All ages enjoyed the dishes at the event.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — The first “East Orange Eats Local Restaurant Week” began Monday, Nov. 4, and featured more than a dozen restaurants offering specialty Caribbean and Southern-style dishes, such as salmon sliders, seafood hush puppies, pineapple pepper wings, pumpkin, chickpeas and more, culminating with a “Taste of East Orange” at the Essence apartment rooftop, located on Harrison Street on Saturday, Nov. 9.
“We have restaurant week here, which concludes with a ‘Taste of East Orange,’” East Orange Mayor Ted Green told the Record-Transcript at the Nov. 9 event. “Tonight is the closeout, with all the restaurants that have participated in the last seven days in East Orange, where we had an opportunity to go around to the different stores, here in the community, and taste their foods, but also, gave the community a discount during this week, so it has been a wonderful week. This gave our city an opportunity to really know what restaurants were here, because we have an extremely diverse community.”
“From Caribbean to American, Hispanic, Indian food, this was just a wonderful time this week and now we’re ending with a Taste of East Orange. Tonight is fantastic because I didn’t think this many people would be here,” the mayor continued. “We thank everyone who came out tonight. We thank our sponsors; we thank the business owners. We thank everyone who came to taste and experience the restaurants that we do have in the city of East Orange. We think this is fantastic.”
Green went on to thank some of those involved in the event’s success.
“I really want to thank East Orange Policy, Planning and Development Director Dan Jennings and East Orange Community Development specialist Mark Cheatam, who came up with the idea. He said this is what he wanted to do, he ran with it and it was very successful. We’re looking to do more things like this in the city of East Orange.”
According to incoming 3rd Ward Councilman Vernon Pullins Jr., who attended the event, Restaurant Week will “lead to reinvesting in our community from our restaurants, to all other aspects of the business.”
“A Taste of East Orange is a collaboration with all of the restaurants in the community,” he added. “We’ve come here, at 144 Essence, to basically get a taste of the city, so residents could come here and find out about the fantastic food that is offered in our community. This event is phenomenal. The food is excellent, the networking is superb and it’s just a beautiful vibe in our city at this time.”
With the sultry tunes of a jazz band playing throughout the event, guests enjoyed the food, drinks and company atop the Essence apartment building.
“Our first Taste of East Orange event is part of our restaurant week and we’re trying to bring more attention to the restaurants we have and really the great food that goes unnoticed in East Orange,” Jennings said at the event. “So, we’re thrilled. The turnout is terrific. It shows that East Orange residents and people outside of East Orange have an appetite to frequent what we have to offer. This event exceeded our expectations and we’re going to do it again,”
Chef Avery Winters, of the restaurant Strictly Bagels and Things, oversaw the area where guests tried his creations.
“I think this is a good event,” Winters told the Record-Transcript. “This event is a collective of local restaurants that came together to support each other. Mostly, if you’ve noticed, all of these local restaurants are black-owned.”
“I think today’s event was a great collaboration of all the eateries that we have in the community,” Joshua Brown, owner of Strictly Bagels, said at the event. “It shows the diversity in the local eateries, it shows where the city is headed. This was excellent.”
“I am the coordinator of East Orange Restaurant Week and this event, A Taste of East Orange,” Cheatam said. “Although we’ve had a phenomenal success tonight, there was activation in all of our restaurants all week long and I don’t know if we had this big of a crowd there and that’s where I need the support. If our restaurants don’t do well, we won’t have restaurants.”
“Right now, we’re working on ‘East Orange Eats Local’ as the brand of this event. I think my next project is ‘East Orange Shops Local.’ After that, maybe during the summer, ‘East Orange Arts Local.’ So, we’re looking to do that hyperlocal focus in East Orange,” he continued.
“There’s something called leakage,” Cheatam added, “where we have money but, if we don’t spend it here, it leaks out of our community to other communities. We need to start recognizing our disposable income has to be invested in the businesses that support our community. We must support our local businesses and I’d like to get it to the point where residents of East Orange consider East Orange first. If we don’t have it, you have options. But if you live here, work here, play here, consider here first. Our economy will stay vibrant, active and reflective of who we are.”
Photos by EmilyAnn Jackman.
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