On National Lobster Day, throwing caution to the wind at Picnic

The sinfully rich Lobster Roll at Picnic on the Square, a Ridgewood restaurant that offers the contemporary American cuisine of Chef Christine E. Nunn. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Butter. Full-fat cheese. Mayo. Bread.

For diet or health reasons, the list of foods I avoid is long, but today, I threw caution to the wind and splurged on lunch at Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood with two friends.

We shared a Spinach Artichoke Dip made gooey with plenty of melted cheese ($10), then moaned with pleasure over the Lobster Roll ($22), seasoned with tarragon and a little lemon juice.

I'm happy with just a spritz of lemon on freshly steamed lobster, so these delicious morsels of tail and claw meat, bound in plenty of mayonnaise, were really over the top.

The Lobster Roll wasn't on Picnic's lunch menu, but we had been coveting the roll since Labor Day, when we saw a photo in the food pages of a newspaper, and luckily, the kitchen came through for us.

I used my fork to eat four or five pieces of tender lobster and some salad, then distributed the rest of the meat evenly, picked by the split-top bun and took three or four big bites until it was gone. 

Terrific.

Today also just happens to be National Lobster Day, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than this wonderful roll.

Spinach Artichoke Dip with fried pocket-bread triangles.

Make a reservation

We made a reservation, a good thing as Picnic on the Square has only about 40 seats and nearly all of them were full today.

We caught a glimpse of Chef Christine E. Nunn behind a curtain between the dining room and kitchen.

Her first Picnic restaurant was in Fair Lawn.

A glass of  unsweetened Iced Tea was $3. A large bottle of Perrier sparkling mineral water was $7. French-press coffee was $3.50 a cup with a refill.

Table accents.

The lunch menu.

In North Jersey's biggest restaurant town, Picnic on the Square has about 40 seats inside and out.

Details

Picnic on the Square, 26 Wilsey Square, Ridgewood; 201-444-4001. 

BYO, metered parking. Closed Sundays and Mondays. Lunch served Tuesdays through Fridays.

Web site: A picnic with table service

Neopolitan pizza: Is less more?

A Mano (by hand) opened in Ridgewood about two years ago, but I didn't get to the restaurant until last night's free demonstration by a pizza maker from Italy. After Antonino Esposito handed out samples of his minimalist pie, I began to rethink all that I know and love about pizza, which I started eating in Brooklyn more than four decades ago.

I have eaten pizza in Italy, but never in Naples, where the standards for authentic pizza were set in the late 1800s. Last night, Esposito made the dough by hand -- using Caputo flour from Italy and adding only tap water, a little yeast and salt -- crushed the whole peeled southern Italian tomatoes by hand and topped that with house-made mozzarella made by one of the oven tenders. There are lots of toppings available, including arugula and prosciutto, but pies come in only one size -- 12 inches.

The pie spends about 90 seconds in the wood-fired oven, one of two assembled by Italian craftsmen with material sent from Italy, including volcanic soil and rock. What emerges is a thin-crust pizza that is deliciously chewy but topped with a minimum of tart tomato, gooey cheese, some olive oil and fresh basil. If you hold it at the wide end, it just droops. So there's no use asking for it well-done as you do with an American pizza in hopes of getting a stiff, crunchy crust.

After free samples of the pie and house made buffalo-milk and cow-milk mozzarella, I ordered an A Mano salad with imported marinated Italian artichokes ($7.99) and a marinara pie -- just tart tomato sauce and slivers of garlic over that soft, charred, chewy dough ($9.99). Oddly satisfying in view of my love of bigger, brawnier pizzas.