Lunching out in Englewood for $6 and up

Sweet potato soup, above, and quiche, below, are among the choices when you order the fixed-price, two-course lunch at Patisserie Florentine, 10 S. Dean Street, just steps from the main shopping street in Englewood (201-408-4890).

The quiche was made with broccoli, asparagus and mozzarella cheese, and served on a long platter with salad, below. With a soft drink, bottled spring water or Perrier, the lunch is $11.75. Instead of quiche, you can choose a half-sandwich with ratatouille.

Cafe au Lait is served with a complimentary cookie ($2.80).

The young waiter and waitress at Patisserie Florentine mean well, but service is casual and my table didn't have a napkin or silverware. When I asked whether the tasty sweet potato soup contained cumin, the young woman went into the kitchen and returned with a small portion of the fragrant ground spice, which I sprinkled over the soup.

A whole branzino is deboned, beautifully grilled and served with artichokes, olives and tomatoes at Solaia, a fine-dining Italian restaurant at 22 N. Van Brunt St. in Englewood (201-871-7155). The fish is $25 at lunch, but can be shared by two along with a Caesar Salad ($10), below.

A half-portion of Caesar Salad at Solaia.

Skip Blue Moon Mexican Cafe and cross the tracks to Taqueria Los Gueros for an order of Tacos de Pescado -- corn tortillas topped with grilled tilapia, fresh salsa and avocado. Four filling tacos are $8.

Tacos al Pastor include pork roasted on a vertical spit and topped with fresh pineapple (four for $6).

Mexican soda is made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup ($2).

Taqueria Los Gueros is at 46 W. Palisade Ave. in Englewood (201-408-5924).

Two other lunch spots in Englewood I haven't tried yet are The Kitchen at 21 E. Palisade Ave. (201-568-4570), where a $12 lunch is served Mondays to Fridays; and Baumgart's Cafe, where Chinese and American food is served at 45 E. Palisade Ave. (201-569-6267), below.

Happily splurging for lunch at Solaia in Englewood

The whole Branzino or sea bass I enjoyed at Solaia, a fine-dining Italian restaurant in Englewood, hid a big surprise.

Fat Beef Short Ribs were boneless and bathed in a red-wine sauce.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We walked into Solaia a little after noon today, but the dining room of the Englewood restaurant was empty.

The man behind the bar assured me lunch was being served and told us to pick any table.

The next surprise was the lunch menu, which was filled with prices you see at dinner elsewhere, with entrees priced from $22 to $32.

I had purchased a Living Social voucher for $15 that entitled me to $30 worth of food, and doing so for two people at Solaia suddenly didn't seem like a good idea.

But the beautiful, well-prepared food won us over, and the entrees were generous, allowing us to take home leftovers.

I've eaten a lot of whole branzino, a farmed sea bass from Europe, but the fish on Solaia's lunch menu is absolutely tops ($25).

The fish was perfectly grilled in an open kitchen at the back of the dining room -- with a crispy tail -- and topped with artichokes, olives, tomato and caramelized garlic. 

Fresh juice from a half lemon on the plate was all it needed.

But the big surprise was that it had been deboned, the first time I've ever had a whole fish that was as easy to eat as a fillet. Delicious.

My wife's Beef Short Ribs, also boneless and covered in a red-wine sauce, were fork tender ($28).

We started by sharing a well-prepared Caesar Salad ($10). My only complaint: It was skimpy.

A half-portion of the Caesar Salad with freshly ground black pepper.

Don't go for the service

Eventually, other lunch customers showed up, but only a half-dozen tables were occupied, and one man ate at the bar.

Still, service was casual, and our waiter never recited the day's specials to us.

We chose a bright table for four in the window, and I always get a kick out of how the busboy rushes over to remove extra place settings, including cloth napkins and glasses.

The bartender was very accommodating when I couldn't find the waiter. He packed up our leftovers and three fat slices of dark, crusty olive bread, marking the cover of each container with the contents.

