“There are 49 less-colourful states in America than New Jersey so why does my state get a bad rap?” complained my journalist friend Rose Gilbert as we sat drinking gin and tonics on her Maplewood patio.
“We have charming small towns, many of them such as Maplewood with easy access by train or car to Manhattan, beautiful beaches, prestigious universities – Princeton, for example, tax-free shopping, good restaurants and lots of famous people to brag about, such as Frank Sinatra, Buzz Aldrin, Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen…I could go on and on.”
Maybe, I ventured, it’s because so many people only see the state’s rather gritty, old industrial landscapes when they drive down the major north-south motorways, never turning off to explore the rest of the state. Or, I added, perhaps it’s Sopranos Syndrome.
“Oh, Lord, that TV show!” snapped Rose. “Remember you sent me on a tour of Sopranos sites several years ago to do a feature for Essentially America and I ended up in all the tackiest places in New Jersey.”
“My apologies,” I replied, “but the TV show ran for 12 years, won awards and made a cult hero on both sides of Gandolfini portraying Tony Soprano, the head of his New Jersey Italian- American crime family.” Last year, I added, the Sopranos were brought back to life by a prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark starring Gandolfinl’s real-life son, Michael, as the young Tony Soprano.
“Be that as it may,” said Rose, “but my state has many other things to promote. Did you know, for instance, that New Jersey is the only state that has a law against frowning, slurping soup, eating pickles on a Sunday, and men knitting while fishing?
Now enlightened, I suggested that we embark on a nostalgic safari to some places we had learned to love – or had wanted to visit – during the five years in the mid-1980s when I too lived in Maplewood. As my time was limited we decided to focus on the Atlantic coast.
Our first stop was one of the area’s most scenic sites – the Sandy Hook peninsula which juts out into the bay separating New Jersey and New York City. Dominated by America’s oldest (built in 1764) – and one of its most impressive – still-operating lighthouses, the tranquil area also greeted us with breathtaking views, towering sand dunes, pristine, surfwashed Atlantic beaches and a great place to picnic and plan the rest of our trip.
To our south, wide, white, sandy beaches stretched for 130 miles to where, at Cape May, the state dips its toe into Delaware Bay, across which it is linked by ferry to the Delmarva Peninsula which encompasses Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia. All along the way are popular seaside communities, some primarily featuring holiday homes that have hosted generations of East Coast families; others frisky, tourist-oriented communities offering attractionlined boardwalks and piers, fishing excursions and a variety of water sports.
We stopped to admire the shops, restaurants, grand old hotels and beautiful beach – considered one of the state’s best – in Asbury Park, best known to popular music lovers for the 1970s Stone Pony club where Bruce Springsteen has frequently performed. (We wondered if he had ever dropped by with his new best buddy, Barack Obama.)
Then we sped on to glitzy Atlantic City, founded in the 1850s but with a skyline now punctuated by skyscraper casino hotels. Checking into the Resorts Casino Hotel – reputedly the city’s oldest such establishment – we resisted the myriad temptations of its massive gaming rooms to head out to dinner at the landmark Knife & Fork inn’s restaurant.
As we tucked into juicy steaks, we were told that the colourful establishment began in 1912 as a ‘gentlemen’s dining and drinking club’, was closed by the police during the 1920 Prohibition era when the city’s notoriously corrupt lifestyle inspired the 2010-2014 TV series Boardwalk Empire, and then was transformed into a popular dining place for both local VIPs and visiting celebrities. It also was the place where Burt Lancaster dined with Susan Sarandon in the acclaimed film Atlantic City.
The next day we strolled down the resort’s wide, five-mile-long boardwalk, built in the 1870s to prevent beach sand from blowing into the posh hotels and shops being built along the waterfront. The Boardwalk is still traversed by traditional ‘rolling chairs’ pushed by attendants and, of course, is fronted by, or close to, such major casino hotels as Harrad’s, Caesars and the Hard Rock.
That evening we moved to the quite charming Claridge Hotel, established in 1930 and the city’s oldest non-casino hotel. Overlooking historic waterfront Brighton Park, it has hosted such celebrities as Marilyn Monroe, Princess Grace of Monaco and Frank Sinatra. Some of its public rooms are graced by vintage black-and-white photos of the renowned Miss America beauty and talent pageant, launched in Atlantic City in 1921 and staged here except for a few years until 2018.
