Jamaican Food from Bloomfield: Crossing to East Orange
From Bloomfield, Jamaican food is a short lateral trip south-west into East Orange. O Cook Shop sits at 8 Oak Street, just off Central Avenue, in Essex County. The route is local roads rather than highway.
How do you get to East Orange from Bloomfield?
Head south and west. Bloomfield sits north of Newark, East Orange sits west of it, and a couple of municipalities separate them rather than any real distance.
Grove Street is the obvious spine. It runs north to south through Bloomfield and carries on down into East Orange, which makes it the simplest single-road answer for most of the town.
Once you are in East Orange, Central Avenue is the cross street you want. Oak Street comes off it. Check the map for your own block before leaving, because Bloomfield is wide and the best line out of it depends which end you start from.
Traffic behaves differently on these streets than on a highway. Lights, buses and double-parked cars set the pace. Plan for stops. The trip is short but it is rarely quick in the way a highway run is quick.
Why is the Bloomfield trip lateral rather than radial?
Essex County's road network was built to move people in and out of Newark. Almost every major route points at the city, which is why travelling between two towns that both sit outside it feels awkward.
Bloomfield's main artery runs south-east toward Newark. The main arteries in the Oranges run east to west. The two systems meet near the city rather than near each other.
So the trip across is short in distance and slightly annoying in shape. You are cutting against the grain of the map instead of running with it.
The county is small, which softens the whole problem. Essex is one of the more compact counties in the state and its towns sit shoulder to shoulder. Nothing here is far. The awkwardness is about direction rather than distance.
What roads connect the north-of-Newark towns to the Oranges?
Three kinds of connection do the work.
- North-south local streets like Grove Street.
- The east-west avenues in the Oranges.
- Route 280, which runs above East Orange.
The highway version has its own directions: how to reach East Orange from Route 280.
Coming down from further north-west changes the calculation again, since Montclair sits above and to the west of the Oranges: making the trip from Montclair for Jamaican food.
From the south side of the county the approach is completely different: the Irvington approach to Jamaican food in the Oranges.
Why does Central Avenue matter in East Orange?
Central Avenue is one of the long east-west commercial streets in this part of Essex County. It runs out of Newark, straight through East Orange, and on into Orange and West Orange beyond it.
Streets like that collect small businesses because they carry steady local traffic all day. Storefronts sit tight together and the side streets off them hold most of the parking.
Oak Street is one of those side streets. O Cook Shop is at 8 Oak Street, right off Central Avenue, which means the avenue is the landmark and the shop is one turn away from it.
Parking is a side-street exercise. Look one block off the avenue rather than on it, and allow yourself a minute to walk. That is normal for this stretch of the county.
What should you order once you get to East Orange?
Something that survives the ride, if you are taking it back to Bloomfield. Stewed and braised dishes travel best, because sauce protects the meat from the trip.
Oxtail, curry goat and rasta pasta all hold well in a container. Jerk chicken is at its best closest to the fire, so that one wants eating sooner.
O Cook Shop cooks its jerk over pimento wood charcoal, outdoors. That smoke does not last forever in a foil pan.
Heat loss is about the container more than the drive. A tightly closed foil pan holds temperature well. Stack the containers. Wrap the stack in a towel and you have bought yourself another twenty minutes of warmth.
Is it worth crossing the county for Jamaican food?
That depends how you weigh a short drive against a specific craving, and only you can answer it. What is true is that Jamaican food in Essex County is unevenly distributed, so a small trip often changes the options considerably.
There is a simple test for it. Would you make the same trip for a supermarket run? Most people would. A plate of oxtail is a better reason than milk.
The regional picture, including which formats exist and what each one does well, is laid out here: a guide to Jamaican food across North Jersey.
The address is 8 Oak Street in East Orange, off Central Avenue. Call 973-310-1065 with any question before you set out.