There was a lot happening in Montclair this week. A new restaurant opened on Valley Road, a local university landed one of the biggest public media contracts in New Jersey history, a school lunch menu sparked a community reckoning, a nearby restaurant reinvented itself for the World Cup and a fire spread through a boutique that has been part of Upper Montclair for more than a decade.
Clementina Opens in Upper Montclair
The former Saunders Hardware space at 627 Valley Road sat empty after the longtime store closed in 2024. Two years later, the space has new life.
Clementina opened June 5, bringing a style of Italian cooking rooted in the Adriatic coast. Chef and co-owner Michele Rocchi trained under three-star Michelin chef Mauro Uliassi before coming to Montclair. His pasta is made using a patented cold-extrusion process exclusive to the United States at Clementina.
Standout dishes from the opening menu include the Maccheroncini al Fumé ($28), a smoky, creamy pasta with crispy pancetta and scamorza, and a Classic Eggplant Parmigiana ($29) that is noticeably lighter than the red-sauce versions locals know. Clementina is open Wednesday through Sunday. Reservations are available at clementinamontclair.com.
More: Farnoosh and Mike’s experience at Clementina
Montclair State University Will Run NJ PBS Starting July
After many months of uncertainty, the future of New Jersey’s public television network has been secured.
Montclair State University was selected June 3 as the new operator of New Jersey’s four FCC-licensed public television stations, rescuing NJ PBS from a planned shutdown and returning control to a New Jersey institution for the first time since 2011. WNET, the New York-based organization that has managed NJ PBS since then, hands over operations June 30.
The five-year contract places NJ PBS inside Montclair’s College of Communication and Media, which houses broadcast studios, a multimedia newsroom and the Center for Cooperative Media, a unit with ties to hundreds of N.J. news organizations. The university must air at least six hours of New Jersey-centric programming per week, including a nightly weekday newscast.
Read our full NJ PBS story for everything you need to know.
Montclair Schools Confront a Racially Offensive Juneteenth Menu
Sodexo, the food service company that took over Montclair Public Schools meal operations in January, distributed the June cafeteria menu with a watermelon graphic placed on the date of Juneteenth. Superintendent Ruth B. Turner did not offer a soft response.
“The watermelon has a well-documented history as a racist stereotype used to demean and marginalize Black Americans/African Americans,” Turner said in a statement to the school community. “Its appearance in connection with Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States and celebrates Black freedom, resilience, and achievement, was offensive and unacceptable.”
Turner ordered the image removed immediately. Sodexo apologized, saying the intent was to highlight a regularly served menu item, and the district is now working with the company to review its internal approval process. Neither party has publicly identified who designed or approved the graphic before it reached students.
Sam’s Table Is Becoming a World Cup Café for the Summer
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup bringing matches to MetLife Stadium just across the river, Sam’s Table is leaning into the moment in its own way.
From June 11 through July 19, the Bloomfield Avenue restaurant transforms into a European-style neighborhood café: shared plates, Beneduce Vineyards wines by the bottle and the matches quietly in the background. Chef and owner Sam Stymest describes it as intimate by design.
“We wanted to create the feeling of spending a summer evening in a neighborhood café somewhere in Europe during the matches,” Stymest said.
Reservations are open now at exploretock.com/sams-table. Read our full Sam’s Table story for more, and follow all of our World Cup coverage here.
Fire Breaks Out at Nouvelle Boutique on Valley Road
Arlene Carrini got the text just after 7:10 a.m. Monday.
The alarm was sounding at Nouvelle Boutique, 629 Valley Road, the women’s clothing store she has run for 11 years. By the time she arrived, smoke was in the windows and the Montclair Fire Department had already responded.
The fire started on the first floor and prompted the evacuation of residents in the apartments above. No injuries were reported.
Valley Road reopened by approximately 9:30 a.m. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
