Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

GOOD TASTE IS A TROLLEY HOP AWAY

Toeknee Bianchi created this video document of the 2010 Taste of Sea Bright tour, which returns Saturday.

Think of it as a buffet — a great, big, sumptuous, surprising, eclectic, indoor/outdoor, three-mile-long buffet. The kind where you need a trolley to get from one end to the other.

When the event known as Taste of Sea Bright returns for the latest in a successful series of culinary tours on Saturday,  it will serve as a reminder that Monmouth County’s most stylishly slender borough knows how to eat very well indeed — and that, in the words of Sea Bright Business Alliance director Joan Osgoodby, “this town is not just a summer romance.”

Scheduled to run “rain or shine” between the hours of noon and 5p, Taste of Sea Bright stands as the fifth such event since the epicurean excursions were first organized in 2008, as a way of reinforcing the community’s status as a year-round dining destination.

Presented either in early May or the late-summer days of September, the Taste tours are characterized by Osgoodby (proprietor of borough-based Advanced Marketing Solutions) as “an opportunity to get a sense of what our town’s all about — the variety of experiences that include the beach atmosphere, the small-town convenience, and all of the delicious things going on at our restaurants.”

For a pay-one-price admission of $40, participants will be able to enjoy samples of food and beverages at each of the various stops, and in any order they wish — along with unlimited shuttle transportation along the tour route, official event maps and “passports” that will allow them entry into a grand-prize Passport Drawing upon visiting all stops on the tour. There are also door prizes,  giveaways — and a complimentary Sea Bright Business Alliance tote bag to haul all that swag home.

More than a dozen sit-down dining spots, take-out eateries and purveyors of food and spirits — from Something Fishy at the northernmost tip of 140 Ocean Avenue, down to The Dockside at number 1400 — will take part, joined for the occasion by a set of booster-minded businesses that include a hair salon, a photography studio and an antiques shop. It’s a list that features such longtime mainstays of local life as The Mad Hatter — as well as new neighbors like Philomena’s, the Italian ristorante (plus currently renovating riverfront tiki bar) that recently set up shop at the FairBanks Resort & Marina complex.

Conspicuous in its absence here in 2011 is Ichabod’s, the town-center landmark which (as reported here in redbankgreen) is scheduled to reopen under new owner Chris Wood as Woody’s Ocean Grille. According to Osgoodby, the Woody’s staff will be setting up an unofficial tour stop at the property to promote interest in the fully reimagined space that’s scheduled to open for business in early summer.

Among the non-restaurant stops, Sea Bright Supermarket will be offering tastings of craft beers and wines, while Waves Hair Studio will highlight a “gift wheel” (featuring various denominations of gift certificates), and Felicia Stratton’s Jersey Shore Skim Camp will continue its tradition of handing out such promotional giveaway items as novelty sunglasses.

While most of the stops on the tour are located well within walking distance of each other, the trademark trolleys will run continuously from noon through 6:30p — and with three additional shuttle buses added to the Taste of Sea Bright fleet, Osgoodby emphasizes that ticketholders traveling to the far outposts of the route needn’t worry about spending precious tour time waiting for a ride back to the center of town.

“You’ve got time to get out at any stop on the tour, eat, and have a bus or trolley ready to pick you up minutes later,” says the director of the Alliance, whose other activities include a new seasonal schedule of summertime Movies on the Beach. “We keep it running smoothly, no matter what kind of weather we get that day — and the rain never stopped anyone from coming out for this event.”

Admission tickets for the May 7 Taste of Sea Bright tour have been limited to a total of 1,000, and limited quantities are available for purchase at the participating businesses listed below (call ahead to check availability). Take it here for details on prize drawings, parking and other particulars.

Anjelica’s Restaurant

Bagel Boys, 1064 Ocean Ave.  (732)450-1800

Brooks’ Something Fishy Restaurant

DIVE! A Coastal Bar, 1072 Ocean Ave.  (&32)383-8151

The Dockside

Gracie & the Dudes Ice Cream

Jersey Shore Skim Camp

Jimmy Ryan Photography, 1070 Ocean Ave (2nd Fl.)  (646)418-8802

Kotobuki – Fine Japanese Cuisine

The Liquor Store at Sea Bright, 1060 Ocean Ave.  (732)842-8010

Look Back Antiques

Mad Hatter

Sea Bright Pizza, 1066 Ocean Ave.  (732)219-8770

Sea Bright Supermarket, 1160 Ocean Ave.  (732)741-8401

Trattoria “G”, 1142 Ocean Ave.  (732)741-7775

Waves Hair Studio, 1125 East Ocean Ave.  (732)530-1157

Yumi Neo-Asian Cuisine

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
PILGRIM BAPTIST MEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
  (photo by: Shanikquya Jackson) On Sunday, June 22, Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank hosted its annual Men’s Day Celebration a ...
THREE GENERATION PROCLAMATION
Mayor Billy Portman presents the Borough of Red Bank’s Independence Day 2025 Proclamation to Arleen Brahn (second from right), grandmo ...
STEW THE BUTCHER COSPLAY
On the occasion of the retirement of Stewart Goldstein, longtime proprietor of Monmouth Meats, we thought it apt to present this photo from ...
NAVESINK FISHING
A kayak fisherman tries his luck under the NJ Transit train trestle across the Navesink River in Red Bank. (Photo by Partyline contributor A ...
RED BAKE
As the temperature hit 100 degrees Tuesday, Tom Sevison, Red Bank High School Class of 1973 and in town briefly on his way back home to Virg ...
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.