A volunteer during Saturday’s firefighting effort in the hotel’s laundry room. (Photo courtesy of Red Bank Fire Department. Click to enlarge.)
A fire in the basement laundry room prompted a brief evacuation of Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn Saturday afternoon.
(See UPDATE below)
Fire destroyed at least one boat and damaged another in a predawn blaze at the Molly Pitcher Inn marina in Red Bank Saturday.
Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn is going on winter hiatus until March, the hotel’s owners announced Wednesday.
The Oyster Point will reopen Monday, while its sibling, the Molly Pitcher Inn, will remain closed. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Easing back to life from its COVID-19 lockdown, Red Bank’s Oyster Point Hotel plans to launch a phased reopening Monday.
But amid uncertainty over wedding and business-event bookings, the hotel and its sibling Molly Pitcher Inn now have to “reinvent” themselves, company vice president Kevin Barry told redbankgreen Friday.
Red Bank police busted up a car rally in the parking lot of the Molly Pitcher Inn early Sunday afternoon, police Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen.
Police determined that the gathering violated Governor Phil Murphy’s March 21 “stay home” executive order barring a wide range of activities, McConnell said.
“The participants were cooperative and left the area without incident,” he said. (Click to enlarge.)
The trailer for ‘I Am Another You,’ a documentary about a young man who chooses to live on the streets, screens as a free, community-welcome entry at this week’s Indie Street Film Festival. Below, artist Ron Haywood Jones‘s mural for the festival at 97 Broad Street remained unfinished Tuesday morning because of rain interruptions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Its community mural may still need some finishing touches, thanks to uncooperative weather. Still, the third annual Indie Street Film Festival kicks off in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a five-day rush of innovative cinema, movie talk and parties.
A project of the filmmaker cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the festival spreads decidedly non-Hollywood magic across the borough’s theaters, restaurants, night spots, and even the middle school auditorium. And there’s a free, community-welcome screening mixed in among the orange-pass-only fare.
Check out the festival schedule below; information about passes and tickets can be found here.
A car, at right, waits for a break in the traffic to turn onto Riverside Avenue from Bodman Place. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Creating a new signal-controlled intersection on a busy stretch of Red Bank highway near the Molly Pitcher Inn is “not feasible,” according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Still, Mayor Pasquale Menna is hoping the DOT will reconsider its oft-stated position if and when there’s a new owner of the former VNA Health Group headquarters building, located on a problematic corner, he told redbankgreen Monday.
Lead festival organizer Jay Webb, right, with guests at Wednesday night’s opening reception on the patio of the Count Basie Theatre. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
With a display of carved-surfboard art, a New Jersey premiere screening of Dave Made a Maze and a DJ’d after-party at three separate venues, the second annual Indie Street Film Festival officially got underway in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a four-days-and-nights slate of screenings, panels, workshops and get-togethers with an admirable “Cannes-do” spirit.
A project of the fillmajer cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the sequel to last year’s inaugural event looks to make a long-running “tentpole franchise” of the venture. It’s a multi-venue happening that offers plenty of reasons to visit the borough’s theaters, restaurants and nightspots — or even its best-kept-secret middle school auditorium — during that time of year when the beaches make their biggest bid for buzz.
Take it here for info on individual event tickets and festival passes — and read on, for a rundown of goings-on between through Sunday. More →
A portion of the colorful mural painted earlier this month on the Catherine Street wall of Kitch Organic heralds the second annual coming of the Indie Street Film Festival, co-founded by Jay Webb, below.
To Wanamassa resident Jay Webb, losing oneself in the flickering lights of a hushed, darkened room is only part of the joy of a film festival for cinephiles. Another is getting together and gabbing about what they’ve seen, and who’s doing what in an art form wholly dependent on collaboration.
Which is one reason the schedule for the second edition of the Indie Street Film Festival, which returns to Red Bank next week, is studded with community events in between screenings of some 60 films.
George Severini of Dorn’s Classic Images (above left) joins co-author Rick Geffken for a Thursday evening presentation keyed to their book “Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore.”
A must-see presentation on some of the most fondly remembered attractions of our local Shore — and not one but two encore appearances by a best-selling beach-read favorite — are booked in this Thursday, May 11 for galloping gourmets and nostalgia buffs alike.
It begins tomorrow afternoon at Red Bank’s Molly Pitcher Inn, during the Fourth Annual Scholarship Luncheon for the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) — an affair at which members of the community are invited to join in an afternoon filled with fun, good food and the opportunity to hear from the New York Times bestselling author, Mary Kay Andrews.
