the frog and the peach, new brunswick
New Brunswick restaurant has become a Jersey legend— and a leading advocate for fresh, seasonal cuisine.
BY SUSAN SPRAGUE YESKE & PHOTOGRAPHY BY CIE STROUD

Alger had grown up eating quality home cooking. “We always had fresh food, always ate balanced meals,” she says, and were taught “a recognition of which foods were good, and good for you.”

Moving from her training in horticulture to a new career in cooking, she embraced Waters’ beliefs in the value of fresh, local foods prepared simply without heavy sauces. This “clean” approach to cooking was also favored at the New York Restaurant School where Alger received her culinary degree.

The modern American cuisine espoused by the school “was very cutting-edge, and it fit in with my core beliefs,” she says. “It had its roots in French cuisine, but its greater focus was on approachability.”

After graduating, she worked for two years as a chef at other eating establishments, until she and Black, both graduates of Rutgers University, set their sights on opening their own restaurant in New Brunswick. They bought the former industrial site at 29 Dennis Street after Hyatt Hotels received a federal Urban Development Action Grant to build nearby. Johnson & Johnson had recently made the commitment to stay in New Brunswick, and the city’s revitalization had begun.

“It was a viable neighborhood; we thought it was charming, and we thought we were getting in on the ground floor of the revitalization plan,” she remembers.

It would take three years of renovations and tussling with the city before they received an occupancy permit and opened their doors in 1983. Since then, the neighborhood has changed, thanks to gentrification and easy access to busy Route 18. Dennis Street is now part of a thriving residential and commercial community. Other restaurants have sprung up nearby. And The Frog and The Peach has achieved a status as one of the state’s premier fine-dining establishments, with a reputation for sophisticated, seasonal dishes made with quality ingredients.

Located two blocks from the city’s main thoroughfare, George Street, the F&P, as it’s affectionately known, draws a wide variety of customers. Some come for special occasions, while others go there for lunch and dinner or to imbibe at the polished, carved bar. As a nod to the current recession, Alger offers low-cost dining alternatives including a lunchtime “lean times” platter of soup and half-sandwich, a half-price bar food menu and a prix fixe three-course “frugal farmer” dinner menu. Lunch options also include a three-course prix fixe meal for $25, and at dinner there is a five-course tasting menu, $59 without wine, $109 with wine.

Always, there is a focus on seasonal, local ingredients. A national trend today, it was simply the best way to find good food when the restaurant first opened.

“In the very beginning, ‘Farmer John’ came knocking on our kitchen door,” she reminisces, and they would buy whatever he had that was fresh.

“We drove to Hunterdon County to get goat cheese,” and anywhere else they could find high-quality food, she says. From the beginning, the F&P had a good response from the press and public.

Alger served as executive chef of the restaurant for its first three years. Since then, “we’ve been a training ground,” and she has delegated executive-chef duties to others. Some have gone on to prominence in the state and beyond, including David Drake, who owns Restaurant David Drake in Rahway, and Stanley Novak of the Harvest Moon Inn in Ringoes. The current executive chef is the highly acclaimed Bruce Lefebvre.

Alger’s title at the F&P is operations executive, which allows her to put to use the restaurant-management half of her culinary degree. To graduate from the New York Restaurant School program, she had to write a plan for opening a restaurant; she and Black followed that plan when they created the F&P. “That was the plan we took to the bank.”

As her restaurant’s reputation grew, so did Alger’s, and in 2008 she was named the first woman chair of the New Jersey Restaurant Association.

Now in its 27th year, the F&P remains a leading restaurant in the state for fine dining and fresh foods, and Alger has been a consistent, influential voice for quality, seasonal menus. “I think we set the standard in New Brunswick and in New Jersey early on,” she comments, referring to the F&P’s focus on contemporary American cuisine.

The restaurant is elegant—her husband is responsible for the physical plant—and polished. “We keep it hip, food-wise and decor-wise,” she says. Huge shades balloon over the bar, and fresh plants add bright splashes of green to the airy, light-filled downstairs dining room.

Contrary to the usual practice at restaurants named for animals and fruit, frogs and peaches make minimal appearances at the F&P. Frogs’ legs occasionally show up on the menu and there is an extensive peach-accented menu during New Jersey’s peach season. A sketch of a frog is part of the restaurant’s logo.

So where does the name come from? The answer can be found on the restaurant website, where potential customers can view a YouTube video skit by comedians Dudley Moore and Peter Cook that focuses on a restaurant in Scotland known to serve only frogs and peaches. Happily, that idea was never considered for the F&P in New Brunswick.