Uptown Montclair's Summer Just Got A Center Of Gravity
July 16, 2026
July 16, 2026
For years, when someone asked me where to eat in Montclair, my honest answer was "walk Bloomfield Avenue and pick something." Uptown was where you lived, where you caught the train at Upper Montclair Station, where you grabbed pizza on the way home. The good dinner reservations were a mile south.
That is no longer the accurate answer, and it is not the answer I have been giving clients house-hunting north of Watchung Plaza. Between June and August 2026, the Valley Road and Bellevue Avenue crossroads has quietly assembled enough new dining and event programming that an Upper Montclair resident can plan a full Friday evening without leaving a three-block radius. The thesis of this post is simple: uptown is no longer a bedroom appendix to the south end. This summer it is a destination in its own right, and the shift is happening on two specific blocks.
The single most important address in uptown right now is 627 Valley Road. The former Saunders Hardware space, empty since the longtime business closed in 2024, reopened on June 5 as Clementina, a modern Italian restaurant built around the cuisine of Italy's Le Marche region. Chef and co-founder Michele Rocchi previously served as head chef for three-star Michelin chef Mauro Uliassi, and the pasta program uses Metodo Massi, a patented cold-extrusion process from his hometown of Senigallia, available in the United States exclusively at Clementina.
Two details matter more than the pedigree if you actually live here. First, the service pattern is dinner-only: Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 10 PM, Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 PM, and Sunday from 4 to 10 PM. That is a real change to the uptown rhythm, which historically emptied out after the dinner window at older Valley Road spots. Second, the team is stocked with familiar faces from the Montclair scene. General manager Alex Cabarcas came from Faubourg, and assistant manager Joanne Berlangieri came from La Rocca Osteria, which means the front-of-house muscle memory is already tuned to how this town books, cancels, and lingers.
Prices signal where Clementina is trying to sit. A burrata-and-mozzarella tribute plate runs $23, using bread from Montclair's Nicolo's Bakery, and the silken crushed potatoes with poached prawns and black truffle sauce run $26. The Maccheroncini al Fumé is $28 and the Classic Eggplant Parmigiana $29. That is a Bloomfield-Avenue price point sitting on Valley Road. If you have been factoring uptown into a home search on the assumption that a nice dinner requires a drive south, that assumption is out of date as of five weeks ago.
The second piece of the shift is happening across the intersection. Dan Campeas and Dayanna Ordonez, the owners of Dan & Day's Burger Place, are opening a second restaurant directly across Bellevue Avenue this summer dedicated almost entirely to fried chicken. The official name is Farmhouse Fried Chicken, although Campeas admits most people already just call it "the chicken place".
The location has a history worth naming. It sits in the space that was previously occupied by DaVinci's pizzeria for more than 25 years until its closure. That is a real turnover of an uptown fixture, and the replacement is a locally owned second concept rather than a chain plug. Interviewed in late May, Campeas said the restaurant was expected to open in roughly six to eight weeks, which puts the debut squarely inside July. The menu framing so far is elevated sandwiches with bone-in options in a barn-styled room.
Put Clementina and Farmhouse together and you have something uptown did not have six months ago: two owner-driven concepts, on opposite corners of the same intersection, both anchored by operators who are personally on-site. That is the kind of pairing that changes how you plan a Friday.
The dining shift matters more because the outdoor programming is unusually dense this year. If you are new to uptown or you have been letting the summer drift by, here is what a resident should have on the calendar right now.
The reason to list these together is that Anderson Park is a five-minute walk from the Valley and Bellevue intersection. That is the geometry that makes this summer different. A concert night that used to require a car and a plan now supports a walk-over, an early dinner at Clementina, and a walk home.
Ten minutes south by car, Watchung Plaza continues to serve as uptown's overflow valve, and any honest guide should say so. La Couronne has been a staple in the Watchung Plaza community for over 20 years, a BYOB Italian restaurant where Chef Luis Dominguez continues the restaurant's legacy with dishes like Veal La Couronne and roasted duck with plum sauce. That is a very different value proposition from Clementina. BYOB drops the effective ticket meaningfully, and a two-decade kitchen has consistency that a five-week-old room cannot claim yet.
Nami Nori, also in the Watchung stretch, is a casual Japanese restaurant specializing in open-style temaki hand rolls, with signature crunchy varieties, classic versions, and a vegan section. Between the two, you have a low-key BYOB and a fast casual sushi option ten minutes from home when uptown is booked or you want a Wednesday night that runs $60 for two instead of $180.
The practical read: uptown Montclair now supports a full walk-out evening for the first time in a while. A June or July Friday can look like a 7:30 concert at Anderson Park, a 5:30 or 9:30 seating at Clementina, and a slice-window stop or a fried chicken sandwich for the kids on the way home once Farmhouse opens. None of that required a car, none of it required Bloomfield Avenue, and none of it existed in this configuration last summer.
The practical read for anyone considering an uptown purchase: the walkability premium that Watchung Plaza has enjoyed for two decades is starting to extend north to the Valley and Bellevue node. That is not a market call about prices. It is an observation about what daily life on those blocks actually looks like now, which is the question buyers should be asking before they look at any median-price chart.
One planning note for the Fourth of July stretch. Essex County events draw big crowds under normal circumstances. This year, with America's 250th and the World Cup in the region simultaneously, things will be busier than usual. Plan ahead, use NJ Transit where you can, and don't be the person who circles for 45 minutes and misses the fireworks. If you are hosting family from out of town, the Brookdale Park show on July 1 is the quieter option, and it is walkable from most of uptown by way of Watchung Avenue.
I write these guides because the people I work with in Upper Montclair, Watchung Plaza, and along Bellevue Avenue tend to ask me the same questions in the same order: where should we eat, what's opening, and does any of this affect what our block is worth. I try to answer the first two in posts like this one and save the third for a conversation.
If you are weighing an uptown move, a downsize into a Watchung-adjacent condo, or a sale of a Bellevue-corridor home while the neighborhood narrative is genuinely shifting, that is the conversation I want to have. Reach out through Chris Crawford Homes to request your free market consultation, and I will bring the local read that a portal median price cannot.
I work with sincerity and have built my company's foundation on the strong values of integrity, efficiency, client advocacy, and results. I have many years of experience with project management before diving into the real estate industry, and I go the extra mile to deliver customer satisfaction. Begin your journey into real estate with me today.