Jessica's Cafe

Jessica's Cafe is an Italian restaurant with a wood-fired pizza oven at Fanwood Crossing on South Avenue in Fanwood, New Jersey. Chef Armen Saqe owns it and named it after his wife, Jessica.

Saqe came to the United States from Albania in 2005 and cooked at Restaurant Lorena's in Maplewood, where he worked alongside the cooks who later became his sous chefs. He opened Jessica's in 2019, the first restaurant he had ever owned, in a plain barn-like building on Terrill Road in nearby Plainfield that it shared with a window company upstairs. There it was a small place where diners brought their own wine, and it twice made Yelp's national list of the top 100 restaurants. Demand pushed it into a larger space in Fanwood with room for a bar and a patio.

Saqe's aim is fine dining in a casual setting. Neapolitan pizza made with Caputo flour and San Marzano tomatoes sits on the menu next to pressed sandwiches and a short list of pastas, with French touches such as a pizza topped with foie gras. The seasonal menu changes a few times a year, and fresh fettuccine from Nicola's Pasta Fresca in Kenilworth has come with short ribs braised overnight, burrata and a tomato ragù. Milk-fed pork chops have been grilled and served with chickpea stew and salsa verde.

Diners have also written about a crêpe of jumbo lump crab with wild mushrooms, leeks and lobster sauce, branzino with romesco, and pappardelle with smoked bacon, mushrooms and cream. At weekends there is brunch with eggs Benedict and French toast. A crab crêpe in lobster sauce next to a wood-fired pizza shows the two sides of the kitchen: the habits of a formal dining room, brought to a neighbourhood place where the oven sets the tone.