Already there on the ajvar…
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Seen on FB. Patsy’s of NYC to open an Asbury Park pop-up with plans to open a permanent location. Not sure how to link (or whether its even possible) to the FB post.
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Yeah, a friend just texted me. In the Berkeley Hotel.
YAWN.
Of course, Patsy’s had also looked at, and thought about, opening in the old Fromagerie space…
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Calandra’s in Fairfield thinking inside the bubble. I hope they are getting some good tips for that trip into some NJ ultra-reality.
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I’m seeing more and more of these around, and I honestly don’t understand how there’s anything ‘safe’ about eating/drinking inside of those! If anyone can explain it, I’d love to know the rationale aside from diners not having to be inside a building. There doesn’t appear to be air circulation in those, and I can’t imagine they can be sterilized for the next group. Aside from protecting you from the elements, what’s the point?
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Just saw a report on Facebook that Birravino is charging $50 to dine in one of their “igloos” and $100 for the big one. Can anyone confirm?
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I’m guessing that the theory is it’s just one “party” per igloo so the diners limit their risk to whom they know, excluding waitstaff, and thus are making an “informed” choice. Of course the waitstaff has no choice in the matter.
Maybe they open the door between parties?
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The rationale is for restaurant owners to be able to make more money during the winter with limited indoor seating 
I guess as long as you are dining in these igloos with trusted family members it is a little safe since you won’t be exposed to other people dining indoors (except supposedly masked servers).
The igloos contain zippered flaps and windows to facilitate air flow. They are opened and aired out for at least a half hour after each dining session, and the restaurant staff are supposed to use these foggers (leaf blower like contraptions) that contain hospital-grade and food safe disinfectant mist to sanitize the bubbles. Some restaurants even hire sanitation companies to disinfect all indoor dining spaces including igloos twice a month.
Bloom restaurant in Verona recently got them but I haven’t tried them yet, or not sure if I plan to try them. If we did try them we are usually the first diners of the evening so wouldn’t be exposed to other customer’s germs.
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Thanks for this, Eli. I didn’t know about the air flow part of it, and appreciate the rest of the description of how they’re supposed to be sanitized.
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I didn’t want to be critical of Eli’s post, but you hit the nail on the head there. “Supposed to be sanitized”.
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Ideally, these are the steps restaurants are ‘supposed’ to follow to sanitize the igloos. Whether all restaurants are following these steps is another question
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One person’s opinion of the best Italian sub sampled at eight NJ chain restaurants. He rated Primo Hoagies number 1 and Subways the worst.
Primo surprised me, Subway lol did not!!
ARE YOU SH*TING ME??? F’N BURKE IS BACK???
In the immortal words of the sage Charlie Brown:
UUGGGHHHHHH!!!
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Primos seems to get high praise among the chain shops, I’d love to try it one day. Subway is just an abomination of a race to the bottom.
I’m guessing we’ll have to consider adding the Rumson House location to the cursed locations thread shortly (sadly)…it really shouldn’t be that hard to open an upscale spot in Rumson of all places…although I think this article indirectly hits on the problem we’ve seen lately, it seems to be operated as a hobby/vanity project instead of a serious venture, thus the run of turds we’ve seen there as of late…at least they’re smart enough to punch up the take out/to go stuff off the bat…I’ll wish them the best as 2021 is so far not really much different than 2020 so far, so everyone could use any successes these days
Happy to let him go back to Rumson. 
Can’t figure out where to put this on the main HO board to maximize eyeballs, so here it is for you NJ HOs… @NotJrvedivici and @seal if you know of a better thread, feel free to move/link this! I saw this on a local site and am legit LOLing, so I had to share…it’s from a Canadian Chinese restaurant. READ THE DESCRIPTIONS. 
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