<p>anothercrazymom, do you have specific restaurant suggestions for the Asbury Park area (does not need to be in Asbury Park)?</p>
<p>I think that musicmom is correct, highly populated small state.</p>
<p>Does anyone have restaurant suggestions in Union or Essex counties, for lunch and/or dinner?</p>
<p>northeastmom, Brandl in Belmar is very good. We like Langosta Lounge, Trinity & the Pope in Asbury. Avenue in Long Branch is great. Dish, Temple, Pho le, Via 45, Siam Garden, among others are good in Red Bank.</p>
<p>anothercrazymom, I am going to file those suggestions for the future. Thanks. We like to get to the shore at least a couple of times each summer. In Long Branch we have been to McLoone’s and Sawa.</p>
<p>Anothercrazymom, wow, The Avenue looks amazing! I see that they offer fixed price menus too during certain hours. Have you ever tried their fix priced dinners?</p>
<p>New England transplant who has called south Jersey home for the last 21 years…agree with the previous poster that this was written by someone from north Jersey…we have hoagies down here and NO ONE in NJ can properly navigate what we Mass snobs call a rotary ;D
Oh and it’s Ocean City , not Wildwood (((( shudder ))))</p>
<p>I didn’t realize how many Jersey people are on this board! It’s always been north or south for us. I was always told that the bridge is what separated the north from the shore. I can remember many Saturdays in the summer being stuck in traffic on the bridge just waiting to get to the shore!</p>
<p>I remember my mom taking us to Two Guys for our winter coats. Bambergers was my first charge card. Stern’s in Willowbrook used to have a Bargain Table that had all kinds of great stuff. My sister used to shop at Bambergers Basement in Newark. That was when she would get tons of stuff on clearance and then hide the bags from my father because he always thought she had way to many cloths! </p>
<p>Does anyone remember RoweManse and Bonds ice cream parlor in Styertown? RoweManse had the best jellybeans. It was so sad when it closed down. We always got these really thick shakes at Bonds. </p>
<p>My parents always rented a house in Toms River for 2 weeks in the summer my Dad would come for two and then leave my mother with us for the 3rd week. She didn’t drive and somehow we survided going to the beach. I also remember the best Jelly Donuts were always from the shore. My cousins lived/live in Manasquan, they used to have a BENNIES go home party on Labor Day. I have to admit that I was/am a bennie!</p>
<p>I still think one of the best things about Jersey is that we don’t have to pump our own gas. :)</p>
<p>ProudNJMom, H lived in Bay Head, he and his roommates had a Bennie Go Home party mid way through the summer. We used to hang out at the Bluffs, so sad when they tore that down. Jimmy Byrnes was another great place when we were young.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, I haven’t done the prix fixe at Avenue. We had a great dinner 2 weeks ago, great cocktails too.</p>
<p>Wow, forgot abput Jimmy Byrnes…great place…</p>
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<p>Didn’t they call those Awful Awfuls?</p>
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<p>Me too. One summer my parents rented a big old house on the beach, 2 doors away from the Bluffs. Oh what a summer! Its probably a good thing the walls of the Bluffs can’t talk.</p>
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<p>I love molly pitcher inn. Food may not be the most innovative, but the best ambiance in Monmouth County looking out into the water! </p>
<p>Don’t forget the Red Bank firework, one of the best fireworks all around. Don on the water, so even more spectacular.</p>
<p>hyeonjlee, inbetween GSP exit 109 & 114</p>
<p>I met my husband at Bar Anticipation. The NY Times did an article in the NJ section several years ago about how many people met their significant others there.</p>
<p>My family practically went into mourning when Bonds closed up. There was a location in Millburn, or maybe Springfield, that we used to go to. If you drank three Awful Awfuls, you… I can’t remember what, got your name on a plaque or something. My brother did it.</p>
<p>I still go back to New Jersey every summer to see family. And when I do, I always have pizza and many many ears of sweet corn. California pizza, I’m sorry to say, is a sad mockery, and Californians don’t seem to understand about eating corn. </p>
<p>My grandmother had a house in Ocean City, right on the beach.</p>
