I Just Read About That…

I very rarely deviate from my usual topics of books, music and TV.  But today, Father’s Day, the family and I went to a local(ish) restaurant that was so good (and so local(ish)) that I wanted to shout about it.

It’s called The Brothers Moon.  It’s in Hopewell, NJ.  It seems pretty clear that they don’t need the business, as they were pretty hopping today, but it’s pretty far off the beaten path, so I think they can use the publicity.

I had first heard of them when I was looking up local sustainable food places.  While I was searching for a local CSA, I discovered The Brothers Moon because, as their site states, “Support Local, Go Local! The Brothers Moon proudly supports sustainable farming and local businesses.”  Which gets my vote on principle alone.

And, when they can follow that up with awesome food, well, why shouldn’t I rave about it.  I will say that I have eaten my fair share of hamburgers in my life.  I’ve had burgers from places that people said were the best burgers.  But this was without a doubt the best hamburger I have ever eaten.  It had bacon, aged cheddar and horseradish sauce.  All of these flavors contributed to the taste but didn’t overwhelm it.  It was done just right, flavored wonderfully and, was just fantastic.  The fries were great too.

The funny thing is that their brunch menu specializes in wonderfully obscure dishes, and I went for a burger, but boy was that the right choice!  And look at the dinner menu, I mean, how good does Asparagus raviolis with roasted peppers, arugula and asparagus in a light herb and truffle accented cream sauce sound? Admittedly, it is a little pricey.  It couldn’t be an everyday place.  But you absolutely get your money’s worth, and I think the sustainability justifies adding a few dollars to the total.

Oh and the hazelnut merengue cookies were awesome.

After The Brothers Moon, we went to Grounds for Sculpture an amazing “museum” in Hamilton, NJ.  It is a huge sculpture garden on the site of the old New Jersey Fairgrounds.  But what is amazing about it is that most of the sculptures are outside.  And at least half of them are “okay to touch.”  Which means, bring the kids!  Our kids loved this place.  And we did too.

The sculptures range from utterly abstract, to eastern (a peaceful water garden), to an amphitheater (with tigers), to recreations of famous painting as sculptures.  There’s even an audio sculpture (Seat of Sound) that I would love to hear Sonic Youth record a piece on.

The Grounds have a tremendous variety of sculptures on the property (we barely saw half of them), and an extensive collection of artists’ works.  For the rest of the summer there are two indoor exhibits.  A Keith Haring collection (which we didn’t even get to) and an amazing collection of creations by Chakaia Booker.  She’s an artist I’d never heard of before.  Her sculptures are beautiful creations made exclusively with used tires.  They’re really amazing.

And did I mention there are peacocks roaming the grounds, too.

What’s so cool about the grounds is that there are many major walkways, but there are nooks and crannies all over the place where sculptures are hiding.  You assume it’s just trees (and there a delightful benches under gorgeous old trees) but surprise, there’s a sculpture.  My favorite moment came when I looked down an untraveled dirt path, only to see a recreation of Manet’s The Lunch on the Grass [see bottom of post for the original], complete with lady bathing in a stream.  It blew my mind.  And it was so meticulously recreated, I couldn’t get over it.  The piece is by Seward Johnson (the French is Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe, and the his title is Déjeuner Déjà Vu).  He has many other life-like recreations all over the grounds.

We were there for about 3 hours and we had a great time.  And, if you follow the signs on the highway, (as opposed to our GPS suggestion), you drive down some city blocks that are peppered with enormous, amazing sculptures.  The kids kept shouting, “Sculpture!”  It was quite a treat for an art fan like myself.

I am astonished that it took me this long to visit this amazing museum.  We converted our entrance few into a membership, and we’ll be going back in every season (they’ll be open after dark in the winter, which should be really breathtaking).  A gorgeous day in Beautiful New Jersey.