Our check totaled $37.41 with tax, plus the $15 I had paid for the voucher, and I tipped 15% on the full value of the food, which was $63.

That's a splurge for lunch, but the whole branzino is so good I might go back someday and pay full price.

Update

I put my leftover fish in the refrigerator at home and forgot about it for a few days.

When I opened the Solaia container, I was surprised and disappointed the bartender didn't give me the head of the fish with its delectable "cheeks" and other morsels.

What he did give me was as good as I remembered.

In the dining room, dark wood, paintings and beautiful wall sconces.

Both dining rooms at Solaia have bars, and the one not in use at lunch today is decorated with a mural, above. Singer Tony Bennett's son once ran a recording studio just up the street from Solaia.

I soaked crusts of the raisin and olive bread in a good olive oil, but my wife ate three whole slices with butter.

Solaia, 22 N. Brunt St., Englewood; 201-871-7155. Valet parking available.

Web site: When you want to splurge

Postscript

On today's visit to Englewood, I saw many changes in the food scene I described in a post two years ago:

On two sides of the food tracks in Englewood

  

On two sides of the food tracks in Englewood

Englewood's Palisade Avenue has been in flux. One of the changes was Blue Moon Restaurant moving next door to a bigger space in the shuttered Ann Taylor store.

The Kitchen restaurant also moved, to the old Blue Moon space next to Starbucks.

Recent additions include Simply Seafood and Teita, a Dominican restaurant, below.

El Paso is an inexpensive Mexican place.

Las Maravillas de Tulcingo is the third restaurant from Jesus Pita; the others are in Passaic. The food is more authentic and cheaper than at Blue Moon, but on Memorial Day, the staff left a mess on an outdoor table, a sure way to turn off potential customers.

Palm BBQ Grill, above and below, is the second place to open in the space occupied for many years by the popular Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, which moved to Tenafly.

The Palm BBQ menu offers pita and po' boy sandwiches, plus falafel and hummus.

A popular Panera Bread was replaced by a bank, above. On the same block, Victoria's Secret closed after more than a decade at the entrance to the ShopRite shopping center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Englewood is a classic two-sides-of-the-tracks community, even when it comes to dining out.

Wealthy, mostly white residents live on one side of the tracks all the way up the East Hill, and send their children to large private schools.

On the other side, a long-established Jamaican community and Hispanic residents occupy modest homes, sending their kids to elementary and middle schools that have few white students.

Food lovers will find the better restaurants on the east side of the tracks, while most of the cheaper ethnic restaurants and bakeries are on the other side.

Food city

Baumgart's, It's Greek To Me, Starbucks, El Prado and others have had staying power. 

In other parts of the city, Jerry's Gourmet & More and Balthazar Bakery draw customers from far and wide.

The city also boasts two good Thai restaurants, popular Colombian restaurants and bakeries; excellent Jamaican takeout; H Mart, a large Korean supermarket; and Korean dumpling and kimchi factories.

But the food scene is always in flux, and I would be hard pressed to name all of the restaurants that have opened, operated for several years or more, and disappeared.

Sushi to tacos to pizza

Wild Ginger, an expensive sushi restaurant, closed in 2011 after a 16-year run, and was replaced first by a Mexican restaurant and then by an upscale pizzeria.

The businesses on the first floor of the Town Centre at Englewood luxury rental building on Palisade Avenue change constantly, and at least two food markets have failed there.

What factor ever-escalating rents play in the closing of popular businesses is unclear. 

Bittan Group

Little is known about Michel Bittan, owner of the Bittan Group of Englewood, whose signs are on several vacant commercial spaces.

Bittan is the owner of Solaia, a fine-dining restaurant on North Van Brunt Street, between the performing arts center and City Hall. 

He also owns a casual restaurant next door called Caprizza, and the 201 Club, a party space.