhood in Manhattan, Queens, or Brooklyn.  People rave about all the ethnic food in Flushing for instance.  Flushing has 72,000 residents.  Just that neighborhood has roughly as many people as Maplewood, South Orange and Montclair combined.

that said, I wish the South Mountain Tavern success.  

Morganna said:

While I'm not expecting a small town to feature a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, although with the surprise healthcare bill in the works it might be a good idea, it is odd that few restaurants here offer many veg options.  Even if you are a devout carnivore, you usually have some veggie friends or family members. We are close to the city geographically but our choices are miles away.

FWIW: For Vegetarians and veggie appreciators, Lalibela in South Orange  has quite a few vegetarian and vegan options. Also, I found that some places will do substitutions. For example, from Wild Ginger in Maplewood, my son enjoys the General Tso's Chicken, but no chicken, with tofu substituted instead.

That said, you may be commenting that the South Mountain Tavern menu doesn't seem to have many veggie options in the entrees, or items that would be doable or interesting in a veggie version.  It does appear to be focused on surf-and-turf.

Recently visited a suburban town about the size of South Orange. I noticed that quite a few of their traditional restaurants were closing and making way for healthier food options. No one expects a surf and turf to suddenly go organic/veggie. But there are apparently a few healthy options in town, on some menus in some restaurants. Choices, that's all.

I think the reality is that many chefs don't consider themselves to be in the health business. Same with the growing numbers of craft brewers and distillers. 

Not sure what the solution is, but I imagine part of the issue is that chefs cook what they know. In culinary schools, they learn how to work primarily with ingredients like meat, fish, butter and salt. They learn how to make use of a whole pig or cow etc. Some might take that experience and try to do healthier dishes, but many don't.

Vegan-focused Vedge in Philly has been getting recognition in Philly and is expanding. Maybe as more restaurants like that succeed, it will filter down to our area.

Some health foody veggie/vegan options closer than Philly: 

The Conscious Fork (vegan) just opened in Maplewood http://www.consciousfork.com/

The Dancing Blender (veggie/vegan options) in South Orange: http://www.thedancingblender.c...

Veggie Heaven (vegan) in Montclair: http://www.veggieheavenmontcla...

(and I'm going to plug Lalibela in South Orange again, with many veg/vegan options, since it's my favorite: 

https://www.allmenus.com/nj/so...

The food at Lalibela is fantastic.  

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

are we looking at the same menu?  there are 9 entrees priced under $30.  agree there should be more/some veg entree choices.

a house salad option (under $10) would be a good addition/option.

michaelgoldberg said:

$15 Apps, $30+ entrees and $8 sides?  Yikes!  Sounds like a Ruth's Chris wannabee.

If you want to fill tables, you may want to take a lesson from Coda - which has food across all price points, is consistently good and is always crowded at Dinner.

qrysdonnell said:

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

Agree, my reasons are ethical as well and as far as the liquor license goes when I moved to NJ I was surprised that so many restaurants didn't have them. If I were running for office, I would make ease of getting a license part of my platform.

Morganna said:

qrysdonnell said:

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

Agree, my reasons are ethical as well and as far as the liquor license goes when I moved to NJ I was surprised that so many restaurants didn't have them. If I were running for office, I would make ease of getting a license part of my platform.

Good point re liquor licenses, but that's going to be a hard fight and at the state (not local) level, I believe.

Seems like a class action suit by restaurateurs who can't acquire a license might get it Done. The price of available licenses is prohibitive - I have heard hundreds of thousands of dollars is not unusual? Plus the scarcity of them means some places have what could be construed as an unfair advantage over other establishments .

The other effect of the high price/low availability is that the cost of opening a new restaurant is that much higher which drives up their prices. I think that's what happened at Ricalton's. 

sac said:

Morganna said:

qrysdonnell said:

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

Agree, my reasons are ethical as well and as far as the liquor license goes when I moved to NJ I was surprised that so many restaurants didn't have them. If I were running for office, I would make ease of getting a license part of my platform.

Good point re liquor licenses, but that's going to be a hard fight and at the state (not local) level, I believe.

Wouldn't more licenses mean more revenue for the state? And if they drop the prices yet give them out easily we can use the money to fund the public school system and lower property taxes! There it is, my platform!

Those who own the existing licenses don't want more because it reduces the value of what they own.

Morganna said:

sac said:

Morganna said:

qrysdonnell said:

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

Agree, my reasons are ethical as well and as far as the liquor license goes when I moved to NJ I was surprised that so many restaurants didn't have them. If I were running for office, I would make ease of getting a license part of my platform.

Good point re liquor licenses, but that's going to be a hard fight and at the state (not local) level, I believe.

Wouldn't more licenses mean more revenue for the state? And if they drop the prices yet give them out easily we can use the money to fund the public school system and lower property taxes! There it is, my platform!

jimmurphy said:

Those who own the existing licenses don't want more because it reduces the value of what they own.

Morganna said:

sac said:

Morganna said:

qrysdonnell said:

My problem with the lack of vegetarian options is that that are plenty of people (myself included) who aren't not eating meat because we think other options are healthy, we're doing it for moral reasons and apart from that we're pretty content with eating something potentially quite unhealthy just as long as it's carcass free.

I also don't like being a bother, so I'm not looking to go into a place like South Mountain Tavern and ask for something to me made just for me. A small amount of variety isn't the worst thing in the world, so I generally prefer at least one or two options, and hopefully something that's real food and some some bogus boring vegetable platter.

Looking at South Mountain Tavern's menu it's pretty clear that they actively don't want 'my kind's' business, so I'm happy to oblige. I'd say I wish them well, but they have a liquor license, and they're scarce enough in this town to waste on a place like this! 

Agree, my reasons are ethical as well and as far as the liquor license goes when I moved to NJ I was surprised that so many restaurants didn't have them. If I were running for office, I would make ease of getting a license part of my platform.

Good point re liquor licenses, but that's going to be a hard fight and at the state (not local) level, I believe.

Wouldn't more licenses mean more revenue for the state? And if they drop the prices yet give them out easily we can use the money to fund the public school system and lower property taxes! There it is, my platform!

That's understandable, but are they that powerful a lobby?