They call Ocean City America’s Greatest Family Resort. Scrubbed clean and full of healthy fun. Also, dry as a bone.
Call us grinches, but after a long day of wholesome family bonding, we like nothing better than a glass of wine with dinner at a nice restaurant. So when we heard that eleven new restaurants had opened in Ocean City, we wondered: why???
Now, we know.
Asbury Avenue shopping. Just one block in the heart of OC’s downtown shopping district tells you what the big deal is.
Start at funky colorful Collete Boutique, corner of 9th and Asbury (609-525-0911). It’s Betsey Johnson (www.betseyjohnson.com) and clones—we bet you’ll walk away with a colorful summer tunic for under $60, or a party dress from their great selection.
For what lies beneath, pop into Pretty Woman (www.prettywomanintimates.com). The intimates are so revealing you’ll forget this is a G-rated town.
The arts community is thriving on this block. Drop by the Ocean County Fine Arts League (943 Asbury Ave., 609-814-0308), where local artists’ works are on display. Or try the Accent Gallery (www.accentgallery.com).
Follow the signs to the Glass Frog Studios (920 Asbury Ave., in rear, 609-398-7510), where Lynda Mitchell-Marino is making lovely customized stained glass windows for luxury houses up and down the shore. Click above to see a video of this painstaking process.
Break for lunch at Scully’s (955 Asbury Ave. 609-391-1111), one of the brand new eateries. Admire the beautiful dishes, scooped up from a nearby casino—and you’ll like the food too.
Top it off with coffee from Java Jakes, a home-grown college grad’s new Internet café complete with computers, cable TV and retro furniture. It’s so new, there’s no phone number or website— but you’ll find him next store to Denovum, (910 Asbury Ave. 609-814-9084) the funky furniture store with the deco fascade.
You can have wine with dinner anywhere—well almost anywhere. But we guarantee you won’t find a block like this one anywhere else. Stay dry!
You love your Yoga and Pilates, but need a little something that gets you off the floor and moving in a different direction?
Let the rack, aka the Gyrotonic (www.gyrotonic.com) machine help your stretching, adjusting and flexing. Not any home gym—this piece of equipment. It resembles a medieval torture device, complete with ropes, pulleys, bolts and stirrups.
We asked Toni Ferrer (201-209-9205) who trained with the Gyro Master Juliu Horvath, to demonstrate the Gyrotonic method in her Jersey City studio. The machine provides the resistance, your muscles are strengthened and flexed.. Deep breathing helps control your movements.
Toni – born in Spain, arrived here headed for a career in finance. But she caught the Gyrotonic bug, and finds life as a professional Gyro trainer more rewarding. “I felt at home in my own body- energized, peaceful and calm,” she says.
Toni strapped her student, Glenny, into the device, and started her off with wide circular movements. Twisting and turning, Glenny starts to resemble human pizza dough.
The menacing machine becomes friendlier. There is soothing music, the quiet push-me-pull-you—and Toni’s voice as she drilled and encouraged.
There are do-it-yourself versions of the Gyro—not as large or imposing, but equally effective. Warning: the assembly process may require a mechanical engineer at your side.
Gyrotonics. Strap yourself in for a workout. You’ll feel like a new person when you come off the rack.
From Affenpinschers to Havanese to Yorkshire Terrier, you’re bound to find your favorite small dog at the Delaware Valley Toy Dog Fanciers Association (www.dvtdfa.org) group show and obedience trial. It runs all day Friday at the Mercer County Park ice skating rink, West Windsor.
Unleashed…
It’s a Barefoot Grape Stomping Party at Four Sisters Winery in Belvidere, Saturday starting at 7 p.m. $55 per person. For reservations call (908) 475-3671 or hit www.matarazzo.com/Winery
Planted…
A rite of spring in the Garden State is the yearly plant sale at the New Jersey Botanical Garden (www.njbg.org) in Ringwood. Perennials, annuals, vines, veggies, herbs, shrubs and even trees go on sale to the public this Saturday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. NJBG members get first pick at a Friday evening wine and cheese reception. You can join up at the door: $25 per year, $40 for families and $20 for seniors or students. No charge for the public sale.
Green…
Bring your old cell phone, PDA, computer or printers to the parking lot at Temple Emanu-El (www.tewnj.org) in Westfield, Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Newer models are refurbished and resold. The really old stuff gets recycled.
Sing Along…
With the new Jersey sound of My Chemical Romance (and a gazillion other bands) at The Bamboozle (www.thebamboozle.com) in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, Saturday through Sunday. Or check out Hoboken’s Spring Arts and Music Festival (www.hobokeni.com/festivals.asp). Headliners include Dr. John and the Demolition String Band, plus hundreds of artists and crafts people. Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Washington Street.
Join New Jersey’s intrepid Sailing Club (www.thesailingclub.org) for cool cruises in places you’ve never been. The group gets going this weekend with a training session in Havre De Grace, Maryland. Hey, it’s a great place to wear that nautical look!
Go to a wine tasting. We did, last Tuesday, at Il Michelangelo Restaurant (www.ilmichelangelo.com) in Boonton Township.
