I see a horse on the roof and so I know I’m there: Kinchley’s Tavern in Ramsey, the next stop on my journey to the 25 most essential restaurants in North Jersey, as determined by you, dear readers.
Many of you recommended Kinchley’s, and I’ve always heard it in conversations about the best bar pie in the state. Yet where one stands in that debate is based on gustatory preferences and personal associations and histories with the establishments that serve them; that is, it’s hard to name a winner when so many subjective factors are in play.
Nonetheless, with a table full of said pies, a house red ale and some meatballs, I was eager to enter the fray. A fellow diner eyed my spread on his way out and said, “That’s an amazing order,” and I asked where he’d put these pies in the North Jersey pizza hierarchy.
He thought for a moment and said, “Some people think they’re overrated, but I’ve been coming here for 50 years and they’ve always worked for me.”
Picking up a wafer-thin slice of Kinchley’s fra diavolo bar pie and folding it in half with an audible snap, I wonder: Is this pizza going to be worth all the fuss? But then, I look around the wood-paneled dining room to the tables packed with families. I think of the guy eating lunch here 50 years after his first visit, and the value of familiarity and consistency. I consider the dining’s quirky accents collected over nine decades and the totem of the rooftop Clydesdale, and think: Oh, there’s much more to Kinchley’s than pizza.
Source:Northjersey.com
