Solo Bella - Jackson NJ's Go-To Italian

If you're one of those people whose taste runs to giant coasters and animal safari parks, you will probably be planning a trip to Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ this summer. If you're also one of those people who loves a great pizza, restaurants with welcome written all over them, and have a serious opinion on the sauce vs gravy debate, you too should be traveling to Jackson, a beautiful, sprawling township halfway between the Big Apple and AC. The reason is the wildly popular Solo Bella, a comfortable neighborhood restaurant that takes hungry people anticipating a fun, filling, authentic Italian meal and sends them back to the parking lot happy and vowing to return. It is a rare weeknight that the parking lots (front and back) aren't close to full.

On Friday and Saturday nights, they are. And yet, it is similarly rare to endure a lengthy wait, though larger groups would be wise to reserve. Frankly, any wait is worth it. The ambience is Sunday afternoon at Grandma Carmella's meets Roman trattoria as you enter from the spacious parking lot. Behind the counter, the advertised brick oven pizza is being slid carefully into the flaming brick oven behind a semi-circular wooden counter that boasts all the comforts of the Italian specialty store-imported sauce and peppers and pasta, cookies, chocolate, oil and biscotti. As you wait, you sit on a long banquette, at the end of which is a refrigerated glass case brimming with tiramisu and all manner of creamy pies.

Two large TVs silently entertain the sports lovers among the hungry. Once inside the curtained main dining room or the outside tables, you indulge in fresh bruschetta and dipping oil as you ponder the extensive menu. When was the last time you ordered pizza margherita and found it crisp, thin-sliced, proportionately cheesed and slightly herbed? Here you will find the manicotti soft and aburst with parsley-speckled ricotta, the linguine cooked to a skillful tenderness and clothed in oil and savory garlic. In fact, preview the menu at www.solobella.com and trust the descriptions you read. However, beware: much like the practice in the "neighborhood" kitchens this restaurant reveres, you will be served generously and unless you are truly ravenous, order in half-portions or share. Solo Bella is BYOB, and the black-clad servers are uniformly polite, efficient and accommodating. In sum, this is an establishment, the go-to venue for a first-class Italian meal. And a perfectly valid, minutes-from-the-highway reason to visit Jackson Township. Besides, why would you want to ride a coaster that big?

Solo Bella, 426 Chandler Road, Jackson NJ