Newark, NJ -- Mecca of Spanish Restaurants

[fjc]

Believe it or not Newark, NJ is the mecca for Spanish food restaurants in the East Coast. Here is a small listing of the ones that I have enjoyed:

Casa Vasca (great tripe)
Fornos
Iberia
Spanish Tavern
Don Pepe (used to be great, now too Americanized)

Also there are some Spanish organizations in the city. These are:

Spanish Club
Casa Celta

and a very good Spanish classes for all ages run by the aforementioned Spanish Club.

[jedrosa]

I agree that Newark is a kind of "mecca" of spanish restaurants on the east coast. It is nice that they are all located on one street-Ferry. This reminds Spanish immigrants of the 70s of 14th street in NYC back then. most Spanish restaurants are making a comeback in New York City as well...

I have been to a great Spanish restaurant in Madison, WI off Fish Hatchery Road.

There a couple of good restaurants in St. Louis City as well...Guido's is one of them...don't look at the name too much though as the owner and his wife are from Spain and remember the days of 14th street in NY.

I have now visited two restaurants in San Francisco along Lombard Street that are excellent as well.

Jaleo in Washington is good as well.

Casa Galicia in Astoria, Queens, NY has great, very resonably priced food. The ambience is that much better when a huge derby soccer game is on.

Not too shabby for a first generation new yorker with a galician dad that lived in the Aviles area before immigrating to the US huh?

[Art]

Well, Jedrosa, you've been doing some good scouting!

The thing that bugs me is that most of the Spanish restaurants that I know about in the US are very pricey, so there's no way the average American is going to try the cuisine. (As I recall, though, the restaurant I visited in Newark was very reasonably priced.)

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¡Muy bien, Jedrosa, has estado siendo un explorador muy activo!

La cosa que me molesta es que la mayor parte de los restaurantes españoles que conozco en EU son muy caras, así que el tipo americano no va a intentar comer la cocina. (Pero si recuerdo correctamente, el restaurante que visité en Newark tenía precios de ganga.)

[jedrosa]

You are right that Spanish food in the US tends to be a bit pricey for the average american. That can be attributed to the fact that some of the dishes contain items that are somewhat costly such as seafood. Some restaurants have to import food items especially if the are located far from distributors. I believe the prices have fueled the popularity of Tapas which are generally less expensive than a full meal and provide a greater variety of items for first timers to try.

[Bob]

Our local Spanish restaurant in New Haven is far from inexpensive. A dinner for two, with appetizer. dessert and an inexpensive bottle of wine can easily run $150 or more. To be fair, they do have some of the seafood and other ingredients flown in directly from Spain.

There used to be a Spanish restaurant in Manhattan, called Cafe Espanol or something like that, that was quite good and moderately priced. I haven't been there in 15 or 20 years.