By Chris Sturgis
It’s been a little more than a year since Pam and Harry Clarkson, partners in marriage as well as the restaurant business, bought T.J.’s Trattoria at the Pennington Shopping Plaza.
The place is really three shops in one: the pizzeria, which also offers salads and sandwiches, the trattoria, a more elegant sit-down restaurant and the full-service bar, where the Clarksons have upgraded the wine list in favor of attracting connoisseurs.
The Clarksons, both graduates of Ewing High School, met 35 years ago while they both worked for a restaurant, Maruca’s at Gaslight Village in Morrisville, Pa. They have been married for 34 years and have three children and five grandchildren.
Amid the rigors of the restaurant business, Harry Clarkson managed to have a completely separate business, Auld & Co., a venerable Trenton insurance company, which he sold in 1996. Pam Clarkson was an elementary school teacher in Burlington, Hamilton and Upper Freehold.
Their daughter, Dana, started working at Fezziwig’s Warehouse Grill and Bar in Hamilton. The Clarksons decided to help out and eventually bought the restaurant, which they recently sold. They have also sold their other local eatery, Marley’s Ale House in Ewing, which has since been renamed the Firkin Tavern.
“I went back to my roots,” he said. “I grew up in the business.
As a young man, he worked for family-owned Italian restaurants in Seaside Heights, Seaside Park and Wildwood.
While running Fezziwig’s, the Clarksons were impressed by the general manager, Tom Rodola, who had studied to be a chef the Culinary Arts Institute at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City. Not only did Rodola know how to cook, he also knew how to choose ingredients that would yield superior flavor.
He likes to feature whatever locally grown produce is in season. At this time of year, that means potatoes, root vegetables and pumpkins, used in pumpkin ravioli, Which Pam Clarkson said is very popular.
“We sell out of it every time we make it,” she said.
TJ’s regularly features blue cheese and walnut salad is made with creamy gorgonzola and the walnuts are blanched and spiced in the kitchen. Their salmon is Scottish and the scallops are from day boats, because the catch is fresher than from the boats that come ashore once a week, Rodola said.
“I want my customers to know the food is good, it’s made from scratch, always fresh, and there’s always a table set for them,” Rodola said.
The goal is to maintain the same level of quality for the customers, whether they come in for a bowl of soup to the most expensive entrée on the menu, currently the porcini-crusted ribeye, a grass-fed certified Angus steak dry rubbed with spices and ground porcini mushrooms for $24.99.
The Clarksons greet customers personally during the weekend dinner hours. Every customer is welcomed with a basket of homemade bread, either a crusty onion loaf or wedges of crunchy rustic bread, complete with oil and chopped tomatoes for dipping.
The restaurant features a number of specials, including half-priced bottles of wine on Sundays and Mondays. Since they have bottles that go for $100, that discount is intended to bring in some connoisseurs, Harry Clarkson said.
Another promotion is a contest to win a “happy hour” after work for up to 25 friends through radio station PST. Details of that contest are available at wpst.com.
Other services include banquets for up to 40 guests, off-site catering, and take-out meals, which may be called in ahead of time for pickup. The restaurant is larger than it looks; four storefronts were combined to create a total of 9,500 square feet with total seating for 195.
T.J.’s Trattoria and T.J.’s Pizzeria, 25 Route 31, Pennington, N.J., 08534, are open seven days a week. The phone number for the trattoria is (609) 737-7166 and the pizzeria is (609) 730-9552. The Pizzeria is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The trattoria and bar are open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday. The Saturday hours are 4 to midnight and the Sunday hours are 4 to 9 p.m.
Harry and Pam Clarkson, owners of T.J.’s Trattoria, chat with Tom Rodola, the eatery’s general manager, who is behind the bar. Photo by Chris Sturgis.,
