Jersey Living Archives | New Jersey Monthly: Recent Episodes
Jersey Living Archives | New Jersey Monthly
Adam Sandler, who has stayed in the Garden State on and off over the last couple of years while shooting various film projects, is living in Jersey yet again while working on his latest movie, Grown Ups 3, sources exclusively tell New Jersey Monthly.
We’re told that Sandler, 59, is living in Short Hills with his family while working on the Netflix film, co-starring Sandler pals like Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James and Rob Schneider.
Also living in North Jersey during filming are Salma Hayek Pinault and Maya Rudolph, who’s here with her husband, the director Paul Thomas Anderson, and their kids.
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The 50 Best Restaurants in New JerseyWe hear that director Kyle Newacheck—who also directed Sandler in last year’s Happy Gilmore 2—is living in Montclair during the shoot. He is a creator of the Comedy Central show Workaholics, which he also co-starred in, and is a producer and director of the comedy horror series What We Do in the Shadows.
Sandler has been seen filming around downtown Madison, showing his signature nice-guy charm by taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. The production also shot scenes at the Madison Hotel in Morristown, and cast members were seen dining at popular pizzeria Coniglio’s Old Fashioned in downtown Morristown.
The movie has been filming in New Jersey this month and will continue through September.
The premise of the third Grown Ups flick centers on the friends’ kids, who are now fully grown adults. With their children grown up, the group of lifelong friends finally has the freedom to go on one major, unbothered road trip and adventure together.
Netflix has not yet announced an official premiere date.
Related Stories * 1 New Jersey’s Booming Film Industry Is Boosting Local Businesses * 2 New Jersey Is Ushering in a Golden Age of Movies * 3 How My Ridgewood Home Almost Starred in an Adam Sandler Movie
Last year, Sandler stayed in Montclair while in Jersey to film the Netflix comedy Don’t Say Good Luck, starring his daughter Sunny Sandler. He was also in North Jersey in 2024 while shooting the Happy Gilmore sequel, which filmed at various Jersey golf courses and facilities, including Montclair Golf Club, Closter Golf Center, Fiddler’s Elbow country club in Bedminster, Essex Golf Center in Roseland, Rockleigh Golf Course, and Farmview Golf Center in Hackettstown. During his off time, Sandler checked out local spots like Goldberg’s World Famous Deli & Bagels in Millburn, the French restaurant Faubourg in Montclair and the coffee shop Lokl Café in Morristown.
“We were very excited about it. It was a nice surprise,” Lokl owner Panos Stogioglou told us at the time. “He was super friendly and was there for a long time, taking pictures with all the staff.”
The post Adam Sandler Is Living in Short Hills While Filming Grown Ups 3 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
His name conjures fragrant street markets, transcendent hole-in-the-wall joints and enchanting dispatches from savory food travelogues. Each scene narrated, as always, with an unmistakable zest for devouring life’s pleasures.
But Anthony Bourdain didn’t spring into the world a fully formed gourmand. At 19, he was an aspiring writer from New Jersey who hadn’t yet worked in a kitchen. And if you asked him, he had a lot of living to do. “I was —to be frank—a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, and badly in need of a good ass-kicking,” Bourdain would write 25 years later. He didn’t become a household name until his late 40s.
At 19, Dominic Sessa—who plays Bourdain in the new biopic Tony—was already on the brink of stardom. By 21, he was winning awards for his breakout role opposite Paul Giamatti and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (2023). Sessa’s charming performance as a student forced to spend Christmas break with his ornery teacher became his ticket to a flourishing career as an actor. But five movies later, he feels more like a young Bourdain than a polished celebrity.
Shutterstock/Kathy Hutchins“I’m also in that stage of my life where I’m trying to become a better version of myself,” says Sessa, 23. “It’s challenging and it’s painful.”
The New Jersey actor is the star of Tony, a portrait of Anthony Bourdain—artist of food and language—as a young man.
The A24 film from director Matt Johnson opens August 7 in New York and August 21 nationwide. It’s a coming-of-age story set over the course of summer 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the seaside destination at the top of Cape Cod. Sessa’s performance as a stubborn, pretentious and dejected young Bourdain illustrates how his destructive flailing served as an important period of self-discovery.
“I think Matt really recognized that in me and recognized that in himself when he was my age,” Sessa tells New Jersey Monthly. “And it was something that he wanted for me, not only to perform in the movie, but also walk out of the experience learning about myself and being a better person.”
Like everyone else, Johnson first took notice of Sessa’s potent screen presence in The Holdovers, another 1970s story. Of course, it helps that the rangy actor has most of Bourdain’s height, while his curly hair easily plays the kind of mane Tony was working with in the ’70s.
Dominic Sessa and chef Eric Ripert behind the scenes of TonyA24/Bob GruenThe movie pulls from Bourdain’s own recollections of his youth, as told in Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Published in 2000, the bestselling book propelled his writing and eventual TV career after he wrote the 1999 warts-and-all restaurant kitchen essay Don’t Eat Before Reading This for The New Yorker. Bourdain, former executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York, would go on to host shows on Food Network, the Travel Channel and CNN, including Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. These travel series made him a face, voice and ambassador for global food exploration and cultural appreciation before his death by suicide in 2018.
Reading Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential quote about his “miserable, narcissistic” youth hit home for Sessa, who was born in Cherry Hill and grew up in Egg Harbor Township and Ocean City.
“All of those aspects are so alive in all of young people, especially young men, I think, and amplifying that part of yourself is really difficult, and it’s like a voluntary hardship that I chose,” he says of his experience filming the movie. “But then, coming out of it, I feel like I have a better sense of self. I’m more self-aware.”
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The 50 Best Restaurants in New JerseyTony starts with Bourdain living a suburban New Jersey life with his parents and brother in Leonia (look for Montclair’s own Dagmara Domińczyk as his mother, Gladys, a future New York Times copy editor who had a hand in getting Bourdain’s essay to The New Yorker). The Dwight-Englewood School graduate and Vassar College student is frustrated by a setback in his young writing life. So he leaves to follow his crush Nancy Putkoski—his high school sweetheart and future wife, played by Emilia Jones—to sunny Cape Cod. Tony, rejected from a writing fellowship program, lies to Nancy, telling her he just happens to be there for the fellowship. The lies spiral from there.
Decades later, people appreciate the world traveler precisely because of his forthrightness. If you wanted someone to mince words, it wasn’t Anthony Bourdain.
“His writing style generally was just very honest, and you felt like this person was always telling the truth and is allergic to bullshit,” Sessa says. “It’s also very self-deprecating. And I think people gravitate towards people like that who are able to reflect very honestly on the negative aspects of their life and reveal those sides of themselves.”
Jersey’s World ExplorerBourdain’s signature voiceovers — lovingly rendered, intimate reflections on places, food and people—drew fans from here to Madagascar. The main attraction wasn’t just the food. It was spending an hour seeing the world through a Bourdain filter—curious, wry and somewhat skeptical, but always incisive and open to learning something new.
“The story of his life is inspiring for anyone,” Sessa says. “It gives people a sense of hope. You can feel like your life is predetermined, and things are kind of set out for you, and time feels really short, but he’s a story of a man who, in the middle of his life, became one of the most iconic figures to exist, like a prophet almost.”
The years since Bourdain’s death, in 2018 at age 61, have seen the release of a documentary about him and the publication of two Bourdain biographies. His passing brought his lifelong tangles with depression into focus. Sessa and Johnson, 40, approached Tony with a reverence for Bourdain, but also a willingness to plug their own experiences into his story. Johnson wrote the script while living in Provincetown.
Part of this meld involved Sessa bringing his own Jerseyness to young Tony. When we meet Bourdain, he’s gone on vacation to France with his family (his dad’s side is French), but his extensive travels wouldn’t come until later.
Sessa (right) with director Matt Johnson on the set of TonyA24/Seacia Pavao“I think people in New Jersey are, like, always trying to get out of New Jersey,” Sessa says. “There’s this level of ambition. The people around me and people I grew up with, it’s like they want to see the world. They want to adventure and do something worthwhile. And then ultimately, you get to a stage where you wanna go back,” he says with a slight chuckle. “I think that’s consistent for a lot of people from New Jersey … Being able to go to Philadelphia at a young age and go to New York City at a young age really encouraged me to explore and be exposed to things that were exciting.”
Bourdain’s sense of wonder for every corner of the globe extended to an appraisal of his own Jersey food memories. After his death, the state remembered him with an Anthony Bourdain Food Trail. The route traced his TV steps in the Garden State, from hot dogs at Hiram’s Roadstand in Fort Lee to the seafood tower at Dock’s Oyster House in Atlantic City.
“We have some of the best food, like, low key,” Sessa says. “I remember growing up, I would go to Tony’s Baltimore Grill in Atlantic City, which is a place that Bourdain would often go, and his name was always on the sign, you know, like he was there. It’s interesting, I’ve never met him, I’ve never really cared to learn about him until years after he passed away, and yet there’s like this weird connection that’s been there my whole life that I never really thought about, even just in a restaurant that I really liked going to growing up.”
The Fork in the RoadIn Tony, a young Bourdain only finds his way when he’s physically thrown out of a bar.
The chef-owner of a no-frills local seafood place, played by Antonio Banderas, scoops the reedy teen up and deposits him on his hammock. Bourdain, awakened by a bucket of cold water, goes from working off his bar tab by washing dishes to learning the discipline of food prep. What he absorbs in the kitchen from Chef (the character is otherwise unnamed) and the kitchen staff refocuses his passions.
Young Tony’s dreams of writing a bildungsroman and finding success as an author make way for his own real-life coming-of-age story. He leaves Vassar and pursues studies at the Culinary Institute of America. The redirection would lead Bourdain to the kind of fame that would someday land him at a table in Vietnam, eating noodles and drinking beer with then-sitting President Barack Obama.
Jersey nurtured Bourdain, but Provincetown became his crossroads, the place where he found a new path through the people he met and worked with, making food and living within the rhythms of the Cape.
“Being exposed to something like that definitely planted the seed for him to want to connect with people for the rest of his life,” Sessa says. “The movie takes place over one summer, but he worked there for several summers. All the people that remember him still talk about him to this day because he was there working a job in the kitchen. At a young age, that was how he connected with people, was through food, so I think whether or not he was conscious of that, it was probably a part of why he felt compelled to continue doing it.”
I think people in New Jersey are, like, always trying to get out of New Jersey….And then ultimately, you get to a stage where you wanna go back.
