Tradition, With Some Updating, Holds Sway at the Reservoir Tavern

Searching for Parsippany’s best pizza, it’s a sure bet that readers would recommend stopping in at the Reservoir Tavern.

Don’t just run in for a quick slice, though. The tavern is not a grab-and-go kind of place—it's a place meant for savoring the food and the atmosphere. Not that there’s anything fancy about the “Res,” as it’s known. It sprang from a pretty humble-looking house at the corner of Parsippany Boulevard and Route 202 and how holds onto its 75-year heritage tightly.

The Res is a casual place with plenty of seating, although stories of its packed waiting area and busy parking lot are legendary. Pulling in late on a Saturday afternoon for lunch seemed like a sensible way to deconstruct the pizza which many insist is the main reason for going there.

The menu for lunch and dinner is enormous, but whenever we’ve been there, plenty of people stuck to pizza. Thin-crust cheese pizza with a sweet tomato sauce seemed "very New York” to us—and we mean that as a compliment. Nick Bevacqua III, grandson of the founder, said that his grandfather, Nicola Sr., was schooled in the “Paterson” style. If you hanker for something more substantial, the sausage-rich pie is a pretty good option. Their Margherita pizza is a special: It’s rich with bubbly mozzarella and fragrant with fresh basil, a necessary accompaniment to this particular pie.

The assortment of pizzas is pretty mind-boggling with a choice of sizes to suit anyone’s fancy. The bar pie is a handy little one-person number that runs $8.50; there is also a 14-inch medium and a 16-inch large that go for $10 and $12.75, respectively.

Disagreement ensues over whether the Res is in Parsippany or Boonton, as its mailing address attests. It’s a pointless argument since the restaurant is right off Route 287 North and sits at the intersection of Route 202 and Parsippany Boulevard. The eatery is convenient to Parsippany, Boonton and Mountain Lakes residents.

On first sighting, the Res has the air of an old-time speakeasy, but once inside it becomes more familiar and homey. The enclosed waiting area is air-conditioned and offers seating. On the walls you'll see plenty of pictures from the 1930s right through the '60s and '70s, which is when the décor was most recently updated. There are no neo-Tuscan embellishments, a popular style today—this is strictly rumpus-room casual.  The restaurant has an almost Smithsonian-like or period-piece quality that appeals to those who like to envision the tavern in the right time and place while hanging around waiting to be called to a table.

The main dining room fills up with families, but the bar and its adjacent smaller dining area seem like the place to go. Eighteen barstools are quite often filled with singles, couples and the like, sometimes looking for a spot of pasta fagioli or more likely, a tasty bar pie.

The waitresses are friendly in a no-nonsense kind of way, since they’re usually busy taking orders and bringing them to the tables. On this particular afternoon, the place filled up pretty quickly as afternoon golf rounds came to an end and golfers needed a beer and something to chase away the hunger pangs.

While its ethos is stuck in the time when the Beatles reigned supreme on top-40 radio, the menu has kept pace with changing tastes. Hungry eaters can chow down on new menu items including a new buffalo chicken pizza served with breaded chicken, hot sauce and gorgonzola for $13.25 or $15.25, depending upon size. If you’d rather stick with tradition, there are toppings of hot cherry peppers, garlic, meatballs and broccoli. There’s even a bacon-topped pie if you’d like.

Bevacqua's Reservoir Tavern, 92 Parsippany Blvd., P.O. Box 185, Boonton, NJ 07005.  Hours Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.   973-334-0421; takeout orders 973-334-5708. Major credit cards accepted.