In wealthy Englewood, a buffet of empty storefronts

Downtown Englewood is filled with empty storefronts, including the one above, even though it is one of the wealthiest towns in Bergen County. Many of them once housed restaurants.

Smoke Chophouse, a steakhouse and cigar bar, on Engle Street was supposed to reopen as Sofia, a "country Italian steakhouse," in February.

This restaurant space next to It's Greek to Me has been empty for many months. It once was the home to Sol & Sol, a Jewish deli.

It's Greek to Me will get some competition when Syros Taverna opens on the other side of Palisade Avenue, the city's main shopping street. Angle parking, Manhattan-like traffic congestion and the lack of free parking hurt business.

Baumgart's, a successful restaurant, offers a lunch special, as does The Kitchen on the same block of Palisade Avenue.

This restaurant never opened in the Palisade Avenue space occupied by Wild Ginger/Wild Nigiri for many years.

On the same block, these two storefronts have been empty forever.

Expensive boutiques once occupied these two storefronts on North Dean Street.

Restaurateur Charles Hamade is making a second attempt at getting his pizza concept to succeed in a storefront across from his former Wild Ginger/Wild Nigiri, where U-Pie Company first opened before he moved it to Cliffside Park and combined it with Bushido, a Japanese restaurant. He closed Bushido last year.

Empty storefronts also are available in Palisades Court (ShopRite), a shopping center on Nathaniel Place, above and below. Palisades Court and a lot of other commercial and residential property in Englewood is owned by TREECO, a real estate development company.

The TREECO storefront where Victoria's Secret operated for many years is available again after it was used recently to sell Purim costumes. Are high rents one of the reasons for all of the empty retail space? 

Havana Espresso Boutique Coffee Bar at 46 N. Dean St. in Englewood displays salads, sandwiches and other food. Table service is just one of the things that sets it apart from Starbucks Coffee on Palisade Avenue and North Dean streets.

  

From pristine sushi to homey tacos

Image by Emily Barney via Flickr

Mole is a classic Mexican sauce made with dark chocolate and chilies.

After 16 years of serving pristine seafood in a jewel-box setting in Englewood, restaurateur Charles Hamade is moving his Japanese restaurant to Cliffside Park.


Wild Nigiri on Palisade Avenue -- known for many years as Wild Ginger -- has closed.


In its place, Hamade had the soft opening today of Papa Mole, a Mexican restaurant where, he said, a trio of tacos cost $7 and entrees top out at $16 or $17.


Later this month, he plans to open Bushido in Cliffside Park, a restaurant with a liquor license, which he has never had in Englewood.

Papa Mole, 6 E. Palisade Ave., Englewood; 

201-567-2660. BYO, no reservations accepted. 

A restaurant with staying power

Image via Wikipedia

You can now buy Wild Ginger's unusual miso-and-citrus salad dressing at the restaurant.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Wild Ginger is special. If it wasn't for the eclectic mix of tables and chairs, you'd think this jewel-box of a restaurant on Englewood's main street is another one of the city's art galleries. 

But the real art practiced here is serving wonderful seafood -- both raw and cooked -- to a loyal group of customers who lend the small, high-end room an intimate feel as they are welcomed by Owner Charles Hamade and Chef and Co-Owner Yoshiharu Suzuki, and receive their personal attention. 

A man who drove in from Staten Island declared to others enjoying dinner: "Best sushi in the world." 

A woman sat down at the sushi bar and didn't have to ask for her regular order: A lobster roll followed by a sundae.

Wild Ginger opened 16 years ago. With only about 35 seats at the sushi bar and tables, you can watch Suzuki preparing raw fish or catch a glimpse of a waiter in the small kitchen ladling green tea into a pot.

The flavors of the seafood are pure. Order the black cod with sweet miso and when it's placed on the table, you might think the kitchen forgot the sauce. But the subtle miso flavor comes through as you bite into a perfect piece of barely cooked fish.  

On Friday night, Hamade invited me and Jason and Rachel Perlow of the Off The Broiler food blog to sample a dressing and sauces he is bottling and selling to the public. 

He served us a sumptuous meal of raw tuna and salmon, as well as cooked lobster, scallops and cod. 

Everything was on the house, but in the past, I have gladly paid for many meals that were as good as this dinner.

We started with a simple red-leaf lettuce salad in a homemade orange-miso dressing. Hamade is selling 12-ounce bottles of his preservative-free Baba Charles Celebration Salad Dressing at the restaurant for $6.

Next, we received a mound of -melt-in-your mouth tuna tartare in a spicy aioli sauce, another product he will be selling soon under the Baba Charles label. 

A salad of cooked lobster in his third planned product -- a mango sauce-- followed. Salmon sashimi came with a simple ponzu dressing he also plans to sell.

Suzuki sent us three fat, inside-out rolls: spicy tuna, cooked lobster and a mix of white tuna and cooked eel. Our entrees were cod and scallops, and I ordered a soft-shell crab appetizer. 

The Perlows tried one of Hamade's parfaits with dried mango and a dusting of red-pepper powder.

Wild Ginger/Wild Nigiri Hassun Sushi Bar, 6 E. Palisade Ave., Englewood; 201-567-2660. BYO, no reservations accepted. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

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