There are so many unique restaurants to visit in North Jersey, and Max Gray is eager to give you the tour.
Eschewing the stereotypical New Jersey fare of pizzerias and diners, Gray’s organization Chow Town Food Tours takes New Jerseyans outside their comfort zone. Now in its second year, these tours explore the towns of Montclair, South Orange, Madison and Morristown, escorting groups through several restaurants from bakeries to spots offering fusion cuisine. A customized menu is prepared at each restaurant for groups of 5-12.
The idea of doing New Jersey food tours came to Gray, a nonprofit grant writer, from memories of a tour he and his wife did in Paris ten years ago. Wishing that he could better implement some of his teaching skills into his job, Gray “had this experience of the food tour in Paris, and I thought to myself: You know, this is generally a sort of thing that you find in major cities around the world, particularly in Europe. Why don’t we have this in the suburbs? Why don’t we have this in the Jersey suburbs? That’s where I grew up. That’s my area of expertise.”
Gray’s walks are available to the public as well as private groups. He loves the opportunity to highlight small businesses and restaurant staff workers that make up the state’s one-of-a-kind cultural atmosphere.
This “diversity of our food scene is a reflection of all the different people who come to live in Jersey and grow up here,” Gray says.
