RUMSON PARADE LOSES ‘FEARLESS LEADER’

The organizers of the Rumson St. Patrick’s Day Parade have announced that this year’s third annual march will honor the memory of Michael Larkin, president of the parade’s Board of Trustees and an instrumental figure in the founding of the community event, scheduled to proceed on Sunday, March 8.

A resident of Sea Bright, and President of Michael J. Larkin Associates, a global fundraising and event consulting company, Larkin passed away in late December, while preparations were being made for the first in a round of fundraiser events keyed to this year’s parade — a schedule that kicks off on January 17 with a now-traditional party at Murphy’s Tavern in Rumson.

A co-founder of the the Sandy Hook Foundation and producer of the first three New Jersey Marathons, Larkin coordinated events for national non-profit organizations in the United States, the UK and Bermuda. In addition to the late parade president, the 2015 event will honor a pair of local charities — Jason’s Dreams for Kids, an organization that fulfills the wishes of children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses through a variety of fundraising events, and Lincroft-based Special People United to Ride (SPUR), a program that brings both riding skills and life skills to young people through therapeutic equestrian sessions with PATH Certified instructors.

January 7, 2015 - 6:00 am | Comments ()

PIEHOLE: BRINGING WARMTH TO A COLD WEEK

Good Karma Cafe’s Gail Doherty transports PieHole readers to the south of France. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)

redbankgreen’s PieHole is all about local food and drink. If you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet or followed us on Twitter, you may have missed some of these recent stories . . .

Hot Chocolate receipts for young and old from d’jeet?, David Burke’s Fromagerie and Jamian’s Food and Drink.
An Italian What’s for Lunch that exists in Sea Bright but not Italy.

January 24, 2014 - 4:27 pm | Comments ()

WEEKEND: ARTY CHAIRS, ST. PAT, FLYING ELVI

Above: Public radio powerhouse Ira Glass brings his broadcast mojo to the stage of the Count Basie while, below, Elvis is back in the building, in the person (or persons) of Scot Bruce and Mike Albert.

Friday, January 17:

RED BANK: “Red Bank’s a beautiful town,” the professional Elvis Presley tribute artist Scot Bruce told us a few years back. “The King is alive and well around there.”

Never more so than January, when Scot teams up with fellow Presley-digitator Mike Albert for an Elvis Birthday Bash that comes to the Count Basie Theatre in its ninth annual edition at 8 pm. It’s a Kingly keynote to a weekend of sights, song, story and socializing that follows the tried-and-true template of “Elvi” events past. Bruce opens the show with a hip-shaking evocation of the early-days Elvis;, the stylistic savant who changed the course of mighty rivers way more than Superman ever did. He’s followed on the bill by Albert’s spot-on channeling of 1970s Elvis — he of the rhinestoned jumpsuits, championship belts, oversized shades and jet-black helmet of lacquered hair. Take it here for tickets ($20 – $40) — and flip the record over for more TCB action this weekend.

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January 17, 2014 - 8:08 am | Comments ()

DAWKINS IN AS RUMSON GRAND MARSHAL

From press materials furnished by Belfer Communications

In an announcement made on Monday morning, the organizers of the 2014 Rumson St. Patricks Day Parade confirmed that Brigadier General Peter M. Dawkins, USA (Ret.) will be serving as Grand Marshal for the second annual event, scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, March 9.

It’s a new feather in the cap of the longtime Rumson resident — a Heisman Trophy winner, decorated military commander, Citigroup vice chairman, and 1988 Republican candidate for one of the Garden State’s U.S. Senate seats. It’s also a not-insignificant honor in a career that’s seen the 1959 West Point grad and Rhodes Scholar serve with distinction on college gridirons and foreign battlefields; banking industry boardrooms and the worlds of academia, public policy and philanthropy.

Dawkins will be among the luminaries in attendance — joining Rumson Mayor John Ekdahl and parade MC JoAnn Pileggi of FOX 5 and My 9 News — during a press conference luncheon slated for January 17 at local landmark Murphy’s Tavern. The fabled watering hole and former speakeasy will also be the setting for the first of several scheduled fundraiser events, an afternoon of music, food and socializing that happens on Saturday, January 18.

January 7, 2014 - 7:00 am | Comments ()

PIEHOLE: LEMONS, TUNA, SPICE AND WHISKEY

Already rocking the era-appropriate suspenders, Robb McMahon, with partner Heather Vena, is taking Murphy’s Tavern back in time. (Photo by Jim Willis. Click to enlarge)

In case you missed it on redbankgreen‘s PieHole food page…

• Murphy’s Tavern in Rumson is returning to its speakeasy roots, so to speak… easy.

• Howard Bernstein’s Spice & Tea Exchange expects to open in Red Bank late next week. Meantime, he’s sharing slightly-used lemons with the Cheese Cave next door.

• What’s For Lunch? How about a tuna sub from Elsie’s in Red Bank?

Follow the links to the stories, and check out PieHole’s Facebook page or follow its Twitter feed @RedBankPieHole for up-to-the-minute postings.

December 6, 2013 - 11:08 am | Comments ()

GREEN ON GREEN

From oceanfront Sea Bright to suburban Rumson to the bustling hub of downtown Red Bank, everyone seemed to be feeling Irish Sunday Saint Patrick’s Day.

Guinness, Bailey’s and Jameson lined bar tops. Murphy’s Tavern in Rumson served fresh Irish soda bread as munchies. Medicated Pete McHeffey, dressed in full leprechaun regalia, kept the tentful of revelers at the Dublin House in Red Bank laughing. And one old soul at Woody’s Ocean Grille in Sea Bright claimed that though he wasn’t from Ireland, he’d lived his entire life as though he were.

It was a great day to be Irish or to live for a few hours as though you were.

(Photos by Wil Fulton. Click the embiggen symbol to enlarge.)

March 18, 2013 - 8:36 am | Comments ()

RUMSON’S PABST BLUE POET

Rumson native Britt Melewski will be published in Liebamour magazine’s spring edition. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

A few days before Thanksgiving, Britt Melewski walked down to his favorite bar, Murphy’s Tavern in Rumson, and ordered his drink of choice, a Pabst Blue Ribbon in a can. It was a celebratory libation, he said, for writing his best work to date.

The thickest part of March
Will be a Monday drawn in snow

The simplicity of the poem, and its possibilities, is exactly what Melewski has learned in his years developing as a poet.

“There’s a lot more to poetry than getting drunk and writing something down,” Melewski said.

Those words, sneering and satirical, have something of a Dylan Thomas quality to them, and Melewski, after a retreat to the West Coast to study the art of verse, is back in Rumson and working his way toward what he hopes will be a career as a published poet.

January 14, 2011 - 7:16 am | Comments ()

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