F1RST
dining
F1rst and Foremost Award-winning chef Adam Weiss opens his first restaurant in Hawthorne WRITTEN BY ESTHER DAVIDOWITZ
F1rst , acontemporary American restaurant , opened in Hawthorne on July 25 . Its chef and owner is Adam Weiss , atwo-time winner of Ultimate Chef Bergen County and former executive chef at gastropub Stone & Rail in Glen Rock and fine-dine restaurant Esty Street in Park Ridge .
This is the first restaurant that the 46-year-old Ringwood resident owns .
“ Not to get Biblical , but this is my first restaurant and Adam was the first man ,” Weiss says .
F1rst ( it uses the No . 1in place of the “ i ” in its logo ), an 80-seat BYOB , is
F1RST
112 LINCOLN AVE . HAWTHORNE ( 973 ) 830-2119 FIRSTRESTAURANTNJ . COM located on Lincoln Avenue inHawthorne , just across the street from Fair Lawn and just astroll away from Glen Rock . Weiss hopes to draw diners from both Bergen and Passaic counties .“ We are right atthe border ,” he says .
As for the menu , Weiss says it includes something for everyone — meat eaters , fish fans and vegetable lovers . Among the standout dishes are acrispy crab cake BLT with atomato remoulade , aspicy tuna tartare with sriracha mayo , avegan farro risotto with wild mushrooms and New Jersey corn and asteak frites with crispy shoestring truffle fries .
Weiss is not only famous for his Montrachet brulee cheesecake ( indeed , it ’ sonthe menu ) but his ice creams . He may make the best in the region . Which is one reason that he is excited to have secured aSwiss-made Pacojet ice cream maker , which many food obsessives are familiar with , and thanks toits minor role in the film The Menu ( one character hurls it at another ), film fans may be aware ofitaswell today .
Thus on F1rst ’ smenu are not only an assortment ofice creams and sorbets but Weiss ’ swell-loved coconut brittle ice cream reimagined as a “ F1rst
TABLES ARE SET Chef-owner Adam Weiss says he was both nervous and excited before the late-July opening of F1rst .
Mounds Bar ,” ice cream made with coconut milk and covered in alush chocolate shell .
Weiss , agraduate of the Culinary Institute of America , made his mark at New American restaurant Esty Street in Park Ridge , where hewowed critics and diners alike . He helmed the kitchen for 14 years , until 2013 , earning it athree-and-a-half star review in The Record and athree star review in New Jersey Monthly . Hewent on to impress again atDue , asmall Italian spot in Ridgewood , which under his watch also garnered three and half stars in The Record ; its founding chef and owner Chris Tarta received two out of four stars .
He then headed the kitchen at Stone & Rail for two years , leaving in June 2020 . He has been doing private catering since .
F1rst is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday . ■
COURTESY OF ADAM WEISS
32 BACK TOSCHOOL 2023 WAYNE MAGAZINE