Here is a list of local coffee shops & cafes that don’t mind if you post up for a few hours, open your laptop, and work while enjoying their food, drinks & ambiance.
Boho Cafe: This place has all the aesthetics if you’re looking for a trendy spot to work remotely or run your digital business. Great specialty coffee, delicious little treats, and even smoothies if you’re craving! They have many vegan/GF goodies too!
Local Coffee: We love this corner shop with a great community & energy! There are designated tables for working on your laptop and you can also set up your little workstation outside.
Da Pepo: If you’re looking for an actual lunch spot to do your work, head to Da Pepo. This place is one of our absolute favorites in Montclair. The staff is always amazing, the food is ridiculously good, and you’ll have a nice little table to open up your computer on.
Dolce Marie: Just simply the best blueberry scones around and perfectly cooked eggs, sandwiches, and other bites. Dolce Marie has such a great ambiance to sit with a coffee & a treat for an hour or few and work!
Trend Coffee & Tea House: This place is huge so you won’t have any problems with finding a spot to sit, or feel like you’re taking up space from people who aren’t working. Grab a pastry & a drink and get to work!
The Tea Store: If coffee isn’t your thing, head to The Tea Store. Their tea selection is extensive & delicious, plus they brew the tea at specific temperatures for best-tasting beverages. You can happily open up your laptop, enjoy a scone and put in some hard work!
Boonton Coffee: About 20 minutes outside Montclair is truly one of our favorite places to do some coffee-shop work. This place is the most laptop-friendly coffee house in the area and there are two floors of “little nooks” for you to do work in.
We had the absolute pleasure of enjoying a meal at Corso 98, the sister restaurant to one of our favorite bakeries in Montclair, Cucina 98. We’re not surprised it was so unbelievably good, anything attached to the Cucina is destined to be delicious. We love how we got to end our dinner with one of our favorite desserts ever: their Lavendar Brownie. Omg.
We are so happy that Corso 98 finally reopened after being closed throughout Covid-19 in Montclair. Beverly is the new chef working with the Suriano family. The new menu is similar to the traditional dishes that made up the old but with a little umami flare added here and there 🙂
Note that all dishes can be made vegan if needed 🙂
We have a lot to munch through, so come along and enjoy a 10/10 meal with us.
Appetizers:
We started with the beet salad, pea & ham arancini, and the caramelized onion & pignoli ricotta.
Beet salad: roasted beets, white romesco, beet chips, toasted almonds, ricotta salata, and microgreens
Pea & Ham Arancini: english peas, prociutto and fontina
First of all, the answer to whipped ricotta is always YES. Add in Pignoli and caramelized onions? Even bigger yes. This starter is a must! (You won’t see this plate in the appetizer section though, it is in the “sides” section on their menu.
One of the reasons why we love arancini so much is because every place has its own special recipe. We love this dish because it wasn’t greasy, it has a perfect bite, and even though peas can be a bit bland & boring, in this dish they were crucial and elevated the flavor combination. We love it.
We’re not like many: but we’re obsessed with beets. When a restaurant treats this vegetable as a delicacy and finds innovative ways to enhance its unique flavor & texture, we admire it so much.
If we had enough room in our stomachs we would’ve ordered the arugula salad, artichoke hearts, and warm fresh mozzarella!
Let’s move on to the entrees!
Entrees:
Porcini Pappardelle: wild mushrooms, black garlic, miso and pancetta (right)
Seriously pappardelle is one of the superior pasta shapes! And don’t get us started when it’s HOME-MADE pappardelle… we’re in heaven. Then if you mix in specifically porcini (just like pasta shape, mushroom type is very important) we are happy foodies! Talk about a perfect dish! We love a fresh plate of light pasta. Yum.
And this chicken dish! The cauliflower puree (with more cauliflower on top) might deter some away, but let us tell you it’s less about the vegetable and more about the flavor and texture when you eat it with this crispy chicken. We love that there were two kinds of meat: breast & high, and the extra elements of this dish were absolutely necessary and nothing overwhelming.
Next time we absolutely want to try the Fava bean & Mint Ravioli Cacio e Pepe (I mean come on, just the sound of that…) and we’re interested in their scallops, filet and eggplant piccata.
Sides:
Meatballs & Grilled Asparagus with Calabrian chili and gochujang
Foodie Thoughts:
We can’t cook asparagus to save our lives, so we really appreciate a good asparagus side. The Calabrian chili is a fun & unique addition. The meatballs were perfect! The sauce, the taste of the meats, the cheese… we couldn’t ask for anymore more!
