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| Parking in front of Joyce Chinese Cuisine and other tenants at Kress Plaza, a strip mall in River Edge, requires the skills of a constitutional scholar to interpret all of the signs warning customers about time limits, towing and other bad news. |
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| The Record's rave review of Joyce Chinese Cuisine in Friday's edition makes no mention of the parking restrictions or that customers who use the bigger lot in back of the strip mall won't find a rear entrance to the restaurant. This photo was taken today before the restaurant opened at 11 a.m. |
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| The restaurant, at 478 Kinderkamack Road, also has a sign on parking regulations, above, in addition to two others on nearby stores, below. |
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| This sign means that if you park in front of the restaurant, you have to finish your meal in 30 minutes. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Some River Edge residents were incredulous when they learned town fathers had approved a large Chinese restaurant for a Kinderkamack Road strip mall where parking is notoriously difficult.
Then, two friends joined a second couple for dinner at the new restaurant, Joyce Chinese Cuisine, and were incredulous they were charged an introductory price of $6 for a pot of tea that is free just about everywhere else.
Now that the restaurant has had its grand opening that pot of tea is listed on the menu at $8.
Starry eyed
You won't learn any of this by reading Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's rave, 3-star review of Joyce Chinese Cuisine in The Record on Friday (BL-16).
But there is lots of gee-whiz reporting on the "more than $1 million" the owners spent to turn a vacant space "into an elegant restaurant" -- when every restaurant reviewer knows or should know readers can't eat the wallpaper.
Difficult parking at a suburban restaurant and an $8 charge for a pot of Chinese tea are two turnoffs that will keep me away no matter how good the Sichuan food might be at Joyce Chinese Cuisine.
Lan Garden on Route 46 west in Ridgefield also serves Sichuan cuisine, and that restaurant, which is now having a soft opening, and Lotus Cafe in Hackensack have plenty of convenient parking out front.
Today's paper
Don't expect The Record to do any serious reporting on some lawyers' outrageous hourly rates or the roughly one-third they collect after huge monetary settlements of civil lawsuits.
In fact, Staff Writer Kibret Markos has filed numerous stories on settlements of many hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars without ever mentioning how much of that goes to the lawyers.
The rare byline of Jean Rimbach apears today over a front-page story on the $615,000 in legal fees Bergen County will be paying for two county police officers who were found not guilty in a police shooting (A-1).
On Aug. 16, The Record also reported in a Page 1 story the law firm that whitewashed Governor Christie's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal has billed "taxpayers" $6.5 million.
Hourly rates
Doesn't the county or state have the right to ask a judge if the fees are reasonable? Is that being done in these cases?
What about an investigative story on lawyers' hourly rates and whether they effectively deny due process to plaintiffs who cannot afford to pay for representation?
And are any lawyers in North Jersey actually doing significant pro bono work?
Local news?
There is so little local news in today's paper a reporter was asked to write a story even after finding out no North Jersey activists are demonstrating over the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Mo. (L-1).
On L-6 in Local, the local-assignment editors scrambled to fill huge holes with wire-service obituaries of two people no one has ever heard of.
Friday's paper
Page 1 of The Record on Friday read like a regional edition of The New York Times with stories on Ferguson, Mo.; the beheading of an American journalist in Syria, new DEA limits on a painkiller, Ebola and the national 'knockout' game (A-1).
In Local, the only real news was the death of Violet Cherry, former director of Englewood's Health Department (L-1).
Her obituary shared L-1 with a story on "a study" of a DPW access road in Paramus.
And why didn't head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, do more with a Teaneck Police Department tradition of bidding goodbye to retirees with a parade and party (L-2 photo)?
Actually this strip mall is not a single strip mall -- it is a series of individual lots or areas each consisting of two or three stores. In effect, it is somewhat like a condominium where each unit is separately owned. One person does not own the entire strip. A client of mine who owned a takeout Chinese restaurant which he sold but still is in operation bought his store and the ones near it and then acquired the liquor store and some other stores. I believe that there is a third owner for the stores directly north of the new restaurant. Therefore each unit has the parking spots in front of its unit. There was really not a problem with parking until the new restaurant came in. The volume was such and people did not park for long periods of time so that there were plenty of spots for customers. However, with the new restaurant all of that changed. Until we tried to clamp down on the problem, the patrons of the new restaurant took all of the spots in the entire lot and often stayed there for over an hour. There were no spots and people who wanted to pick up food at either the Chinese take out or the pizza shop had no place to park for even five minutes. Therefore the notices and restrictions had to go into effect or at least an attempt made. We are waiting to see what happens in the fall when the new restaurant should be busier.
ReplyDeleteThat all sounds very complicated.
ReplyDeleteWhy should issues regarding the restaurant, the parking, or the charge for the tea be of any surprise? In the restaurant review in the paper, there was no mention of the restaurant being located in a strip mall. It was actually a nice article highlighting what I thought would be a go to spot. However, after reading your report, I will take a pass. There is some great Thai food up the road in Emerson on the same side of the street. As for this place, hearing of charging $8 for a pot of tea is absolutely ridiculous. Guess they are trying to make up the renovation costs in tea sales. But, am not surprised. It would be really nice to see a place have everything going for it; atmosphere, attitude, food quality, value, service. Thanks for the review. Successful retailing benefits all adjacent retail. Whoever placed this place failed to understand this point.
DeleteThanks for your comment.
Delete