Set in an unassuming rowhouse in Jersey City, 15 Fox Place is an iconic Italian American restaurant located in the childhood home of chef and owner Marc Budinich. If you wait upwards of a year on the reservation list, you too can experience the transportive nature of dining here.
At this unusual spot, guests dine in living spaces and former bedrooms beside family photos and memorabilia, knickknacks and dusty wine bottles. It has landed on best-of lists, appeared in influencer TikToks, and earned James Beard Award honors as a semifinalist, but at its core, it’s a North Jersey mainstay with deep roots and many fans.
For Budinich, maintaining his family’s recipes and culture is key to the restaurant’s appeal.
“This is my house; this is how my mom cooked when I was a kid. The manicotti is what my mom and grandma made,” he says, adding that he appreciates “when people pop their heads into my kitchen with tears in their eyes.”
Photo: Cayla Zahoran
Most of the recipes come from Budinich’s late mother, Kathryn, and are classic Italian American. The food is delicious and deeply comforting, but 15 Fox is more than a restaurant celebrating 26 years. It’s a throwback to simpler—and maybe better—times (depending on who you ask).
“It’s the whole family, close-knit unit, the North Jersey vibe, Southern Italian roots…the rowhouse. I think that adds to the appeal,” he says.
Even if you’re not Italian American or a local, the nostalgia for a time when home-cooked Sunday dinners were reason for celebration is potent the second you step inside. When I first visited in April, my anticipation had me buzzing. The front stoop beckoned. Once inside, we were led up the stairs, past a table set for a large group, and into a smaller room facing the street. We were told it was the owner’s childhood bedroom. (Later, Budinich’s father, Richard, came out to introduce himself, powdered sugar from the zeppole smattered across his apron. Budinich likens him to the character Artie Bucco in The Sopranos.)
Photo: Cayla Zahoran
The room was set with a table for six and a table for two at the window—complete with air conditioner (this is old-school Jersey City after all). We sat down and took in the ambience: china with gold paint, glassware for multiple wines, a tiny bowl of olives. It was all delightful.
I had seen videos on social media, but I still wasn’t prepared for the 14-course, three-hour meal. The dinner started with multiple small plates to share, from mini fried-dough pizzas with a piquant yet subtly sweet sauce to stuffed long peppers and sautéed hot peppers served with housemade potato chips.
Next was the famous polenta—the best I’ve ever tasted. The texture was creamy but still toothsome, and the richness felt like clouds of heaven on the tongue. This is not hyperbole. Dinner progressed through eggplant rollatini, manicotti, spaghetti al limone, shrimp in white wine sauce, meatballs (moist, with peas), bread salad with tomato and basil, and finally, a tart lemon granita, a reward and also a much-needed reset before the final trio of mashed potatoes, stuffed chicken breast and spiced butternut squash. Lastly, there were (multiple) desserts. My husband and I were giddy and laughing due to the extravagance. All of this is $125 per person (plus tax and gratuity.) Fox Place is BYO.
Photo: Cayla Zahoran
There’s also a break in the middle; guests can stay in their seats, but many opt to visit the backyard garden for a cigar or to pet the house cat, Pepe, and see the grape vines hanging from the neighbor’s yard over the fence.
Montclair resident Jason Thorpe, whose favorite dish is the polenta, has been dining here with colleagues almost every year for the past four years. He says he keeps returning because of the “cool atmosphere and vibe.”
“It is a uniquely New Jersey experience,” he says. “I highly doubt you would find this anywhere else.”
Photo: Cayla Zahoran
Budinich says the food items are “the hits,” and he keeps the menu set in homage to his parents and their history.
“I make amazing crab cakes, but that would take the shrimp and white wine that my mom made every Christmas Eve off,” he says. “That smells like Fox Place. I could never take it off.”
Fox Place could also never modernize when it comes to operations. The same reservation manager, Mary Lou, has been answering the phone since the beginning. Resy was turned down. “I like that you have to talk to Mary Lou,” Budinich says.
Photo: Cayla Zahoran
Here’s how it works: You call the number and leave a message with your name, the number of guests in your party, and your phone number—twice. Then you wait for months, maybe more. It’s only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. (Pro tip: When you finally get the call, if you are open to a Thursday reservation, you will most likely get in sooner.)
Budinich says about 10 years ago when the influencers started coming to Fox Place with their cameras and lights, the reservations went to an “insane level.” But he welcomes the exposure, and he’s not against future growth for the business. A cookbook? A 15 Fox Place South Jersey?
“Maybe a polenta drive-through,” he says, chuckling.
But he knows Fox Place is special because it hasn’t changed.
“I always go back to, ‘Just keep it as it is,’” he says. “We keep doing exactly how we do it. All I can do is get people in as fast as I can.”
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