Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the August
22, 2001 edition of U.S.
1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Can the ‘Net Solve The Lunch Dilemma?
Looking for a new place to have lunch? Internet site
Citysearch (www.citysearch.com) lists 3,172 restaurants
within 50 miles of downtown Princeton. Inc. magazine includes the
site in an article in its July issue on online dining guides. The
business magazine’s rundown is aimed at business travelers. Looking
at the nationwide sites Inc. included, and at a couple of local
websites
too, turns up the fact that no one site offers all the information
hungry Route 1 corridor office workers need at lunch time. Taken
together,
however, the online resources provide lots of information.
Inc. faults Citysearch for having “little for suburbanites,”
but, hey, 3,172 restaurants seems like a pretty good number. In fact,
no other online restaurant guide comes close to listing as many
eateries
within an easy drive of Princeton, and some list not many more dining
spots than there are tines on a dessert fork.
Citysearch can be searched alphabetically — not very helpful;
how many people say “Hmmmm. Let’s try a restaurant that starts
with a `B’ today? — or by cuisine. The search begins at whatever
location you indicate as ground zero, and moves out geographically.
Under Italian restaurants, Citysearch lists 1,589 choices within 50
miles of 08542, the zip code for downtown Princeton. Romano’s Macaroni
Grill (2.51 miles away) comes first. The Winepress in Kingston,
Casabono
in Skillman, and the Olive Garden on Route 1 are all there. But where
is Teresa’s Pizetta Caffee on Palmer Square? Seems like an omission,
but a little hunting turns it up under “pizza restaurants,” which
is not terribly accurate, although the popular restaurant does serve
pizza along with its extensive list of entrees and salads.
Citysearch turns up 4,944 more pizza restaurants within 50 miles of
downtown Princeton. It counts 120 such dining spots within 10.43
miles,
including the venerable Conte’s on Witherspoon Street, and lots of
chain outlets. At 11.60 miles, there are 160 pizza restaurants. Go
out 13.72 miles, and the number is up to 199 — number 199 is
Domino’s
pizza at George’s Road.
Talk about time killers! It’s fun just to run the searches. Great
fodder for a trivia game. (How many Mexican restaurants are there
within five miles of downtown Princeton?) Another good feature is
a “map this” icon on every listing. Click, and up comes a
detailed street map pinpointing the location of the restaurant. On
the down side, descriptions of the restaurants and their menu choices
are skimpy. Users are invited to submit reviews, but few appear to
have done so. A random survey of 10 popular Princeton-area restaurants
turned up no reviews at all.
This “user review” feature appears on nearly every dining
website, but reviews are about as scarce as white tablecloths at
McDonalds.
Even when they appear, substance often is lacking. On CuisineNet
(www.cuisinenet.com), for instance, only seven Princeton-area
restaurants
are listed, and that includes Quilty’s, which moved on years ago.
There are reviews for just two — PJ’s Pancake House and the
Alchemist
& Barrister. LadyIsATramp reviewed both. In her opinion, PJ’s, at
which hordes wait patiently on the sidewalk for a table every Saturday
and Sunday, regardless of the weather, has “its share of crying
babies and fussy toddlers…Definitely not your choice if you’re on
a low fat diet.” Her review of the A & B is not much more
insightful.
She writes “If you’re not too concerned with atmosphere, then
this is a good place to go if you’re into a diverse menu.”
CuisineNet’s reviews are representative of what most dining sites
post, and no other parts of the site offer much redemption. The site
gives addresses and phone numbers, and not much else, not even
thumbnail
staff-written reviews. Restaurants are rated, but the ratings are
based on comments of a very small group of people, and sometimes just
one person.
DineSite.com (www.dinesite.com) is listed as a standalonewebsite in the Inc. article, but now appears to be linked toCuisineNet.The two share editorial content and have identical home pages.DineSite’sspecialty is covering the dining scene in small communities, and itdoes list more Princeton-area restaurants than does CuisineNet, butnot many more. It has about 12 listings. It is hard to figure outhow the selections were made. Sunny Garden is listed along withGeorge’sRibs and Roasters, Small World Coffee, and Karen’s Korner. Again,there are few visitor reviews, and precious little information ofany kind.Fodors.com (www.fodors.com) skips Princeton altogether.The only choice within the Garden State is the Shore with AtlanticCity.Food.com (www.food.com) is a new twist on a service manystart-ups have tried — and failed to get very far off the ground.The site links users to eateries offering take-out and delivery. Theidea is click, and then sit back and wait to open the door to dinneror a late-night snack. Off to a slow start in the Princeton area,Food.com lists only a few take-out spots, and most of them have eitherclosed or dropped out of the Food.com network.Menus.com (www.menus.com) has a fine idea. The websitelists exhaustive menus, including each meal, take-out options, and— most helpful of all for office party planners — completecatering menus. Type in “Princeton” and 109 restaurants comeup, but some are only “Princeton” by a very long stretch,one that reaches all the way into the hills at the northwest partof the state. Still, this site has dining options few others list.Tiger Noodles on Nassau Street opposite Wild Oats is here, as isOlive’sdeli on Witherspoon — home of amazing chicken salad and anexcellentapple cake.Menus.com, however, could use that mileage feature on Citysearch.The first listing to come up under “Princeton” is Allileo’sKitchen in Denville, a town that only a native of Montana or somesimilarly wide-open state could consider anywhere near Princeton.The next listing, Chez Alice on Nassau Street, hits the target. Notonly is the gourmet take-out shop right in the heart of the area,but its listing is wonderfully complete. Its offerings are dividedinto categories, even going so far as to break out for fowl (sevenchoices, including Ostrich loin at $19.90 a pound) and poultry (16choices, each with prices and a complete description).Included with the menus is a map, phone number, hours of