Dominic Sessa
Sessa’s own rise to stardom also involved a fair bit of redirection. As with Bourdain, it happened in New England. Sessa, a former hockey player, applied to Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, in part for its competitive hockey program. An injury set the stage for Sessa’s detour to acting and theater after he broke his femur in a skateboarding accident. Needing a new extracurricular activity, he auditioned for the school’s fall play (Antigone). Sessa was in his senior year at Deerfield when Alexander Payne chose him to play boarding school student Angus Tully in The Holdovers, which filmed at his school and held auditions there. When the young actor attended the Oscars with his co-stars in 2024, he was on leave from his sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama in Pittsburgh.
“I guess I would’ve graduated by now. Yeah, all of my friends are graduating, so it’s too late,” Sessa says with a laugh.
He may not have a degree, but he’s become one of the most sought-after young actors in Hollywood. Instead of returning to college, he stayed booked and busy. Last year, Sessa starred in the box office success Now You See Me: Now You Don’t as one of several young magicians to join the Lionsgate franchise. He also played Michelle Pfeiffer’s son in the Amazon holiday movie Oh. What. Fun. and shared the screen with Rose Byrne as an underdog lawyer in the indie film Tow before having his Bourdain moment.
The actor first met with Johnson more than two years ago.
“I’ve never had a movie be a part of my life as long as this one has,” Sessa says. “Everything else I’ve done, it’s like I auditioned for it, and then in a month or so, went out, did the movie, but this was really kind of building something with a partner.”
Part of that process meant filming in Bourdain and Putkoski’s Provincetown haunts and working with Tony’s real-life friend, the French chef Eric Ripert, who appears in the movie. Sessa started by getting a taste of the work Bourdain left behind.
It wasn’t until after Bourdain’s death that Sessa noticed peers diving into his many travels.
“That’s when you started seeing a lot of young people talking about him on social media and talking about his writing and really getting into his shows and stuff,” he says. “It’s kind of the tragic irony of something like that, where something really tragic happened and then as a result of that, he ended up influencing an entirely new generation.”
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Whether you are a casual stroller, a die-hard angler or a roller-coaster thrill-seeker, the defining anchors of New Jersey’s coastline are the structures that stretch bravely out over the Atlantic Ocean and the southern Bayshore of the New York harbor. The story of the Jersey Shore is permanently written upon these planks, which have been famously built, leveled by devastating hurricanes and fires, rebuilt and continuously planned anew for future generations.
From exclusive private angling sanctuaries to bustling amusement meccas and even highly restricted federal installations, New Jersey’s piers shape our waterfront identity. Here’s your guide to every pier that juts out over the sand toward the water.
Bayshore PiersMost Patriotic Pier Photo: R.C. StaabFuture astronauts looking down at Earth will likely spot the pier of NWS (Naval Weapons Station) Earle’s waterfront complex right alongside the Great Wall of China—a three-pronged “finger” pier, whose trestle stretches an incredible 2.9 miles into the Raritan Bay from Leonardo. Not only is this one of the longest finger piers in the world, but it’s wide enough for both trains and motor vehicles to deliver supplies to load on to ships that resupply the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. Although NWS pier typically is strictly look-but-don’t-touch, there is an exception for active duty, reserve and retired military personnel plus current and former employees and contractors with NWS Earle. Call NWS Earle MWR at 732-866-2448 to begin the application process.
Fishiest Pier Undoubtedly the Keansburg Fishing Pier.If you want to know what’s biting before you even pack your tackle box, just dial Keansburg Pier’s daily recorded phone message or check their fishing reports on their Facebook page (but not their out-of-date website). This iconic 2,000-foot-long wooden landmark serves as the ultimate barometer for Raritan Bay angling, proving that a great pier is as much about the community on the planks as the fish in the water. A section of the pier collapsed from the ice this past winter, but most of the pier is still open every day.
Three other piers jut into the bay including the Keyport Fishing Pier along the city’s waterfront park, a local hub for community crabbing and spectacular views of the Raritan Bay and New York City. Further east, fish from or swim under the pier at Bayshore Waterfront Park in Port Monmouth at a beach that includes restrooms, free parking and free beach access. Finally, there’s the fishing pier at the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor, tucked away at the far eastern side of the municipal harbor along the trail to Highlands.
Sandy Hook to BelmarMost Photogenic Pier Photo: R.C. StaabKnown up and down the coast for its length and remarkably tall pilings, the pier owned and operated by the Belmar Fishing Club creates a striking architectural silhouette whether viewed from the horizon or walking beneath it. But don’t ask to walk out on the pier. The members of the Belmar Fishing Club own and manage the Club House at the foot of the pier and remain steadfast in keeping it private. Whether you read it on their website or call them, you get the same message, “Unfortunately, we are not accepting new members or additions to the waiting list at this time.”
The Second-Most Musical Pier Photo: R.C. StaabIt was once the greatest music pier, perhaps in the world. Some of greatest acts of the past 80 years played at the Paramount Theatre or Convention Hall on the pier at Asbury Park, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Ike and Tina Turner, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and, of course, Bruce Springsteen. Due to long‑running structural and safety problems, the Paramount Theatre and the main Convention Hall auditorium are closed with no firm reopening date. The Grand Arcade, connecting the building and the promenades at each side of Convention Hall, houses a dozen shops and bars, but if you’re looking for live music, head across the street to the Stone Pony, the Stone Pony Summer Stage or the Wonder Bar.
Next to Asbury, the somewhat controversial cross-shaped pier in Ocean Grove suffered severe structural issues late last year and remains closed while the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association determines next steps. Anticipation is building in Long Branch, where in 1879, the first fishing pier along the Atlantic Ocean opened. A new Long Branch Pier is under construction and targeted to welcome strollers and anglers alike in 2027.
Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside HeightsThe Booziest PierPhoto: R.C. StaabWhile Point Pleasant Beach’s boardwalk is decidedly kid-friendly, adults flock to the pier to party. Fans of MTV’s Jersey Shore and their ilk converge on Jenks (Jenkinson’s Club) or its next-door neighbor, Martell’s Tiki Bar. Both legendary beach clubs extend directly off the boardwalk over the sand. With live music and outdoor spaces, crowds soak in the ocean breeze late into the night.
The Comeback PierPhoto: R.C. StaabSeaside Heights’ legendary Casino Pier has storm‑story cred to match its thrills, thanks to The Star Jet Coaster that famously ended up in the ocean after Superstorm Sandy demolished part of the pier in 2012. Today this reborn, ride‑packed pier features new coasters, a Ferris wheel and old‑school games of chance, keeping the classic, loud‑and‑salty American boardwalk vibe very much alive. There is no admission to the pier, but you pay for rides individually.
Atlantic City & Absecon IslandMost World-Famous PierPhoto: R.C. StaabFrom diving horses to dazzling thrill rides, from vaudeville legends to a Broadway musical named after it, Steel Pier stands as Atlantic City’s undisputed heavyweight of entertainment along the world-famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. Stretching 1,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, this historic landmark today offers boardwalk rides, amusement games, food and drinks, and The Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel with incredible views of Absecon Island and nearby Brigantine.
Most Romantic Pier The Ventnor City Fishing Pier blends serious angling with quiet coastal charm. Stretching gracefully out from the boardwalk, the far end features a buys public fishing platform that requires paid admission. But locals know the true magic of the pier lies midway before the admission gate where benches invite couples, friends and solo strollers to linger. Here, people wander out to watch the sun rise over a usually tranquil ocean or relax at day’s end to enjoy the sea breezes.
The pier-centric Absecon Island serves up three more piers including two more in Atlantic City. The Central Pier Arcade and Speedway competes with the Steel Pier for the family entertainment business, especially with its go-kart track. Farther south, the old Million Dollar Pier continues to struggle with its identity. Most recently, ACX1 Studios had converted most of the large mall-like space into a production studio, but it is now in bankruptcy.
The pier of the Angler’s Club of Absecon Island in Margate is a members-only fishing pier and clubhouse jutting from a quiet residential stretch of beach, offering serious anglers room to cast, swap stories and keep gear far from the beach crowds. There is no direct public contact for the club, so prospective fishermen have to seek an existing member to be sponsored into this tight-knit community.
Ocean City to AvalonMost Musical Pier Photo: R.C. StaabSorry, Bruce Springsteen, but when it comes to musical piers, the Ocean City Music Pier is still going strong. This architectural jewel was built in 1928 as a concert hall and today plays host to a summer concert series, tribute bands, musical theater productions and orchestral performances featuring guest artists such as Lee Greenwood, The Righteous Brothers and Broadway’s Lea Salonga.
The Ocean City Fishing Club the oldest continuously operated fishing club in the nation, built a private, members-only pier at 14th Street and the Boardwalk in 1916. It’s distinct from the public Ocean City Fishing Pier on the bay side. The pier reaches roughly 635 feet out over the sand and water, with a clubhouse, deck, gear storage and bait facilities. For prospective members, they host open houses. This year they are 6-8 pm, July 30 and August 13.
Even farther south is the Avalon Fishing Pier is yet another private pier which does not actively promote membership or public access. Built in 1933, the pier is 900-foot long, having been extended 200 feet in 2016 to reach out farther into the ocean to allow year-round fishing.
The WildwoodsThe Most Amusing Pier(s)Photo: R.C. StaabTogether, Morey’s oceanfront piers (Surfside Pier, Morey’s Pier and Adventure Pier) in Wildwood deliver some of the best seaside amusements on the planet, a continuous run of rides and slides stretching out from the boardwalk above the sand. Under the Morey’s banner, you’ll find classic wooden and soaring steel coasters, a towering Ferris wheel that lights up the shoreline and two sprawling water parks where guests can plunge, float and race through a maze of slides. Adrenaline junkies and families alike will find something to love here, from heart-pounding drops to gentle spins with the ocean as their backdrop.
The Coolest PierSeaport Pier in North Wildwood trades roller coasters for resort vibes, anchoring the boardwalk with a sun-splashed pool, a lively stage and a sprawling bar scene. By day, its pool and cabanas feel like a beachside oasis; by night, live music and events turn the pier into a mini-festival with ocean views.
The Saddest PierOriginally built in 1919 by the private Wildwood Crest Fishing Club and acquired by the Borough of Wildwood Crest in 2006, the Wildwood Crest Fishing Pier (aka the Heather Road Fishing Pier) no longer lives up to its name. You can’t cast a line into the ocean from it anymore because decades of sand accretion have left the structure stranded on dry land. With Cape May County funding in place, the Borough plans to extend the deck in the next few years, so it once again sits above the ocean.
