Lori-ann Sciachitano
Staff Writer

Food: ****           
Price: $
Atmosphere:  JJJ   

Distance from campus: 1.9 miles

Website:

Welcome back Highlanders! The Newark Newb is the Vector’s weekly guide to local food and fun. The Newb is here to cure your boredom with cafeteria food, and keep you fueled during your late night study sessions. While the Newb is pretty good at finding places to review if you know of a hidden gem please feel free to contact the Newb at Newark-newb@njitvector.com, suggestions are always welcome. 

With this being the first Vector of the semester what better choice than an inexpensive, easy to get to, all hours burger joint to satisfy your study session munchies; and Alta Horas fills those needs completely.  

A small eatery in the heart of the Ironbound, Alta Horas is clean and comfortable. The windowed façade gives you the perfect opportunity to look outside or watch the latest Brazilian soap opera on TV. While most of the staff speak Portuguese and the menu is in Portuguese there is a translation of the ingredients and ordering is generally by number so no need to butcher the language if you don’t speak it.

Beverage choices range from traditional sodas, Brazilian Guarana soda, coconut water, and fresh made smoothies. The variety of food choices is great here, though the vegetarian options are slim the mini pizzas, salads, and “salgados”(deep fried pastries) have meatless options.

But I wasn’t here for a pizza or a salad, I was here for the killer of all munchies, the Da Hora. What is the Da Hora you ask? A chicken breast, hamburger, and steak with lettuce, tomato, ham, bacon, egg, cheese, corn and potato sticks all sandwiched between two very large buns; In a word, a lot of freaking food. Since there was such a mix of flavors I decided I not only needed to taste the burger all together, but taste each part individually. As a whole the sandwich’s extreme combination of flavors while sounding odd at first really work well together.

As individual flavors each of the meats really stands out on their own, the steak being my personal favorite. Not a chicken person? Don’t like steak? Never fear, Alta Horas also offers sandwiches with just hamburger, steak, or chicken with the works or any combination of the available toppings. With over 30 burger combinations on the menu there is sure to be a burger you will enjoy. 

I decided to invite two friends along for my trip who had previously eaten at Alta Horas and came out with two very important bits of advice; the sauces they provide are there to enhance your burger experience. Try them. While we aren’t sure what they are exactly, the green one tastes the best. And never EVER take your burger out of the bag! You will never get it back in properly and your sandwich will fall apart.

All in all, Alta Horas is any college kids food dream come true. HUGE portions, fast free delivery, easy to get to from campus by car or light rail, and crazy cheap. The average burger with soda will cost about 6 bucks, the Alta Horas is slightly more expensive and with a soda will cost about 9 bucks.

Monica Pajdak
Contributing Writer

With the economy in it’s current state, there is a greater and greater struggle to keep the art community afloat. Financing the operation of galleries and the production of new works has become an ever increasing burden on those who venture into the realm of creativity. Yet two Rutgers alumni managed to do it back in 2008, and though their year-long run came to its end back in mid-July, these two women really made a great contribution to Newark’s growing art scene and a lasting impression on everyone they came in contact with.

On September 12, 2008 Rebecca Jampol and Deana Haggag, then seniors in arts-related programs at Rutgers-Newark, drew attention to their newly opened “Jajo Art Gallery” by hosting an event called “Bang Bang.” This event, which was initially presented as a celebration of Newark’s past and present soon became much more when the directors discovered that they succeeded in spreading a hype about art to new audiences, mixing the crowd in just the way they had hoped. College students from neighboring universities – many who had never appreciated, or in many cases, never even been exposed to much art – came by to appreciate the “Old West” style exhibition as well as each others’ company in a new kind of friendly, stimulating atmosphere that was unique to Jajo.

From there began an incredible journey, and through it all, the gallery’s administrators remained true to their purpose of bringing in new faces. They also did a phenomenal job at keeping a very diverse and large body of contributing artists. Exhibitions featured works by artists based not only in Newark but in other cities and countries as well. The gallery also embraced many different styles of art, ranging from the traditional oil on canvas, to more interactive performance art.

 Jajo has helped put new artists of many kinds on the map through its numerous events. The gallery hosted an exhibition called “Stupid Kids” created by the RUNArt Class of 2008-2009, a program sponsored by Rutgers-Newark that allows students to take undergraduate level art courses in high school. Jajo also facilitated another major event, “ONE CITY: A hundred artist showcase”, sponsored by Clifford M. Stein, president of Savitar Realty investors. The event contained over three hundred pieces from one hundred different emerging artists. Profits from the event went to the Valerie Fund Children’s Centers for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

More than anything, Jajo made its mark by minimizing restrictions on the art presented, allowing the artists to express their perspectives to the fullest. As in the words of Jill Wickenheisser, associate curator at the gallery, “We never told an artist they were not allowed to do something. The artists had complete artistic freedom and this really allowed them to create things they never imagined in the first place.” Without the restrictions typically imposed in other galleries, the artists were able to convey a powerful message. Very often artists would integrate their art with the space, using the gallery as not only a place to contain there works but a part of the work itself. This was no easy task considering how often the gallery would change exhibits.

 As Wickenheisser put it, “Visitors to Jajo were more impressed by the way the gallery would completely change for each event/exhibition. Every inch of space was always being painted and manipulated.” Clearly, Jajo brought a very new and very attractive dynamic to the art scene, one that played a key role in “orchestrating a dialogue between emerging artists and their urban environment.” We can only hope this dynamic remains in the newly diversified art community even after Jajo’s closing.

 The closing announcement was made on July16th. With one of the directors, Deana, moving away to Egypt for an extended time, co-founder Rebecca Jampol decided that it was time to lay their project to rest. The gallery officially closed two days later with one final event, a benefit party aimed to help send fifteen artists to The 10th Open Art International Performance Festival in Beijing.