Lunch with VIPs at Madison Cafe and Grill

For the fourth installment of the PGY4 Supper Club, we crossed state lines to Madison Cafe & Grill in Edgewater, NJ—aka Lebanese brunch/lunch heaven with a suspiciously nice view of the Hudson for people who barely see the sun.

To make things even more gloriously over-the-top, this was our first-ever episode with guest stars: our beloved APPs—Irina, Sandy, Shaiju, and Song (we deeply missed the APPs who couldn’t come). Not only did Professor T lock down the reservation like a true research-year warrior, he specifically chose a Lebanese spot because he “cares how Professor F feels” (although this was never “formally discussed” with Professor F). Does Professor T himself have Lebanese roots? Absolutely not! Does that stop him from emotionally supporting Professor F’s chickpea-to-grill-meat ratio? Also no! Cultural competence: 10/10 (officially rated by the Excellence Committee Resident Representative).

We also had a big absence. For the first time, one of the core Professors didn’t come: Professor B, MBBS. We decided not to interrupt his “nice and quiet” day in North Cali—just like his “nice and quiet days on the robot console” that usually don’t get interrupted.

Here are the highlights from our first crossover special episode:

Zaatar Manakeesh
This came out first and immediately reset everyone’s vital signs after a long drive under the Hudson River. Warm, crispy, covered in zaatar and a heroic amount of fragrant olive oil. The kind of olive oil that smells incredible, coats your soul, and definitely your fingers—but still somehow less oily than the hot tub water certain residents have been known to frequently use in the name of “wellness.”

Hummus
Silky, smooth, no lumps—basically the opposite of some progress notes that we used to see. This hummus was the reliable workhorse of the table: always there, always excellent, quietly making everyone else look better. If residency had a hummus equivalent, it’d be the co-resident who quietly does all the difficult foleys while you pretend to be deeply engaged with “med rec.”

Baba Ghannouj
Smoky, creamy, and dramatic in the best way. If Eyval’s ghormeh sabzi cured burnout temporarily, this baba ghannouj at least pushed our resident-clinic PTSD back by two full academic years. The char on the eggplant tasted like it had personally survived three pediatric urology conferences—and come out stronger every time.

Falafel
Crispy exterior, fluffy interior—like every PGY1 pretending to hold it together on rounds last year. Perfectly seasoned, not dry at all, and structurally sound enough to survive aggressive hummus dunking. If you accidentally dropped one, you’d still be tempted to say, “It didn’t touch the field,” and keep going.

Taboule
Professor F declared this taboule “exemplary,” and honestly that was the only peer-reviewed citation we needed to officially endorse the place. Bright, lemony, super fresh, and full of parsley—exactly the kind of green our diets have been missing since the PGY2 rotation at MSK.

Kafta Kabab
Oblong meat happiness. Juicy, well-seasoned, and comforting in the same way as not seeing your name on the M&M write-up assignment email! This was the kind of kafta you could emotionally bond with—the kind that makes you briefly reconsider whether your true calling was actually in private practice… in Edgewater.

Shish Kabab
Beautifully grilled, tender, and presented on skewers. It looked too good—so good that at one point, Professor F grabbed the skewer with the same reflexive reaction he usually reserves for snatching the bovie off the floor before anyone else notices!

Shawarma Platter
This was the Swiss Army knife of entrées: sliced meat, rice, sauces, pickles, and whatever else the universe needed us to have. It looked a bit like someone dumped an entire post-call fridge cleanout onto a plate, but in a way that actually made sense and wouldn’t give you food poisoning or a KeepSafe! If call nights were like this—layered, flavorful, and ending in shawarma instead of existential dread—we’d all sign up for an extra BOHICA year. (Kidding, mostly)

Roasted Branzino
The roasted branzino arrived lying on the plate in a perfect right lateral decubitus position. It honestly triggered some muscle memory for positioning donor nephrectomies at 7:30am every post-call day. Skin crisp, flesh tender, lemony and herby in all the right places.

Dessert: Mitsuwa Marketplace
Because one cuisine per day is for non–research-year people, we then drove over to Mitsuwa Marketplace for dessert! Our APPs, possibly concerned about our collective wellness scores and hemoglobin A1c, bought us ice cream with mochi like the true superheroes they are. We shared, we laughed, we questioned all of our life choices that didn’t previously involve mochi ice cream.

Assessment: In summary, Madison Cafe & Grill is a cozy, high-yield Lebanese spot in Edgewater that delivers elite mezze, excellent grilled meats, and top-tier taboule. It also successfully hosted the first-ever PGY4 Supper Club crossover episode featuring APP guest stars, proving that the true measure of a healthy service is when doctors and APPs still want to hang out together off hospital property on a Saturday!

Final Professor rating: 9.0/10 (95% CI: 8.7–9.3, limited by high shish kebab bias)

Plan:
• Return PRN when Professor F’s Lebanese food levels drop below baseline
• Bring more APPs (they buy dessert, and also make everything better)
• Order extra zaatar manakeesh “for the table,” then proceed to eat 80% of it ourselves
• If burnout recurs, repeat Madison + Mitsuwa combo until symptoms improve

📍 Madison Cafe & Grill — Edgewater, NJ
⭐️ Highlights: Taboule, Shish Kabab, Roasted Branzino, and Mitsuwa ice cream!