As pioneers of contemporary American cuisine in New Jersey, the owners of The Frog and The Peach had a simple concept – to offer diners consistently inspired food, attentive service, and a wine list of diversity and value – that has remained the guiding principle of this progressive, American fine dining restaurant for the past 25 years.
The Frog and The Peach has consistently received accolades throughout its history, most recently a three and a half star review in New Jersey Monthly Magazine as well “Critic’s Choice for Top 25". Its guests also agree, awarding the restaurant a 26 rating for food and a 24 rating for service in the most recent Zagat Survey, and voting The Frog and the Peach for Best of The Best, Best Upscale Dining, Best American, Best Lunch, and Most Romantic in the 2008 New Jersey Monthly’s Readers Poll.
Husband and wife team Betsy Alger and Jim Black founded The Frog and The Peach restaurant in 1983 with a dual mission: to elevate contemporary fine dining in New Jersey and to be part of a successful renaissance of downtown New Brunswick. Over the past 25 years, the pair’s creative sensibilities and flair for reinvention have kept the restaurant feeling fresh and always on the cutting edge of local and national trends. In fact, in 2007 The Frog and The Peach was among the first restaurants in the country to install solar energy panels, allowing 25 percent of the electricity used in the restaurant to be generated from the sun.
The Frog and The Peach occupies a historic industrial building, lovingly renovated to create a multi-level upscale American bistro with a design nearly as inventive as its menu. An invitingly stylish cocktail and wine bar, dramatic outdoor dining and personal services for your private parties and corporate event planning are among the restaurant’s added highlights.
Chef bio: Bruce Lefebvre, executive chef
A native son of New Jersey, Chef Bruce Lefebvre is readily acknowledged as one of the top culinary talents in the state. “His culinary background shows,” wrote The New York Times. Cody Kendall of The Star Ledger, who awarded the restaurant four stars in 2002 when Lefebvre was made executive chef, raved about the “innovative American cuisine,” noting that the restaurant is “a relaxed spot for an evening of delightful surprises.”
Bruce was born in Edison, but spent his formative years on the Jersey Shore in Sea Girt. His first taste of a professional kitchen was at the age of 15 when he obtained the de rigueur first restaurant job as dishwasher at The Yankee Clipper, an oceanfront restaurant in the heart of the Jersey Shore. He was fascinated with the enormous stock pots, the beautiful raw ingredients that were delivered daily, and the crazy, hard-working chefs.
He pursued a traditional college-bound path, though, graduating from Wake Forest University with a degree in English but without a clear vision of his career. It took a soul-searching cross-country road trip to crystallize where his passion lay, and he applied to the Culinary Institute of America as soon as he returned home.
A few years older than most of his classmates, he was laser-like in making every minute of his culinary education count. Bruce chose to work with The Buckhead Life Group in Atlanta for his externship, a family-owned fine dining organization whose portfolio of very successful restaurants include The Buckhead Diner, Pano’s and Paul’s, and the Atlanta Fish Market. “I wanted to be a part of a restaurant group that had busy restaurants,” says Bruce. “The busier they were, the more experience I’d gain. And over the eight months I spent there, I honed my skills by working at each of their restaurants in many different positions.”
After graduating from The Culinary Institute in 1995, Bruce took a cooking position at The Frog and The Peach, honing his craft there under several chefs including Stanley Novak and Eric Hambrecht. In 1997 he left to work at Aureole with Charlie Palmer and during that time period he also worked as a stagiere at Daniel and at Lespinasse with Gray Kunz. After a brief stint as sous chef for Dan’s on Main in Metuchen to gain additional management skills, Bruce returned to The Frog and The Peach as sous chef in 2000; he was promoted to the executive chef position in the summer of 2001.
June 2010 marked the 27th Anniversary of The Frog and The Peach and Bruce’s ninth year in the kitchen’s top spot. He has trained many of New Jersey’s most highly sought after line cooks. He continues to receive top ratings in Zagat (26 for food), NJ Monthly (Best Lunch and among the top restaurants in the state) and The Star Ledger (four stars 2/07). Bruce is respected in the food community as a seasoned, level headed, forward thinking professional with good insights.
In describing his food Bruce says he uses “culinary common sense,” combining proven flavor combinations in creative ways. He uses a global palette of flavors to develop his modern American cuisine.
Proprietor Betsy Alger on working with Zone 7:
“Since we founded The Frog and The Peach in 1983, Jim Black and I have had a commitment toward using fresh and local ingredients. As horticulturists (Jim was also a landscape architect), we had an understanding as of agriculture. I was born and raised in New Jersey and Jim the Philadelphia suburbs, so we knew innately that Jersey is the garden state. It’s in our blood. We only ever ate Jersey tomatoes!
When we first opened the F&P we would drive to a goat farm in Hunterdon County to buy our goat cheese. Farmer John came to our back door with vegetables and herbs. Griggstown quail (from central Jersey) came to us via a specialty meat purveyor (out of NYC!). But most product was not accessible. As restaurateurs it was very frustrating to know that farmers were growing great produce right here in the state, but getting it was difficult. Farmers are too busy to go knocking on kitchen doors, and chefs and restaurant owners are too busy to go shopping at truck farms in South Jersey. CSAs did not really exist, or if they did, we were not aware of them.
The gap that Zone 7 fills is one of distribution. They are the link between the growers and the restaurants. We use them because they provide what we need and can’t do ourselves, and they do it with integrity.”
29 Dennis Street at Hiram Square
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 846-3216
www.frogandpeach.com
Lunch hours: Mon-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Dinner hours: Mon.-Thurs. 5:30-9:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5:30-10 p.m., Sun. 4:30-9 p.m.
