A year of fine dining: The best offerings of 2006
(Excerpted)
As we get ready to ring in 2007, I'm taking a last look at my top dining experiences of 2006.
How does a restaurant make my list of favorites? First, it must be one that I reviewed during the past 12 months. That is why so many highly regarded places among my all-time bests -- Ixora in Whitehouse, the Pluckemin Inn in Bedminster, Stage Left in New Brunswick and Serenade in Chatham, to mention a few -- are missing from this lineup, since I didn't write about them in 2006.
...
Catherine Lombardi (3 Living ston Ave., New Brunswick. 732-296-9463) is the brainchild of Mark Pascal, one of the owners of Stage Left, which is downstairs from this new restaurant named after his grandmother. Old school Italian food, such as macaroni with gravy and red and black meatballs, is served in an elegant setting with crimson walls and eye-catching lighting fixtures im ported from Italy. The prices, like the surroundings, are upscale. Executive chef Anthony Bucco oversees both Stage Left and Catherine Lombardi.
--Cody Kendall, for the Star-Ledger
(Sunday, December 31, 2006)