If you've been feeling a magnetic tug toward Orange lately, it's because Hat City Kitchen is Essex County's new center of artistic gravity. As its Web site puts it, it's "a new restaurant in an old building with a new vibe." HCK is open for dinner six nights a week, closed Mondays. There's usually music on Friday and Saturday.

Patch popped in on Saturday night to check out the scene and was happy to hear that The Test Patterns were appearing. And we weren't the only ones. It was standing room only with people lined up three and four deep at the bar.

The power-pop foursome includes Millburn's Alex Silberman on lead guitar, Mark Lipshutz from Maplewood on drums, Ned Lindsay of South Orange on bass and South Orange's Stacey Lawrence fronting the group on vocals.

If Lawrence's name rings a bell, that's because she teaches drama and poetry at Columbia High School. Lawrence told us, "I've been there for 13 years, and every day I think to myself 'I love my job.' A couple of my students have gone on to have show business careers. There are so many artistic kids at the school, it's been a great experience working with them. " Lawrence told us she saw one of her "kids" on "Law & Order." South Orange Patch editor, Cotton Delo, is another former student. 

As a girl growing up in Lake Hopatcong, Lawrence had dreams of performing on stage. She told Patch, "When I was little I was always in school plays, like  'Annie.'"And yes, she was the star.

She belonged to theater workshops in South Orange and Montclair and did loads of theater in college at Montclair and William Paterson. Later, she started her own theater company and taught drama with local groups. Now, with a husband and family (two daughters Chloe, 9, and Sophie, 7) Lawrence's days are busy without factoring in singing in a rock band. 

Silberman, her band mate said, "Stacey is great and has always been great. She has an amazing voice and a fabulous spirit. She's funny, warm, smart, talented and driven. She takes care of a gazillion teens during the day, her own kids and a husband at night, and, oh yes, she's the singer in a rock band!"

The Test Patterns began with a chance encounter between Silberman and Lipshutz on Maplewood Online three or four years ago. The two of them connected musically and then, according to Silberman, they met up with their bass player when "Ned was doing contracting work on Mark's house." He continued: "Stacey is Ned's wife's very good friend. When we first heard Stacey, we knew she had a fabulous voice."

To this listener's ears, she's a fantastic cross between Sheryl Crow and Janis Joplin. Her voice injects power into Silberman's original and rockin' songs. "I've always been drawn to pretty melodies with twisted words. It's a dichotomy and juxtaposition I seem to gravitate to," he said. "When Stacey first sang those pretty melodies with her power and vulnerability, it was definitely an aha moment for me!" Silberman counts the Beatles, Joao Gilberto, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin, Vivaldi and The Pretenders among his eclectic influences. 

Saturday night's HCK sets were mainly Silberman compositions, including "Chat Me Up," "Vincent's Song," "Hypergalactic Supersonic" and "Zombies." The first set closed with the Zeppelin classic "Rock and Roll."