Last night my girlfriend and I went to The Parkside Social located in Verona, NJ. Parkside is part of the Skopos Hospitality.
My friend and I had a 6:30 pm reservation. She had gift card (thanks Stacey!), so we were already going to have a great night. I had not heard of the restaurant, but my girlfriend lives around the corner. It’s also down the street from the one and only Calandra’s Italian Village!!! I did think about stopping into the bakery on my way home, I won’t lie. I opened the large glass door with silver handles that were quite hot from the 98-degree day to enter Parkside. It was the vibe I thought it would be. A bit dark, social club, speakeasy vibe. Dark wood, wallpaper, dark green paint and gold accents. I actually love the vibe and would like my house to be something like this. Wallpaper is obviously coming back and dark, accent walls or furniture is IN, am I right Liz?? I’ll be visiting with Liz Ruffalo, CEO and founder of Pheasant Lane Designs in a few weeks and can’t wait.
We were seated in the back at a two-person table. When I sat down, I immediately said to my friend, “wow, my butt barely fits in this seat! Also, is the chair high or is it just me??”. She agreed, the chairs were elevated, I almost felt like I was falling into the table. Now for the seat size, I felt like I squeezed into the seat with some juiciness hanging over on each side. Is it me? Maybe. Is it the chair? Maybe. This was the first time I’ve ever felt like this. If I was 21, I would have gone into a tailspin of OMG I NEED TO EAT HEALTHIER AND LOSE WEIGHT. That doesn’t happen anymore. Although can’t say it didn’t cross my mind for 2 seconds. According to this article by Health Line, the average pant size of women in the United States is 18-20. I am a size 12. To all business owners with chairs, please take this into consideration.
I actually was not going to drink but when I looked at their Instagram, the cocktails jumped out at me. When looking at the cocktail list, nothing tickled my fancy so I went for the white sangria. It was made of white wine, peach brandy, and carpano bianco. It was truly delicious. It was bit sweet but tasted like a delicious jello. It was topped with an orange and lemon wedge, summer at it’s finest.
You can peak at the cocktail list here.
My friend had looked at the menu prior to arriving, which shockingly I don’t do. I like to be surprised. We both love to split, thank goodness. We split three appetizers and one main dish. We started with crab rangoon, sticky shrimp, pear and wild honey toast and the fried chicken sandwich. The crab rangoon was made up of stuffed squash blossom, cream cheese, ginger and lemon grass. Can someone tell me why sometimes they have crab and sometimes don't?? It was delicious and I think my favorite part of the meal. It was fried PERFECTLY. Light and fluffy with a warm, flavorful and perfectly seasoned cream cheese inside. The sticky shrimp, made with hot honey and a charred leek aioli, was just slightly crunchy, ever so slightly, with fantastic flavor. The toast had goat cheese, caramelized onion and candied pecan with soy sauce. I feel like the soy sauce didn’t fit 100% but it was still good because, hello, goat cheese.
The fried chicken sandwich was very good. It had a jalapeno coleslaw pickle and chipotle aioli. I did not feel any spice. I feel like the chicken was juicy, but a tad overdone. You can check out the menu here. While we were eating dinner, we saw a table get dessert which was made up of two large granulated sugar donuts with two small espresso like cups . I wasn't sure what was in them until we looked at the menu and they were full of chocolate mousse! While we were so full from dinner, we had to get the donuts. There are two donuts with the center of the donuts fried and placed in the mousse. It was all delicious. The donut hole was warm, almost hot, and perfectly sugared. I think they were cronuts?! The mousse was perfectly sweet and delicious. I also got an iced coffee. You can check out the dessert menu here.
The service was fantastic. Our appetizers and dinner came out quickly, almost too quickly. All of the servers were so sweet. I definitely recommend that you visit The Parkside Social. We paid a bit over $96 plus tip for all of this food. The donut dessert was $10 and legitimately could have fed 4 people. It actually did turn into four servings: a mousse and donut hole for me and for my friend, a donut for Mr. Chester, a donut for me this morning for breakfast. IT WAS $10!! This is a great place for a date night, girls' night out, or even an event. They also have a Jazz brunch on Sundays!
Another new restaurant in the books!
You can find more about The Parkside Social below!
Instagram - @theparksidesocial
Website - The Parkside Social
Disclaimer: the restaurant did not pay me or provide complimentary food.