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.

SEA BRIGHT: BROGUE, HEARTH AND PORK ROLL

Alice’s Kitchen takes over  space that was home to downtown fixture Steve’s Breakfast & Lunch. Below, Alice Gaffney with a customer shortly after opening her doors Friday morning. (Photo below by Colby Wilson. Click to enlarge)

By COLBY WILSON

The first time you visit Alice’s Kitchen in Sea Bright, order an Irish breakfast.

That’s on the recommendation of the chef and owner, Alice Gaffney, who’s bringing the food – and an architectural touch – of her homeland to 1100 Ocean Avenue, but doing it Jersey-style.

“We’re going to have Irish soda bread, Irish breakfast, and of course pork roll,” Gaffney tells redbankgreen. After all, “this is the Jersey Shore,” she says.

The traditional hearth Gaffney installed in the restaurant. (Photo by Colby Wilson. Click to enlarge)

Alice’s Kitchen opened Friday morning in the space occupied for 37 years by Steve’s Breakfast & Lunch, which was wiped out by Hurricane Sandy nine months ago.

Gaffney and her two children, Seana and Dara, also experienced Sandy’s destruction. They lost their basement, two bedrooms and two bathrooms in their North Beach home, also on Ocean Avenue. Seana and Dara lost everything, she said.

“We were all devastated,” she said. “But the people here are very courageou,s and we have great leaders,” she told redbankgreen.

Cleaning out that basement, Gaffney rediscovered a forgotten artifact she’d brought over to America from Ireland years ago: a traditional cottage hearth. She had it reassembled, front and center, in the restaurant.

Gaffney says the building, at the corner of Chruch Street, had about five feet of water inside during the storm, and  that rebuilding has been a long and difficult process.

“Everything had to be done from scratch,” she said. The work cost close to $100,000, but you can’t put a price on your dreams, she added.

Like others reopening businesses in the storm-battered town, or opening new ones, she worries about another storm as destructive as Sandy, but is counting on that having been a once-in-a-lifetime event, she said.

This isn’t Gaffney’s first business in the area. In 2006, she opened the Claddagh Irish Pub on Bay Avenue in Highlands. She also spent seven years running the kitchen at the Red Bank Charter School.

But this venture is different, she said. It means more.

“It has been my dream for a very long time,” she said.

Alice’s Kitchen is open seven days a week, from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Under the current soft opening, Gaffney is serving breakfast and lunch only, but plans to have a dinner menu in the near future.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
HOVERING CHOPPER
What’s going on here? Last Sunday. Hovering around for quite a while. (Photo and text by Partyline contributor Rosaleen Perry)   ...
RBMS HOOPS CHAMPS HONORED
The Red Bank Middle School girls basketball team is honored for their championship season. (click for more)
NAVESINK SUNSET
Sunset sunburst over Riverside Gardens Park (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)
RIVERSIDE SUNSET
Sunday’s sunset shot from Riverside Gardens Park. (Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus) —
MARINE PARK SUNSET
Stunning sunset from Red Bank's Marine Park.
GULLS AND GRAY OVER MOLLY PITCHER INN
On a cold rainy spring day, bulls soared high above the Navesink River and the golden cupola of Red Bank's Molly Pitcher Inn.
Red Bank Commuters Enjoy Stunning Sunrise Over Navesink River
Thursday morning sunrise over the Navesink River, a commuter view from NJ Transit Train 3320. (photo by Partyline contributor Karly Swaim) & ...
SUNRISE OVER MONMOUTH STREET
Sunrise over Monmouth Street Thursday morning (photo by Partline contributor Thomas Doremus)
FINAL STRAW FOR MARINE PARK REMAKE
Workers place a straw covering over the now-dirt (soon to be grass) stretch of Marine Park that had been an asphalt parking lot for generati ...
DEER IN RED BANK
Dear Friends –Original before GPT– Deer Friends
GHOSTBUSTERS ON MONMOUTH STREET
Ghostbusters vehicle spotted on Monmouth Street. (photo by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)
BOAT CLUB AND BATTLESHIP GREY
Monmouth Boat Club under the past weekend’s clouds. (Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
CURBSIDE BLOOMS
Broad Street beautified. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)  
NEW MURAL TAKES SHAPE AT CANNABIS SHOP
Red Bank artist Michael White, donning a hat fitting for the day of the New York Mets’ home opener, works on a new mural at Canopy Cro ...
CHERRY BLOSSOMS ABOUND IN RED BANK
Cherry blossoms are everywhere! (photo and text by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)  
DOWNTOWN RED BANK ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Downtown on a Friday afternoon. (partyline Photo by Thomas Doremus)  
LIGHTS ON THE NAVESINK
Thursday’s post-sunset clouds over the Navesink (Partyline photo by Thomas Doremus)  
A SPRING IN THE STEP
A man walks carrying a bouquet of flowers beneath the blooming trees in Red Bank. (Partyline photo by John T. Ward)  
ROWING INTO SPRING
Beyond the magnolia trees in full bloom at the Red Bank Library, the Navesink River Rowing Advanced Youth Program heads out for their weekda ...
RED BANK GREEN VISITS AUSTRALIA
Publisher Kenny Katzgrau is representing Red Bank and Red Bank Green at the Local and Independent News Association Summit in Melbourne, Aust ...