Twenty years ago, a family started a restaurant in Montclair. Today, that restaurant has grown up — and it’s moved into a new home to prove it.
Jackie’s is the next chapter for what longtime locals know as Jackie’s Grilette, the Montclair flagship that siblings Labeeb Arsheed, Wassem Arsheed, and Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Podhurst have spent two decades building. We sat down with all three in their new space to talk about the move, the menu, and what it means to stay loyal to a town that’s stayed loyal to you.
Twenty Years in the Making
The family’s roots in Montclair go back further than the restaurant itself. In the late 1990s, the siblings’ parents opened a small grocery store and deli on Watchung Plaza — the modest beginning that set the tone for everything that followed. By the time the siblings were old enough to get involved, the path was already laid out in front of them: stay close to home, and build something the community could be proud of. They were barely more than kids when Jackie’s Montclair first opened its doors, and watching it grow into a true neighborhood institution is something the family still describes as surreal.
So when it came time to reinvest twenty-plus years of profits and goodwill into something bigger, the siblings faced an obvious question: take the money and open somewhere new, or put it back into Montclair? For Labeeb, Wassem, and Jackie, the answer wasn’t close. The town had given them two decades of support, and they felt it deserved something special in return — a fresher, more grown-up version of the restaurant it had helped build. They never seriously considered leaving the strip of Montclair they’d called home, traffic and tight parking included; it’s simply, as they put it, “a really amazing area.”
A Family Business, By Design
Ask any of the three siblings how the business runs, and they’ll all point to each other before they point to themselves. Jackie is, by her brothers’ account, the food savant of the group — the one you can hand fifteen random ingredients and trust to turn them into a finished dish. She’s responsible for the recipes and the menu, and her brothers are quick to give her full credit for it, even as she tries to deflect it back onto them. Between Labeeb and Wassem, the rest of the operation gets split: one brother keeps the books, manages vendor relationships, and handles pricing; the other oversees day-to-day operations, along with the interior and graphic design that shapes how the new space looks and feels. Layer in their parents’ original grocery-and-deli blueprint from the ’90s, and you have three very different skill sets pointed at the same goal.
Consistency Is the Secret Ingredient
Asked what advice they’d give to someone trying to break into Montclair’s notoriously food-obsessed market, the siblings didn’t hesitate: consistency. Not just in the food, but in service and quality, every single time. People are willing to spend money in this town, they explained, but only if they trust they’re getting the same quality visit after visit — and staying that disciplined is harder than it sounds.
“Some businesses try to go a little too niche, which may work in some areas,” said Labeeb. “But we take pride on having something for everybody all throughout the week. Families come in three, four times a week, and they can eat something different.”
The other piece of advice was about range rather than focus. Where some restaurants succeed by going narrow and niche, the family has built Jackie’s around the opposite idea: something for everyone, every day of the week. It’s a strategy built for a town as diverse as Montclair, where the goal is for the same family to come in three or four times in a week and never order the same thing twice.
What’s New on the Menu
The new space comes with a noticeably bigger ambition for breakfast. The coffee program is expanding, as is the breakfast menu generally, with a handful of new dishes the family is especially excited about: a salmon fattoush, knafeh pancakes, and a filet mignon dish built around hummus and scrambled eggs. The thread running through all of it is the same one that’s defined the restaurant from the start — taking home-style, authentic Middle Eastern recipes and fusing them with familiar American staples.
There’s also a full in-house bakery program in the works, with fresh-baked goods made daily: zucchini bread, carrot cake, halva brownies, and scones among them.
Some Things Don’t Change
For anyone who’s been parking behind the building and slipping in through the back for years, there’s good news: the new location still has a back entrance, so the old habit still works in the new space.
Jackie’s is at 612 Valley Road in upper Montclair, open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Sunday. It opened June 15.
