Global cuisine and an extensive wine list bring city sophistication to this dining destination in Hillsborough.
By: Faith Bahadurian
Coccola an ambitious new restaurant in a freestanding building
along Route 206 in Hillsborough, has been open since early last summer. The brown
stone exterior of the compact building does little to hint at the spacious and
sophisticated interior within, designed by the same award-winning firm that designed
Rat’s Restaurant in Hamilton. CoccoLa brings a touch of city sophistication to
a humble stretch of suburban highway, with lots of wood, dramatic lighting and
artwork and wall panels in deep tones of lacquered eggplant, cherry and black.
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CoccoLa |
The owners, Nino and Janet Tamburin, are veteran restaurateurs with a track record built by the popular Eccola in Parsippany and Eccoqui in Bernardsville (they still own the former). The Friday night of our visit, CoccoLa was packed, so I think the owners’ hunch that this area was ready for a high-concept dining destination is spot on. Once they work out some service kinks, they should be in fine shape, since the food that Mr. Tamburin and his kitchen are turning out is quite good.
Inside the entrance, the main dining room is a few steps down, like a sunken living room, backed by a dramatic raw bar and open kitchen. The diners were living it up, the room a sea of noise and happy activity. The bar and lounge is to the left of the entrance, and in back of that is a smaller room used for lunch and overflow. An outdoor patio area provides warm weather seating.
Having asked for a quiet table when making our reservation, we were seated in one of two large and, at least initially, serene dining rooms to the right of the entrance. Our waiter touted pitchers of the house sangria rather unrelated to the menu, it seemed to us, though we saw plenty of takers.
Each table starts off with a basket of flatbread and regular bread served with hummus. It was another odd choice to us, but maybe in tune with the global aspirations of the menu.
Our very good appetizers included paper-thin beef carpaccio ($12), full of flavor, its richness highlighted by sharp arugula salad. Seafood salad ($11) featured pristine calamari, scungilli (whelk), shrimp, scallops and even a bit of lobster, all delicious in spite of the overdressed greens with which it was served.
Entrées also showed strongly. Pork osso bucco ($26) was excellent. The slow-braised shank arrived with a perky sprig of rosemary stuck in the bone. The meat was tender and flavorful, the sauce delicious. It was served with risotto Milanese cooked to perfection, with peas, asparagus and a touch of red pepper mixed in.
We took a chance on the Asian sake steamed halibut ($28), hoping that the sesame hoisin sauce it came with would not be too salty. And it wasn’t. The tender fish sat on a bed of sautéed chard. The sides of the shallow bowl it was served in were painted with the lustrous hoisin sauce a work of art for the eye and the palate.
CoccoLa has an extensive wine list from all over the globe, starting at $30, organized by consultant Robert Bohr of Manhattan’s Cru restaurant. In spite of the imposing wall of wine near the entrance, we chose wines by the glass and were quite happy with our Pinot Noir and white Burgundy (both $8).
Desserts were a bit of a letdown. My friend’s Tahitian vanilla crème brulée ($8) was properly crunchy on top, but lacked vanilla flavor beneath. Indeed, no vanilla bean specks were visible, as one might expect to see.
My gelato-sorbet trio ($8), chosen when the lemon torte I’d first ordered was not available, consisted of pistachio and vanilla gelato, and berry sorbet. While the pistachio and berry were lacking in flavor, the vanilla was excellent, with plenty of the little black seeds that were lacking in the crème brulée.
Decaf coffee ($3) was good, but not hot enough. However, that problem was solved when a confused server accidentally brought a second order. It arrived under the watchful eye of co-owner Janet Tamburin, who had arrived partway through our meal, and seemed to be doing her best to expedite service in the now busy dining room.
She first made an appearance at our table maybe a third of the way through our meal, graciously introducing herself to each table and asking if we were enjoying our meal, which we were. But it was all downhill from there. First the music started, a thunk-a-thunk-a rock beat from a speaker over our heads that our server could not get turned down.
Then service slipped. There were delays between courses, and in getting water and wine refills. The youthful servers milled around near a service station and seemed to collectively go "into the weeds," restaurant jargon for losing track of where you are in serving your tables. We never did get the signature truffled CoccoLa French fries we ordered.
Portions at CoccoLa are generous, and depending on what you order, you can spend moderately (the Italian dishes especially) or expensively (raw bar, meats and market price fish). With such good food, the service needs to catch up. But I am convinced that with the experience and oversight of the Tamburins, they will soon have that down too, and I am eager for a return visit.

