For generations, Johnny’s Luncheonette in Newton Centre (www.johnnysluncheonette.com) has been serving some of the best comfort food to some of the savviest clientele this side of Jack & Marion’s.
It may be small wonder, then, that for their newest menu additions, they went back a few generations to the food that inspired them.
Last year, Johnny’s enhanced their 100-plus item menu with an entirely new second menu called “Nannie’s Kitchen.” While the location is the same, the flavors transport guests to another time and perhaps back to their own households.
“They’ll take people back to grandma’s kitchen,” says co-owner Neal Solomon, “especially if they’re Jewish…but even if they’re not!”
According to Solomon, everything on the Nannie’s menu comes from tried and true family recipes handed down in his family and that of his fellow restaurateur John Furst.
“If my grandma or John’s made it,” Solomon explains, “it’s on the menu.”
When asked why they decided to add to their already popular and large menu, Solomon says, “We realized the need in the community to keep Jewish food available and alive. There seemed to be fewer and fewer opportunities to get the traditional Jewish dishes that Jon and I knew and loved.”
So now, in addition to available-all-day breakfast favorites like old fashioned French toast, Johnny’s fruity porridge, banana nut bread schmeared with fresh cream cheese and a variety of omelettes and named skillet offerings that pay tribute to area landmarks like Jordan Marsh (where the Luncheonette’s famed blueberry muffin recipe was born), a farmer’s market worth of fresh salads, enormous sandwiches featuring everything from roasted turkey to low-fat pastrami and lean corned beef, burgers, pastas, and a list of sides that would make anyone‘s Bubbe proud, Johnny’s offers haimische tapas of herring filets, marinated cucumber and onion salad, half-sour tomatoes, meat knishes, stuffed cabbage, and potato latkes, as well as suppers of five-hour-cooked brisket, Pearl hot dogs, tsimmes hash, and the ever-popular chicken-in-the-pot.
“It’s the food both John and I grew up eating,” Solomon explains,” and it’s all made here on the premises.”
And what would any “Jewish” meal be with out Manischewitz, which is offered in addition to some less sweet wines and “approved” beers.
“We had space on the menu,” Solomon replies when asked how beer and wine made the cut, “ and as the menu is, for the most part, made for dinner, we thought it was appropriate.”
After all, he observes when local favorite Sam Adams is spotted on the menu, “Jim Koch is Jewish!”
When asked how the new menu came to be, Solomon explains that some of the items had started as specials on the original menu and proved so popular that he eventually realized it was time to find a way to keep them around every day. “People seem to order and love things like the stuffed cabbage, the brisket and the brisket sandwich,” he says, citing a few of the stand-out stand-outs. “We sell a lot of kasha varnishkes and we continue to sell bathtub portions of chicken soup!”
In fact, the menu claims, Johnny’s has served over one million matzo balls since opening in 1993.
“These are all family recipes,” Solomon says. “Some of which we have been working on for a long time.”
So whether you want a taste of Newton or a taste of wherever you grew up, Johnny’s luncheonette has a breakfast, lunch, supper and dinner that even a grandmother would love!
“We take people back to grandma’s kitchen,” Solomon says.