Press release from the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW
On May 11, the Northern Monmouth County Branch of AAUW (American Association of University Women) will hold its Fourth Annual Scholarship Luncheon at the Molly Pitcher Inn.
Members of the community are invited to join in an afternoon filled with fun, good food and the opportunity to hear from the New York Times bestselling author, Mary Kay Andrews. The Georgia-based creator of numerous popular mysteries and other novels set in beach and coastal communities, Ms. Andrews will share stories about how she came to be an author, and how she decided to write her latest book, The Beach House Cookbook.
Dozens of local vendors make for a well-rounded Wedding Walk experience when the annual spring event returns to town this Sunday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Stressed out over planning and preparation of an impending Big Day? Red Bank RiverCenter has some advice — and that’s to “walk it off,” when the annual springtime Wedding Walk returns to the borough’s walkable downtown and waterfront this Sunday.
Nearly 40 local businesses — ranging from dressmakers, cake bakers and picture takers to jewelers, florists, caterers and more — are signed up for the 2017 edition of the townwide promotion, which is designed to introduce brides, grooms, partners, wedding attendants and their families to Red Bank as a one-stop shopping destination for all things wedding-related.
The organizers of last summer’s five-day Indie Street Film Festival in Red Bank, promoted above on a mural at Monmouth Street and Maple Avenue, plan to return next July, and are accepting film submissions, they announced Monday.
The first-ever Holiday Soirée thrown by the Red Bank Business Alliance at the Molly Pitcher Inn turned out to be quite the affair, as more than 300 attendees packed two ballrooms to sample small plates, dance, bid on artwork and generally kick off the holiday-party season. In the process, the RBBA raised some $19,000 for two nonprofit organizations — Jason’s Dreams for Kids and Clean Ocean Action.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos below to see who you know. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Press release from Red Bank Business Alliance
On Thursday, November 17, the members of the Red Bank Business Alliance (RBBA) will host their first Holiday Soirée at the Molly Pitcher Inn overlooking the beautiful Navesink River. Scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., the evening of holiday festivities will focus on supporting the business owners, consumers and residents of the Red Bank area, with an emphasis on giving back to the community.
One hundred percent of ticket sales and proceeds from the event will be donated to two locally based nonprofit organizations — Jason’s Dreams for Kids, helping local kids with cancer fulfill their dreams, and Clean Ocean Action, focusing on a project to clean the Navesink River. Guests will enjoy silent auctions, complimentary cocktail tastings, fine fare, drink specials and entertainment.
The trailer for “65 Percent,” a documentary by Mike and Jon Altino of Middletown, screens at the Red Bank Middle School at 1 p.m.
Saturday-morning cartoons, a locally made documentary and shorts-in-a-bunch enliven Saturday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway in Red Bank Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.
Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers. More →
Sand artist Joe Mangrum creating a temporary painting at the festival opening-night cocktail party on the Count Basie patio Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Screenings at four Red Bank venues fill Friday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.
Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.
A documentary about people who eat white dirt adds some grit to the first full day of the Indie Street Film Festival.
Scandalously long, beautiful legs. A guy with a compulsion for commandeering buses and trains. Geophagy, or dirt-eating.
These and other delightfully strange and wondrous topics fill the schedule of Red Bank’s Indie Street Film Festival as it enters its first full day of screenings and other events Thursday.
Click the “read more” for the full sked and a whole dirtload of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.
The festival flickers to life with “Morris from America” on the big screen at the Count Basie Theatre. Here’s the trailer.
Day One of the first-ever Indie Street Film Festival gets underway in Red Bank Wednesday, kicking off five days of heaven for movie lovers.
The opening day schedule is light, with one just one film lighting up the giant silver screen of the Count Basie Theatre and two parties. But the festival shifts into high gear Thursday with daylong screenings and other events at five venues, and keeps up the pace through Saturday before winding down Sunday.
Check in with redbankgreen throughout the week for festival coverage and next-day schedules with tons of trailers to help you decide which darkened room to bring your popcorn to. Meantime, here’s the first-day lineup:
A mural on Monmouth Street near Maple Avenue touts the five-day Indie Street Film Festival, which flickers to life Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
For the first time since 2007, Red Bank will swarm with screening maniacs this week as independent films, filmmakers and cinephiles invade the downtown — and one or two nearby outposts.
