JoJo's Tavern was launched in 1962 as a workingman's watering hole, located on Nottingham Way in the heart of Hamilton Township, NJ. I first visited there after a company softball game about 20 years later in the early 1980's. I remember a very casual tavern that had cheap beer and pretty good bar pizza, but not pizza that could compare to DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies, nearby in Trenton proper.
I lived in nearby Ewing for four years and rarely considered JoJo's to be in the upper echelon of pizza joints;Joe's Tomato Pies (long closed, sadly) was my backup when DeLorenzo's took the phone off the hook, typically about 5 minutes after opening.
Decades later and living in Austin, I now follow "Jersey Pizza Joints" on Facebook. That group has alerted me to some truly exceptional pizza being made all over NJ; for my recent visit, the focus was Central Jersey. JoJo's was getting a lot of love, and therefore our group of three arrived for an early dinner on a rainy Tuesday in May.
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| Escarole and beans |
The hostess seemed annoyed that we didn't have a reservation when we showed up a few minutes before 6pm, but she found us a high-top table near the bar. For the record, the service tone changed immediately with our server, who was cheerful and polite and attenetive without being overly solicitous.
The overall vibe of JoJo's was much more upscale than my hazy memory of the early 80s' version. But man oh man, the crowd defined "Trenton/Hamilton" as well as possible. It's hard for me to articulate what makes the Trenton environs unique beyond the ability of locals to pronounce "Trenton" as one syllable, but this places feels just like Trenton always did to me decades ago.
We were happy to see both cider on tap and a good selection of draft beers, like my Allagash White ($6.50). We began our dinner by sharing the escarole & beans appetizer; this $14 platter of sauteed escarole and cannellini beans in garlic and oil was plenty for four people, but the three of us scarfed it down easily. It was brilliant creamy delicious perfection, served with soft warm seeded Italian bread. It looked and tasted and felt like the golden days of Chambersburg, the section of Trenton that once hosted many wonderful Italian restaurants.
A quick aside: If you are old enough to remember Diamond's, La Gondola, Crecco's, Sal DeForte's, and Marsilio's -- you can still get that feeling at The Blue Danube. Yes, it began as a Hungarian/Eastern European restaurant, but it now features a smattering of old school Italian dishes. Everyone working there looks like a lifetime Trenton local. The food is great, it is IN the heart of Trenton on Adeline Street, prices are modest, and you ought to go to this wonderful time warp before it's gone.
On to the pizza! We chose a large pie ($17) and added sausage (pinched raw onto the pie before baking, the ONLY proper way) for $3 more. The crust was lovely - crispy and crunchy, very thin but perfectly sturdy. In the very center it was a bit soft from the substantial payload of cheese, so the first bite was less crisp.
The sauce had the iconic Jersey flavor. It's hard to describe but it's true that top notch Jersey pizza tastes different than pizza in other places, even many Philly and NYC pizzerias. Not better or worse, just Jersey! That signature sauce mingled with the generous amount of conventional mozzarella and some damn fine sausage.
Unlike the tomato pies we had the next day at Papa's and DeLorenzo's, this bar pizza was very cheese forward. Almost (almost!) too much cheese, but it had a wonderful flavor. Again, a flavor you don't find in many places outside Jersey. This pie was nearly perfectly balanced, and the sausage delivered the umami bang that brought it all home.
Would I change anything? Maybe a little more sauce and a little less cheese, but we all loved it exactly as it was served. In my notes I wrote that "no pizza outside the Philly-NJ-NYC corridor has this flavor." It's not a tomato pie, but it's sooooo Trenton. Beyond the pizza, we had a nice side dish of broccoli rabe ($9) that was perfectly rendered but still took a back seat to the escarole and beans.
Where does JoJo's rank? It can't quite displace DeLorenzo's or Papa's, but I get it that some prefer it. It's as good as "pizza" or "bar pie" can get. It's great pizza, world class stuff, and no wonder this place was jamming on a rainy Tuesday evening.