Desserts:
Vegan Lavender Brownie with a dark chocolate drizzle and vegan vanilla ice cream on top
Foodie Thoughts:
We need to take a moment… because we get overwhelmed by how much we love this brownie. Not because it’s vegan or whatever, but because it is hands down one of the best brownies we have EVER had. We genuinely keep 2 in our fridge at all times. The dark chocolate drizzle gives the brownie a bit of a bite, the crust is ideal and the inside is perfectly fudge-y with hints of the lavender flavor. It really is so good, you HAVE to try it!
And that’s it! An absolutely perfect and extremely enjoyable dinner at Corso98. We truly recommend this place for dinner, you will enjoy yourself and eat some of the best food in Montclair. The ambiance is perfect for a double-date, a night out with friends or a family dinner. Bring a bottle of wine and enjoy your time.
If you liked this blog post, please share with someone you want to go to Corso 98 with, and thank you for your constant support!
If you’ve gone through our Instagram feed at any point then its a not so secret fact that we are obsessed with Plum on Park in Montclair, NJ. And what we love (and sometimes hate, keep reading you’ll understand why) most about Plum are the SPECIALS!!!!! Let’s make one thing clear upfront, the actual menu is equally amazing and never disappoints. Now that that’s out of the way! We just can’t get enough of the owner, Natalie Colledge’s infinite source of creativity and her beautifully presented plates that come out of this kitchen (That change weekly by the way). So you go to Plum on Park Come for the Plum, but you stay for the Specials (or in our case keep coming back weekly lol) !
We’ve literally found ourselves racing out of Bar Method class (also amazing! if you haven’t tried a class GO! Natalie and Gina are my favorites shh!) 100 steps away while scrolling the gram on Saturday mornings to see what specials we’ll be delighted with that weekend!
French Toast, Pad Thai, Moroccan Scramble, there are so many to name and we haven’t even tried them all!!! And since starting to offer dinner in 2015, they also have Dinner specials they debut on Wednesday’s. I don’t know how many places in a small town like Montclair, NJ you know change specials so often and keep things interesting like Plum does but needless to say, we’re kind of addicted!
Fun fact about Plum, whether your visiting Montclair for the first time, or a long time resident, you may or may not know (but want to know) that as we’ve said before many restaurants close on Mondays to prep, etc. Well lovely Plum on Park is one of a few that are open on Mondays for Breakfast & Lunch!!! They are closed on Tuesdays but open for breakfast, lunch, & dinner the rest of the week!
Enough reading GO to Plum on Park and if you meet Rebecca or Barbara tell them #MontclairFoodieSentMe!
Cake, cake, cake, cake, with so many yummy places to grab sweet treats in Montclair, NJ you can never run out of options!! Montclair Bread Co for your donuts, Plum Bakery for the gluten free lovers, Little Daisy Bakeshop, KakesKimmy, Applegate Farm, Gelotti, the list goes on and on!! But another one of our personal FAVE discoveries at this years Taste of Montclair… Cakeaholic Obsession!!!
Cakeaholic Obsession
So what did we have you ask? Cookies and cream (with an actual cookie at the bottom of the cupcake!), Vanilla Birthday Cake, Chocolate Birthday Cake, Red Velvet, Chunky Monkey, and last but most certainly not least, Banana de leche. Banana de Leche was their flavor at Taste of Montclair although not currently on the menu of selections (although we think it needs to be!) It is hands down our favorite! So we have all these flavored cupcakes and then, we notice the ice cream.
Cakeaholic Obsession
Cakeaholic has homemade ice cream delivered weekly from Upstate New York. They even have custom flavors coming soon such as Lemon Berry, Banana Pudding (#MotherMayI?!?!?!), and Pink Velvet. What did we try? Cinnamon Brown Sugar… thats right I said CINNAMON BROWN SUGAR!!!! Take a drive to the southside of Montclair and allow yourself to… indulge (we did)!!! Veer off of Bloomfield Avenue and find your way to 324 Orange Road in Montclair NJ.
An already award winning bakery, Cakeaholics was just nominated for best bakery in Best of Essex 2016! Cakeaholic not only offers amazing cupcakes and homemade ice cream, they do events to!! Date nights, Girls nights, baking classes for the kids, and more! If you havent already tried Julie’s cupcakes, what are you waiting for??? Ask for the Banana de Leche and thank us later!
Cakeaholics has since closed their location in South Montclair. But are working on a new space coming soon and you can still order yummy cupcakes and treats online!!!
p.s. word on the street is Cakeaholics Obsession will be at this years Montclair Food and Wine BBQ on July 9th if you are planning on attending be sure to stopby their table and tell them MontclairFoodieSentMe!
