Lately, my husband and I have been making an effort to go out on dates without our son. I decided it was a good idea since this is what I advise readers of the About.com Newlyweds site to do with their spouses and because my husband insisted we have more romance in our life or else. Or else what? I’m not sure. Still, I don’t really want to find out. So, we’re going on dates.
For the first one, we headed out to dinner at Fontana di Trevi in Leonia, a BYOB restaurant that is a big hit with my family. But we were back by 6, so my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, who were all about to sit down to eat with my son, kicked us out of our own house and told us to do something else. Yes, they kicked us out of our house and had dinner there without us.
In any event, my brother suggested we go to Cafe Archetypus in Edgewater. I had not been there since 1996, when it was Cafe Enigma. Back then, there was only one River Road (the address is now Old River Road and the new River Road runs practically parallel to it and features a slew of new condos and strip malls). Newly minted drivers, we’d coast along River Road in our parents’ cars. All clad in flannel, my high school pals and I would sit in a cave, order dessert and coffee (a new-found friend for most high schoolers), and listen to the grunge guitarist of the night whining about the injustices of the world.
This time around I was in cotton and there was no guitarist, not even a poet, lounging around the joint. But the caves were just as I remembered them, replete with women’s body parts jutting out of the wall. Notice the boobies above. My husband had never been to Cafe Archetypus, so he was not transported to his high school years, nor did he know what I was talking about when I started jabbering about Pearl Jam, existentialism, or baggy jeans (they never did make it to his native Europe, which has stuck with far-too skinny jeans for an eternity).
Still, we ordered a strawberry dessert, dug into it with our two spoons, and enjoyed a peaceful moment together sans Baby Boy. Hubby loved the caves, found them incredibly romantic. It doesn’t hurt that candlelight is the only light that enters the place, so you really do feel like you’re in a cave – and your face looks spectacular no matter what it looks like in real life. That alone is enough for me to declare that Cafe Archetypus is cozy and warm and the dessert is pretty tasty, not to mention fun to share with your beloved. Bottom line: It’s one stop on memory lane to which I don’t mind returning.
Di Meglio is the author of Fun with the Family New Jersey (Globe Pequot Press Travel, 2012) and the Guide to Newlyweds for About.com.