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Come buy with me …
A Hoboken brownstone where Frank Sinatra’s parents once lived—and which Ol’ Blue Eyes bought for them in the 1940s—is on the market for $3.95 million.
“Luxury renovations are common, but it’s exceptionally rare to find a gut-renovated condominium that respects the history of the home rather than erasing it,” says broker-associate Wes Page, of Brown Harris Stevens.
Located on Hudson Street, the 3,190-square-foot condo property features a 3-bedroom duplex plus a one-bedroom garden apartment, which can be used for anything from a home office to a rental unit. Each condo has its own washer and dryer and air conditioning/heating system.
The duplex features historic details like the nearly 12-foot ceilings on the parlor level, crown molding and original paneling, according to the listing.
The living room features 12-foot ceilings and some historic details.Photo: Courtesy of Brown Harris StevensThe kitchen is all 2026, with custom cabinetry, premium Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances and an oversized quartz waterfall island, plus an adjacent walk-in pantry for extra storage.
Three bedroom suites are located on the second floor of the duplex.
The kitchen features custom cabinetry, Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, storage and an oversized quartz waterfall island.Photo: Courtesy of Brown Harris StevensThe property also features a private backyard with plenty of room for furniture and entertaining.
“What makes this residence so special is that it preserves the character and architectural integrity of a historic Hoboken brownstone while seamlessly incorporating the level of design, craftsmanship, and modern conveniences today’s buyers expect,” says Page. “Add to that its provenance as the home Frank Sinatra purchased for his parents, and you’re offering not just a beautifully renovated residence, but a genuine piece of Hoboken history. Opportunities like this simply don’t come around very often.”
Sinatra, a native of Hoboken, quit school at 15 and started singing at local social clubs and church-basement dances. He later lived in Hasbrouck Heights with his first wife, Nancy, but bid the Garden State farewell for Hollywood when he began to make it big.
The private backyard Photo: Courtesy of Brown Harris StevensHe would return home, often though, to visit his parents, Marty and Dolly, at their 909 Hudson Street home. They reportedly lived there for about a decade.
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Daniel Radcliffe—Harry Potter himself—was in full effect at the Jersey Shore this week.
Not for vacation, but to work on his latest film, the Vietnam War-era thriller Trust the Man.
Radcliffe, 37, stars with Tony winner Jonathan Groff, 41, in the movie, which filmed in Seaside Park.
Production took place at the Charlroy Motel on Ocean Avenue near the boardwalk late Thursday night into early Friday morning.
Daniel Radcliffe is seen in full period garb in Seaside Park.Bobby BankBobby BankScenes for Trust the Man were shot at the Charloy Motel.Bobby Bank Bobby BankBobby BankNew Jersey stood in for Hawaii in the scenes with Radcliffe, who wore a period-appropriate, short-sleeved plaid shirt and slacks. The production also filmed on the beach.
Trust the Man, written and directed by Will Graham (the series A League of Their Own, Mozart in the Jungle and Daisy Jones & The Six), centers on an Army intelligence officer who investigates an accomplished soldier’s record.
Actors dressed as soldiers filmed at the orange-doored retro motel with Radcliffe during the late-night shoot, which was furnished with vintage cars.
Radcliffe and Groff previously starred together on Broadway in a 2023 revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along. Before the scenes this week in Ocean County, Trust the Man also filmed in Montclair.
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New Jersey music fans and Todd Rundgren sure have seen a lot of each other over the decades.
“I don’t know that I’ve done a tour in any recent era that didn’t include at least some Jersey stops,” Rundgren, 78, says over Zoom from his home on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The tradition continues this summer as Rundgren—a classic rock icon and Grammy nominee who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021—brings his Damned If I Do tour to North, Central and South Jersey, a trifecta he referred to as “the whole shebang,” this August. He’ll be at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood on August 8, followed by the Ocean City Music Pier on August 11, and the Count Basie Center for the Arts’ Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre in Red Bank on August 12.
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A Look Inside New Jersey’s Tiny Forest MovementRundgren, who was raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, has had a musical relationship with New Jersey for 60 years, leaving home on his 18th birthday and heading directly to Ocean City to connect with the eventual drummer of his early psychedelic blues rock band Woody’s Truck Stop. Rundgren settled into living in a South Jersey suburb somewhere east of Camden, and found his footing as the singer and guitarist of shaggy garage rock outfit The Nazz.
“The Nazz wrote a song called ‘Wildwood Blues,’ which was essentially just about one weekend we spent in Wildwood,” Rundgren says. “When I was growing up in southeast Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia, the Wildwood thing was somewhat mythological but it was for the older kids and I had not really been to Wildwood; I had taken several bus trips alone to Atlantic City, because that’s a direct trip, just going to walk the boardwalk and consume anything that was free.”
Despite immortalizing their time in Wildwood on their 1968 self-titled debut LP, The Nazz’s tenure as a Jersey Shore bar band was, in Rundgren’s recounting decades later, inglorious.
“Early on we didn’t have a lot of original material but the material that we did cop was not the typical stuff that a Jersey Shore band would learn,” Rundgren says. “You’d have to know Top 40 and dance songs and things like that, and we just knew a few Beatles and Rolling Stones songs and that sort of thing, so our gig there did not particularly bode well that it was going to be a regular thing for us and we weren’t looking to be a Jersey Shore band anyway, we had higher aspirations. I do remember we didn’t have a hotel room, we were sleeping on the tables inside the club after it closed—so our memories are not really significant musically and hardship physically.”
Something from those Nazz days has stuck with Rundgren six decades later: “Hello It’s Me,” the swooning pop-rock gem Rundgren is said to have written in high school and recorded with The Nazz for that band’s first album. He later re-captured the song in a new light on the 1972 solo double LP Something/Anything? and the number has stayed in his live repertoire since.
“I have to vicariously get into the way that the audience reacts (to the song),” Rundgren says of his relationship with “Hello It’s Me” these days. “Frank Sinatra hated ‘My Way,’ but he had to sing it every night of his career. It’s one of those things—when it becomes obligatory, you don’t have the same feeling about it. You don’t have a choice whether to do it or not, you have to freaking do it.”
While prior tours, such as the Me/We dates that brought him through New Jersey in 2024, focused on deep cuts and relative rarities, the poster for the Damned If I Do tour promises “Back By Popular Demand–The Fan-Favorite Classics Return.” For Rundgren, it’s a continuation of a career-long balancing act between then and now.
“A lot of artists from the ’70s, that was their era and then they’re not so serious about the record making after that,” Rundgren says. “If you had some hits, your career is essentially going out and playing your hits for the rest of your life, and nobody much cares if you write anything new. But me, I just keep writing, I keep coming up with different concepts for records, and they vary a lot, stylistically, so you never know from tour to tour what’s going to happen. So Damned If I Do is, essentially, I’m going to please, hopefully, as many people as I can, but you can’t please everybody.”
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Septimiu Pastiu is a dentist with a side hustle. When he’s not fitting crowns or filling molars, he’s tending to 30,000 roe-producing sturgeon at King Caviar, his 9-acre caviar farm in Woolwich Township near Swedesboro.
Pastiu’s first tins of homemade ossetra and Beluga hybrid caviar didn’t hit the mouths of customers until December 2025, nine years after he imported his first fish as fertilized eggs from Germany. By then, he had invested a six-figure sum into several high-tech open-air tanks, each the size of a school bus.
But the way he sees it, he is doing his part to keep joy alive in South Jersey. “You feel in the mood for happiness when caviar is around,” he says. “It’s like the gates of heaven have opened a little bit.”
Restaurants and retailers are starting to signal that they agree. King Caviar is on the menu at restaurants including the Rittenhouse Grill in Philadelphia and Verve in Somerville. It’s also on the shelves at Cape May Winery.
The massive tanks at King Caviar are home to 30,000 sturgeon.Photo: Ted NghiemNew Jersey-bred caviar isn’t as weird a concept as it may seem. In the late 19th century, Pastiu’s predecessors made so much of it from native Atlantic sturgeon caught in the Delaware River that Cumberland County nicknamed a town Caviar Point.
Back then, the salty, nutty delicacy was considered more to Europeans’ taste. When the industry went belly-up decades later because of overfishing and pollution, locals may not have missed it much. But Americans had developed a taste for caviar and the fancy fixings that often accompany it, such as blini and crème fraîche, well before the early 2000s, when Pastiu arrived in the United States to finish his dentistry training at the University of Pennsylvania.
In his native Romania, caviar had featured regularly at celebrations. King Caviar wouldn’t exist if he and his wife and co-owner, Kathleen, hadn’t started hosting celebrations of their own in Washington Township, where they have lived since 2006.
“There was one time I wanted to do a festive dinner for friends,” Pastiu says. But a tin of ossetra he had bought at a Russian specialty market in Philadelphia did more to flatten the mood than enhance it. (Ossetra, among the most popular types of caviar, is a species of sturgeon; sevruga and Siberian, also popular for caviar, are distinct species. King Caviar raises all three.)
“It was so salty you couldn’t swallow it. Your throat wouldn’t allow it to go down,” he says. Multiple tries at other specialty stores yielded similar results. “I missed the quality,” he says.
The wait to sample his own recipes—he tried his first batch of ossetra last April—was so long, in part, because he started from scratch, tasking himself with watching the eggs he ordered from Germany become hatchlings, then raising the fish, which can grow to 1,000 pounds.
“When you taste it straight from the fish, it doesn’t even need salt. It has a pure, nutty, buttery flavor.”
—Septimiu Pastiu, owner, King Caviar
He also had to wait until the roe reached the right level of maturity within the fish, which he humanely kills just before harvesting, in order to prevent biochemical changes from affecting the eggs. “Supposedly, the older the fish, the better the caviar,” he says. “Like how French wine is good because they leave the grapes growing on the vine.”
Freshness, he hopes, will set King Caviar apart from the competition. “The eggs are nice and crisp, they’re not dried out, they don’t collapse,” he says. Salting is judicious. “When you taste it straight from the fish, it doesn’t even need salt. It has a pure, nutty, buttery flavor.”
Outshining competitors isn’t much of a concern for now, though.
“Right now, we do everything ourselves; we’re totally hands-on, and that’s good for us,” he says. “We want to keep it where the same person who raises the fish knows how to do everything, including, sometimes, delivery.” Experiments with bringing in helpers have been a bust. “You can’t just hire someone off the street, because it’s caviar, and every little mistake can be very costly.”
Kathleen and Septimiu have a daughter, Anamaria, 18. A college freshman, she plans to take over King Caviar once she completes her education. In the meantime, Pastiu won’t retire his dental smock. He’s content with the one or two online orders that trickle in per day and King Caviar’s handful of wholesale accounts—as well as some of his dental patients who shop from a refrigerator at his office, Sewell Dental Arts.
The small operation enables him to savor what’s beyond the gates of heaven, now that he’s cracked them open—caviar-adjacent ice cream, for example.
Before she was a caviar entrepreneur, Kathleen Pastiu was a pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. “When she’s not working with me, she makes things like crème fraîche ice cream,” Pastiu says. “It’s got very little sweetness—just the right amount. It’s the best ice cream I’ve ever had, as fresh as our caviar.”
The post Swimming in Luxury: How a South Jersey Dentist Built the Garden State’s Only Caviar Farm appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
There’s a moment every cook recognizes, the one where food stops being fuel and becomes something else entirely—something closer to a language, perhaps a love language. I’ve spent 30 years chasing that moment professionally in kitchens across the country, from multiple-course tasting menus to farm tables and everything in between. What I didn’t expect was to watch it happen in my own backyard.
My twin sons, Nicholas and Vincent, grew up at the table. Not just eating at it, studying it. They watched pasta get pulled and rested. They saw what happened when a tomato came out of the garden at the right time versus the wrong one. They learned, without ever being taught formally, that the difference between a good meal and a great one usually had nothing to do with technique and everything to do with intention.
I wasn’t trying to recruit them. There’s a particular kind of pressure that comes with being a chef father—the temptation to shape your kids in your own image, to hand them a knife and call it legacy. I tried to resist that. I let them find their own way to the kitchen. And they did.
They found it through eating, mostly—through the pure, uncomplicated joy of a good meal, the way it centers a room, the way it marks time. They found it in the garden, where I showed them what patience looks like in the ground before it ever shows up on a plate. They found it in the questions they started asking: Why does that work? What changes if you do it this way instead?
Those are chef questions. I recognized them immediately.
This fall, Nicholas and Vincent head to Hyde Park, to the Culinary Institute of America, and I find myself holding two things at once. There’s pride, obviously—the kind that’s hard to put into words without it sounding like a highlight reel. But there’s also something quieter: a recognition that the thing I’ve given my life to translated, not because I pushed it, but because they saw something in it worth reaching for.
New Jersey shaped all of us: me as a cook, them as eaters and observers. There’s something about growing up in this state, between the farms of Monmouth County and the domestic dining mecca of New York City, that gives you an instinctive appreciation for the real thing. Good produce. Honest food. Tables worth gathering around.
That’s what I hope they take to Hyde Park more than any recipe or technique: the understanding that cooking is, at its core, an act of care, and that the kitchen is a place where attention, time, thought, ingredients, and the faces of the people you feed all matter.
I’ll still be in my kitchen this fall, the way I always have. But the table will feel a little different, knowing two people who watched it all are now building something of their own. That’s the whole point, really. The table is supposed to keep getting longer.
Anthony Bucco has spent 25 years influencing the way people eat in New Jersey. His biggest motivator is the love for his three sons: Tyler, Nicholas and Vincent.
The post My Twin Sons Are Following in My Culinary Footsteps. Here’s What I Hope They Take With Them appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
What goes better with a weekend at the Jersey Shore than eating out at one of the top restaurants on offer? Here’s a list of some of our favorites, from Rumson down to Cape May. Many of these require reservations—and these spots are busy in the summer, especially on weekends!ASBURY PARKJudy & Harry’sWho woulda thunk that combining your grandma’s recipes for traditional Jewish dishes with your nonna’s fave Italian classics would create a unique fine-dining experience like the one offered at this beautiful spot in the St. Laurent hotel? From the James Beard-nominated team behind Heirloom Kitchen and Lita, David Viana and Neilly Robinson offer dishes such as Judy’s matzo ball soup, the Parm, and roast chicken savoy (the chef’s spin on the Belmont Tavern classic). After your meal, head to the companion cocktail bar, Harry’s, for a drink. The restaurant and bar are named for Robinson’s parents, who inspired the menu. —Jacqueline Mroz
408 7th Avenue; 732-795-2582
Lili Oceanfront RestaurantAnother big shakeup on the boardwalk has resulted in a major improvement as the oceanfront space formerly occupied by the somewhat uninspired Italian stalwart Stella Marina, which has been replaced by Lili Oceanfront Restaurant, a multi-level Coastal Mediterranean bistro that brings flair and freshness to one of the most coveted spots in town. A perfect fusion of flavors speckle their way throughout the expansive menu, as craft cocktails and divine dips like the labneh and mamma ghanouj make for fine opening acts for everything from pizzas (try the spicy fig & prosciutto pie) to squid ink pasta dishes and salmon kababs. —Ryan Loughlin800 Ocean Avenue N.; 732-837-9495
Cardinal ProvisionsSpring Lake natives Laura Brahn and Grace Crossman met while working at nearby Porta. They later worked at other restaurants before starting a catering company together. In 2016, they opened the charming and rustic Cardinal Provisions. At first they served just breakfast and lunch; in 2018 they began offering dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, with a new dinner theme each weekend. During weekend brunch, the restaurant is usually packed, with crowds waiting outside for a table. Try the cacio e pepe scrambled eggs. BYO. —NJM Staff
513 Bangs Avenue; 732-898-7194
HadakaA year into its successful run as the go-to omakase restaurant in this Jersey Shore town, Hadaka has headed west to open its second curated sushi experience in Lambertville. Located in the Lambertville House along the Delaware River, the second Hadaka, which opened in May, continues the tradition of intimate and personalized sushi sampling, with the addition of a liquor license. In both settings, during four 90-minute sessions, 12 diners watch sushi chefs perform their magic on a variety of raw fish flown in from Japan. “It’s all about the vibe,” says co-owner Eddie Falzarano. “It’s not just a place you go out to eat. You start out not knowing the people you’re eating with, and by the end of the meal you’re exchanging numbers or heading off for drinks together.” —Jill P. Capuzzo
527 Bangs Avenue; 732-361-0238
CAPE MAYEbbitt RoomOne of the leading spots for fine dining in downtown Cape May, just a block from the pedestrian mall in the renovated 1879 Virginia Hotel. Despite the hotel’s Victorian trappings, chef Jason Hanin’s American menu (dinner only) is contemporary—strong on fresh-caught seafood, with steaks and a vegetarian option. Every dish utilizes fresh produce and fruit from Cape Resorts’ Beach Plum Farm just down the road.—DPC
25 Jackson Street; 609-884-5700
Maison Bleue BistroPhoto: Courtesy of Maison Bleue/Sandra VizzoneFrench restaurants are a rarity in Cape May, making the experience at Maison Bleue Bistro feel somewhat exclusive without even trying. But despite all the date-impressing dishes you’ll find on the menu, the team here has managed to pull off a decidedly non-stuffy vibe. Executive chef Anthony Depasquale’s BYO menu cancans brilliantly between exquisite French dishes—the duck confit with port wine-cherry jam and cippolini is the single best version of the dish I have ever eaten—and perfectly executed classics. In 2024, New Jersey Monthly named this spot one of the one of the best new restaurants in the Garden State. —Ryan Loughlin
653 Washington Street; 609-435-5554
BRADLEY BEACHXinaXina has consistently been one of the best spots for sushi rolls and other Asian cuisine in South Jersey since it opened back in 2012. But its location, tucked way down in Toms River, just before the bridge that connects Route 37 to the barrier islands, made it just out-of-the-way enough to be annoying to a Monmouth County resident like me. That problem has been solved, as Xina recently opened its second BYO right in the heart of Bradley Beach, in the most unconventional of spaces—a former 7-Eleven. Read our full review here. —Ryan Loughlin
3430 NJ-37; 732-279-6327
Vic’sVic’s in Bradley Beach Photo: Courtesy of Vic’sVic’s Italian-American restaurant is a red-sauce Italian institution. The pizza. No matter the pie—Vic’s offers 10-, 12- and 14-inch sizes—the sauce and dough are homemade. For bigger appetites, the chicken parmigiana and sausage cacciatore entrées are sure to satisfy. Entrées are served with a salad and your choice of a side of spaghetti or french fries and a vegetable. —JM
60 Main Street; 732-774-8225
NEPTUNEPete and Elda’sThere is thin crust, really thin crust, and then there is Pete & Elda’s crust, crisp as a cracker. Not for everyone, but that might be a blessing given the long waits for a table on weekends. Pete & Elda’s was a bar sans food until Carmen Andretta fused a pizzeria to it in 1961. Carmen’s son, George, grew up in the place and took over the unified shebang in 1977. The menu lists 35 toppings, and the kitchen makes sure every inch of your pie is thoroughly and evenly carpeted with whatever you choose, so no one need get grabby. —Eric Levin
96 Woodland Avenue; 732-774-6010
The Grand TavernAs if reciting a mantra, Paul Holzheimer distills his cooking at the Grand Tavern in Neptune into four words: “Beef, butter, fat, cream.” That’s a meditation I could get behind. Holzheimer says he drew inspiration from the “comfortable and unpretentious” Montreal gastropubs Joe Beef and Maison Publique and Manhattan’s the Spotted Pig: “We wanted it to be a neighborhood bar and restaurant that just so happens to have great food and great drinks.” Holzheimer and his fiancée, Ashley Coyte, co-own Grand Tavern. He’s the chef; she’s the manager. They met at culinary school and worked together in Asbury Park at Porta and Pascal & Sabine before opening Grand Tavern in 2016.—NJM Staff
1105 6th Avenue; 732 774 0120
POINT PLEASANT BEACHThe Poached Pear BistroThe Poached Pear salad. Photo: Courtesy of the Poached Pear Bistro/MStudioThe Poached Pear Bistro celebrates its 12th anniversary this year, but frankly, its longevity should come as no surprise to anyone who has enjoyed a meal at this fabulous modern American BYOB. Owners Marc Giordano and his brother (and chef) Scott have fine dining figured out, with understated visual aesthetics that allow imaginatively sophisticated dishes like their pan-seared grouper—a summer special featuring locally caught grouper in a Provençale sauce with lobster risotto and haricot verts—to do all of the talking. —Ryan Loughlin16 Arnold Avenue; 732-701-1700
Red’s Lobster PotCome for the amazing sunsets and to watch the fishing boats nearby at this iconic waterfront spot. Red’s has great lobster rolls, delicious whole steamed or broiled lobsters and homemade jumbo lump crabcakes.—JM
