QUICK BITE/Jersey City; Where Familiarity Breeds Comfort
By TAMMY LA GORCE
Published: September 3, 2006

Hard core perfectionists and anybody who subscribes to Cook's Illustrated will find a dozen things wrong with Basic, a corner cafe in Jersey City whose offerings are exactly that. But strictly speaking, you don't go to Basic for the food (which is really quite good), or the service (ditto). You go because it's as familiar and inviting as a rusty swing set.

If you've ever yearned to live on Sesame Street, where no problem is too big to be solved by a not-too-big slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie, this is the spot for you. Besides the pies -- other choices include apple, pumpkin and strawberry -- on the beadboard counter ($3.50 a slice), there are cookies (chocolate chip and butter pecan, $1.50 each) and brownies ($2.50 each).

The keep-it-simple breakfast, lunch and dinner menu is scratched on a blackboard in schoolteacherly handwriting. Healthy houseplants perch on the windowsills behind six unfussy wooden tables. And a ceramic jar of dog treats placed by the front door is frequently raided by regulars, whose pooches await them outside.

All that's missing is Kermit the Frog -- and maybe a few refinements. For example, a blended mocha ($4.50) made with frozen yogurt had the disappointingly runny consistency of chocolate milk. And a tasty bulgogi steak sandwich -- a concoction of rib eye marinated in Korean spices, sauteed mushrooms, onions, Swiss cheese, greens, tomato and basil mayonnaise tucked into a grilled roll ($7.75) -- could have come with a green salad instead of potato salad or pasta salad, we belatedly discovered.

Where Basic can't get much better, though, is where more ambitious cafes often fail: no restaurant is more comfortable within its own four walls. Best of all, unlike Sesame Street, no one needs to tell you how to get there; Mapquest works just fine.

Basic, 231 Eighth Street, Jersey City; (201) 656-5900. TAMMY LA GORCE