If you attended Springsteen concerts in four different decades, bar-hopped Hoboken in the ’80s, and frittered away dissolute weekends in tacky Shore rentals many moons ago, nowadays your world may be college tuition, mortgage payments, and ironing the volatility out of your IRA.
But there is still a Shore for you: stylish lodgings, chic shopping, fine dining, invigorating activities. You’ll find it in Cape May and on Long Beach Island.
Cape May is, of course, famous for its Victorian inns with their cupolas and spires, lacy woodwork painted in lively pastels, and beautifully maintained flower gardens. “Choose a B&B managed by the owners,” says Tom Carroll, a local resident and business and civic leader, who with his wife, Sue, helped launch the Victorian restoration in the 1970s with their Mainstay Inn.
“Doug and Anna Marie McMain at the Queen Victoria [102 Ocean St, 609-884-8702, queenvictoria.com] are first-class, hands-on innkeepers,” says Carroll. “They are there to receive you and introduce some of the people around you having breakfast, and they’ll tell you about what you might want to see in town.”
Another favorite of his is the Fairthorne (111 Ocean St, 609-884-8791, fairthorne.com), run by owners Ed and Diane Hutchinson. “I really love the way they kept the place historic but contemporarily comfortable—the lighting, the beds, the amenities.”
All that gingerbread, lace, and Victoriana, sharpened by the perfume of salt air, can revive a romance. But if you have teenagers in tow, it’s not necessarily practical since the B&Bs average $250 per
night during the summer season. Quiet Cape May Point, the southernmost town in the state, two miles west on Sunset Boulevard, has more spacious and modern rental cottages at what passes for reasonable prices these days. Expect to pay $2,000 to $3,000 a week for a three-bedroom a block or two from the beach—and just five minutes by car from one of New Jersey’s best restaurant scenes in the City of Cape May. Check out capemayrealty.com for information on cottages. In last year’s New Jersey Monthly “Readers’ & Critics’ Choice” poll, 26 awards went to Cape May restaurants and eateries. When it reopened after a multi-million dollar renovation in 2002, the 1879 Congress Hall Hotel (251 Beach Avenue, 609-884-8421, congresshall.com) and its casual American-fare Blue Pig Tavern won kudos. The colonnaded resort has a sprawling front lawn leading to Beach Avenue and the ocean. The basement bar and jazz club, known as the Boiler Room, swings late into the night.
Freda’s Café (210 Ocean Street, 609-884-7887, tanagerwebdesign.com/Fredas/Fredas.htm), on the edge of the Washington Street Mall, is laid back despite its white tablecloths. It serves upscale deli for lunch, pastas and grilled boneless chicken breast with tarragon for dinner. It has the atmosphere of a neighborhood café in Manhattan. Some call it cozy, others will say it’s crowded.
For the zenith of Cape May dining, Carroll recommends “some of the old favorites that are always first class,” including the elegant Washington Inn (801 Washington Street, 609-884-5697, washingtoninn.com), set in an 1840 plantation home, and 410 Bank Street (609-884-2127, capemayrestaurantguide.com), serving inventive French-Caribbean-Cajun food. Traditional, exquisitely prepared French cuisine is the raison d’ être of La Verandah (107 Grant Street, 609-884-5868, hotelalcott.com/laverandah), comparatively undiscovered because it’s secluded within the Hotel Alcott, located in the historic district.
Washington Street Mall (washingtonstreetmall.com), closed to cars since 1971, is getting a facelift this summer: resurfaced brick walkways, renovated lighting and landscaping, and two new fountains. Stores are family owned, the crowd more mature than in, say, Belmar. Fashionistas will not find super-chic boutiques. But there are plenty of gift shops, jewelers, and galleries featuring the work of local nature artists, such as the Washington Commons Gallery (315 Ocean Street, 609-884-1880) and Cape May on Canvas (410 Washington Street, 609-884-8716, resortsoncanvas.com), which carries an array of shore-inspired paintings.
