Stephen Colbert. Ever heard of him? Well, he’s a local and apparently likes this joint. So much so that he brought Jerry here in his episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Once you step inside, you get why someone would dig this place. It’s remarkably old-school without feeling old. Or like one of those relic’ed guitars where they make a brand new axe looked like it’s been through years on the road. Bluestone looks like it’s earned its comfortable wear. Authentic or not, it sells it.
The feel when you come in is one part coffee purveyor and one part old West general store. There’s the typical grinding and hissing and banging you’d experience at any java joint, but they go for the more homey, dark worn wood and painted black tin ceiling with lots of ephemera everywhere you look. An odd hodgepodge of photos and paintings that read more Millie’s brick-a-brac than cool coffeehouse, but the large mechanical looking things that are presumably coffee-making devices give it an industrial age, steampunk flavor. All in all, it’s a warm and inviting space that smells of coffee and oak.
My stop-in involved a seat in the small side room, lined with pew-like booths. I honestly had no idea Bluestone even served food, but the friend I was meeting here was a regular. I’d classify it mostly as a breakfast restaurant with a small lunch menu that closes at 2:30 PM every day. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a diner, what with no 27-page laminated novel with photos of lobster thermidor and veal piccata, but it does have all your morning staples. I wasn’t expecting to eat, and am not much of a morning eater, so I went for the egg and cheese sandwich. Because that combo is up there with pizza and beef stroganoff as one of the world’s most perfect foods. Especially when you throw it on a Balthazar Kaiser roll and serve it with some good, homemade coffee. It’s homey in a way that makes it feel like a real local spot without the inflated modern prices. Definitely the type of establishment I wish could replicate across Montclair rather than the chains that will inevitably proliferate with the rising insanity of lease rates.
123 Watchung Ave. – Montclair
973/783-3523
bluestonecoffee.com
