Lucille’s Country Cooking: Where Locals Come for Down-Home Cooking

STYLE

Rustic café where locals catch up to talk hunting and fishing or order a pie for an upcoming holiday. Very affordable with friendly service, it features eight tables and a wraparound lunch counter. When weather allows, there are ten tables under a tent, eight picnic tables out front, and three tables by a small lake out back.

THE SCOOP 

Lucille Bates-Wickward opened the café in 1975. She was loved by folks in the Pine Barrens and those willing to get off the highways to Long Beach Island or Atlantic City. She died in 2016, but her spirit lives on in the food and conversation today.

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THE MENU 

Hearty breakfasts and lunches; pies baked daily. All breakfast basics, from 12 types of omelets to Texas French toast to thick, fluffy pancakes and housemade creamed chipped beef. Biscuits are made in-house and served grilled (very down home.) Lunch ranges from burgers, wraps, cheese steaks (beef or chicken) and hot sandwiches (including a reuben) to open-faced turkey or roast beef, eggplant parm, fried cod and the Sidney Sandwich (grilled provolone on rye with fried onions and tomatoes). For a throwback, try Lucille’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

HEADS UP 

When your server asks if you want fried onions in your home fries, answer “Yes!” No credit cards. Bring cash or check (they also have Venmo and an ATM.)