Hometown restaurants at the Jersey Shore
Hometown restaurants, with friendly staff and homestyle food, last for years – and with good reason.
Sarah Griesemer/Staff writer, Wochit
- Featured spots include Italian eateries, bakeries, delis, and iconic hot dog stands.
New restaurants are exciting, with their shiny, unknown newness.
But classic restaurants – the tried-and-true favorites that have been around for years – are where we go when it’s comfort we crave.
At these longtime restaurants, consistency and familiar faces keep us coming back. From decades-old Italian eateries to counter-service spots that have been welcoming folks for generations, here are classics to visit in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Del Ponte’s Bakery, Bradley Beach
When you visit the long-standing Del Ponte’s Bakery, be prepared for to make tough decisions.
Just inside the door of the nearly 30-year-old shop are mounds of biscotti, piled high and in more than two dozen flavors, plus taralli, a crunchy, ring-shaped snack that come in flavors like garlic and sun-dried tomato. Keep walking and find pastry-filled refrigerators lined with cheesecakes, fruit tarts and traditional Italian treats like flaky lobster tails and cannoli cream-filled St. Joseph’s pastries
Still, there’s more, from cookies, pies (including mini versions), Danish and croissants to bear claws, sticky buns and doughnuts, plus fresh bread.
Go: 600 Main St., Bradley Beach; 732-869-1111, delpontesbakerybb.com
Federici’s Family Restaurant, Freehold Borough
In a state that is home to thousands of pizzerias, one that has been in business for a century must be doing something right.
Federici’s Family Restaurant, originally founded inside the Wolcott Hotel and one of the first Freehold borough businesses to obtain a liquor license after Prohibition, is known for its thin-crusted pie, which was introduced in the 1940s. Generations of the family have owned, worked at and expanded the restaurant; owner Mike Federici credits consistency with Federici’s longevity.
In addition to its trademark pizza, the menu features the classics — Marsala, piccata, parmigiana, alfredo, stuffed shells, shrimp scampi — plus a decades-old recipe for cheese lasagna and a locally famous housemade creamy Italian dressing.
Go: 14 East Main St., Freehold Borough; 732-462-1312, federicis.com
Frank’s Deli & Restaurant, Asbury Park
The coffee is hot, the home fries are crispy and the service is friendly at Frank’s, an Asbury Park institution for more than 60 years.
Grab a booth or a spot at the counter and take in the hustle and bustle of the place, which operates like a well-oiled machine. At any given time, staffers are buildling sandwiches, flipping pancakes (probably even owner Joe Maggio himself, whose father opened Frank’s in 1960), delivering expertly stacked plates of food and counting change (the restaurant is cash only). The place is busy, but your coffee cup will never be empty.
Also, the no-frills Frank’s is steeped in New Jersey history, from its spot on the Anthony Bourdain Food Trail to an appearance in the 2025 Bruce Springsteen movie “Deliver Me from Nowhere.” Photos of Bourdain and Springsteen line the walls, along with images of the city through the years.
Go: 1406 Main St., Asbury Park; 732-775-6682, franksdelinj.com
Jimmy’s Italian Restaurant, Asbury Park
Picture this: You are seated in a cozy booth at an Italian restaurant, a Frank Sinatra song playing in the background, a basket of warm bread on the table. A plate of chicken parmigiana arrives, the crispy cutlet topped with rich tomato sauce and blistered cheese, a plate of garlic-studded broccoli rabe on the side.
Food like this, in a place like this, makes you feel cared for, and that can keep a restaurant in business for 44 years.
Jimmy’s Italian Restaurant, a city staple since 1982, is also a place where stars dine: Joe Pesci, Vincent Pastore, Ray Liotta, Danny DeVito and Bruce Springsteen have visited, as has Paul McCartney, who enjoyed stuffed artichokes and eggplant parmigiana in 2017.
Go: 1405 Asbury Ave., Asbury Park; 732-774-5051, jimmysitalianrestaurant.com
Keyport Fishery, Keyport
Fresh seafood and water views are two of the best things about living at the Shore, and Keyport Fishery has been a place for both for more than 60 years.
The takeout-only, cash-only restaurant and fish market sits across from Keyport Harbor and Raritan Bay, with a view of New York City in the distance. Inside, a flurry of activity begins when the doors open and customers arrive for fresh seafood from the market side and cooked food from the restaurant side.
The food is simple and delicious, from chowders and clams on the half shell to fried fish platters and sandwiches. Fried fish, like shrimp, scallops, flounder, haddock and halibut, are sold by the pound, and everything is made in-house, including the coleslaw, tartar sauce and cocktail sauce.
“We simply bread and fry our fish so you actually taste the fish, as opposed to a lot of places where they doctor it up with seasonings,” owner Kevin Nosti said in a prior story. “We stick to the really light, extra-fine cracker meal breading, and that’s pretty much it.”
As for where to eat? In your car, or at a waterfront pavilion across from the restaurant.
