Do you know where in Red Bank the above photo was taken?
Send your answer (or best guess) to [email protected] by noon, Thursday, July 18. We’ll reveal the location the next day.
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Here’s the answer to last week’s “Where.”
Last week’s “Where” photo was the glass-block enclosed doorway of one of Red Bank’s longest running – and probably least known – businesses. It’s the home of Auto Bar Systems of New Jersey at 164 Monmouth Street, next to Linares Grocery.
The business has been on Monmouth Street (including a stint at the address next door) since 1963. They sell and service automated liquor dispensing systems to hundreds of bars, restaurants and casinos across New York and New Jersey. The company has operated out of the building, a former diner, since the 1970’s.
“We moved here after my mother said, “I’m not spending another minute in an un-air-conditioned office and my father bought this,” said owner Al Dorsey, a Tinton Falls native and Christian Brother Academy alum who took over the family-owned business after his father passed away.
Al Dorsey at his desk inside Auto Bar Systems of New Jersey at 164 Monmouth Street (photo by Brian Donohue)
Dorsey had just returned from a visit with casino client in Yonkers, NY when we knocked on the door for an unannounced visit.
He explained the company’s product, a system where liquor is stored in a back room and pumped to the bar, where the bartender can dispense a perfect-sized serving of booze or beer with the press of a button. And he graciously showed us around a building with history richer than its appearance suggests.
On this front, “Where” regular, Chuck Stern did some research for us, finding it was home to the Twin Diner until 1967, according to city directories. In the back room, the curved ceiling of the railcar diner structure is visible. Other hints to its past, like a giant wooden Fridgidaire Dorsey uses for storage, remain from its diner days.
An item in the June 8, 1944 Red Bank Register unearthed by Chuck Stern.
The old railcar-style diner ceiling of 164 Monmouth Street is visible in the back room. You can almost smell the coffee. (photo by Brian Donohue)
Dorsey said the diner closed down several years before his father bought the place. In the interim, he said a bakery and a “bulk mail facility” operated out of the building.
As for the “Where” guesses, a few people nailed it, with one person guessing incorrectly it was the entrance to the Globe Hotel or the Red Bank Elks.
“Where” regular Robert Colmorgen, guessed the location correctly and added, “I remember it in the 50’s when my father would deliver milk there it was the Twin Diner.”
Thanks to those who wrote in. Rich McKenna, Susan Frieri, Kate Brannan, Mary White, Randy Rauscher, Chuck Stern, Jacqueline F., Mary White.
I hope I got everyone. Please email or text me immediately if we missed you at [email protected] or 848-331-8331. Your sharp eyes and hustle should be properly rewarded.
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