I know we've got one or two Jersey folks around here.

I'm looking for a wine-friendly place with decent food in the Parsippany, Boonton, Rockaway area. American/ continental or Italian would be the preference, but a steak house would probably work too. Also, we'd rather not break the bank...

BYO or a reasonably-priced list would be OK.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Depends how casual/dressy you want to go. There's a small chef-owned Italian place in a strip mall in Randolph (between Parsippany, Morristown and Mendham) called Cafe Shay's that's BYI. It tends to get busy on Sat. nites and the service suffers a bit,, but the food is excellent.

In Mendham - between Chester and Morristown - there's an excellent French BYO called Mariques. Jackets on Sat. nites.

In Madison, there's a very good BYO Italian that gets very busy Sat. nites, but it is very good - Il Mondo Vecchio. Owned by the same people as Scalini Fidelli, if you know it.

If you want to go to Milburn, there's an excellent continental BYO called Lilac.

Some people like Tim Schaffer's in Morristown (continental/eclectic) - it's not my taste, but did score 23 in Zagats, and La Campagna, which is also busier than I think the food deserves. It is a BYO Italian. Reservations are tough. We enjoy Sirin, a BYO Thai restaurant in Morristown.

For fun, there's a Moroccan restuarant in Parsippany, called Marakesh, and it's also BYO.

If you want to take a bit of a ride, in Peapack (south of where you'll be, in the heart of horse country), is the Limestone Cafe. We were just there and enjoyed it. It's BYO.

Have fun. Let us know where you went.