Go: 150 W. Front St., Keyport; 732-264-9723, keyportfishery.com
Lucille’s Luncheonette, Barnegat
Tucked in the Pine Barrens of western Ocean County is Lucille’s Luncheonette, which like Frank’s Deli & Restaurant is a stop on the Anthony Bourdain Food Trail. The celebrity chef came calling for a 2015 episode of his food and travel show “Parts Unknown,” dining on Lucille’s scrapple, chili and blueberry pie.
Homestyle dishes like those are the hallmarks of the restaurant, which through the years has been called Warren Grove Snack Bar and Lucille’s Country Cooking and is run by sisters Karen Bates-Flynn and Diane Brown. Their parents, Lucille and Jim Bates, opened the restaurant in 1975.
Bates-Flynn and Brown have kept their family’s restaurant and recipes going, serving a menu of dishes like bread pudding French toast, biscuits and sausage gravy, split pea soup, chicken corn chowder, meatloaf sandwiches and housemade pie.
Go: 1496 Route 539, Barnegat; 609-698-4474, facebook.com/Lucillescountrycooking
Maruca’s Tomato Pies, Seaside Heights
For 75 years, the Maruca family has made some of the Jersey Shore’s most beloved and renowned pizzas.
Their signature pizza, a Trenton-style tomato pie, has a unique look that sets it apart from others. A base of cheese is spread over a thin crust, then comes a distinctive spiral of tomato sauce.
The pizza has not changed since four brothers — Anthony D. “Jake,” “Spike” Dominick, “Patsy” Pasquale and “Slippery” Joe Maruca — opened their pizzerias in Seaside Heights and Trenton in 1950. Today, the boardwalk restaurant (plus a newer one by the beach in Asbury Park) is run by Anthony’s children, Maria and her twin brothers Joe and Domenic.
Go: 601 Ocean Terrace, Seaside Heights; 732-793-0707, marucaspizza.com. Also at 1050 Ocean Ave. in Asbury Park.
Mueller’s Bakery, Bay Head
Some things are worth waiting in line for, and crumb cake from Mueller’s is one of them. Just ask the folks who happily line up outside the Bay Head bakery on summer mornings.
The bakery’s traditional version is topped with a thick dusting of powdered sugar or icing, or try crumb cake with raspberry and blueberry filling.
The building housing Mueller’s has been a bakery for more than a century, and customers today have much to choose from, including strudels, pudding cakes, Danish, elephant ears, fruit-filled pastry pockets, cookies, doughnuts, pies, cakes, brownies and more, plus hot coffee to go along with your treat.
Go: 80 Bridge Ave., Bay Head; 732-892-0442, muellersbakery.com
Spano’s Ristorante Italiano, Point Pleasant Beach
If you have ever wondered what it’s like to be part of an Italian family, book a table at Spano’s (and book you must, as reservations are required).
No matter your order, your meals begin with a complimentary appetizer — such as eggplant meatballs — from chef and owner Joe Spano. The gesture calls to mind an Italian grandmother who lovingly scoops food onto your plate, whether you asked or not, because food is love.
Spano’s restaurant in downtown Point Pleasant Beach has been a favorite for more than 20 years, plus a decade prior in Jackson. The menu is filled with labor-intensive, generously portioned dishes, from house-sliced charcuterie to pastas like mafalde, cavatelli, gnocchi and fettucini, which are made by hand. Lasagna is studded with chopped meatballs and layered high, ravioli are filled wih seafood and served in creamy lobster sauce, and an Italian classic — Sunday gravy — is made with slow-simmered sausage, three kinds of meatballs and pork bracioli over fresh pasta.
Go: 719 Arnold Ave., Point Pleasant Beach; 732-701-1600, spanos.net
WindMill Hot Dogs and Max’s Bar & Grill, Long Branch
The Shore is lucky to be home to not just one iconic hot dog restaurant, but two.
Max’s Bar & Grill, formerly Max’s Famous Hot Dogs, started in 1928 when the late Max Altman began selling hot dogs from a boardwalk stand. In the 1940s, he partnered with Milfred Maybaum, who later purchased the business. Maybaum’s granddaughter, Jennifer Maybuam, now runs the restaurant (known for its Wenning Griddle Frank), and in 2018, she transformed the restaurant from a diner-style eatery to a more modern space with a large bar, beer on tap, a new kitchen and a revamped menu.
Less than half a mile from Max’s is WindMill Hot Dogs, a windmill-topped restaurant that has stood at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Montgomery Avenue for more than 60 years. It’s known for griddled ¼-pound beef and pork Sabrett hot dogs, which are made especially for the restaurant, plus burgers and crinkle-cut french fries. There are more locations in Red Bank, Belmar, Asbury Park and Long Branch, and owner Ralph Epstein, who took over from longtime owners the Levine family in 2022, is opening another in Brick.
Go: Max’s Bar & Grill, 52 Matilda Terrace, Long Branch; 732-571-0248, instagram.com/maxsbarandgrillnj. The WindMill, 586 Ocean Blvd., Long Branch; 732-229-9863, windmillhotdogs.com.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to her weekly newsletter.
