Shore War

Whose Shore Is It Anyway?

A band of locals fed up with the crass, contemptuous brand of tourist they call Bennys fights for elbow room—and a little respect.

Peter Perea wasn’t thinking about turning resentment into a grassroots movement that hot July day in 2004. All he was trying to do was drive with his buddies to their favorite daytime hangout and order his customary pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich.

Perea, then eighteen, and his friends—high school classmates Justin Danner, Dane Voeltz, and Patrick Guaschino—climbed into his black 2000 Mercury Marquis, lowered the windows, and blasted Bon Jovi on the stereo. The boys headed for Mariner’s Cove, a popular restaurant in Brielle, where the menu offers more than 200 kinds of omelets and classic diner fare.

The only problem was that the Grand Marquis wasn’t moving. For most of the year, the eight-mile drive from Brick, where most of the group lived, to the Cove took twenty minutes. On this typical summer day, however, Route 35 had become a parking lot, clogged with cars with New Jersey and New York plates.

By Emily Brady