Park Place kosher eatery debuts in Highland Park

By Seth Mandel
Nov. 23, 2007

No matter who you are or what you like to eat, Park Place was established with you in mind.

That's the message from the owners of Highland Park's newest glatt kosher restaurant, Paul Goldman and Chavie and Silvio Taranda.

"We (initially) went with a fast-food concept, and then we decided that maybe the fast-food concept would only appeal to a small sector of the area," Goldman said. "So we decided to add for the people who were looking for salads, or wraps, or even sushi, and decided to add those items to the menu and just really diversify our clientele as much as possible."

Park Place, located at 120 Raritan Avenue on the eastbound side of the highway between South First and South Second avenues, aims to fill a void in the heart of the expanding Edison/Highland Park Jewish community. For sit-down dining, the town offers Italian and Israeli food at Jerusalem Pizza, Moroccan and other Middle Eastern meat dishes at Shushan Grill, a breakfast menu at Dunkin' Donuts, and Chinese food at Mei Garden Cuisine. The supermarket/deli takeout Glatt 27 is also located on Raritan Avenue in town.

"And I thought this was a good opportunity, I thought this was a much-needed type of place in our area," Goldman said.

Goldman and the Tarandas know the area well; Chavie, Silvio, and their children live in Edison, and Silvio is owns Rictar Construction, based in Edison; Goldman, who lives in nearby East Brunswick, previously owned Glatt 27 for five years.

Their combined experience with the community's kosher shoppers and restaurant-goers led to the formation of Park Place's comprehensive menu. Appetizers range from corn dogs to buffalo wings to hot bites, and a soup of the day; they offer seven burgers, including a pastrami burger, veal burger, chili burger, and the house special Park Burger -- an eight-ounce burger with barbeque sauce.

Hot dogs and fried chicken are on the menu, as are steaks, several chicken platters, kabobs, and pastrami or salami and eggs. Park Place has wraps, shwarma, and various subs including Philly steak and meatball subs. There is a salad bar, as well as made to order steak, chicken, chef, and Caesar salads.

The sides include standard French fries, onion rings, and cole slaw, but also offer sweet potato chips, corn on the cob, and onion flowers.

There is also a full sushi menu.

Goldman said the town has been ready for a restaurant like this for a while, and he immediately began planning for it, while also doing some restaurant consulting work, after selling Glatt 27.

He and Chavie had the same vision for the restaurant, Goldman said, calling the partnership a "match." And in Park Place, the two have created what they envisioned, he said.

"Everything has gone very, very well," he said. "It's been very successful so far, we've been very pleased."

"We're grateful to the community for supporting us, everyone here is very happy," Chavie added. "We're looking forward to serving the community."

The restaurant opened this month, under the supervision of the Vaad Harabanim of Raritan Valley, to a promising start.

"The community seems very, very happy with the idea of a new establishment in town ... a very nice, comfortable, warm type of place where you can sit and enjoy a meal," Goldman said. "And the response has really been great."

Park Place has a second-floor dining room available for private parties or extra seating, and Goldman said they are considering putting in a television upstairs for sports games. But that, he said, is not at the top of their list of priorities just yet. The restaurant is planning to add a delivery service in the next few weeks, and they already have curbside pickup available.

Chavie said the restaurant's Web site, www.parkplacekosher.com, should be up next month. Park Place is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, and 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday night. Park Place can be reached at 732-565-1234.

The owners are also planning a grand opening, probably some time in the next few weeks.

"Right now we're sort of in a soft opening, and it really took off," Goldman said. "And we'll work out some of the kinks, and hopefully by the time we have our grand opening we're operating at 100 percent."