More Morris County (New Jersey)

Different hotel in the opposite direction from the office this trip, new set of nearby restos:

Terra Mare
75 Main Street
Madison NJ 07940
www.tmrestarant.com
973-360-1444

I missed the restaurants the hotel had recommended (did I go too far? I don't think so as I didn't see them on the way back either), and tried Terra Mare. They have a prix fixe menu for $18.95, so I thought I'd bite. Well, prix fixe isn't that fixed: about half the items have upcharges, including the caesar salad versus house salad ($1 extra? and it isn't extra on the online menu). The caesar was very good: nice reggiano flavor, small "homemake" croutons. For entree I had a linguine with a pink tarragon sauce (I'd never heard of pink tarragon, I think it's more a pink sauce (tomato cream) with tarragon -- not strongly tarragonic (tarragonny?), but nicely herby, with a crab cake on top. The crab had some filler, I think, but had nice flavor and texture. Dessert was an apple caramel pie: great crust, apples had some nice solidity to them yet (anything on the dessert menu could be had for another $2). I'd go back again, I think, altho most of the entrees off the prix fixe were at least $18.

Second night, I managed to get very lost trying to find the square in Morristown, but eventually found it. Another guy from my company (also from out of town) met me there, he got equally lost on the way in different directions. We ended up a the Famished Frog:

The Fanished Frog
18 Washington Street
Morristown NJ 07960
973-540-9601
www.famishedfrog.com

This place is kind of an eclectic mix that's more bar than restaurant -- the sort of place I often avoid, because their menu is a jack of all trades and master of none (y'know, some mexican, some italian, some asian...), but I was pleasantly surprised: I ordered a special "Eggplant Rollette" (sic) $13.95. Very nicely breaded and fried slices of eggplant wrapped around ricotta and topped with just a bare amount of tomato sauce and additional cheeses. Very good. Blue cheese dressing on the salad (a la carte $2.99) was very tasty, may have been made in-house. I also had a local rootbeer whose name escapes me (and it's not on their menu) [Later edit: Stewart's], that I swear tasted of cocoa.

So... I have to say I'm happier on the Morristown/Madison end of my range than the Parsippany end. I'll have to keep exploring on future trips.

The Famished Frog looks like a great little place! Perhaps I'll hit it the next time I'm in NJ. I noticed that their bar is for people 25 and older. The last time I was in New Jersey, I was in a bar that was for people 30 and older. Is this something that is common in that state? I can't recall seeing anything like that in the Boston area where I live.