Encompassing nearly 100 feature-length and short films, four screening venues and a handful of bars and restaurants, the five-day Indie Street Film Festival kicks off Wednesday, promising to liven up a post-Independence Day interval when the borough traditionally slips into an early doldrums.
Bon Jovi, seen above in Red Bank in 2011. Below, a gate to his home. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
A campaign fundraiser at which pop star Jon Bon Jovi “serenaded” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was held in Red Bank Monday night because Middletown balked at providing police protection for the event at the pop star’s mansion, according to a report.
The conservative Washington Free Beacon claimed Wednesday that the township refused to staff the event at Bon Jovi’s Navesink River Road home because he hasn’t ponied up for $14,000 in police overtime expenses still owed for security provided for a 2008 fundraiser held there for then-Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Bon Jovi, seen here at the opening of Red Bank’s JBJ Soul Kitchen in 2011, was back in town to host the former first lady and secretary of state Monday night. Below, an uncredited photo of Clinton posted on the Twitter feed of former New York Governor David Paterson. (Photo above by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Jon Bon Jovi “serenaded” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a $1,000-a-head campaign fundraiser in Red Bank Monday night, according to PolitickerNJ.
Actually, the report says pop-rocker, who has a home on the Navesink River in Middletown, “serenely serenaded” Clinton at the no-media-allowed event, held at the riverfront Molly Pitcher Inn.
Best-selling author Beatriz Williams is the special guest as the local branch of the American Association of University Women presents its annual scholarship fundraiser luncheon at the Molly Pitcher.
Her series of novels includes the breakout best-seller A Hundred Summers – a 1930’s period romance (hailed as the author’s “historic masterpiece”) of beach-house easy living complicated by secrets from a stormy past, as well as by the imminent arrival of a cataclysmic hurricane.
Although Beatriz Williams has managed to take the summer reading lists by storm in recent seasons through her scrupulously researched conjuring of settings that range from First World War Europe to 1960’s New York, the Connecticut-based mother of four famously hid her first attempts at fiction from public view on her company laptop – later honing her skills “as an at-home producer of small persons.”
On Thursday, the author whose works have been translated into a dozen languages returns to the greater Red Bank Green (where she put in a signing session at Fair Haven’s River Road Books several seasons back), as special guest for the annual Gala Scholarship Luncheon of the AAUW NJ Northern Monmouth County Branch – the state’s largest local chapter of the nationwide nonprofit American Association of University Women.
The season’s premier culinary showcase returns Thursday as the third annual Holiday Flavour showcase commandeers the Molly Pitcher Inn. (Photo by Jim Willis)
It’s described as “a grassroots culinary campaign driven by the borough’s top chefs, restaurateurs and proprietors,”and when the Red Bank Flavour collective hosts the Holiday Flavour event this Thursday, it will honor the great works of anther borough-based institution that’s grown from the grassroots up.
Taking place from 6:30 to 9:30 pm at the Molly Pitcher Inn, the third annual event offers up an array of food and drink from over 20 Red Bank-based restaurants, eateries and purveyors — with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Parker Family Health Center, the community health care facility established 14 years ago in an empty Shrewsbury parking lot with three patients and a donated trailer. Operating now from its own dedicated facility (and through the efforts of countless volunteers and donations), the PFHC serves more than 8,600 Monmouth County residents who lack health insurance or means to pay for healthcare services.
The Big Event in small plates returns to Red Bank on December 4, as the third annual Holiday Flavour showcase commandeers the Molly Pitcher Inn. (Photo by Jim Willis)
Press release from Red Bank Flavour
Red Bank Flavour, a grassroots culinary campaign driven by the borough’s top chefs, restaurateurs and proprietors, will tempt foodies to flirt with their senses this holiday season at the third annual Holiday Flavour event.
Slated for December 4, 2014 at The Molly Pitcher Inn, Holiday Flavour will invite guests to sip and sample an array of libations (from Ketel One, Johnny Walker, Baileys, and Rook) and cuisine from more than twenty of Red Bank’s most popular restaurants and eateries. In addition to the tasting, the charitable evening will include live music, a Santa’s grab bag featuring donations from Red Bank retailers, a tree lighting and a fabulous winter wonderland outside on the hotel’s beautiful waterfront promenade.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Parker Family Health Center, a health care facility where Monmouth County residents who do not have medical insurance or ability to pay for medical care can be treated.