Read time: About 8 minutes

Luxury meets comfort. Busy but intimate. Refined yet unpretentious.

In a time when life feels like one never-ending stream of paradoxes, FIG, the latest and much-welcomed Italian outpost in Long Valley, delivers an antitode for the moment we’re in.

Nestled on a bustling street – relatively speaking, for I live in a suburb of which Long Valley decidedly isn’t – across the way from the verdant Ort Farms, serving as a source for the restaurant’s seasonal menus, FIG finds its home in a squat, single-story building with a narrow parking lot, a space long hallowed by the surrounding community.

Although FIG only opened a few months ago, word has gotten out about its excellence, with the restaurant festooning an adjacent grass mass with signs beckoning customers to find parking elsewhere given the suggested propensity for diners to ditch their cars on a lawn in order to sample the exquisite food on offer. Which may suggest an unusual move, but once you try FIG, you can relate.

When I visited FIG for dinner on a sleepy Thursday evening – for FIG only serves dinner at the moment – I was surprised to find a packed parking lot and humming restaurant, including a heated patio where patrons can soak up the cool, comforting air in this rare part of the state as they feast on well-honed food prepared with care. Upon entering, I was greeted by a waitress, double-hatting as the hostess, who asked about my reservation with a sangfroid air, suggesting it is the only way to get a table at FIG – even on a Thursday night at 6 pm – without coming out and saying: You’d be insane to think you can eat here without a bit of planning.

Her warmth mingled with the atmosphere just steps inside, where a dining room features about 10 tables arranged by a mathematician’s mind to maximize space and an artfully stocked bar for walk-ins who enjoy a curated cocktail of only the most exquisite flavors. Emblazoned on the wall, for all to see, in scripty neon lettering, a sign declares: Eat more meatballs. A sprightly harbinger of what’s to come.

Settling in the mid-century modern chair at my table for two, and lifting the fork off the table to find it is both heavy and straightforward, I observed the patrons, digging in to 16” pizzas freshly served from a lighting-hot oven, a sourdough crust appearing crisp and straight from Napoli. Everyone was deep in their own world within FIG, which is a lovely thing to offer during a time filled with distractions and alienation, to find a soft, secure place – with admirable acoustics – to simply enjoy one’s company, uninterrupted and unhurried, as FIG’s quiet and invisible approach to customer delight is entrenched in delivering an Experience without any fuss. (You’ll notice they have an entire page on their website called Personality.)

Simply scanning the drinks and food menus, the overall effect suggests that FIG is aware of “what’s on trend” – like hot honey as a pizza topping, a variety of du-jour spritzes, and espresso in a cocktail – while also maintaining a framework for the specific aesthetic they wish to convey, namely leveraging the bevy of local farms and breweries in the area to form an unimpeachable New Jersey experience. The food menu is compact, demonstrating confidence as well as care, as FIG will only allow you to select dishes that can routinely be called “the best thing on the menu.”

Rather than trying to do it all, they communicate: This is what’s right for us and we know it’s what’s right for you.

So let’s FIG in.

Drinks

Beyond the intentional touches of the interior, FIG’s aim for curation and care shows up in the slender, four-panel drinks menu – how delightful to find a restaurant where you can buy just one alcoholic beverage at dinner – with two pages dedicated to mixmaster cocktail and mocktail creations, said to be crafted with intention and evidently rotating to reflect the seasonal ingredients on offer and the atmosphere. On the final few pages of the drinks menu, they list their ample wine array, and just a glance across the room betrays a bar stocked with a curated cast of finely crafted spirits.

My dining partner opted for a spritz, one of three available, and I ordered a mocktail featuring lemon, ginger, and a few other fragrant ingredients. We may have simultaneously exclaimed, “This is so refreshing” as we clinked glasses and tipped them back in synchrony.

Starters

At many Italian restaurants, you’ll find a wide complement of hot and cold antipasti to start a meal.

At FIG, with the menu available during my visit, there were exactly five options that were focaccia, a kale Caesar salad, a bowl of Wagyu meatballs, parmesan zeppoli, and a delicata squash dish.

Even within this relatively small list of options, there is decidedly something for everyone here (and you might also consider ordering a pizza as an appetizer when with a group).

The focaccia – plated with whipped ricotta and topped with roasted figs, toasted pistachios, and Sicilian EVOO – caught my eye. Bread as a menu item? Notably, it’s listed at the top of the starters list. Given all the signs I had seen thus far, I anticipated it would be something else.

