Delicious Craic

I’ve been to the Reservoir Tavern about three times this year and two of those visits occurred in the past 48 hours. I am not proud to admit that, but it happened. I’ll explain everything.

My girlfriend and I are staying in West Orange for the week at her parents crib. As you know, the Olympics are on and usually when a game comes on (that interests me) I get amped about it and enjoy a cold beverage. After a few drinks comes the craving for food that isn’t particularly good for you…pizza. So I’m thinking, “Ok I want pizza but where do we go?” THE RESERVOIR. Anyone who knows the Reservoir is probably drooling. It’s been a Morris County classic since 1936 and I’m pretty sure some of the original staff still works there. Beth and I sat at the bar since the TVs were tuned to the Olympics (if you want to call men’s volleyball a sport – JK JK). You can only get bar pies at the bar but they are a decent size especially if you want your own personal pizza or want to split a few with friends. We ordered the plain pie (definitely recommend this) with half meatball and a white pie (ricotta and mozzarella) with spinach. My friend Greg is also a passionate Reservoir lover and had mentioned their dry-rub wings were superb. I’m always skeptical about his food recommendations since he once posted a picture of himself eating 10 burgers stacked on top of one another and prides himself on a dinosaur chicken nugget breakfast sandwich he once made. I wasn’t sure if he could be trusted so we played it safe and ordered two wings each (75 cents each). Big mistake! As we were sucking the last wing bone dry, the bar pies came out and we slowly passed the empty plates to the bartender regretting our decision to only get four. We certainly could not order more once our pizzas arrived. I mean, we are LADIES! But the pizza did not disappoint. The crust is outstanding. It’s well done, crispy, flaky, and just tastes fucking delicious. The sauce is perfect, cheese is perfect…I’m not going to get into details. Just go. We wound up having left over pizza and it was that good that I ate the rest for dinner while Columbia tied USA in women’s soccer. UGH to the women tying in what should have been a win and UGH to my carb-overload.

So the next day, we joked about going back for wings but looked at each other kind of seriously. I could tell in Beth’s eyes and the foaming of her mouth she wanted a dry-rub…and not from me. Flash forward 5 hours and there we were, back at the Reservoir, yet again. We did only get wings and they were delicious. I’m lying we got a plain bar pie too but just had one slice each (lying again).
Make sure to make a Reservoiration (dad joke) before arriving and also expect their main dining room area to have the original wooden walls and tile floors from 1936 and the ambiance of a typical pizza place. In my opinion, the bar area is where it’s at. There are about 4 TVs and it’s a bit livelier. Their sausage and peppers also looked amazing but you really can’t go wrong with their pizza and some house pinot noir. Imagine I went again tonight? TBC…