No kids allowed: New Jersey Italian restaurant bans children under 10

Table Of Content

• A Dozen More Restaurants Close in New York City
• Nettie’s House of Spaghetti
• we cannot accommodate any modifications to our menu.
• WE ARE OPEN FOR INDOOR DINING ONLY.
• Here’s What’s Opening in the Michelin-Starred Oxalis Space
• How Do We Review (analyze) Restaurants?
• Nettie's House of Spaghetti honors classic Italian cooking
• Eater NY main menu

Pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, sausage, bacon --- which is cured in house --- and desserts, are all house made. Chef Calabrese oversees a limited menu of well-executed Italian dishes with a mix of regional Italian lighter sauce dishes, served as small plate offerings to encourage sharing and sampling. Some despised the policy, while others sought out the restaurant solely for a dining experience sans noisy children. Find classics respected, revered and fashioned with craftsmanship at once time-honored and modern at a restaurant that relies on the familiar without resorting to cliché.

A Dozen More Restaurants Close in New York City

Spaghetti arrabiata had a fresh-tasting red sauce touched with butter that balanced the heat of the Calabrian chilies. Others at my table liked the simple carbonara, the mango-yellow, egg-based sauce courtesy of some local chickens. This carbonara, lighter than most, let its few ingredients shine. (Having grown-up with my mother’s carbonara, a more buttery, cheesy version she learned from a lovely lady in Milan in the 1960s, I found Nettie’s on the bland side.) Tortellini stuffed with mortadella, prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano floated in a mild broth. It would be as at home in Emilia-Romagna as it was in Tinton Falls. In a post comment, the restaurant elaborated that "kids running around the restaurant in circles when we’re trying to carry trays of food and drinks has made doing our jobs extremely difficult."

Nettie’s House of Spaghetti

The showiest was the Fried Hen of the Woods and shiitake mushrooms with lemon. It’s dusted with za’atar seasoning which does include oregano, but is more often seen in Middle Eastern dishes. These are deep-fried and super crunchy, and the mushroom inside were sweet and tender. I would have liked a little dipping sauce of some sort on the side. The restaurant has a kind of retro feel, from the reminiscent-of-the-80s revival art deco logo, to the cocktail menu; there’s even an old phone booth (which I loved) inside.

we cannot accommodate any modifications to our menu.

This includes mozzarella, sausage, ricotta and bacon, which is cured in house for spaghetti carbonara. The restaurant's namesake dish is also topped with traditional marinara, meat sauce, crab sauce or spicy arrabiata, and comes in small and large portions ($9 to $28). His restaurant offers a kids’ menu of greatest hits like pasta with butter, grilled cheese, sliders with American cheese, and chicken fingers. Instead of fries, kids can get apples and carrots. It also has a drawing of Brooklyn on the back and it comes with Crayons to keep kids occupied. “We can just hand it to the parents so you don’t have to negotiate with the server or with your own children,” he says.

The back room dining area is more upscale with tables set with white linens, mid-century modern lighting fixtures, velvet seats, and dark blues walls adorned with picture frames. Desserts follow the simple-is-better formula. Pillowy bomboloni redolent of warm yeast and sugar were served with olive oil-enhanced whipped cream. The Sicilian orange cake, with its dense crumb and sticky orange glaze, was the star (especially when eaten with whipped cream from the bomboloni).

Here’s What’s Opening in the Michelin-Starred Oxalis Space

Restaurants banning kids seems like cyclical news, with this round noteworthy because many young kids just hadn’t been out in restaurants because of COVID. "Between noise levels, lack of space for high chairs, cleaning up crazy messes, and the liability of kids running around the restaurant, we have decided that it’s time to take control of the situation." But it’s a place to consider for a cocktail and a low-key dinner with friends. It certainly has its fans, and it was at capacity on our mid-week visit. Rather than a pounded cutlet, this dish is made with ground organic chicken thighs, formed into a circular patty and dusted with a good quality pecorino Romano and 24-month Parmigiano Reggiano, but there’s no gooey mozzarella. The patty was juicy, but its taste took me back in time too.

