I'm in central NJ and I know there are some other forum members in NJ, eastern PA, Delaware and around the state so I wanted to see if there was some interest in a NJ get-together ??

Would love to hear date or location suggestions too!

Head over to www.vinocellar.com. They're planning one as we "speak".

I don't "mix" w/ the Vinocellar crowd. So, I'd love to do a Jersey offline.

Weekends are always better than week nights, (but I'm kinda' booked through mid-end of May). Depending on who comes, we should try and do something centralized. I'm almost positive BYO is a must (I thought I remember hearing NJ doesn't allow corkage).

NJ has a ton of great BYO places and I'm like you, weekends are better for me but it's not that difficult for me.

I know we have a bunch of "Jersey" guys... (L4MG2K, mouton8888, NJPhil, ek)... plus there are several "PA" guys that are close whom we had a great time w/ at the Philly Brunello Offline (dbw4, Dan Fulton), and I know there are some from MD (PH), as well as Delaware... so hopefully we can get a good interest.

quote:

Originally posted by mwagner7700:
I don't "mix" w/ the Vinocellar crowd. So, I'd love to do a Jersey offline.

Curious..why not?

Got two non-board aficionados that have expressed interest in a get-together. is that allowed or do we want to keep it forumites only?

quote:

Originally posted by wineismylife:
Curious..why not?

If I've never chatted w/ 'em... I ain't gonna' spend an evening w/ 'em.

K. Others are welcome to join in.

... try to put a few projected dates out there and see who/what bites!


DBW

Well, it's just about the end of April so let's talk the first week or so of May.

What day of the week works for people? I'm guessing the weekends are best so that means Friday or Saturday. Right?

So, let's talk resturants and towns.

Suggestions???

I'd be interested in participating in a future event, depending on the date. I have a bad schedule the next few weeks, but you never know.

In Lambertville, No. 9 and Hamilton's are good options. Brothers Moon in Hopewell, Ferry House in Princeton?

I'm w/ omaroak... my weekends are booked through mid-May.

Great, we're narrowing it down to mid-may if we want to do a weekend.

Princeton is great and it's fairly centrally located in the middle of NJ but if we can get a few more people interested I'd be willing to drive a ways for somewhere more central for everyone coming.

I've been by Brother's Moon in Hopewell but have never tried it and Lambertville is fine too although my favorite resturant from years ago, The New Orleans Cafe is no more... Damn shame.

I suppose once we select a location we can start talking about a theme of wines or at least consider which to bring based on the food.

I would love a Thursday/Friday in Atlantic City area. The Thrsday would be nice because room rates are good. I do not know of too many BYO's, but some of the casinos have decent deals on Thursdays and their wine markup although more certainly than BYOB's is not so bad. Looking to possibly June. I could check it out at the Borgata if anyone is interested. It might be too expensive though. Check their restaurants on line. They have an excellent Italian "not so expensive" one called Ombre. The chef is tip-top and the wine selection is 1st class. Agan, may be cost prohibitive. Other suggestions are welcome.

maybe a friday but I don't think a thursday would work for me and most of the others but it sounds great.

Well, it's the middle of May and sorry for being out of touch for a while. Had an insane project to finish that took all my waking time.


So, what weekend is looking good and where shall we have this get-together??

I apparently missed this thread the first time around, but I'd be up for something.

A weeknight would be preferable for me.

As for location, it doesn't really matter, but someplace scenic would be nice. Princeton really is quite lovely and centrally located. But Steve makes a good point that rates in Atlantic City are good during the week, and I've never been to A.C.

At this point I'd say June is looking likely, but the first weekend in June isn't workable for me. Are weekends better for most people?

Anyway, I'm voting for either Princeton or AC, but really, I think we should find a good restaurant. I'll do a search in Zagat and see what comes up.

In reviewing a few menus of restaurants in New Jersey, they don't quite seem to be up to the task of matching the quality of wines we'll be bringing.

Perhaps the New Jersians will have some suggestions regarding restaurants. The only restaurant I know of in New Jersey worth going to is Siri, but it's so close to Philly, it almost defeats the purpose of a "New Jersey" offline.

Anyway, are there any ideas for venues with good food?

Well, hopefully we can get a concensus going here and come up with a plan.

Princeton has a number of good resturants that are group friendly and BYOB. There's an indian resturant that instantly pops to mind, several asian style resturants as well but there are plenty including a great mexican resturant that is BYOB.

The outlying areas have lots of resturants as well. North, south, east, west...

I'm willing to travel a bit for this so I'm fairly open to location.

The week nights are out for us... it is just too hectic (sorry Dan). So, we'd prefer a weekend. In terms of location, anything is fine with us... Princeton, AC, Lambertville, etc.

I'll second the idea of avoiding weeknights and anywhere is good by me for a weekend night.

weekend is fine with me.

Great. Okay since no one else is suggesting specific areas I'll narrow it down.

Princeton (centrally located in the state and easy to get to)

Lambertville (easy to get to for most people and people coming from Philly).

Both areas have some good BYOB resturants.

Anyone have specific resturant suggestions in either town?

I'd suggest we pick a restaurant first regardless of location. Given that people are going to be traveling from distances for this I think it needs to 1) have excellent food and 2) have food that's wine friendly.

Has anyone been to Hamilton's Grill Room in Lambertville, NJ? It sounds like what we're looking for and is highly regarded by Zagat.

Check out their menu...
http://www.hamiltonsgrillroom.com

What would we think about Saturday June 18 or Saturday June 25?

Who's in? We should get a list of people that are certainly or likely interested so we can get a vague count. It's easier to find a place if we have 6 or 8 than if we have 10 or 12.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daniel Fulton,