The place is great! We've gotten food there twice... excellent, quality, fresh tasting...at incredibly reasonable pricing...and both dining in and take-out timing/service was efficient. Awesome addition!

We've posted on here before of our flooding issues in our finished basement. Brewster/MDM, I believe we all were tracking Irene last year :)

We've gotten 2-5 feet of water in our basement 3X in the 3 years we've been in the house. I do finally believe we've got a good solution now (sump pumps galore, trench system, a wall to prevent water from the street) and we've even tiled the walls. Though we got 2 feet from Sandy (and that only because we lost power), we were able to just mop up and put our stuff back that we had moved upstairs.

But to walk around JC and see whole rooms of furniture, appliances, clothing put to the street...it makes me sick. My husband lost his whole life's collection of CDs in our first flood, and that was awful. But both of us agree that we cannot imagine losing everything if you live in one of these garden apts.

Has anyone seen the JC gov site and Healy's relentless and completely inappropriate use of the page for obvious campaign-oriented pictures?

Seriously, with all of the information that is critical to communicate to residents for their safety and security or to potential volunteers who can help, you use 2/3 of the page to showcase photos of yourself shaking hands with residents? The actual valuable content, and not Healy's mug, is squeezed in 75 pixels to the left and requires about 8 scrolls...

Even Christie managed to focus on people vs. politics.

Shameful.

http://cityofjerseycity.com/

Each of us is experiencing our unique hardships (still no power.... water in basement....minimal food), but some are managing better than others. Let's see if those people who need help (pumping water, charging cell phone, etc.) can get some from JC neighbors.

(From the storm thread)....Someone from Paulus Hook is asking people to meet tomorrow, Friday, on the steps of City Hall at NOON if you NEED help or you CAN help. Please pass this message along. Please share this and post signs around your neighborhoods!

Yes, in August 2011, I believe we had about 17-20 inches of rain in August alone, which was a shocking amount because it was what we typically see in a year.

If anyone saw a woman in her PJs this morning at 8:00 am carrying a baby roaming around Steam, that was me... waiting for it to open...8:00...8:05...8:10... finally I bailed and made coffee at home.

Other than making it at home, Dames is my coffee place of choice. But sometimes I want something different and Steam is usually where I go: nice owner, does things for the community, has local artwork....the Simply Sinful coffee is great...etc.

But why are some of the simplest things we expect from a business - open when you say you will - the hardest for them to stick to...I am hoping that was just a blip. Has anyone else experienced that at Steam?

Yes, if anyone tried please post! We are eager to hear about how this place is and so excited for this restaurant.

JSQ: I think you should sign up for the message board in whatever town you currently live in. No one cares about your opinion on JC/restaurants/businesses if you're no longer a resident and when you visit you only go to Newport?

I've been here a few times. The coffee isn't as good as Dames but it's solid. They offer local baked items, like croissants and muffins. For lunch they have sandwiches as well.

The space is comfortable and easier to get around (for me as least with a stroller) than Dames or Made with Love, being the closest 'competition'.... So far it's a nice option for a quick bite.

I think they also have byo, which is weird for a place that closes at 6 I think. Maybe it was included in the lease/sale.

There about 8-10 that are around the house.

We do have that bowl with vinegar/soap in our kitchen, but good idea about the Saran wrap.

I just assumed they'd be all dead by now...

Anyone have fruit flies in their place? We can't figure out what it could be in our place and wonder if others are noticing them or it is our dirty neighbor...

Anyone have any updated recos for iron work (front gate and fence)? We've used Willow in the past and liked them but their numbers don't seem to work (out of business?)

I disagree - I am in there 3 times a week, if not more and there are rarely tables open and usually at least one
customer waiting.

They were open today at 2. They should have def put a sign explaining the schedule shift....but they are still
100x better than Stockinette. I'll forgive em this time.

Yes! Thanks for posting Dan. That's great news and not as tight as the Cert of Appropriateness vote.

Went there today and got brunch with husband... always forget how good that is. Got the french toast and new recipe beef taco, with the awesome horchada. Wish it was closer with the colder months coming.

It's a shame if you don't like for whatever reason, but I don't care...more for us.

Grovester, I'm PMing you now.

