A massive traffic jam ruined our night out so we detoured for a dozen Jersey oysters

WORTH THE DETOUR: 100 Steps Kitchen + Raw Bar on Centennial Avenue in Cranford once was known as 100 Steps Supper Club + Raw Bar, as the awning still indicates. Web site: Great seafood closer than the shore.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I hate driving.

I hate bumping up or down slowly along my pockmarked, frequently patched block in Hackensack's Fairmount section, a street that has been neglected for more than 30 years. 

I hate driving over the rough, potholed and patched  streets in Teaneck and Englewood, and I especially hate the traffic on the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, our two major toll roads.

On Friday night, my wife and I left an hour and a half to drive the 53 miles or so to a Red Bank restaurant, where we had a 6 p.m. reservation.

We also planned to see a play at Two River Theater.

We never made it, detouring instead to 100 Steps Kitchen + Raw Bar, a BYO in Cranford, for a dinner of New Jersey oysters and scallops, and skate wing with crunchy grilled asparagus. 

Traffic was backed up on the parkway for more than 8 miles, according to digital signs, and we were averaging barely 20 mph when we gave up, called the Red Bank restaurant to cancel our reservation, and took the exit for Cranford.

High taxes, low roads

New Jersey's streets, roads and highways are in terrible shape -- this in a state with some of the highest local property taxes in the nation.

The Garden State Parkway is long overdue for an expansion in northern New Jersey -- 5 lanes in each direction would be great.

And what can you say about streets in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood in Bergen County except that they are in horrible condition, especially those maintained by the county, and could use far more turn lanes.

County owned streets

Bergen County owns tens of millions of dollars in tax-exempt property in Hackensack -- shifting the burden to homeowners like me -- yet arrogant officials maintain stretches of county owned Summit Avenue and Prospect Avenue at third-world standards.

Cedar Lane in Teaneck also is poorly maintained by the county, with potholes and rough patches that rock even a heavy luxury car like mine.

And in Hackensack, the lack of turn lanes on Passaic Street, a major thoroughfare, and Summit Avenue is just criminal, causing driver frustration and aggravating air pollution as cars pile up behind turning vehicles.

Thanks for nothing, Bergen County.

Read: On my 2017 visit to 100 Steps,

 I had a dozen Cape May Salts

HALF-SHELL GAME: During Happy Hour, all oysters from the raw bar are half price, so I ordered 6 Tucker's Island from Little Egg Harbor and 6 Rose Cove from Barnegat (total of $20.50). Those were my consolation prizes after my server told me there were no Cape May Salts from Delaware Bay, the plump oyster I enjoyed on my previous visit in 2017. 

HOLD THE CREAM: My entree, a pan-seared Skate Wing, was listed on the menu with a side of potato dumplings in a cream sauce. To cut down on the fat, I ordered a side of crunchy asparagus ($33).

NEW JERSEY SCALLOPS: My wife loved her three large sea scallops ($37), but was hungry when we got home. I regret not ordering the special salad, Jersey Peach with Arugula.

EARLY BIRDS: Only a few other tables were occupied when we arrived at the restaurant without a reservation. We were seated immediately.

FREE PARKING: A parking lot on the corner is free.

THE DRIVE HOME: My wife took this photo of traffic on the northbound Garden State Parkway, where the toll road narrows from 5 lanes to 4. Cars exiting to Route 280 lined up in an exit lane and one travel lane, slowing everyone. Traffic going south appears to be as congested as it was when we gave up and detoured to Cranford.

Despite 8 years of Christie, high property taxes, N.J. still has good oysters, Red Bank

DAY TRIP TO RED BANK: I loved this Caesar-style Warm Cabbage Salad ($12), topped with an unsalted anchovy, at B2 Bistro + Bar in Red Bank, a garden-to-table restaurant where we had lunch last Sunday before seeing a play, August Wilson's "King Hedley II."

NEW JERSEY OYSTERS: I started lunch with a trio of these wonderful Elder Point Oysters from Delaware Bay ($2.75 each). Another great New Jersey oyster is the Cape May Salt, which I've enjoyed at the 100 Steps Supper Club + Raw Bar in Cranford.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- It's always great to get out of Hackensack, where I live, and try to forget my high property taxes and the city's crumbling streets.

But you can substitute the name of almost any other town or city in New Jersey, where hundreds of local home-rule governments, no matter how small, insist on having their own police chief, superintendent of schools and on and on, running up the tax bill.

Now, I don't know anything about how well or poorly Red Bank is run, but a day trip to that bustling shore city can almost make you forget all of the damage to mass transit, the environment and state finances left by GOP bully Chris Christie after 8 years as governor of New Jersey.

That was the case last Sunday, when we drove down for lunch at B2 Bistro + Bar and a play at Two River Theater, the latter an event sponsored by WBGO-FM, the great jazz station in Newark.

We saw another play, "A Raisin In The Sun," there in October 2017, also a trip for members of Jazz 88.

The theater is expanding, and there was no parking in its own lot, but just a couple of blocks away, parking was free in the lots of the NJ Transit rail station.

What a concept. NJ Transit rail lots open and free on Sundays for visitors to Red Bank. Are the NJ Transit rail lots in Hackensack free on Sunday?

B2 BISTRO + BAR: The open kitchen and pizza oven at B2 Bistro, which serves food from New Jersey farmers, fishermen and specialty purveyors.

BUTTER SERVICE: I don't use butter, but my wife does. I was able to pluck a few microgreens off of the tray.

SWEET AT THE ROOT: I also ordered a side of Glazed (Root) Vegetables ($7), but found them too sweet.

BLUE CHEESE BURGER: My wife enjoyed her thick Dry Aged Burger, served with a cone of french fries and a small salad. The burger was $19, including $3 for blue cheese.

AMERICAN CENTURY CYCLE: Two River Theater, above and below, is half way through a presentation of August Wilson's American Century Cycle, 10 plays exploring African-American life for each decade of the 20th century. All of the plays but one ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom") are set in Pittsburgh's Hill District, where Wilson was born and lived until 1973.

KING HEDLEY: In August Wilson's "Seven Guitars," set in 1948, the character King Hedley I is "a Haitian man who lives by his own set of principles ... and searches for a woman to have a child with," according to the program. Another character, Ruby, "is traveling to Pittsburgh after a love triangle in Alabama leaves one of her lovers, Leroy, dead and another, Elmore, in prison. After she arrives, Ruby and Hedley form an unlikely relationship," the program explains.

KING HEDLEY II: The play takes place 37 years later, in 1985. King Hedley I is dead. "After years on the road, Ruby returns to Pittsburgh ... to see her son, King Hedley II.... Elmore (one of Ruby's former lovers) sends a letter telling Ruby that he is coming to visit.... King works to establish his own legacy in the decaying Hill District [where nearly everyone is armed]. But like his namesake from 'Seven Guitars,' King Hedley II lives by his own set of principles," the program notes.