Those artists have many feathered friends to paint and photograph. “Going to Cape May and not birding is like going to Arizona and not seeing the Grand Canyon,” says Pete Dunne, head of the New Jersey Audubon Society’s Cape May Bird Observatory (609-884-2736, birdcapemay.org) and for thirty years a tireless advocate for birds and bird-watchers. Cape May’s location at the southern tip of a peninsula is a magnet for birds and birders. For many the thrill is in the chase, in developing the skills to identify different species and adding as many as possible to a lifetime list. The popular hawk-watch platform is not staffed until September, but visitors can join CMBO naturalists on walks to places like the Beanery woodlands or the Meadows, freshwater wetlands. Expect to see between 30 and 60 species, Dunn says, including hawks, plus birds that may flit through your yard—but now you will be on their turf instead of vice versa. “You are going to really see them for the first time,” Dunne promises. On Mondays, Dunne himself leads the walks. It’s worth going for his infectious enthusiasm.
If you think your adolescent offspring will resist the refined pleasures of birding, fine dining, and Victoriana, consider vacationing on Long Beach Island. This eighteen-mile-long barrier island has twenty miles of bayside as well as 20 miles of ocean beaches. That provides a lot of placid water in which Dad and lad can bond over fishing, waterskiing, or sailing (more than two dozen watercraft rentals are listed at longbeachisland.com). Stylish moms and daughters will find common interest in Beach Haven’s chic designer shops, such as Tula (8th & Bay avenues, 609-492-2099, lbitv.com/tula).
One thing all generations can rally around is chocolate. In Beach Haven, duck into the Chocolate Bar (218 Centre Street, 609-492-2577, chocolatebarnyc.com) for hip confections like CBGBs candy bars. For grown-up dinner entertainment, Surflight Theater (Engleside and Beach avenues, 609-492-9477, surflight.org) will stage The Producers and Chicago plus a Judy Collins concert.
Broadway shows and ’60s folksingers may not keep teens from fidgeting, but Fantasy Island Amusement Park (North Bay Avenue and 7th Street, 609-492-4000, fantasyislandpark.com) will. Parents often hover discreetly, so the edginess the raging-hormone set brings to places like Seaside Heights or Wildwood is more restrained. To keep them from climbing the walls, steer teens to the cheap eats, henna-tattoo stands, and T-shirt shops of Bay Village (North Bay Ave and 9th Street, 609-492-2800 bayvillagelbi.com). On Sunday and Tuesday evenings you can steer your offspring to teen nights at the Ketch Restaurant & Bar (2nd Street and Dock Road, 609-492-3000). No alcohol, loud Deejay.
Much quieter is LBI’s upscale northern end: Harvey Cedars, Loveladies and Barnegat Light. One big attraction is the contemporary American cuisine at Plantation (7908 Long Beach Boulevard, Harvey Cedars, 609-494-8191, plantationrestaurant.com). Nearby is the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences (120 Long Beach Boulevard, Loveladies, 609-494-1241, lbifoundation.org), which runs art exhibits and rainy-day workshops on ceramics, cooking, painting, and fitness.
For an idiosyncratic twist in an LBI summer rental, look in Loveladies. This section of Long Beach Township, rebuilt after a hurricane in 1962, is set apart by its extravagant modern architecture—seaside mansions that look like passenger liners, and turreted sand castles with wrap-around porches. A comparatively plain three-bedroom on the ocean side of Long Beach Boulevard, but set back two houses from the sea, can go for $4,000 a week in July; expect to pay in the low five figures for one of the waterfront manors.
Hankering for a long weekend not too far south? Long Branch is emerging from decades of doldrums. The downtown has Brazilian and Mexican restaurants that cater to the neighborhood, not tourists. On the beach, the revival is anchored by Pier Village condos (piervillage.com), a mixed-use development that includes two dozen upscale boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. A favorite is Avenue (23 Ocean Avenue, 732-759-2900, leclubavenue.com), featuring spectacular ocean views and a three-star New Jersey Monthly rating for food, ambience, and service.
You can stay down the street at Ocean Place Resort (One Ocean Boulevard, 800-411-6493, oceanplaceresort.com), the kind of luxury high-rise Shore hotel rare outside Atlantic City. The Couples’ Getaway package includes an ocean-view room, free champagne, and massages for two. Post-massage, catch a show at the New Jersey Repertory Company (Lumia Theater, 179 Broadway, 732-229-3166, njrep.org). Half a dozen oceanfront or downtown eateries offer dinner/theater packages through the Repertory’s website.