Ironbound visit on June 10, 2009

I met the great Bernardino Coutinho, founder of Newark's Portugal Day festival, approaching its 30th year this weekend. Coutinho was at his office inside a former, brick firehouse. He was quite gracious, and very European. He offered to send out for coffee, if I wanted. I passed.

What a presence this guy had. Seventy-two-years-old, tall, with a bit of paunch belly, and a lot of charm. A bit of sly devil too. He made fun of his distaste for a local official, suggesting he needs to be fitted for a pair of cement galoshes. I warned him to be careful about saying that as often as he did around me and others, because he might be taken seriously, and bring on the cops. Coutinho just laughed it off.

I went to visit because Coutinho's knee deep in a bunch money problems with the festival. Newark wants him to pay for event-related expenses, which he said brings in a million people from all over the world to the Ironbound, to celebrate Portugal Day on June 10. He's struggling to come up with the money, relying on restaurants, stores and vendors to come up with most of the cash.

But I sensed that he's having a more difficult time adjusting to change. Newark officials are charging for police and sanitation services, to raise revenues for the cash-strapped city. Cortinho's more concerned with putting on the festival. He's the Ironbound's answer to P.T. Barnum, who just wants to entertain everyone who's coming down this weekend, and to celebrate his heritage.

Now, the Ironbound, already a mess with traffic and seriously lacking in parking, is even worse because of a streetscape project on Ferry Street. There are some very annoying detours, which just add to the road rage tendencies I get whenever I drive there.

My suggestion is, take a bus or the light rail over to Newark Penn Station, and walk from there into the Ironbound. After all, pedestrians do get the best experience in this terrific neighborhood.

There's plenty of shopping, and you're supposed to frequent the big restaurants, like Iberia. But my favorite spot is a corner burger place across from the Pathmark Supermarket on Ferry. This is actually a Brazilian burger joint, which serves an awesome sandwich with eggs, mayonnaise lettuce, tomato and those string potato chip fries, all under a fresh baked bun. I don't recall the name, but it's definitely a cholesterol-laden feast. Very tasty. The place serves decent espresso too.