And it was the best choice.

Because the FIG focaccia is a work of art. Its edge is crisp and well-baked, feeling nearly caramelized and covering the pillowy soft interior, creating a distinguished mouthfeel and a wildly savory, salty bite. While the focaccia requires no adornments, a mouthful featuring all the dish’s components may be otherworldly.

Understanding any time at FIG is a special event, I encouraged my dining partner that we might try other items, so we also ordered the Harvey’s delicata squash, which includes stracciatella, roasted fennel, shallot, toasted hazelnut, sage, and aged balsamic.

I absolutely loved this dish. It is a feast for the eyes – the thick-sliced delicata squash sits at the center of its bowl covered with its adornments of contrasting fall colors to integrate with the milieu of the moment – and delivers autumn with every forkful. I liked that the squash was slightly firm, which complemented the slippery roundness of the roasted fennel. The chopped hazelnuts further intensify the well-designed experience of textural contrasts and comforts – and the flavor profile lands.

As communicated by the prevalence of meatballs at nearly every other table, you obviously can’t go wrong to try these. It’s a hearty portion, although I saw one table of four order two bowls, which, like the neon fixture on the wall, is clearly a sign for your meal plan when you dine at FIG.

Entrees

While FIG has dedicated menu sections for pastas and pizzas, we chose from the highly curated entrees list. Let’s pause on the pasta and pizza, even as I did not sample these items.

Both pizza and pasta options reflect the seasonal produce du jour, while also retaining the overall intentionality that is clearly FIG’s distinctive touch.

As alluded to, all pizzas feature a slow-fermented sourdough base made crisp by a super-hot oven, appearing as gossamer yet able to confidently secure the many interesting filling combinations they serve up. There’s a standard margherita – if you take the kids, which you can by the way; FIG is for all – while the rest of the pizza options articulate the FIG aesthetic, such as a “funghi” pie with crimini mushrooms, ricotta, and truffle (swoon) or the market pie that brings in fresh apples from Ort’s across the way, brie, prosciutto, arugula, thyme, and a local apple cider reduction. You have your hands full with these options, and the FIG staff will let you take your sweet time deciding on which pizza(s) you may choose.

Looking for the FIG flavor punch with a macaroni? You’re well taken care of with a variety of pasta shapes, ranging from their take on a carbonara through a vodka rigatoni, a cavatelli that blends in the inimitable flavor combination of fennel sausage and broccoli rabe (with a few enhancements), and even an option with figs, sage, and brown butter (sounds like velvet in a bowl). Again, take your time choosing – but also consider making your next reservation after you’ve placed your order. Certainly, the next time you’re in, FIG will have some new and extraordinary options available to you.

Now for the entrees. As with all pillars of the FIG menu, they’ve decided to focus on what works, which includes your choice of protein with their distinguished flair to deliver impact.

When I visited FIG, they had a steak, a swordfish, and a chicken cutlet. My dining partner and I both opted for the FIG cutlet, which is an approximate chicken Milanese you might know from your neighborhood Italian joint. In FIG’s hands, this dish is much greater than the sum of its parts, which are Ort Farm apples (for a little crunch in that salad on top), arugula (the best way to go), toasted walnuts, ricotta salata, and a dash of white balsamic vinaigrette. Smeared at the base of the sturdy and well-seasoned chicken cutlet is a celeriac crema – light and delightful, the smooth texture rounding out a perfect bite. Just as every other bite has been.

Harnessing the special opportunity I had to witness culinary greatness, I also tried a side: the crispy Romanesco, which sits alongside a creamy polenta and parmesan truffle tallow frites to round out your options. Brethren to the cruciferous broccoli, this Romanesco was meaty, savory, doused in fried shallots and lemon buttermilk, and dotted with pomegranate and dill. It was, in a word, ethereal.

My dining partner and I basked in the intimate atmosphere of FIG, within our own little world to enjoy our time together and the most exquisite bites, so when I finally checked my watch, I realized it was already bedtime. And thus we did not try dessert. But you should.

And if you haven’t already booked a table after reading this review, here’s their Visit page, which helpfully has a reservation widget embedded in it.

EAT AT FIG may be the call to action via Google search.

I can assure you eating is just one part of the experience at FIG. Get there soon.