Pizza with the Band – A.Bird Takes Us to Maggie’s Town Tavern

by Alice Magdziak • October 2, 2016 • Arts & Entertainment, Food, Music, Passaic, Slices of New Jersey • Comments (0) • 2505

October is National Pizza Month and we are taking bands out for pizza to talk about their music and whatever’s on their minds. They get to choose the place and it’s normally somewhere that means something to them. Adam Bird, formerly of Those Mockingbirds and now performing solo as A.Bird, grew up in Little Falls and went to Maggie’s Town Tavern for their bar pies quite a bit as a kid. In fact, he said he still goes every once in a while with his mom.

Maggie’s has a neat history. It was established in the early 1940s when a liquor store turned into the first restaurant in Little Falls. The main dining room has a very cozy, old-school feel with the warm, wooden accoutrements like the bar, chairs, paneling and roof. The patrons are as friendly as the wait staff giving it a true neighborhood feel.

The pies were what would normally be called a medium at a traditional pizza place. Three pies easily fed the four of us and gave us a few slices as leftovers.

Adam said his favorite was the Vegetarian pizza and we agreed that it was the best. It came with bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and black olives. The peppers and mushrooms still had a little snap to them and all the toppings were applied in just the right proportions. Sometimes veggie pizzas can be too soggy because of all the moisture in fresh vegetables. This pie was not soggy at all. The crust was nice and crisp.

The Margherita pizza had whole fresh tomato slices and chopped basil on top. It was a little soggier than the veggie pizza but still very good.

The third pizza was a bit of a wild card option when we chose the Clam pie. It was chock full of clams and had white clam sauce and some green onions scattered on top. It was amazing! It was the only pie that we didn’t get to take home for lunch the next day. Those clam slices were gobbled up pretty quickly.

We met up with Adam and his fiance, Emily, at Maggie’s on a Thursday night when the NFL season was just getting under way. We talked a little fantasy football because Adam and I both have Cam Newton on our fantasy teams. One of the things that I like about hanging out with them—I think of them as the “other A&E couple” (Alice and Ed/Adam and Emily)—is that the conversation is always varied and interesting. The evening’s topics at Maggie’s ranged from football to lethal sushi, upcoming nuptials, Adam’s new solo music and Emily’s experiences as a Resident Advisor in college.

Ed and I have known Adam since before he met Emily and I’ve enjoyed watching him meet his soulmate. I even believe that his music (which I already loved) has grown an emotional intelligence and a deeper meaning now that he’s found true love. He’s clearly experimenting with new sounds and we love it. He’s working on his debut solo record right now. He’s played us some demos from the album over the past few months and they’ve all been great. We can’t wait to hear the finished product!

Check out all the pictures from our visit with Adam and Emily to Maggie’s Town Tavern in Little Falls: