Quick Bite

The Spot Pizza Grill

The Spot Pizza Grill
1506 Richmond Avenue
Point Pleasant Beach
732-701-8303; spotpizzagrill.com

Hours: Sun–Thurs, 11 am–midnight; Fri and Sat, 11 am to 1 am.

Price: $$

Style: Sports bar meets neighborhood café. Add diner vibe, and you have the Spot. Families as well as singles pack themselves in for lunch or dinner fare a leap above the bar-food norm.

Don’t Miss: Popcorn chicken ($8.99), fried ravioli ($5.99) and blackened tuna bites ($9.99) are pass-around musts. The 12- and 16-inch thin-crust pizzas are awesome and range from plain cheese ($12.99) to Margherita ($14.99) to the too-much-ain’t-enough taco pizza ($16.99) with spicy ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, sour cream and salsa. Black Angus burgers are grilled rather than griddled. The Black ’n’ Blue ($8.99) mates a Cajun-spiced patty with crumbled blue cheese. For funky fun, try pigskin pretzels ($7.49)—two pretzel buns stuffed with grilled pork roll and American cheese. Pastas—like penne alla vodka ($9.99; $12.49 with grilled chicken or skewered shrimp)—come in brimming bowls sure to yield leftovers. Everything on the predictable (but reliable) kids’ menu costs $5.99 or less. Several desserts are worth saving room for, especially bananas Foster bites ($4.99) with vanilla ice cream.

Heads Up:
Following the success of the original Spot (1426 Lakewood Rd, Toms River, 732-240-2215), Point Pleasant Beach opened a few years ago and has been packed ever since. Its stretch of Richmond Avenue oddly straddles Route 35 North and Route 35 South. The one-way streets make getting into the Spot’s parking lot a challenge.

The Scoop: The Spot presents live music many nights, including some on game nights. In addition to big flat-screens around the bar, most of the booths feature free individual televisions with lots of channels, not just sports.

What are Quick Bites? Short takes on casual, affordable dining.