<p>Great memories. Spent a lot of time in central NJ because my grandmother and that side of the family lived there. Lots of time on LBI. Loved that you could smell the apple orchards as you got close to the shore. Met DH thousands of miles away, but he’s also from central NJ- it was a big deal that, growing up, we’d been to the same Cantonese resaurants. He took me to Greasy Tony’s on a date, of course. Corned beef at Stan’s, in New Brunswick, had cole slaw on top. Really great cole slaw. The thing about the pretzels is they had yellow mustard available- and, for decades, no mustard at the carts in NYC- and, yeah, I still call it The City. Diners!!! We used to go late at night, up on Rt 1. And, how about the big diners that all seem to be owned by Greeks? With chopped liver in the salad bar?</p>
<p>Anyone remember when there were so many farms outside Princeton? (Including the Beefalo.) The Lenapes, btw, seem to have moved somewhere in the midwest- I googled it once. Maybe, Oklahoma. And, Big Boy tomatoes- the first really big, juicy babes- were originally named after Rutgers, since they were bred there. </p>
<p>One last thing- anyone know Bud’s BBQ, in Trenton?</p>
<p>ps. The Awful Awfuls I know are from RI.</p>
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<p>Your brother is my hero. We went to the same Bond’s (Morris Ave -now Rte. 24) and I always read the names on the plaques with awe and respect. Bonds also had great crumb buns. If we were very good in church, my dad used to treat us to them.</p>
<p>Mansfield:</p>
<p>I went to Plainfield High School with Ann Tepper, one of the daughters of the owners of Teppers. Bought my Gant blue dress shirts there. Also at PHS were the two Rosenbaum boys, whose family had the other locally owned department store–Rosenbaums. Used to buy all my boy scout clothes there.</p>
<p>Anyone remember the Weequahic Diner in Newark? <a href=“http://www.oldnewark.com/memories/weequahic/boddiner.htm[/url]”>http://www.oldnewark.com/memories/weequahic/boddiner.htm</a></p>
<p>Because I have lived in three such separate areas of the state (Monmouth Co. shore, then Essex co., and now partially–as much as possible–off Exit 0), I make a point of not stereotyping or pointing fingers at people from other parts of the state. yes, like JRZmom I grew up just north of Asbury Park, so I didn’t need to go “down the Shore”, but when I moved north, I found the phrase charming and was happy to pick it up.</p>
<p>In Monmouth, we did complain about Bennies, but some of the nicest people I know live in North Jersey and love the Jersey shore completely–they are all right by me. Living almost half time now in Cape May Co, I don’t complain about the southern version (shoebies) for the most part since the tourist economy keeps the place afloat. (I do make an exception on July 4th, though, when the worst of the Philly suburbs takes over my beach on the Delaware Bay, using it as an open air cigarette and beer can receptacle, and driving their jetskies everywhere, menacing swimmers, kayakers, and dolphins.) but they’re not Jerseyans, so I can complain about them.</p>
<p>Other than that, I am charmed by the different folks who make up this state with such great diversity and humor. I wouldn’t live any where else.</p>
<p>Okay, I may be drummed out of the Jersey club for this, but I have to ask, what are Bennies? I don’t recall ever hearing that term.</p>
<p>One thing I remember distinctly about childhood was the complaints from the adults about the shore traffic, meaning the Pennsylvanians who tied up the roads every weekend. 
Each town’s police dept. presumably made a small fortune every summer in traffic ticket income. Whenever you saw them stopping a car, it always had a PA license plate. One other memory I have of driving to LBI the ‘back way’, was going through a little town and at the main intersection which was controlled by stop signs only!, the fire dept would be out on weekends collecting donations from drivers. All those towns had volunteer fire depts. in those days, I’m not sure if that’s the case today.</p>
<p>Bennies are people from Bayonne, Elizabeth & Newark who escaped their urban environment to head to the Shore. The term has stuck to mean out of towners. </p>
<p>Shoebies are people who brought their lunch in a shoe box to the beach.</p>
<p>Another Bergen County girl here! I remember all of the above! We were so excited when they built Paramus Park, it became my teen hangout since the bus from Englewood stopped there! I went to Palisades Park a few times when I was little but could only ride the merry go round (though my cousin and older sister loved the roller coaster there). I still remember the jingle for it on TV (Palisades amusement park, swings all day and after dark come on over). </p>
<p>Although I moved to Florida in the late eighties, my family and I still summer on the Jersey Shore (LBI these days). </p>
<p>The boat basin was in Englewood Cliffs btw.</p>