In search of any remnants of this famous if sometimes controversial event, Rose and I visited the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel and there he was in front of the building – Bert Parks, the show’s most famous host, if only in statue form. As each of us stepped beneath the crown that Bronze Bert held aloft, he belted out his signature song: “There she is, Miss America!”. In the Sheraton’s lobby were displays of memorabilia associated with some of the beauty queens, such as 1933’s Maria Bergeron, who went on to sing with the famous Guy Lombardo big band, 1945’s Bess Meyerson, who became both a TV celebrity and politician, and 1971’s Phyllis George, who became a TV presenter.
The next day we headed to picturesque Gardner’s Basin, home to scores of fishing and excursion boats as well as pier-side Gilchrist Restaurant, famous for its pancake breakfasts. Then off to view the 1857 Absecon Lighthouse, at 171 feet the tallest in New Jersey before heading 15 minutes north to quaint Smithville Village. Its numerous historic buildings, now converted into quaint shops, surround a pretty village green graced by a carousel, a lake featuring paddle boats and the 1787 Smithville Inn where we enjoyed a delicious lunch. Next on the agenda: a wine tasting at Egg Harbor City’s impressive 1864 Chateau Renault which claims to be the only winery in the US permitted to legally use the ‘Champagne’ appellation.
As we were in Atlantic City during the off-season and at a time when tourism was still being affected by the Covid pandemic, there was little beach activity or live entertainment although the casinos were still lively. However, this resort community usually has on offer not only miles of beautiful, free beach, numerous golf courses and a wide range of water sports but also performances by both music and comedy superstars (a show featuring both Steve Martin and Martin Short was on the late winter calendar) and such Broadway transplants as Kinky Boots, Hairspray and, of course, Jersey Boys.
Headed south, we stopped in Margate to view one of America’s oldest roadside attraction, Lucy the Elephant, created in 1881 of painted wood and metal sheeting, two-storeys tall and, over the years, used as a property developer’s lure, tourist attraction, private home (for an English doctor and his family), and, briefly, as a tavern and an Airbnb. Alas, Lucy was now under wraps undergoing a major renovation so there was no opportunity for a selfie.
Instead, we drove on to another entertainment hot spot, the evocatively-named Wildwoods, actually three separate seaside resorts with similar names. Not only do they continue to commemorate their 1960s/70s heydays by promoting their ‘Doo Wop’ architecture and murals dedicated to Chubby Checkers (The Twist) and Bill Haley & The Comets (Rock Around the Clock) but they also claim the world’s largest array of seaside amusement pier attractions, including 100 thrill rides. We were even offered breakfast on the top of a 156fttall Ferris wheel.
However, the most memorable of our visits proved to be the Queen of of the Coast, Cape May. Not only is it America’s oldest (1639) seaside resort, it is also, as the home of 600-or-so Victorian era buildings, America’s only National Historic Landmark City.
After checking into the tastefullydecorated and very hospitable beachfront Icona Cape May Hotel, we took a narrated trolley tour past many of these architectural belles, some now B&Bs, before touring one, the quite grand Physick Estate, now transformed into a house museum. Then we strolled down the three-block Washington Mall, lined with quaint shops and tempting food outlets, drove to Sunset Beach’s Cape May lghthouse,which has guided many a navigator, including escaping 19th-century slaves, across the perilous waters of Delaware Bay, and toured the Harriet Tubman Museum.
Opened in 2020 in the former parsonage of the adjacent Macedonia Baptist Church, this ‘Small Museum with a Big Story’ was established in Cape May because it was here that the famous African-American abolitionist and political activist, herself a former slave, once lived and worked in hotels, as a cook and with families to raise funds to rescue other slaves. The city was also a base for other abolitionists, financially successful free black businessmen and escaping slaves.
The seaside resort is also home to Historic Cold Spring Village, a living history museum encompassing 27 restored, mainly-19th-century buildings collected from around this part of the state. A stop for a quick pint or two at Cold Spring Brewery, which helps support the village, and then on to Cape May Winery where we learned that with a climate similar to parts of France this area of New Jersey is ideal for producing wine.
Our final meal at Cape May’s impressive, white column-fronted waterfront Peter Shields Inn was memorable not only for its delicious cuisine but also for an unusual incident. Suddenly. and for no apparent reason, a large and boisterous Italian-American man – shades of The Sopranos – leapt up from a nearby table, rushed across the room, presented me with a large red rose and announced that I was the new love of his life. It was an option I was easily able to resist, particularly as I was leaving New Jersey the following day.
