Go back to the 50s at JW's Doo Wop Grill and Ice Cream Parlor

BY GINNY RAUE
WEST MILFORD — When was the last time you had a nice, cold egg cream? Of course, if it was a chocolate egg cream your roots must be in Brooklyn. Manhattanites prefer vanilla. For those unfamiliar with egg creams, they contain neither eggs nor cream, but rather milk, syrup and seltzer. As it is told, they were concocted by a Brooklyn candy store owner in the late 19th century and may have at that time actually included eggs and cream.

If trying an egg cream has now been added to your bucket list, you need not travel to the city. Just swing on by the new JW’s Doo Wop Grill and Ice Cream Parlor in Bearfort Shopping Center in West Milford. While you won’t feel like you’ve time-traveled back to the 1800s, you will get a sense of the 1950s for sure, including individual wall-mounted juke boxes that play authentic 45 (they even skip once in a while), movie posters, old fashioned radios and model cars, all under a tin ceiling. Slide into one of the red and white booths, designed to look like old car leather upholstery, and enjoy the trip.

Now that you’ve arrived, it’s time to order. Speaking for owner Julie Navarro, store manager and Navarro’s sister-in-law, Tracy DeRaffele, gave a rundown of the restaurant’s beginnings and offerings.

In the food service business all her working life, Navarro, 44, met the former owner of the restaurant at a local eatery. After their conversation, Navarro decided to give a business of her own a whirl and within a month she was up and running. She now owns the business and has six employees, mostly West Milford residents.

Navarro spends seven days a week at the restaurant, “pretty much every hour of the day.” Business has been good since the May 31 opening with many families dropping in for a meal or an ice cream treat. Both Navarro and DeRaffele grew up in West Milford and are 1988 graduates of West Milford High School. They enjoy seeing people from their hometown and school years come by.

If you are a burger maven, JW’s may be the place for you. There are 15 “celebrity burgers” on the menu, named after 50s celebs, of course. There are daily lunch specials and the dinner specials, at $12.95, include soup, salad, entrée and ice cream.

There are hot dogs, wraps, filet of sole and other sandwiches, pastas and ribs on the menu as well as a kid’s menu that includes chicken fingers and grilled cheese.

To top it off, for dessert there are 12 flavors of hard ice cream as well as soft ice cream, milk shakes, malteds and floats.

“Everything is made fresh daily. Our chicken and fish are breaded as they are ordered," DeRaffele said. "Our food is delicious, fresh and homemade and we are a lot of fun. It’s a cool place to bring your kids.”

Back to the egg cream. There have been several unsuccessful attempts at bottling egg creams; it seems it can’t be done. It’s the freshness and characteristic “head” that make it a special fountain treat. You may want to try one. Or two.