57 Inlet Dr.
SEA BRIGHTAnjelica’sEverything about this crowded, bustling, traditional Italian restaurant smacks of a memorable dining experience in Rome or Florence—except perhaps its location, directly across the street from the ocean in Sea Bright. But with its polished hardwood floors, frosted globe chandeliers, dark green tablecloths, and exposed brick and muraled walls, Anjelica’s feels far removed from the Shore.–JM
1070 Ocean Avenue
LONG BRANCHMoxie ModernShrimp fritters at Moxie Modern in Long Branch. Photo: Courtesy of Moxie ModernEven on an off-season Thursday, the vibe at this contemporary restaurant is clear: Fun will be had here. Upscale and Insta-ready, its dark charcoal walls, bi-level seating, two-story windows and swathes of greenery are a welcome mat for a hip crowd. Moxie Modern was opened in August 2025 by Jason Cobb, who also owns popular Char-kol and Aurum Events, both in Freehold, with Dave Esquenazi. Last year, Moxie caught the ebb of the Shore season; this year, by the looks—and tastes—of it, they are well prepared for the onslaught of summer revelers. Located just a few blocks from the ocean, foot traffic is easy, and there’s a parking lot—a plus in this high-profile beach town. Read our full review here. —Deborah P. Carter
202 Broadway; 732-860-7100
RUMSONRiver Pointe InnThe French-inspired River Pointe Inn affords a sophisticated, elegant and delicious dining experience. Slipping into a booth at Rumson’s River Pointe Inn feels a bit like a respite. The marble bar, leather banquettes, natural wood floors, and rough-hewn ceiling beams infuse a measure of European panache before you even peruse the menu of the French-inspired dishes. Father-son duo Victor and Jake Rallo, who opened the space in 2024 in partnership with the Diaco family, planned it that way. A warm ambience is a hallmark at the Rallos’ other establishments, Undici Taverna Rustica in Rumson and Birravino in Red Bank. Here, decidedly not Italian, the vibe and the French-American cuisine are clean, quiet and well-conceived. Read our full review here. —DPC
132 East River Road; 732-530-6590
UndiciThe Italian staples of pasta and wine are the raison d’etre at this Tuscan-inspired restaurant that also captures the region’s rustic elegance with stone walls, dim lighting, and on-point service from knowledgable staff. The Rallo family’s well-earned reputation is drawn from its warm, welcoming environment to the high-level ingredients and expert execution. From the first bite of crusty focaccia to classic treatments of standards from pasta to fish and proteins, the authenticity comes through. They claim that the prized wine list with 1,300 labels is the largest selection of Italian reds and whites in New Jersey. —DPC
11 W. River Road; 732-842-3880
AVON-BY-THE-SEAThe Promenade Waterfront Grill For some reason, it’s hard to find a beachfront restaurant at the Jersey Shore—but this is one of the few, and it’s worth the trip. Located in Avon Pavilion, which also houses a beach shop and at night sometimes has live music and dance lessons, The Promenade has gorgeous views of the beach. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the service is friendly and professional and the food is thoughtfully prepared and excellent.—JM
600 Ocean Avenue N.
BELMAR Klein’s Seafood Market and RestaurantKlein’s offers waterfront dining and Jersey Shore seafood, steaks and other specialties. Inside and outside tables, raw bar, tiki bar and a retail fish market available. Come for the view and the terrific and fresh seafood. —JM708 River Road
LONG BEACH ISLANDBird & Betty’s in Beach HavenThis is the place to go for great seafood as well as wood-fired pizzas (locals love the clam pie!). Kick back and listen to the music of Talking Heads and Sublime while you play shuffleboard or pinball and drink some local beer. —JM
529 Dock Road; Beach Haven
SPRING LAKEOleaBrandon “Bud” Carter had a tall order ahead of him when he opened Olea. Following up a massive hit is never an easy task, whether you are an actual rock star or a rock-star chef like Carter, whose previous hot spot was the Butcher’s Block in Long Branch. Olea exudes a bold, sexy confidence from its space, on the ground floor of the Shore Club hotel in Spring Lake. Crimson drapes, brick accents and soaring olive trees harmonize with sleek, modern furniture, while dim lighting and a fireplace create a vibe romantic enough to make Olea—which landed on NJM‘s 2026 Best New Restaurants list—the go-to date-night location in Spring Lake.—Ryan Loughlin
700 NJ-71; 732-359-8580
The post 20 Restaurants We Love at the Jersey Shore appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
From the outside, the Court Tavern looks like a Monopoly house set on Church Street in the midst of New Brunswick’s growing skyline. But the Court once seemed like the biggest place around. Back then, it was the epicenter of the city’s local music scene, the second home of the bands that played there in the 1980s and ’90s.
“We considered it our Cavern Club,” says Jim Babjak, guitarist for the Smithereens, a band that cut its teeth at the Court, as did the Bouncing Souls.
Drive 50 minutes from the Court Tavern, up the Turnpike to Hoboken, and you’ll find the shell of another legendary venue: Maxwell’s, at the corner of 11th and Washington. Back in the day, the very air around the site seemed caffeinated, whether from the nearby Maxwell House coffee factory that gave the place its name, or from the frisson of excitement surrounding the headliners.
Beginning in 1978, Maxwell’s hosted emerging local bands—the Bongos, Yo La Tengo, the Feelies—but was also known for presenting shows by touring bands on the precipice of superstardom, including New Order, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Jason Everman, Chad Channing and Krist Novoselic in Hoboken in 1989. Photo: Camera Press/Ian Tilton“It was always the testing grounds, a good place to debut something and see how the audience reacted,” says James Mastro, guitarist for the Bongos. “You could judge how well you were doing by the crowd. It allowed me to be a little more creative and try stuff.”
These two clubs epitomized the original music scene that thrived in New Jersey from the late ’70s through the early 2000s, propped up and pushed forward by an ecosystem of college students, local artists, college radio stations, fanzines and music publications such as The Aquarian and Jersey Beat.
“There was this whole DIY thing of ‘Let’s put a band together,’” says Tom Crowe, who worked at the Court Tavern and was also a DJ at WFMU, the influential independent radio station in Jersey City. “I think there was a lot more of that back then. It was interesting how quickly that bloomed to sustain three nights of music a week with three or four bands on the bill.”
The Court shut its doors in 2012. The building, most recently a vegan pizzeria called Veganica, has been closed since the summer of 2025, its future unknown. Maxwell’s heyday ended in 2013, though it didn’t permanently close until 2018. It currently houses Sirenetta, a seafood restaurant and bar. The Court and Maxwell’s are among the best known and most lamented lost music clubs of New Jersey.
The Bongos members (from left) Richard Barone, Frank Giannini and Rob Norris pose on the rooftop of 1118 Hudson Street in Hoboken in 1981; behind them is the old Maxwell House coffee factory, for which Maxwell’s was named. Photo: Phil MarinoLike many other clubs, the Court and Maxwell’s followed a strange arc. Their success carried the seed of their own destruction.
Many clubs fell victim to gentrification or increasing real estate values. “It kind of builds up the neighborhood, and people start hearing about it and want to go there, and they end up getting priced out of what they helped create,” Mastro says. “The artists help bring it together, but they’re often neglected by the city after everyone’s cashed in.”
As neighborhoods became more desirable to visit, they became more difficult as well. Regulars speak ruefully about how parking became harder to find as Maxwell’s, like Hoboken in general, became a hotspot for nightlife. “The only problem with going to Maxwell’s was parking,” says Dennis Diken, drummer for the Smithereens.
A flyer for a show at New Brunswick’s Court Tavern in 1983. Image: Courtesy of the Smithereens/Tom ScarilloThe changes also affected individuals. Running a rock club can be expensive and stressful. For those who did it, including original owners Steve Fallon and Todd Abramson at Maxwell’s and the late Bobby Albert at the Court, it was a labor of love. “I think for any club that people have fond memories of,” Mastro says, “you can usually attribute that to the owners.” Doug Vizthum, who worked at the Court and whose band, Bad Karma, regularly played there, says most business owners are “not willing to take the hits that Bobby did. Bobby was there for the long haul, no matter what happened.”
When these clubs inhabited the earth, the cities and towns were bound together by a sense of community.
“You just felt welcome,” says Judy Sarlo Ray, a regular at the Court. “You’d start drinking at the bar upstairs, and then you couldn’t wait to go downstairs and see the band.”
Diken is one of many who says the Court Tavern “was home,” and that it nurtured a music scene that helped the Smithereens build its following. “It was comfortable; the people who ran it were great, we knew everybody,” Diken says. “It was like getting together with your friends every time we played there. It was wonderful.”
The Smithereens at Loop Lounge in Passaic in 1986. Photo: Courtesy of the Smithereens archiveCommunities were not only bonded by the music but became magnetic—they attracted acts from outside Jersey. Kirk Miller, who handled the sound system at the Court, was blown away by an infamous 1986 show by the Butthole Surfers, calling it “the show that changed my life.” The intensity of the performance transformed him from a laid-back Grateful Dead fan. “That show was a huge eye-opener for me,” Miller says, “and a week later, I’m buying punk rock records.”
Miller also worked at Maxwell’s, beginning in 1998. “I believed in Todd’s bookings and what went on there and wanted to be part of it,” Miller says, recalling shows by Neutral Milk Hotel and Fugazi. Abramson’s favorite shows at Maxwell’s include those by the Cowsills, the Donnas, and a gravity-defying gig by the Japanese surf band Jackie & the Cedrics, at which, he says, “the guitarist started running up the side wall, and I swear he was perpendicular to the stage, like Fred Astaire.”
Small clubs like Maxwell’s, which had a capacity of 200, and the Court, which legally held even fewer, provided what Abramson calls “the learning curve” for touring bands. “They didn’t have a video on TikTok one day and all of a sudden they’re huge,” Abramson says. “You’d see bands play clubs like Maxwell’s and then make it up to 800-1,000 capacity rooms, then theaters and, occasionally, arenas.”
Says Mastro, “There’s a reason that a band like R.E.M. or Nirvana kept coming back to Maxwell’s. You were respected and fed and always had a great time.” Fallon says he felt it important to be a good host. “My father was a musician from Ireland—he played accordion—so I knew somewhat of the grind that some of the musicians go through,” Fallon says. “And hunger makes you not perform well.”
