Collingswood Restaurants Celebrate Just Peachy Restaurant Week

Written by David Valiante.

Summer time in South Jersey affords us a number of unique opportunities.

From Memorial Day until Labor Day, we’re a short drive from endless stretches of white sand beaches. We celebrate Independence Day right next to the city that birthed our country. Major summer festivals pop off nearly every weekend on both sides of the Delaware River.

But if you ask me, the best part of summer in South Jersey is the plethora of delicious fruits grown right in the region, ripe and bursting with flavor. They don’t call us the Garden State just because it sounds pretty.

Farm-fresh advocate Chef Mark Smith of The Tortilla Press (and Tortilla Press Cantina) is celebrating the spoils of the season with Just Peachy, a promotion showcasing local Jersey peaches, August 6–8.

Joining The Tortilla Press in celebrating Jersey peaches are Collingswood restaurants The Pop Shop, That’s Amore, Bistro di Marino, Benny’s Burger Joint and Casona. Each restaurant has come up with a menu featuring the titular fruit in soups, salads, entrees and desserts.

“This is one more way that the Collingswood Farmers Market links restaurants and farms to benefit the guest,” Smith explained.

“Of course people know and love peach pie, but there is so much versatility to the fruit. And no one is better placed to show that than the restaurants in our town.”

The Tortilla Press held a special preview of its Just Peachy menu Monday night at its Merchantville Cantina location, and true to their word, it was chock-full of peaches.

So many peaches.

Cheesy peach, bacon and brie quesadilla, topped with a chipotle crème was a nice, smoky starter. Peach-and-blood-orange gazpacho was another surprise, heavy with citrus pulp but finishes with a touch of peppery heat.

Entrees were respectably peachy as well; pork loin with peach cider glaze and peach salsa, and tender grilled shrimp with chipotle peach salsa.

The star of the menu was the peach tangle dessert, a healthy scoop of peach ice cream over cinnamon-sugared tortilla strips and peaches sautéed in butter & brown sugar.

Just Peachy is putting nature’s candy in the spotlight, and as it’s only for a few nights, you’d best not think too hard on it.

When the dark, cold nights of mid-winter are upon us and the best we can do is some supermarket fruit that tastes like watery cardboard, you’ll be glad you took advantage.