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Oh no! That sucks, I'm sorry.... When did this happen? Just wondering - with the rain on Fri, I think it was about an inch we got in the afternoon, our shower backed up in our basement and for the first time we think it was sewage, but it drained within the hour. Was that when it happened to you? Is it a basement apt? Ugh....

What's the number you call to let them know they need to clean out the storm drains ? With all this rain, we want to make them aware every time we see an issue. We are in Downtown.

Thanks!

I didn't see a thread on this restaurant so I figured I'd start one. We live a few blocks from this place but never been; it seems from other posts they have pretty good pizza, but someone mentioned their other menu items were good as well.

Anything else you'd recommend - thinking of trying this weekend.

I want to also provide an unsolicited recommendation for Basil.

We saw he was recommended here several times and when we wanted to tile our basement after the last flood, we reached out to him. He came and gave a quote within a few days. It was within what my husband and I assumed would be the range and seemed very reasonable based on other basement work we've done.

He did the following: removed any necessary sheetrock beyond what the remediation company did, installed foam board installation, installed cement board, installed tile. This was for our 500 sq foot basement, up about 4 feet on the walls.

He and his team started every day on time and kept us apprised of their status at the end of each day. They often worked 12-hour days and rarely took breaks. They completed the work in exactly the amount of time they said, one week, and worked the weekend. Basil would often leave but he left good instructions with the other contractors and they seemed to respect his management (aka, didn't slack off when he wasn't around).

The above you'd hope any contractor would do, but Basil's team was also very clean, always sweeping as they went along. They even took the bags of trash to the curb on pickup day (of course JC didn't take). When my husband needed help with getting the tile from the delivery truck, Basil quickly sent one of his guys over to help even though that was not a day they were supposed to work.

I highly recommend him - because of their solid work, our basement looks great, is prepared for the next flood, and was done sooner than we had hoped.

We want to add about a 1.5-2 ft wall in front of our garbage/gated area of our single family home and then shift the steps going down to the basement so that we have a fighting chance against flood waters (right now water goes under our metal fence and straight down the steps).

Typically we wouldn't worry about a permit (eg, basement work, backyard work) but because this may involve the contractors using the sidewalk, I'm wondering if we should seek a permit. I also know people have posted this could take many mos and we want to protect our house sooner rather than later.

Does it all just depend on the contractor and their relationship with the city?

Thoughts?

Thanks for the MUA reminder, Brewster.

To that end, has anyone ever filled this out:

http://www.jcmua.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/flood%20quest2.htm

I just did - I guess I'm not holding my breath, but I'll keep everyone posted if anyone contacts me.

With both flood situations we've been in (3 and 4 feet for comparison), after sheetrock/insulation is ripped, we've rented about 3 industrial fans and 3 dehumidifiers for about 3 days. Within 24 hours we typically notice improvement, and by the end it's definitely 100% ok. I imagine if we tried to do it ourselves with regular fans/dehumidifiers (which we will moving forward), it would probably take closer to a week if not more.

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Nice reco, MDM. Do you think this would be suitable for a concrete basement floor? We painted ours with garage paint and it peels when it gets wet and it useless.

How did everyone do with the rain yesterday/overnight? We had no water, but only because my husband watched the outside sump pump all night, which kept getting clogged. We are so over this #OOPS#ing rain... I wish we could have sent it to Texas where they really need it. What a bullshit weather month.

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Awesome suggestion - thanks!

Yes, actually my husband and I joke - amidst dealing with the flood - about a metal encasing for our whole house and then we raise a periscope when someone answers the door :)

We need to replace our basement door (single family brownstone) and it's not the normal entry size door. It's about 30 X 72 (the one that usually sits behind the iron gates/doors under the front stoop/stairs). I wondered if anyone else who owns here has replaced theirs and where you get one; Lowes/Home Depot seem to only sell normal sized doors.

Ha, we are doing the same per Basil! Popular guy! We actually just came back from a tour of Newark-based tile places, plus Home Depot. Here's what we went with:

http://www.expressusatile.com/4.html

Better selection than:

http://tilemporium.com/

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful... we plan on going 5 feet because with the hurricane we got 4 (and 18 mos ago we got 3) for the tile and cementboard and then regular drywall above. If god forbid we get 6 feet of water, we'll cross that bridge and I guess just finish the whole room floor/ceiling (or move :).

Using cementboard... Any recos as to ceramic or porcelain?