These venues also shared talent; as different as the two clubs were, performers, patrons and staff often overlapped. In the 1990s, the guitarist Heidi Lieb performed at both the Court Tavern and Maxwell’s with her band Sit N’ Spin. “The Court was like our living room, our home, super fun. You could just be conversational on stage, chat with your friends who were in the audience. The scene was great,” Lieb says. “Maxwell’s I didn’t really consider a scene; it was a place where you went to see bands. It was a venue and a restaurant. Maxwell’s felt a little more impressive, to get a gig there.”
Fallon says he “also tried to be there when the band arrived because a lot of places, there sometimes was not a face to the club, and there’s this coldness when you walk into these clubs, and it takes you a while to warm up.”
Claudia Sullivan spent most weekends in the ’90s at Maxwell’s “because it was the kind of place where you didn’t care who was playing, you knew it was going to be good.” Sullivan, of Nutley, is producing the documentary No Backstage at Maxwell’s with New York-based director Paul Rachman, who previously chronicled the hardcore punk scene in the 2006 documentary American Hardcore. The film is expected to be released to festivals in 2027.
“Maxwell’s was curated,” Rachman says, noting that Fallon would stock the jukebox with new singles by bands scheduled to play the club. “Steve and Todd were part local tastemakers, very much ear-to-the ground.” He calls them “pillars of trust.”
Rachman adds, “It was a place that sonically and culturally connected to all the college-rock towns—Athens, Georgia; Raleigh, North Carolina; Minneapolis; Boston—and really gave an early platform to all the indie rock bands. So there’s that culture, that evolutionary process, the importance of gathering places for like-minded people. It became a launching pad for indie rock.”
“You walked in and it was like a family restaurant,” Sullivan recalls. “There were people dining there, because the music was in the back room. And because there was no backstage, the bands were eating their dinner there before the show. Like, there was no separation. Bands would have to walk through the audience to get to the stage, and the stage was very low.”
There was no backstage at the Court Tavern, either. The stage in the basement was so low that people perched on bar stools and on the staircase for a better vantage point. And, whereas Sullivan praises Maxwell’s as “not that seedy,” the Court was a place where, as Vizthum recalls, “some jerk-off would push the cigarette machine in front of the men’s room door and shoot bottle rockets under the door. This happened all the time. It was part of the Court ethos: No mercy.”
Babjak concurs, saying of the Court, “When you’re setting up your equipment, you’d smell the beer and cigarettes from the night before. It was kind of a warm feeling, though it was kind of a gross smell; it was somehow endearing. People didn’t just stand and watch you play, they’d dance and move around. It taught us not to be afraid to try spontaneous things.”
That sense of spontaneity, not to mention that smell, is now a thing of the past.
So, without all this, how do young musicians today find their way? Many, like the singer/songwriter Francesca Fuentes, begin by streaming performances on YouTube. Under the tutelage of Andy Gesner at Hip Video Promo in South River, however, she has dipped her toe into the live-music circuit, playing the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, a coffeehouse in Toms River, and gigs in Brooklyn and Pennsylvania.
“Prior to Andy mentoring me, it was strictly social media—YouTube channel and Threads—where you can tell a story and connect with other creatives,” Fuentes says.
Gesner, whose band Spiral Jetty was a big draw at the Court Tavern, cherishes his time in the scene. “It was magical,” he says, “and I have empathy for the Francescas of the world, because playing at a place like the Court was a way to make a human connection that was undeniable.”
Says Abramson, “The place where I usually get breakfast, there was this young girl working there wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, and I said, ‘You know, they played a block away from here,’ and she just looked at me like I was from Mars, that it was unfathomable.” It was unclear, he says, whether she had even heard of Maxwell’s, let alone knew that Nirvana had graced its stage.
Cobain performs during Nirvana’s historic Maxwell’s show on July 13, 1989. Photo: Camera Press/Ian TiltonOther bands focus on basement shows in private homes, known as show houses. “The music scene going underground shows you the interest is still there,” says Bennett Kelly, who, as music reporter for New Brunswick Today, has chronicled the history of the scene with a scholarly approach. “There are still tons of bands in New Brunswick, they just don’t have as many above-ground places to play. Now it’s at a house; it’s mostly a college-aged scene, so bands also age out of it.”
The New Brunswick-based pop-punk band Nothing Left to Lose has been playing show houses since 2021. “This is my first band,” says bassist Nate Devine. “I found them through social media, a Rutgers basement-scene group meet.”
In the absence of a traditional music scene, vocalist Brandon Ryan says a strong social media presence is key to getting gigs. “Without it, it would be hard to get any sort of following,” Ryan says. The band creates Instagram reels that are like mini music videos. Nothing Left to Lose has played the Chubby Pickle in Highlands, which books live music but doesn’t have a scene. There is a difference, and Devine and Ryan recognize that. “We’ll take any show we can get,” Ryan says, “but our favorite is the Rutgers basement scene and those more intimate shows where we can be closer to everybody.”
As vinyl records enjoy a resurgence in popularity thanks to Gen Z music fans, independent record stores have become alcohol-free, all-ages venues for live music. Among them are Revilla Records in Milltown, Randy Now’s Man Cave in Hightstown, and Sweet Vinyl, a dessert café and record shop in Denville owned by Adam Budofsky, drummer for the Barleycorns in the ’90s and former editorial director at Modern Drummer magazine.
Budofsky says he tends to book younger bands. “There are very few places for indie bands with original music to play,” he says. “I’ve not had to really look for them; they reach out to me. They’ll walk in or email me. Somehow, despite the lack of rock ’n’ roll on the charts or in kids’ minds, I’m constantly impressed by the number of kids who want to play music and who go through the trouble and expense to do it.”
These people are all survivors who are still working on behalf of music, but in different ways. Fallon, who moved to Delaware and later opened a record store, and Abramson, who now books White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, are esteemed by musicians and regulars.
This makes sense to Vizthum, who thinks the need for community and the thrill of making and discovering new music will transcend all obstacles. The thirst for a scene, he says, will prevail. “As long as there’s kids who wanna play music, it’s gonna happen,” Vizthum says.
Did we miss any? Email us.
Kelly-Jane Cotter is a longtime music reporter and was an enthusiastic participant in the local music scene of the ’80s and ’90s.
The post Where Did New Jersey’s Rock Clubs Go? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Tinton Falls trainer Heather Freeman’s most accomplished dog was her own. A pit bull, German shepherd, bichone frise rescue, Nathan Jr. was named after the kidnapped infant in the 1987 cult-classic crime comedy Raising Arizona, so he arrived with pop culture—and energy.
“He was a crazy puppy,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do with him.”
Then living in Georgia, Freeman rented a weekend cabin and learned of his obsession with water. “He’d run out, then jump back in,” she remembers of the path that led the duo into dock diving for dogs, an increasingly popular canine aquatics sport.
Freeman, who now owns and operates ZingZingK9 Sports, enrolled Nathan Jr. in a class at a pool north of Atlanta. His first day the instructor stood in the pool, saying, “Just show me what he does.” Freeman threw his favorite ball; he went soaring over the teacher’s head. “The whole ride home, he slept—in the daylight,” she says.
Nathan Jr. would become multi-titled in the sport’s various organizations and eventually appear on the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge five times, twice on the National Dog Show on NBC and other shows for years, retiring at the Super Retriever Series National Championships where he took second in the veteran division. “He’d jump anywhere for anyone,” Freeman says. “He’s the reason I now do what I do.”
Nathan Jr., who was almost 14 when he passed in 2023, jumped 26 feet in his prime, then an enormous feat. Today, the best dogs leap 30 feet or more.
Rico is Freeman’s 8-year-old border collie who can still jump 25 feet. Photo: Courtesy of Lilli Gensler/Sailing Brown Dog PhotographyIt’s believed dock diving for dogs originated in England in the 1970s. In 1997, the United States was introduced to the sport via ESPN. Soon, DockDogs, one of three major canine aquatic organizations, was established in 2000 with three primary “games”—the quintessential Distance Jumping (often called Big Air), Extreme Vertical and Speed Retrieve.
Steve Powell, who with his wife, Kristin, owns Wisconsin-based North American Diving Dogs (NADD), the only one of the three linked with the American Kennel Club (AKC), has 89 facilities in the U.S. and Canada and runs 600-plus events a year (and installs one of its mobile pools on-site). The organization has 44,000 registered dogs in its portal, 14,000 more than when they bought NADD in 2023. The East Coast is its biggest market.
“The sport’s still growing very fast,” Steve says. “Everyone wants it in their backyard.”
The Distance Jump—like track’s long jump—measures how far a dog jumps after running down a dock that’s generally 40 feet long and 8 feet wide and always 2 feet above the water to retrieve a toy. The mark’s measured by where the base of the dog’s tail breaks the water. In Extreme Vertical (the high jump equivalent), dogs leap off the dock to snatch a bumper suspended over the water at varying heights. In Speed Retrieve, dogs jump from the dock, swim 37 feet to grab a suspended bumper and return it to a 10-foot mark as quickly as possible.
Freeman with her pooch Rico. Photo: Courtesy of Lilli Gensler/Sailing Brown Dog PhotographyEach with its own spin, and different names for the same games, DockDogs is known for entertaining, competitive, festival-fair events; NADD, which began in 2014 with the AKC partnership and has been televised on ESPN , rewards dogs for commitment and camaraderie, and not necessarily winning. Ultimate Air Dogs (UAD), the 2005 creation of former Detroit Tigers’ 1984 World Series pitcher Milt Wilcox, is the more inclusive family-friendly of the three, and the one some credit for getting the sport into small-town America.
“We don’t care where you jump or who you spend your money with, enjoy the time with your dog,” Powell says. “They’re not here long enough with us.”
Initially, sporting and water breeds dominated dock diving; today, it’s whippets (with sporting breed mixes a close second in efforts to “build a faster Ferrari,” he says). NADD’s distance record is 36 feet, 11 inches by Sounders, a whippet. That’s also a Guinness world record. NADD’s Air Retrieve record is 31 feet by Rogue, another whippet. For Hydro Dash, it’s 11.44 seconds by Brando, a Belgian malinois.
Hardly watered down, many breeds can excel. Freeman’s worked with a Shih Tzu and a bloodhound. Powell, though, is quick to suggest that not every dog is a willing participant. His first weekend, his dog refused to jump.
“The key is acclimating your dog, so I always say keep coming back,” he says.
