Mike has not stopped talking about Clementina since last Saturday night. That should tell you something.
The restaurant opened recently at 627 Valley Road, in the former Saunders Hardware store space, and Farnoosh and Mike went with their spouses and a couple of close friends. “It’s on another level,” Farnoosh says. “I can’t stop telling people about it.”
How Clementina Montclair Came to Be
The origin story alone is worth telling.
Chef Michele Rocchi spent 20 years cooking at the highest levels of European fine dining, including Michelin three-star kitchens. His specialty is the cuisine of Le Marche, his home region on Italy’s Adriatic coast: a lot of seafood, handmade pasta and a cooking philosophy built on restraint rather than spectacle.
Two years ago, Rocchi was the executive chef aboard a very high-end private cruise. Not a Disney cruise. Think 500 staterooms, guests who tip generously when something moves them. After one dinner service, a manager told him a guest wanted to meet him. He assumed it was a thank-you.
It was much more than a thank-you.
The two men talked for hours, about food, about life, about kids, about everything. Around 5:30 p.m., the guest finally asked: if you could do anything in your career, what would it be?
Rocchi described his dream restaurant. The guest, a Montclair building owner and developer named Michael Pavel, asked: Want to move your family to New Jersey and do that?
Rocchi and his family came to the U.S. to begin work converting the hardware store into Clementina. Local firm BGD, led by designer Blanche Garcia, designed the space.
The Look and Feel
No expense was spared, and it shows.
The restaurant has brick arches, repurposed architectural details from the building’s long history, layered greenery, olive trees, warm wood and rich green tones that evoke the Adriatic coast. There are grand windows looking into Clementina’s pristine kitchen. The plates, the cutlery, the bathrooms, all of it is elevated.
“It is physically one of the nicest restaurants in Montclair,” Mike says.
One thing to know before you go: Clementina does not have a liquor license. It’s BYOB.
The Pasta Is Unlike Anything Else in the U.S.
The group ordered family style to try as much as possible.
Starters: tuna tataki with basil, red peppers and pineapple; roasted petite scallops with grapefruit; beef tartare; a mozzarella tribute with anchovies. A radicchio salad. All of it landed well.
But the pasta is the story.
Rocchi’s pasta is made using the Metodo Massi, a patented cold extrusion process from his hometown of Senigallia. Most pasta production involves heat throughout, which stresses and breaks down the wheat’s protein structure. The Metodo Massi uses no heat at all. The protein stays intact, which means the pasta is more digestible, higher in protein and slower to go mushy on the plate.
You can taste the difference.
They had the tagliatelle with shellfish, the maccheronicini al fumé and the spaghetti carbonara. Pasta dishes run $28 to $32. Portions are not Olive Garden-sized so, if you are hungry, not necessarily ideal for sharing.
The chef said Clementina is the only place in the United States serving pasta made this way.
For mains, the table shared monkfish, sea bass, a chicken dish and an eggplant parmigiana that Farnoosh calls maybe her favorite ever. Prices run from $29 for the eggplant parm to $57 for the NY strip steak.
Desserts were, in Farnoosh and Mike’s telling, kind of amazing. The tiramisu, served in a glass with a crisp meringue folded in, is already earning its own reputation. The sweet gorgonzola gelato, which the menu describes as “an elegant way for cheese lovers to conclude a meal,” is not what you might expect and is worth ordering. The restaurant also sent a couple of sweet extras to the table, which nobody turned down.
A note on the room: general manager Alex Cabarcas came from Faubourg, and assistant manager Joanne Berlangieri came from La Rocca. Montclair’s restaurant world is small and getting better.
The Bottom Line
Total bill for six people, not including gratuity, ordering somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the menu: $550. The gang brought wine from home.
“We must protect Clementina Montclair,” Farnoosh says. “Don’t walk. Run.”
Clementina is located at 627 Valley Road in Upper Montclair. The restaurant is open Tuesday–Thursday 5–10pm, Friday–Saturday 5–11pm, and Sunday 4–9pm.R eserve online or call (973) 746-5151. The chef’s table is available for private dining.