operation— and that ubiquitous “add a review” feature.Restaurantrow.com (www.restaurantrow.com) is billedas “the world’s largest dining guide.” It lists 150,000restaurantsin over 8,000 cities. But only 24 of them are within five miles ofdowntown Princeton, and that includes two Burger Kings, two Dominospizzas, two McDonalds (including the mini-Mickey D’s in the Wal-Martstore at Nassau Park), one Papa John’s, two Pizza Huts, one Subwaysandwich shop, and one Wendy’s.The site allows users to make reservations online — at least intheory. There is a charge of $4.95 per reservation, unless users signup for an account at $7.95 per month or $22.95 per quarter, each ofwhich entitles subscribers to unlimited reservations. Restaurantson the site — in addition to all those fast food joints —include the Triumph Brewery, the Red Lobster on Route 1 South,TGIFridayat the MarketPlace mall, Tre Piani, and Acacia.The hostess who answered the phone at TGIFriday said she has neverheard of the site, and added, “we don’t take reservations.”At Tre Piani, chef and partner Jim Weaver said “I didn’t knowwe were on the site.” None of the people available to answer thephone at Acacia had ever heard of the site, either. This site mightvery well be invaluable to diners in big cities trying to score atable at a hot restaurant, and could be a good bet for a night outin New York or Philadelphia or for business travelers, but it is oflittle use locally.Zagat.com (www.zagat.com), featuring the same extensiveuser-ratings that made its paper-bound restaurants so popular, isbeautifully organized and fun to browse. Searches can be done by anumber of criteria, including business dining, cuisine, orneighborhood.Lists guide users to the “Most Popular” restaurants and thosewith “Top Food.” Alas, Zagat’s raters are either unfamiliarwith Princeton-area restaurants, or aren’t crazy about many of them.Among the very few restaurants in this area that made the”Top”lists are Acacia in Lawrenceville, SoHo on George in New Brunswick,and Rats in Hamilton.Zagat.com lists 98 choices under business dining in New Jersey, butdoesn’t allow visitors to narrow the search more than that, eitherby town name or distance, as many other sites do.The Princeton Packet website (www.pacpub.com) featuresfull, professionally-written reviews for restaurants in the immediatearea and as far afield as Highland Park, New Hope, Newtown, andFreehold.Searches are by cuisine, and not by town. New reviews are highlighted,and each review contains basic dining information.At www.princetoninfo.com, the website of U.S. 1Newspaper,website dining guide lists restaurants from New Brunswick throughTrenton, west to Skillman, and across the Delaware into Yardley.Searchesare by town, cuisine, or special feature, including historic, outdoordining, fireplace, brunch, entertainment — or any combinationof these criteria. In some cases, listings link to full length,professionally-writtenreviews. All listings contain staff-written descriptions of the diningexperience, including decor, ambiance, and type of cuisine.As with many dining websites the princetoninfo.com site gives dinersthe chance to add their own comments (or vent their anger over anegregious dining experience). Each listing links to the postedcomments.And the diners are not shy about expressing themselves.A dream dining guide might include U.S. 1’s search feature, thePacket’sextensive reviews, Citysearch’s mileage calculator and maps, Zagat’suser ratings, and menu.com’s unabridged menus. Until some ambitiousentrepreneur combines these features, surfing around among thewebsitesis a good way to find new places to entertain clients, celebrateFridays,or explore some of the 3,172 restaurants (more than in the entirestate of Montana?) within an easy drive of Princeton area offices.Top Of PageCorporate AngelsB>A-1 Limousine has raised $5,410 for the SusanG. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The money was raised through asoftball game with radio station WPST held in July at Armstrong Park’sbaseball field in Ewing.Nearly half of the money was raised by A-1 employees who obtainedpledges from their family and friends. Key contributors were TammyAzzolini and Susan Vorwick, who raised more than $950, and JohnMassari,who donated $240. The Starr family, owners of A-1, doubled the moneypledged.UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of United ParcelService,has given a $25,000 grant to HomeFront, the Lawrence-based nonprofitthat helps families, many of them homeless, get back on their feet.The money will be used to construct a state-of-the-art food panty.”This grant will allow us to construct a much-needed food pantry,large enough to allow families to choose food from shelves, not justreceive pre-packed bags,” said Celia Bernstein, HomeFront’soperationsmanager.Top Of PageDonate PleaseHomeFront is looking for 100 good people to outfit ahomelesschild for back-to-school. In July volunteers from that organizationfanned out, writing down sizes for 668 children who are homeless,or living in motels, or in families too poor to buy them some or allof the universal first-day-of-school staples — sneakers, abackpack,a new outfit, fresh notebooks, and money for fall field trips.So far HomeFront’s volunteers have uncovered about 568 people whowant to help the kids feel like all their classmates — in a word,spiffy — when the school bell rings. That leaves 100 children.Give one of them a hand, HomeFront asks. Or better yet, talk yourwhole office into a pitching in.Call HomeFront’s hotline at 609-882-1544 to get information on thefirst-day-of-school needs of a child who could use a little help ingetting ready for that big day.Top Of PageVolunteer PleaseLiteracy Volunteers of America in Mercer Countyare in “great need” of tutors to help their basic literacyand English as a second language students. Tutors must attend sevenclasses, beginning Wednesday, September 12, and held from 6 to 9 p.m.The first session takes place at the Hamilton Library. Other sessionsrotate between that library and the Weaton Pointe Library in EastWindsor.There is no cost for the training sessions. Participants will earncertification in basic literacy and in English as a second language.Call June Vogel at 609-393-8855 for more information.Top Of PageBusiness MeetingsFor the complete calendar of events in central New Jersey, go towww.princetoninfo.com/us1evts.htmlPrevious StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