(However, it was served with a clever fried-to-order breaded confit of chicken leg.) Another evening, the spaghetti in clam sauce was watery and shudderingly gritty. (It has since been replaced with an intriguing-sounding spicy squid in tomato brodo pasta.) We also were served a link of housemade fennel sausage that had burst its seams and dried out. As this year comes to an end, the Dining with Draz team sends five Js to all the incredible people who make up the restaurant community. From the servers to the chefs, the farmers to front and back of house staffs, the restaurant business is never easy and this year, your never-say-die spirit has inspired us all. We also send five Js to the folks who continue to support their favorite restaurants with curbside pick-up, dine-in evenings and meal donations made to frontline workers. It’s easy to see how important dining out is to us all, and we hope 2021 will be a year full of great new recipes shared again in our favorite places.

Calabrese’s small-plate approach is a welcome break with Italian-American tradition. Bring people who love to share, and enjoy the varied wine list and each other’s company. For all my quibbles, my guests and I always left Nettie’s in a jolly mood. The combination of good food, happy staff and convivial atmosphere will do that.

New Jersey restaurant bans kids under 10 after 'crazy messes' - Yahoo Canada Shine On

New Jersey restaurant bans kids under 10 after 'crazy messes'.

Posted: Tue, 14 Feb 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Nettie’s House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, isn’t a place others would want to hang with your kid. Sure, there are cushy banquettes and plenty of tables, and should we ever need to socially distance again, there’s ample space between them. But it’s more mid-century design conscious, less Olive Garden. Try the house salad, which he said is "less salad, more stuff." Think roasted peppers, red onions, olives, bread, celery, carrots and pepperoncini, tossed with red wine vinaigrette. "I do like consistency, to have dishes people come in for week after week," Chris said. Executive Chef Chris Calabrese received his inspiration for cooking from his grandmother and her memorable Italian dishes.

It leans into the grade school motif in design and with a menu of dips, blooming onion, adult fish sticks, and a root beer float, childlike appetites. He also just recently just bought games for the restaurant like Connect 4 and Uno for kids to use in the space. “Between noise levels, lack of space for high chairs, cleaning up crazy messes, and the liability of kids running around the restaurant, we have decided that it’s time to take control of the situation,” the announcement reads.

The chef has a heart for vegetarians (his wife is one), and the vegetable-focused appetizers were nearly all worthwhile, especially the meltingly soft roasted fennel on housemade ricotta, crowned with parsley gremolata. My heart goes out to well-meaning, modern chefs like Chris Calabrese who open places like Nettie’s House of Spaghetti with a Southern Italian bent. While there’s room in this world for heaps of chicken parm blanketed in molten cheese, that’s just not Nettie’s.

Rather than set rules, more New York restaurants are using their restaurant story or narrative to encourage parents to bring kids to restaurants — or not. “How do you have something that’s family-friendly and still accommodates the 9 p.m. Baked clams were all about breadcrumbs; my guests and I made a game of finding the clams. Nettie’s chicken Savoy was the wrong side of pink the night we had it, and the vinegar sauce was wan.

As one Yelper noted, leaping to its defense, Nettie’s isn’t trying to be the Olive Garden. A sign placed outside Old Fisherman's Grotto boldly stated, "No strollers, no high chairs, no booster chairs. Children crying or making loud noises are a distraction to other diners, and as such are not allowed in the dining room." In California back in 2018, a restaurant on Monterey's touristy Fisherman's Wharf gained attention with a new crop of moms for its anti-children policy. The business admitted the new policy would likely upset some customers, "especially those of you with very well-behaved kids," but said they felt it was the best decision for their business. In the post, the restaurant said they didn’t come to the decision "lightly, but some recent events have pushed us to implement this new policy."

At $25, I was surprised that it did not come with a side of pasta, especially in a place called Nettie’s House of Spaghetti. These are big chunks of free range, organic chicken with peppers and a vinegar sauce served on the side. This seemed more like a French dish to me, but the chicken was juicy with a nicely crisped skin, and the vinegar sauce was not tangy. The restaurant named for his mother is his most family-friendly restaurant, he says.

The methodology used is research, analysis driven --- as opposed to that of a single restaurant critic or a social media platform, viewer comment posting board. Dishes are scratch made, with high quality ingredients, both imported and locally sourced ingredients that change seasonally. Prior to opening Nettie's House of Spaghetti with his wife in 2018, Chef Calabrese was the Executive chef at the very successful Porta restaurants in Asbury Park and Jersey City.