Decided to jog through NB today because of the weather and just happened to come across these two.
Shaka is officially opening Monday, but they were having a test run today. It's a burritos place originally from down the shore, but beach themed as opposed to Hispanic. In the old Ginger and Olive spot, so nothing could possibly be worse than that. I like the decor, nice little setup. It's a casual sit down restaurant. Food was decent - liked some, not others. I think this could do ok.
Further down George St. you have Caffe Bene, which just happened to be opening today. It's in a weird spot - about halfway between the theatres and train station. They have coffee, but this place is much more desert-oriented. Big array of baked goods, smoothies, etc... and it's one of those high falutin places with things like Macarons and Gelato (both of which I think are awesome.) Really comfortable, relaxed setup for sitting down though. If this was on Easton for example, it would definitely be packed all the time with students. For people like Bob asking about a higher end bakery, this sort of fills that niche to an extent. I'm ok with Shaka, but really liked this.
In other news, the Hansel on Church is back to being open on weekends and is open later on weekdays now, which is a huge relief to me. Other things I noticed were that there's a Sushi place next to Mike's Courtside now that used to be Lebanese. The Indian place next to Garden Steaks is turning into another burrito place (the next Burger/Froyo/etc... battleground in NB?) The old Panini Place now has a sign about being "The Fresh Pantry" - they already have a website up and it seems to be some kind of meals ready to eat delivery service. The Counter next to World of Beer has their new sign up but still looks a ways off.
Shaka is officially opening Monday, but they were having a test run today. It's a burritos place originally from down the shore, but beach themed as opposed to Hispanic. In the old Ginger and Olive spot, so nothing could possibly be worse than that. I like the decor, nice little setup. It's a casual sit down restaurant. Food was decent - liked some, not others. I think this could do ok.
Further down George St. you have Caffe Bene, which just happened to be opening today. It's in a weird spot - about halfway between the theatres and train station. They have coffee, but this place is much more desert-oriented. Big array of baked goods, smoothies, etc... and it's one of those high falutin places with things like Macarons and Gelato (both of which I think are awesome.) Really comfortable, relaxed setup for sitting down though. If this was on Easton for example, it would definitely be packed all the time with students. For people like Bob asking about a higher end bakery, this sort of fills that niche to an extent. I'm ok with Shaka, but really liked this.
In other news, the Hansel on Church is back to being open on weekends and is open later on weekdays now, which is a huge relief to me. Other things I noticed were that there's a Sushi place next to Mike's Courtside now that used to be Lebanese. The Indian place next to Garden Steaks is turning into another burrito place (the next Burger/Froyo/etc... battleground in NB?) The old Panini Place now has a sign about being "The Fresh Pantry" - they already have a website up and it seems to be some kind of meals ready to eat delivery service. The Counter next to World of Beer has their new sign up but still looks a ways off.
