Valentine’s Date Night at Skinner’s Loft, Jersey City

Valentine’s Day just isn’t complete without a proper date night. We made a reservation at Skinner’s Loft, which is right by LITM near the Grove St PATH. I fell in love with the ambiance as soon as we stepped inside. A beautiful mix of warm wood, exposed brick, and salvaged furnishings. The 2nd floor was intimate and cozy. I’d love to have brunch on the rooftop during the summer!

The tables were set with adorable Puggle plates that were just right for shared dishes and the biscuits that they brought out. Beer and biscuits make me happy.

I know… kind of weird to be snapping a photo in the bathroom, but the yellow walls were just so cheerful. Walking in from the dimly lit dining room was quite a transition.

This is the first time I’ve seen a vegetable charcuterie platter ($12) on the menu at a restaurant. It include mushroom pecan pate, buttercup squash and carrot rillete, house pickled vegetables, dijon mustard, cranberry chutney, and assorted toast.

This was much more filling than we expected. The mushroom pate was obviously just for me, and I barely ate a quarter of it. So delicious, but so rich. The pickled veggies were good too, and the veggie rillette had a nice creamy texture. I highly recommend this platter to any vegetarian. In fact, Skinner’s Loft is pretty veggie friendly as a whole. Woo hoo!

We also ordered the fried cipollini onion blossoms ($7). The batter was really nice and the onions were tasty, but the blue cheese buttermilk dipping sauce just didn’t do it for me. The blossoms are greasy enough as is. I feel like I needed something to cut through the grease, not a rich, heavy dipping sauce.

It probably wasn’t necessary to also order a small mac & cheese ($7), but we did it anyway! A blend of sharp cheddar, gruyere, and monterey jack. While it didn’t have a hint of truffle oil like LITM’s mac & cheese, Skinner’s Loft knows how to make a beautiful mac & cheese crust. I’m glad this was placed closer to me. Tee hee, more for me!

Unfortunately, we had to pass on dessert since we were stuffed from the other dishes. It got a lot colder after dinner, but thankfully, we didn’t have to do much walking outside.