Montclair is too trendy to have bars. Bars, apparently, attract the wrong kind of people and promote a negative image of this Suburban utopia, or at least the voters seem to think so.

So instead, it has coffee houses. Most of them are pretentious and gimmicky. One survives only because it's a convenient place to crack open your new novel--it's adjacent to the town's local bookshop--and the other two are Starbucks franchises.

And yet amid all this kitch there lives the Café Eclectic. It's amazing how utterly out of place this hangout is. It's cool, it's froody, it radiates comfort and happiness. In short, it belongs in Greenwich Village or Old Compton Street. It certainly is a little odd to find such a place in a town where every third automobile is an S.U.V.¹   and crossing the street isn't a coordination test.

The coffee is admittedly expensive, but for good reason. It's wonderful, freshly brewed Colombian coffee with the kind of aroma that gurantees a sleepless night. The café also houses a fine variety of desserts--caramel apple pies, cheesecakes, and one of the densest chocolate desserts around; it usually comes with a quarter pound brick of fudge sitting on top. Order a la mode²   and dinner becomes suddenly unimportant.

Three nights a week the café invites local talent in to perform. Anyone not wanting to actively listen should go on any night but these. The bands are enthrallingly original folk rock combos, playing in the sort of fashion that lets you know they're doing this because it's fun, right from the very first chord. It's a wonderfully relaxing place to unwind after a week spent in yuppie hell.

The thing about the place that sets it above the rest is the wait staff, who do more to contribute to the ecstatically trippy decor than the almost obscene variety of furniture. They're constantly moving and have the superhuman ability to carry three drinks, three desserts and a frightening array of silverware without spilling a drop, all while remembering who got what, simultaneously emptying ashtrays and distributing napkins; tip big. But despite all this, they actually like working there. You'll never see one of them without a smile on their face or at least a kind of quirky grin. They're hopelessly cheery, and it's infectous.

So when in the New York City/Newark area check out the eclectic. See? Every once in awhile something wonderful does spring up in the suburbs.