Brick & Dough — Restaurant in Montclair

My chum and I staggered in here for lunch this past Saturday on one of the uglier, rainy days in recent memory. Attending estate sales can really whip up the appetite, as can frantically searching for a parking spot on Walnut Street when it's pouring and you don't have an umbrella. Anyway.

The restaurant itself is very cavernous, which is not a term I use too often to describe business interiors. I feel like most of the time restaurants try to shove as many tables into their space as they possibly can, but this is almost the exact opposite situation. Definitely not a bad thing; it just took a little getting used to. From my vantage point it looked like they had another larger room off to the side for dining patrons so good for them in having the square acreage and just letting it be. As an aside, the hipster music was abundant - we recognized the falsetto voice from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver immediately. If you're not into that type of indie/folk rock, you've been warned.

I ordered a margherita pie, and my chum got the pepperoni (along with a gynormous Caesar salad). We also swapped slices as a gesture of good will. I liked mine better, but her pepperonis were very tasty - they had a nice crisp, almost burnt/smoked quality to them that I liked. We were both solid fans but I thought the crust was a little too dominant; it almost went up to the halfway point of the slice. I had a very similar problem recently at Ava's in Kenilworth. It's good crust/dough to be sure, but I think the toppings should go further down toward the end of the slice. It was also a little overdone - this type of Neapolitan goodness should be on the crispier side on the edges in my opinion, but there were several bites that were completely charred (my chum agreed, and it was her only complaint). That being said, the cheese and sauce were very, very good. All the more reason to spread the love around the entire pie.

The service was pretty good. I don't recall impatiently waiting for anything, and we never ran out of water. The only mild issue I had was that the menu price for the margherita was $17 (and the waitress announced that price before giving me my portion of the bill) and I was charged $18. Not a huge deal and I didn't mention it at the time, but that was either an error on her part, or an unmentioned upcharge for credit card usage. Just keep it in mind and look at your bill carefully. At $17 or $18, I think that's pretty on par for the area. You're basically paying an extra few dollars to eat in Montclair, which has always been the case.

I'd definitely come back. There are other equivalent options in the area for the same type of pizza but I really liked the atmosphere and spaciousness of this place. I'm neutral...

Would I go back: No, see below for why.

TL;DR: the rating would be higher if the prices and food were reflected and correlated together. Expected more, tbh. It’s not bad but it’s not great and in the Montclair / North Jersey pizza climate, and for the price point, it needs to be GREAT.

The great: The basil Aioli is absolutely awesome. Fresh, unique, would love to see this on one of the pizzas.

The ambiance is a nice vibe and the tomato candle in the bathroom was great lmao

The good: The pizza. Somewhat soggy, great texture (chewy), good flavor. The Buffalo chicken was nothing special. The regular pizza is a solid pizza but is solid enough in this area? You can taste the wheat in the dough. It’s FRESH, nice thickness but also didn’t blow my socks off.

The cheesy bread. Although it came out cold, it’s good and has nice flavor and texture.

The fries. Not house made and no truffle variant is disappointing BUT they’re the good restaurant style fries, extra crispy and were flavored nicely. Sadly they were a highlight of the meal.

The service. Our server was cool and mostly prompt.

The mid: The garlic knots are your standard restaurant garlic knots, could use more garlic but they’re not bad. They came out cold, indicative they’re just sitting on and not made to order

boneless wings are also your standard frozen boneless wings and NOT house made. They’re over-breaded and nothing special.

The bad:

The meatballs. Pushing $20 for 3 meatballs that were lukewarm and dry. They weren’t super big or anything, too. Just standard meatballs. Flavorless.

The prices are absolutely horrendous for what you get. I’m fine with paying more but my expectation goes up. I went here knowing it was priced like this but expected the food to match. It’s in Montclair and the economy sucks but this is truly way too much. All of the above, with tip was pushing $200??? They charged $2 for ranch sides when I asked for them to swap that with the marinara that comes with the cheesy bread. Why would you charge me for ranch when it’s a swap and why would you charge $2 for a tablespoon of ranch? Honestly why would you charge for the ranch in general? Make it complimentary. You’re already killing us with the other prices.

The salad. It was pushing $20 too?? Was supposed to have asparagus. Had none lol.

I expected more house made stuff, higher quality and overall just better. If you’re going to charge these prices, let’s reflect it in the food top to bottom and...

Racist place. If you are a person of color, do not go here. We went there at 6 PM, the place was empty with at least 10 tables open, and we were just two of us. And the person bluntly said if you would do not have reservation, we are packed till closing. Clearly he did not want to entertain people of color. Attaching pictures with proof that the place had all so many open tables.

EDIT after Owners response: The server did not even offer us a suggestion to make a reservation or suggest us to do so before next visit. Not only the place had plenty empty tables both inside and outside, the attendant was rude and totally un-interested in having us as customers there. Looking at the crowd there, we were dressed appropriately, with the difference being we were people of color and English is not our first language. This is not my first or only restaurant visit to one that accepts guests only by reservations, and I would have been happy to give this place another chance, if the server would have been polite enough to suggest making a reservation next time, and giving us a phone number or web link to do so. We ended up dining on another restaurant in the area, and when we walked by this place again an hour later, multiple tables were still empty. Finally, the Google review system is for users to express and share their individual experiences freely. Readers can have their interpretations. Restaurant owner can have their discretion of what customer service they want to provide, or whom do they want to do business with (or...