Freeman wouldn’t mind the traffic. Now in her 17th year, she arrived in New Jersey in 2022, helping inspire and continuing to teach at what was first a mobile pool at Tail Waggin’ Events in Robbinsville, a facility owned by Darlene and Jimmy Barnes. They opened a permanent pool last spring. They have a dock diving event coming up on August 21-23.
“All dog sports are a thrill, but this is an adrenaline rush,” says Susan Soviero, president of the 170-member Bayshore Companion Dogs Club in Tinton Falls. “You marvel at the athleticism, and love to see a dog in that physical condition. People love it.”
But like Powell says, it doesn’t mean every dog will be as fond. Last year, Susan’s husband John started a young dog—Creed, a 2-year-old Portuguese water dog—but they’ve been down this dock before. Eight years ago, they tried their Cyrus, another of the same seemingly perfectly-named breed, at 4. He ended up stuck under the dock; John had to pull him from the pool. Creed’s gone from falling off the dock in Robbinsville to leaping 16 feet. He had his first NADD event in Freehold over Memorial Day weekend at the East Freehold Park Showgrounds as part of the Jersey Shore Cluster, a multi-day dog show.
Though Freeman personally competes in DockDogs events—plus she’s on the board of a regional DockDogs club, Delmarva Dock Dogs, which will hold an event in Tuckerton between September 26-27 called Jumping in Jersey—she grasps the purposes of each entity.
“It’s great for me as a trainer,” she says. “If you want to jump off a dock at home, I’m here for you. If you want a major AKC title, I’m here. I want to help dogs, and I’m proud to have brought a little bit of this to New Jersey.”
Freeman knows she can do more with her own property and indoor pool where she can teach year-round and live with her pack that includes 10-year-old business namesake Zing!, a Belgian malinois who’s now labeled a “legend” because she’s older (a dock dog over 12 is called a “hero”), Rico, an 8-year-old border collie who can still jump 25 feet, and Cobra, a 3-year-old female Belgian malinois who’s a constant teaching com-panion. Another Border collie, “a baby Rico,” is due later this year.
Initially, Freeman lets pups soak in puppyhood—though as on-site dock diving spectators.
“I love them being there,” she says. “I want them to love what I love.”
The post Sit, Stay, Jump! Dock Diving Is Making a Splash With Dogs in NJ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Whoopi Goldberg has many titles.
Grammy-winning stand-up comedian. Oscar-winning actor. Emmy-winning talk show host. Tony-winning Broadway producer.
And that’s just her EGOT haul.
To Danielle Pinnock, Goldberg has always been a beacon, an absolute North Star.
When she first saw the TV special adapted from Goldberg’s 1984 one-woman Broadway show, she was transfixed. Growing up in New Jersey, she would travel by bus to the Port Authority in Manhattan just so she could watch the hit performance on repeat at the Lincoln Center library.
Now Pinnock is front and center in an all-star cast that revives several of Goldberg’s characters from that landmark show and beyond. The Whoopi Monologues opened July 13 at Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater inside Lincoln Center, where Pinnock started her Whoopi journey all those years ago.
“It feels like divine timing,” she says.
Pinnock is best known for her breakout TV role as Alberta Haynes, the ghost of a lounge singer from the Prohibition era in the hit comedy Ghosts, which has run for five seasons on CBS. In 2025, her performance won the NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series.
These days, Pinnock says she’s living inside her own dream.
“Whoopi Goldberg changed my life as an artist with this project,” she says, reflecting on her beginnings as a performer. “I was living in Teaneck, New Jersey, and deciding on whether I wanted to become an actor or not, doing school plays, and I just didn’t see anyone in the media that looked like me. I was a chubby girl. I used to wear these three-piece suits and bifocals. And I remember watching The Color Purple for the first time and seeing Whoopi Goldberg and I was hooked. She was so transcendent in the role of Celie. I remember watching the credits and I was like, ‘Mom, who’s Whoopi Goldberg?’”
She was 14 years old when she visited the Lincoln Center library and asked to watch everything that Goldberg had done. The 1985 HBO special Whoopi Goldberg: Direct From Broadway preserved the special magic of the comedian’s Grammy-winning show, which, along with Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, significantly propelled Goldberg’s career as she turned 30.
“I was like, ‘How can one woman do all of these different characters?’” says Pinnock, now 38. In the new production, she inhabits Jamaican Lady, a role Goldberg created decades ago.
Pinnock stars in director Whitney White’s The Whoopi Monologues with Emmy-winning Scandal star Kerry Washington, two-time Tony winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose), Tony winner Kecia Lewis (Hell’s Kitchen) and Emmy nominee Dominique Fishback (Swarm, Judas and the Black Messiah).
“It really does feel like a sisterhood,” Pinnock says. “To have a seat at this table is truly an honor, and it is one of the biggest moments of my career thus far.”
“The Whoopi Monologues” cast members Kecia Lewis, at center, with, from left: Dominique Fishback, Kerry Washington, Danielle Pinnock and Kara Young. Photo: Angela Marie OrellanaThe Jamaican Lady and the Old RaisinSeeing Goldberg deliver character after character in her Broadway show changed something in Pinnock.
“A lightbulb went off, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can do this. This is what I can do in theater,’” she says.
The alum of Saddle River Day School studied theater at Temple University, making her off-Broadway debut at 19 at the Barrow Street Theatre. She continued her acting studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in England and found a mentor in actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, diving into documentary plays as well as training in improv at The Second City in Chicago. In 2016, she joined the Colman Domingo-directed play Barbecue at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, making her TV debut that year in an episode of NBC’s This Is Us. Later, she played Ms. Ingram, a teacher in the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon.
Before she became a regular on Ghosts, Pinnock conducted hundreds of interviews to create her own one-woman theater show, Body/Courage, which took on body image and diet culture.
“Whoopi is the reason those things happened,” Pinnock says. “I give her so much credit, because she was the impetus for me to start my career.”
From left: Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Kerry Washington, Whitney White, Kara Young, Danielle Pinnock and Sunny Hostin on “The View” on June 25. Photo: ABC/ Lou RoccoIn 2023, the Jersey-raised actor made her film debut in the Amazon holiday movie Candy Cane Lane, starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross. The Whoopi Monologues marks her return to theater.
Pinnock has also shared hilarious character skits with her hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram. She’s played a chic Parisian bed bug during an outbreak, holiday boss Mrs. Claus, and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, opposite her own red-headed husband Jack Wallace (a British dialect coach) as Prince Harry.
In The Whoopi Monologues, Pinnock brings her Caribbean heritage to Jamaican Lady, one of the characters from Goldberg’s original Broadway show. She knows a little something about Jamaican ladies and Jamaican accents, having grown up in a Jamaican American family.
For this adaptation of the character, Pinnock enters the stage with blue pixie-cut hair dancing to the 1992 reggae song “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus & Pliers. Air horns follow.
“We are having a blast,” she says.
As written by Goldberg in the ’80s, Jamaican Lady finds herself in scandalous circumstances thanks to the Old Raisin, which is her nickname for a wrinkled elderly man she meets in her native Jamaica. He tells her that he needs someone to cook, clean and give him “a little nookie” at his home in the United States.
Jamaican Lady has no idea what “nookie” means, but figures she’ll work that out when she gets there. “I’ll improvise,” she says. Many hijinks ensue, and Jamaican Lady finds herself living in the Old Raisin’s manse—which looks like Tara, the plantation from Gone With the Wind—newly addicted to watching soap operas and eating Wise potato chips. “You can eat the potato chips and use the excess as makeup,” she sagely observes.
“I think the thing that is so exciting for me to play this character is, I’m first-generation Jamaican American,” Pinnock says. “This story really is a misadventure. This woman is in Jamaica in Kingston, selling trinkets, and this man comes and says ‘I want you to move to the States with me.’ I mean, it’s not only just a massive opportunity, but she’s also fearful as to what that means.”
A Dream RealizedPinnock first met Goldberg two years ago as a guest on The View.
“It’s rare for me to get starstruck. I was, like, shaking,” she says. “I was just so taken by how kind she was, and gracious and supportive. And she really poured into me the first day that I met her. She was like ‘Keep going,’ and ‘I’m going to check out Ghosts,’ and she called my entire family to come on stage with her and take photos with her.”
When the Jamaican Lady part came up, Pinnock inquired about the role and learned it had already been cast. But when that casting fell through, the part became hers.
She recalls what Tony winner Cynthia Erivo once told her: Be grateful for the opportunity, but remember that you deserve it, too. “I’ve worked so hard in my career that this just feels right,” Pinnock says.
Her Ghosts filming schedule partially conflicts with the Lincoln Center engagement, which runs through August 30. But showrunners gave her the green light to do both. Later this month, she’ll be flying to Montreal to film four episodes of the CBS series, then flying back to play Jamaican Lady on the weekend.
Goldberg, 70, who lives in Essex County, planned to see The Whoopi Monologues on opening night. Pinnock lets out a little scream of excitement just thinking about seeing her in the audience. At the first preview of the show on July 7, the actor snuck in a cheeky “Knicks in five!” during her performance. She inserted the topical reference when Jamaican Lady was demonstrating how she bounced the Old Raisin around like a basketball to spurn his sexual advances. Pinnock was duly rewarded with raucous cheers from the New York audience.
“I can’t wait for more family members to come see it,” she says. “I just know that to feel that energy in the room, it’s gonna be unreal.”
As for her co-stars, Pinnock marvels at being billed alongside Washington, having once had a small part in her series Scandal. “I was, like, Hairdresser No. 1 in the crossover episode with her and Viola Davis” [then starring in How to Get Away With Murder].
In The Whoopi Monologues, Washington plays Surfer Girl, another of Goldberg’s characters from 1984. She masters California surfer drawl in a performance that veers from lighthearted comedy to tragedy. The audience learns the startlingly young age of a teen facing pregnancy and an increasingly dangerous situation complicated by misogyny and shame from those she trusts.
It’s yet another instance of how Goldberg’s writing holds up more than 40 years later. There’s a reason why the setting for the show, as stated in the program, is 1985 and 2005, but also “now” and “forever.”
The Whoopi Monologues is never just about the laughs, though they are plentiful, to be sure. There are moments of heaviness and crushing despair that draw gasps and cries from the audience. Subjects like abortion and suicide play out in the characters’ stories, making them seem all the more real.
Dominique Fishback plays Blonde Girl, a wide-eyed, precious 6-year-old. She pretends a shirt on her head is “long, luxurious” blond hair. Blonde Girl has told her mother that she doesn’t want to be Black anymore because nobody who looks like her is on TV.
