SECOND HELPINGS

Specialty market in Towaco

Conturso's Market and Fine Catering has opened in Towaco. It's owned by John Conturso, the former owner of The Backstreet Gourmet in Nutley and a Culinary Institute of America graduate, and his wife, Nancy. The store features prepared meals to go, pizza, sandwiches, salads, a bakery, coffee bar, butchered meats, and off-premises catering.

Conturso's is at 446 Route 202 in the Red Barn Plaza,  973-588-7888.

Endless Vine owner dies

Eric Simonyan, who ran his family's The Endless Vine liquor store and wine bar in Franklin Lakes, died Thursday.

My colleague, Jay Levin, wrote his obituary:

Chocolate competition winners

Kaitlyn O'Brien, a senior at Bergen County Academies, won the school's annual chocolate competition last week, with her Cinderella-inspired cake: "Bippity, Boppity, Boo!"

The full list of winners, as provided by the school:

Bobby's Burger Palace is open

Bobby's Burger Palace, the Paramus burger joint from celebrity chef Bobby Flay, has opened, a day earlier than advertised.

Expect good burgers dressed with flavorful sauces and potato chips and above-average fries with dipping sauces, washed down with milkshakes, for about $15.

Notes on Banchetto Feast

I spoke to David Alvarez, who is opening Banchetto Feast on Center Avenue in Westwood around Mother's Day. Some notes:

• Alvazrez used to own the Romanza Italian restaurant in River Vale [now Restaurant Daniel]. "It was my mistake that I sold it," he said.

• Alvarez lives in Park Ridge and has been hounded by friends and neighbors to open a restaurant in the Pascack Valley. It's taken him four years to find the right location and come up with the capital.

Restaurants for sale

A few new ones to the market:

• Rebecca's, the popular Cuban restaurant in Edgewater, is listed for $250,000.

• The Ridgewood space that housed El Ranchero, Panchos Burritos, Casablanca, Fresh Cactus and probably a few other Mexican restaurants, is listed for $95,000. The incumbent, El Ranchero, has been closed for two months.

Would you eat this?

That would be Smuckers' new Magic Shell flavor - cupcake!

We got it in the mail, and of course we had to try it...

MadKat closes

MadKat Gourmet, a sandwich shop that opened on Kinderkamack in Oradell last year, is now closed.

Today in North Jersey dining

Here's what headlines today's Better Living section:

Elisa gives two-and-a-half stars to totally redone Bicycle Club in Englewood Cliffs.

And Jeffrey Page, on our Eating Out on $50 feature, paid a visit to Crecco's Cafe in River Vale, which a number of readers had been recommending.

Passing time on the links

Stuff that's had us laughing the last few days:

• The 4-pound burger being sold at West Michigan Whitecaps games -- the minor league baseball team in my college town. Ugh!

• The Breakfast Bracket, for when your NCAA bracket goes down the tubes, as mine did tonight.

• My colleague, Alfa, somehow got on the mailing list for this guy (fourth song).