A couple that has called Jersey City home for over 25 years recently opened their first restaurant and is currently serving homemade baked goods, customizable boxed lunches, and sit-down dinners in a cozy setting that reflects their own interior design.
Box Café, tucked inside an unassuming space at 115 Palisade Avenue, is a labor of love from Linda and Sean Kerly. The pair’s vision for the café is French-inspired and the locally sourced dishes at the eatery aim to provide quality meals for people on the go still looking for homemade food.
Linda, who handles all the baking duties at Box Café, left the world of real estate to start the business, while Sean’s entrepreneurial spirit and quest for the perfect execution of classic French cooking techniques made him a natural complement for the endeavor. The café’s build-your-own-box-lunch highlights its daytime services, giving customers options to mix a half sandwich, salad, and choice of small soup or mini dessert.
Sandwiches at the restaurant include a Croque Monsieur or a garlic shrimp on ciabatta with chipotle mayo. Their roast beef tenderloin is topped with red wine reduction and horseradish cream, while a locally sourced Heirloom tomato and mozzarella paring is dressed with basil pesto.
Box Café offers limited sit-down dinner service nightly and is a BYOB operation. Entrees on the evening menu include a salmon filet with sunchoke fennel cream and a beef filet with red wine reduction. Meals come with a choice of side dishes like garlic Brussels sprouts and mushroom hash, butter-roasted carrots, or spicy corn with red onion and paprika.
Early risers who visit the café will be treated to pastries baked in-house and coffee made with hand-roasted, fair-trade organic beans. The business also offers Steep Roots, a luxury tea line based out of Bloomfield.
Box Café offers weekday breakfast and lunch services from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. run on weekends. Dinner service at the restaurant begins Monday through Saturday at 5 p.m. and customers can order directly from the café here, with curbside pick-up options available. They can be followed on Instagram at the handle @boxcafejc.