The vinos came from Ceuso (www.ceuso.it), presented by oenologist Vincenzo Melia. The best was the Vigna Custera blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Nero d’Avola, Sicily’s best local red wine grape. It was smooth yet robust enough to stand up to osso buco prepared by chef Dominick Cascio, Jr.
Owners and friends Dominick Sr. and Connie throw a great party. By the third course you are on a first name basis with everyone at your banquet-style table, and you’ll be belting out That’s Amore with the crowd. To score an invite to the next tasting, call (973) 316-1111.
Our partners-in-wine at Gary’s Wine & Marketplace regularly co-sponsor events with nearby restaurants. The next one, tomorrow at Pierre's Restaurant and Wine Bar in Morristown (www.pierresbistro.com), showcases the wines of Mas de Daumas (www.daumas-gassac.com).
Don’t miss the benefit tasting event at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange on May 21st, supporting The Jersey Battered Women’s Shelter (www.jbws.org). It’s a chance to sample different vodkas and tequilas, along with great wines. Check www.garyswine.com to see what else is on tap.
Speaking of the tap, Cork Restaurant (www.corknj.com) in Westmont is having “Beer vs. Wine” taste-off on Tuesday, May 8, individually pairing both for each of the four courses, including Cabrales blue cheese and Vietnamese steak. Reserve online or at (856) 833-9800.
Finally, sample the best of a great California vineyard. David Burke’s Fromagerie in Rumson is holding a five-course dinner featuring wines from Joseph Phelps Vineyards’ superb Insignia Collection (www.jpvwines.com)— classic Napa wine in an iconic New Jersey restaurant. Make reservations for the Wednesday, May 9 event at (732) 842-8088 or www.fromagerierestaurant.com.
Enjoy! But just remember, next morning is a workday.
Atlantic City is always reinventing itself. This summer, the casinos are adding new touches to their fantasy playgrounds.
Try a “dive-in” movie at Harrah’s (www.harrahs.com). They just opened the city’s largest indoor pool, part of a brand new, quarter-acre domed entertainment oasis.
Besides the 23,000 square-foot pool surrounded by a million dollar garden, there’s a new Red Door Spa (www.reddoorspas.com) with 23 rooms, including a couple’s suite (steam showers, Jacuzzi, and fireplace) just in time to put on your Father’s Day gift list.
Over at Caesars, (www.caesars.com) they’ve amped up the volume at the Circus Maxiumus Theatre with a new million dollar sound system and a new layout for the 1,500 plush seats. American Idol star Carrie Underwood was the inaugural act last weekend.
Our readers already know about the Pier at Caesars (www.pieratcaesars.com), because we’ve been raving about it for months! NJ Monthly’s empress of good taste Rosalie Saferstein likes breakfast at Sonsie (www.sonsieac.com). We liked the shopping on the huge enclosed pier, and lunch at Buddakhan (www.buddakanac.com).
Not to be out-trumped, the Donald’s Taj Majal (www.trumptaj.com) has eateries serving frozen cocktails, burgers and candy lining the streets of the new Spice Road Promenade. At Trump Marina, (www.trumpmarina.com) we hear the new Finestra Restaurant has an awesome antipasto bar.
And this month, the AC version of the New York Providence Lounge (www.providencenyc.com) opens in the red hot Quarter at the Tropicana (www.tropicana.net). Bottle service, DJs and VIP rooms.
Plenty more to come, as hotels and casinos add, improve, and grow—all in an effort to keep you longer, and get you to spend more. This you can bet the house on.
Keds. The original sneak-er. They coined the nickname because of the rubber sole that keeps things quiet while you walk. In the old days, when you didn’t need a dozen pairs of flats in different colors, you wore their plain white or navy slip-ons.
Then, somehow, your Keds disappeared—dirty and tired, under the bed with the dustballs and dog toys.
But wait. Splashy, colorful, and frayed-on-purpose, with big time designer names like Nanette Lepore, the new Keds (www.keds.com) are sizzling hot.
There are skimmers and mary janes, fringed and faded, or in bright patterns and colors. The most popular pairs are pre-washed and threadbare. Kind of like that pair gathering dust.
Keds have cross-generational appeal; kids who’d never heard of them before scooped them off the shelf at the ultimate shoe palace—Nordstrom (www.nordstrom.com) in Garden State Plaza. Women re-discovering this comfort shoe were surprised to find them re-born fun and flirty. With so many colors and designs, you’ll need multiple pairs.
Credit actress Misha Barton for pumping tons of life into Keds. When Barton appeared at the store recently to autograph her favorite sneakers, they sold 247 pairs in an hour!
Take it from us; for this summer’s fun dresses, shorts and skirts, you’ll need plenty of designer flip flops, bright rubber garden clogs and Keds.
Sneakers are the new flats. And Keds are the new sneak-ers.
Atlantic City is always reinventing itself. This summer, the casinos are adding new touches to their fantasy playgrounds.
Keds. The original sneak-er. They coined the nickname because of the rubber sole that keeps things quiet while you walk. In the old days, when you didn’t need a dozen pairs of flats in different colors, you wore their plain white or navy slip-ons.
