The view from my ice cream float was of a white-spired Colonial-era church. In the park where I sat, the first warm day of spring had inspired an intense game of outdoor table tennis and coaxed daffodils to bloom near a statue of a Civil War general. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought I was in Boston.

But no, I was in Military Park, in Newark, enjoying dessert after a meal at Burg.

When Chris Siversen, the executive chef and owner of Maritime Parc in Jersey City, was approached by Biederman Redevelopment Ventures in 2014 to open a restaurant in the down-at-the-heels Military Park area, he didn’t think much of the idea. But as Mr. Siversen learned more about the plans for the neighborhood, he changed his mind.

Image The Korean burger is topped with a runny fried egg, kimchi relish and spicy gochujang mayonnaise. Credit... Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Prudential has since built its world headquarters across the street, and in the former Hahne & Co. department store close by, a 30,000-square-foot Whole Foods is promised, along with mixed-income housing.