It’s not quite the Jersey Shore, nor is it Manhattan, but just across the Hudson River, there’s this quaint little part of New Jersey encompassing Newport, Hoboken, Grove Street and Exchange Place.
I myself, live in this area and must say Hoboken is one of my favourite places across New York and New Jersey. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sit along the waterfront with a full view of Manhattan from the Empire State to the World Trade Center? You can’t get that view in Manhattan and we don’t have any bridges blocking our view (@Brooklyn).
Yes, you may have to take the weird and wonderful PATH system to get here instead of the Subway, but our PATH trains are a lot cleaner, fresh-smelling and more delayed than the beloved New York Subway. However, leaving the hustle and bustle of New York for a five minute trip to New Jersey is often quite needed.
So just in case you find yourself in pursuit of a morning stroll around the Jersey City area, here are five breakfast spots that I highly rate in my dear Jersey home.
1. Battello, Newport
Oh how we love Battello’s. This place is actually quite fancy for Newport, except when it’s Thursday and all of us interns take over the place for their $5 wine and Sangria happy hour that lasts until closing – what’s not to love about that?
The rare old time we don’t want to go into the city (read: hungover) we sometimes take the ten minute walk to Battello’s in search of some eggs washed down with a cocktail and a view of Manhattan.
The breakfast menu is good, not too expensive and portion sizes are just right. I’m looking forward to summer at Battello’s when we all take our food and drink outside and really admire the view. Plus in the evenings you can sit outside under the fairy lights with the city lights of the Financial District right over the water.
Is it summer yet?
2. Bluestone Lane, Hoboken
As I mentioned above, Hoboken is one of my favourite places across New York and New Jersey. It’s very Stars Hollow of Gilmore Girls, if you’re a fan of that. The streets are cobbled, the shops and cafés have very ‘ye olde’ storefronts and the vibe is just very quaint.
Bluestone Lane is a very fresh, clean and summer-vibe kind of place. As you can imagine with the name, it’s got a very blue interior matched with a lot of white which just makes me think of what brunch in California or Sydney would be like.
The menu is very healthy and vegan-friendly. I didn’t stray too far from my usual avocado toast with poached eggs and it was very, very nice. The service in here is excellent too, so I would very much recommend. Plus, afterwards go for a stroll around Hoboken or along the water – it’s the cutest place.
3. Frankie, Grove Street
A bottomless brunch had to somehow make its way onto this list, didn’t it? New York is very famous for its bottomless brunches and we happened to find a relatively cheap one on Grove Street.
The aesthetic is quite edgy and Australian, as quite a lot of the brunch places in New York seem to be. The food was good, but the avocado comes out un-mashed so a little tip is to ask for guac instead.
We all had unlimited mimosas for two hours and we were definitely rightly as it came time to leave.
4. Maggie’s Farm Espresso, Jersey City
This is a very small and cute little café, somewhere I could imagine bringing my laptop and doing a bit of work for the day. They have quite an large breakfast menu for a café and we happened to go on a weekday yet it was still very busy.
We stumbled upon this place by accident as it was 11am, Battello’s didn’t start serving food until 11.30am and we had headed in the opposite direction of Hoboken so had to keep walking in search of breakfast food deep in Jersey City.
The food was very good and the coffee even better. I would definitely head back here even just for coffee and a quiet space to work in if not returning for breakfast.
5. City Diner, Exchange Place
A very busy spot for breakfast, City Diner is one of the best places in Jersey City for a weekend brunch. With a very extensive breakfast menu, we usually head here in big groups for some recuperation from the night before.
It’s very diner-esque with free coffee refills and a free side of pancakes with your breakfast – because that’s normal, right? It reminded me of Denny’s in Las Vegas, only a little bit classier.
Definitely a good place to go when you want something greasy, stodgy and all the coffee you can sink before you start to shake.
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