Out with the old, in with the generic

By Sean Dirscherl

First, a quick history lesson: for those of you old enough to remember, Maxwell’s used to be one of those uniquely “Hoboken” establishments. Originally opening in the 1940s, Maxwell’s served as a typical Hoboken restaurant and tavern. In the 1970s, it began to take on a reputation as a small concert venue for up and coming bands in Hudson County and northern New Jersey. That legend developed and expanded until Maxwell’s became synonymous with rock music in New Jersey; it even served as a scene for parts of Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” music video in 1985. In 2013, it received a shoutout from Rolling Stone as one of the best music clubs in America.

Sadly, those days have come to an end rather quickly. As Hoboken’s bar scene has become a playground for the young, complete with club music and televisions on every wall, many classic bars and restaurants have been forced to somewhere between update and sell out, depending on who you ask. The owner of Maxwell’s decided to do neither, shutting down at the end of July 2013 before losing its soul to modernity.

For what felt like too long but was only a couple of months, rumors about Maxwell’s fate swirled through the Mile Square, with whispers ranging from a complete reopening to a bookable event space to a (gasp) Spirit Halloween store. Finally, Maxwell’s reopened to its current state: somewhere between a tavern and an artisanal restaurant.

To be completely honest, I don’t really know how to review the new Maxwell’s. Do I compare it to the Maxwell’s of old or review it on its current merits? I suppose for the sake of the current dining experience it’ll be best to go with the latter. Décor-wise, it’s a nice environment — not too cozy, but still not a huge space. It’s pretty easy to have a good angle to catch football game, or whatever event is being televised, due to the multiple TVs. The hostess even asked us if we wanted a table where we could see the game better! Our server was very nice, full of energy, and eager to answer our questions.

The menu is a bit on the more limited side, but they have a variety of sandwiches, entrees, burger, pizzas, and salads. We made a bit of a mistake in that we all ordered some kind of sandwich, my burger being the most interesting. With better planning, we would have sampled more of a variety of food, but there were more pressing issues for table discussion and we panicked on the order.

My Bleu Burger had all the ingredients you would expect from such a burger: bleu cheese, bacon, and caramelized onions. One small twist was the addition of Chipotle mayo, which I have to say worked pretty well. Another nice change was the inclusion of chips with the burger instead of fries. My experience with ordering chips had until this dinner been rather disappointing, as the Tilted Kilt often struggles to keep them from flopping all over the place. These were different, crisp, well-seasoned, and a nice complement to the burger. My dinner guests ordered fries with their burgers, and while they weren’t as “magical” as they had experienced upon a previous trip, they were perfectly okay.

Onto dessert, we decided to split a chocolate lava cake (Pro Tip: They also have fried Oreos), but made our second mistake of the night by forgetting to ask for it with ice cream. While the lava cake was pretty good, nothing spectacular, I imagine with ice cream it would have been much better.

Upon paying our bill and leaving, we came to one, final conclusion: Maxwell’s is dead. Not the current incarnation of Maxwell’s Tavern, which is a solid restaurant if you’re looking for a more casual, contemporary dining experience, but the Maxwell’s of Hoboken lore. It’s almost too prophetic. The owner shut it down because sooner or later it would become like all the other restaurants, and upon the reopening, it has done just that. Only time will tell if the new Maxwell’s will take on a similar reputation to that of its predecessor (we noticed they’re hosting a couple nights of the Hoboken Comedy Festival, so hopefully a step in the right direction), but even then, who knows?

To truly enjoy Maxwell’s Tavern, those of the old guard will have to make one crucial leap: the party’s over, the music’s been packed up, and the Maxwell’s of old is gone. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying what is, as much as it hurts to say, one of Hoboken’s newest dining establishments.