THIS FUN, NEW RESTAURANT SERIES IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TWOCENTS, AN APP THAT ALLOWS YOU TO GIVE HONEST FEEDBACK DIRECTLY TO ANY BUSINESS YOU VISIT IN NEW JERSEY – AND YOU CAN DO IT ANONYMOUSLY IF YOU WANT.
Some Montclair institutions don’t need hype; they’ve got history. La Couronne in Watchung Plaza is one of them, a time-capsule crowd-pleaser where warm bread hits the table fast, the paneling is dark, and the red-sauce canon gets its due. We brought our families on a Monday night and let the room do its thing: attentive service, big smiles, and—if you’re lucky—some house lore with your wine refill (it’s BYO but there’s a liquor store around the corner).
The lore (Yogi at table seven)
Our server, Marco, started us off with a story: Yogi Berra used to be a regular, showing up with his wife, Carmen, and a bodyguard. There’s an autographed photo to prove it. (Montclair flex: Yankees royalty). Marco also gave us the backstory—what’s now La Couronne was once a supermarket, then an Italian restaurant taken over by the current ownership more than 25 years ago. The chef? Marco’s uncle has been running the kitchen for two decades. (And yes, the name is French, meaning “the crown,” which, honestly, fits.)
What we ate (and why we’d order it again)
After a spirited debate about the thermostat (some of us were hot, others claimed to be “perfectly fine”), the food started landing. Pappardelle with shrimp and mussels, veal saltimbocca, gnocchi Bolognese, pizza for the kids, and a genuinely excellent Caesar salad. Farnoosh and I synced immediately on the salad: bright, not overdressed, exactly how it should be. Across the table: zero bad bites, lots of “try this” forks in motion.
The vibe: unfussy, family-first, built for regulars
La Couronne is the kind of place where you bring grandparents, teens, and the neighbor who still calls Bloomfield Avenue “the avenue,” and everyone’s happy. It’s not trying to reinvent anything; it’s reaffirming why these dishes stuck around in the first place.
A gentle menu pitch (via Two Cents)
The only thing I missed? A particular white pizza from my childhood, fontina on a thin, crackly crust, that I think La Couronne would absolutely nail. I dropped a suggestion in the Two Cents app and made my case. No ricotta bomb, just that clean, salty-buttery fontina profile. If it shows up one day, I’ll take full, extremely modest credit.
Why it stuck with us
Places like this anchor a town. The food is comforting, the service is warm, and the stories are baked into the walls. And when the bill comes, you’re already planning who you’ll bring next time as Farnoosh summed it up on the way out: a Montclair institution with roots, heart, and plenty of reasons to linger over another slice of pizza.
