The UC Scoop - April 21, 2025

Petals & Plates: Your Spring UC Scoop

Spring has gone full confetti mode with pink petals swirling through most neighborhoods and painting Branch Brook Park just up the Parkway. In this week’s UC Scoop, we take a peek at more blooms around the area, then fuel you up with fusion bites at brand‑new MasalaMex and a roster of street fairs, events, and upcoming farmer’s markets that stretch from Clark to Summit. Ready to sniff the blossoms and check out some recent restaurant openings?

Let’s dive in.

Just 20 minutes up the Parkway, Branch Brook Park’s 360 acres erupts into a sea of pink each spring with more than 5,300 cherry trees across 18 cultivars, roughly 1,500 more than Washington, D.C., giving Newark the nation’s largest and most diverse sakura grove. The 2025 Essex County Cherry Blossom Festival ran April 5‑13 (it’s over but plan for next year!).

The display began in 1927 when philanthropist Caroline Bamberger Fuld donated 2,000 saplings, which the Olmsted Brothers threaded into the landscape of what had already become America’s first county park. Staggered bloom times color the park from late March through early May, and a live “BloomWatch” webcam lets visitors track peak petals.

If you’re planning a visit, the best place to park is in the lot by the Cherry Blossom Welcome Center which was opened in 2023.