“We have to acknowledge Whoopi Goldberg as a playwright,” Pinnock says. “There’s a reason that this woman is an EGOT. She is everything and more.”
The Whoopi Monologues runs through August 30 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center; click here for tickets. Follow Danielle Pinnock at @bodycourage on Instagram and TikTok.
The post For Danielle Pinnock, Starring in ‘The Whoopi Monologues’ Is a Full-Circle Moment appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Timothy White, photographer to some of the biggest celebrities and rock stars in the world, broke into photography using what he calls “New Jersey chutzpah.”
It was 1980, and the kid from Fort Lee had just moved to New York City after graduating with a degree in photography from the highly regarded Rhode Island School of Design. “I was doing anything, whatever it took, to try and find myself and make it as a photographer,” he says, including assisting a fashion and music photographer and shooting musicians. He soon met a group of painters and sculptors from South America and ended up traveling to places like Colombia and Venezuela to photograph them and their art projects over the next few years.
He came back with a portfolio of portraits he’d taken that was good enough to convince Rolling Stone magazine to hire him as a photographer. His first shoot? Photographing Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon.
“I realized that was my thing—taking portraits,” he says. It was his connection to people that helped him get the shoots that ended up gracing the cover of Rolling Stone. “I like to make people comfortable, and my banter is sort of my stock-in-trade.”
Jon Bon Jovi Photo: Timothy WhiteHis cover portraits included rock stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, Guns N’ Roses, REM and Van Halen.
Now 70, White has received many awards and accolades, including being named one of the most influential people in photography by American Photo magazine.
White’s memoir, Life Through My Lens, is out July 21.To celebrate his work, White has two new books. Life Through My Lens (Storyteller Media), out July 21, is a memoir of his life as a renowned celebrity photographer, featuring his iconic portraits of stars such as Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Julian Lennon and Whoopi Goldberg, along with personal stories from his career. In the fall, he’s also publishing a companion book of some of his best-known photographs.
While he was shooting for Rolling Stone, the magazine shifted to covering pop culture, including Hollywood celebrities—so White also began to photograph these elite actors. “The magazine had such importance, and so it was a great promotional PR tool for Hollywood and movies. And I saw that I really wanted to be a part of that,” he says.
When he finally found his niche in Hollywood through Rolling Stone and other magazines that he worked for, he began to immerse himself in that world. He shot for hundreds of movie posters, as well as advertising for television and movies. That led to photographing some of the biggest stars in the world, including Al Pacino, Sophia Loren and Harrison Ford.
Meryl Streep Photo: Timothy WhiteDanny Devito Photo: Timothy White“I developed relationships with these actors and musicians and so was able to get them to trust me to collaborate, and we were able to develop some great imagery together,” he says.
That included convincing Brad Pitt to take a five-day motorcycle trip with him, stopping along the way to set up shoots, that yielded iconic images of the star, and talking Julia Roberts into dressing up and being shot in a rather dirty tire store on the West Side of Manhattan.
Those bonding experiences led White to form friendships with many of the famous people he photographed.
“And so out of that comes this wonderful experience of working together, and then all of a sudden, the magic happens. And it’s really a great experience for both myself and the subject,” he says. “To be directing Al Pacino, and he’s sitting there listening to me, when I see myself as this punk kid from New Jersey—it’s amazing.”
Jack Nicholson Photo: Timothy WhiteWhoopi Goldberg Photo: Timothy WhiteAfter decades of shooting rock stars and celebrities, White had become a legend himself and was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018. Now living in Los Angeles full time, he came back for the ceremony.
“There’s something about the people from New Jersey. There’s an attitude, if you will—and it’s not a bad one, it’s a positive attitude—but it’s definitely something that’s unique to people from New Jersey. And that really shows in the kinds of people that come out of this state,” he says.
Queen Latifah Photo: Timothy WhiteIce T & Spartacus Photo: Timothy WhiteThe night of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he appeared alongside some of the famous New Jerseyans he’d shot, including Jack Nicholson and Susan Sarandon. “I went backstage afterward, and they were all still hanging out. Everybody was talking together for hours afterward. And I was like, there’s really something about all these well-known people from New Jersey.”
After the ceremony, he realized he’d photographed some of the most famous New Jerseyans, including Nicholson and Sarandon, Queen Latifah, John Travolta and James Gandolfini. He decided to turn those photographs into an exhibit, “What Exit? The New Jersey Spirit,” first shown at the Newark Museum of Art and now on view at Terminal A in Newark Airport, where it’s expected to stay up for five years. (The photos seen here are from the exhibit.)
He says the exhibit made him realize that New Jerseyans stand apart: “I think there’s a confidence that comes with being from this state. There’s something about it—maybe it’s being in the shadow of New York City, like New Jerseyans wouldn’t accept that—we’re not going to be in the shadow. We’re our own family. We’ve got the best tomatoes and we’ve got Jersey pizza. We’re sort of a different breed than the rest of the country. And for someone who’s really traveled a lot, that Jersey attitude really does stand out.”
The post Celebrity Photographer Timothy White’s ‘New Jersey Chutzpah’ Took Him From Fort Lee to Hollywood appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
No more fumbling with your wallet or change purse at Atlantic City Expressway toll booths.
That’s because South Jersey’s “seashore highway” between Turnersville (Gloucester County) and Atlantic City has gone cashless, marking New Jersey’s first major roadway to do so.
It’s the end of an era when humans in little huts extended their palms to collect paper bills and coins from motorists on the 44.2-mile toll road.
Starting in 1965, when the expressway was completed, cash transactions were the sole method of toll taking on that roadway until 2012, when E-ZPass arrived.
Since then, more than 80 percent of drivers using the expressway have signed up for E-ZPass, letting the transponder on their dashboard pay tolls electronically, according to Karen Hutchings, director of tolls for the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA). Meanwhile the non-E-ZPass drivers continued paying in cash.
But at 8 pm on January 4, A.C. Expressway toll collectors were laid off en masse, replaced by electronic gantries with scanners and cameras collecting license-plate information. Drivers without E-ZPass now receive invoices in the mail charging more than double the E-ZPass fees: $6.49 from start to finish of the expressway for E-ZPass drivers and $13.98 for everyone else.
“Yes, we’re encouraging drivers who don’t already use E-ZPass to sign up for it,” acknowledges Hutchings. “But it does cost a lot of money to run the toll-by-mail system—having to look up license plate information, processing and mailing invoices.”
So why no more toll collectors? “Safety is one of the big reasons we did this,” Hutchings explains. “In just the two years I’ve been here, we’ve had many accidents at toll booths, with drivers either crashing into the booth or the concrete ballard next to it. There have been several fatal accidents at the Egg Harbor toll plaza.”
Another reason for the new cashless system, she points out, is “the convenience of not having to stop to pay.” Drivers, she says, are also sure to appreciate the third lane that’s being added in each direction.
Former toll collector Allison E. Allen, wearing her green AC Expressway uniform shirt, stands near Exit 5, where her toll booth once stood before all toll booths were removed. Photo: Barbara LeapA.C. Expressway toll collector Allison E. Allen, who was on duty for the last shift on January 4, describes the final moment: “At 8 our computers shut off, our screens went black. We were cleaning everything out, things like the bill scanner that tells whether twenties or fifties are counterfeit.”
The 41-year-old Pleasantville resident, who was on the job since August of 2025, says, “I was a chapter in history, privileged to work in a job that no longer exists.” The toll collectors received severance pay from the contractor that hired them and were invited to attend a job fair in their search for new employment.
“I loved lots of things about the job,” muses Allen, a licensed massage therapist. “My favorite thing was working as a team. I also liked how sensory it was: the sound of the cars, the fresh air, being semi-outdoors, the tactile change and visual stimulus from the computer and chronicling a written report. Even the smell of the marsh was grounding at times.”
Allen poses in July. Photo: Barbara LeapAllen was anything but aloof as she collected tolls, noting that she “really enjoyed telling people that they were wearing a color that looked particularly good on them. Seeing people from my community was neat, too.”
On Christmas Day, with permission from her supervisor, she offered 300 drivers little slips of paper she’d printed at home containing a few lines from a hymn, “Was It For Me?” “I explained to each driver that it was a gift from me, not the transportation authority,” says Allen, a devout Christian. “I had one person refuse, but that’s OK. Another person prayed right there with me.” Most of the drivers that day, she thinks, were casino employees heading to work.
“Being a toll booth collector was a childhood dream job for me, starting around age six,” Allen says. When it came to a halt, she received a text from a friend that said “I’m glad you got to do your dream job, but sorry it had to be turned over to a robot.”
Among the many drivers who stand out in her memory:
- “The man who drove with his feet. His skill was so fluid, it took a minute for me to process he had no arms. He would hand me a small bag to take money out of or a sufficient bill to make change from. He could grip the bill portion of the change between his toes, but I had to ask how to give him the coins. He guided me to place them on top of his foot so he could throw them on the floor and clean up later.”
- “The woman who was honest when I casually said, ‘Hello. How are you?’ In a very firm, real, piercing tone came her reply, ‘I don’t want to go home.’ I suspected abuse and pray for her still.”
- “My first flirt,” she says, “was the worst because it was new, but also the most intense. My comment, ‘I can make change,’ was met with ‘I can make babies.’ I ignored him.”
Hutchings was on the scene at the Egg Harbor Toll Plaza when cash transactions ceased. “I walked out with two of the collectors,” she says.“They weren’t crying, but they almost looked lost.”
SJTA Toll Operations Manager Barry J. Goldstein was there, too. “The shutdown of the cash booths was seamless,” he notes, adding that he made the arrangements. “But the atmosphere was kind of eerie. The toll collectors were sad. Their management company held a party for them at each toll plaza.”
According to Hutchings, cashless tolling likely will be the future of all major and even most minor New Jersey toll roads. “The Atlantic City Expressway is the first major roadway in New Jersey to go all-electronic tolling,” she points out. “The Turnpike is looking into it. The Atlantic City Expressway set the standard. Maybe we’re the guinea pig?”
The post Toll Collectors Close a Chapter of New Jersey History appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
He is the king of the exclamation.
Cowbell in hand, he tells tale of the “motion in the ocean” that gave birth to “Rock Lobster!” and its “giant clam!”
Swaggering at the mic, he transports us to our own “Private Idaho,” complete with “bottomless blue, blue, blue pool.”
Driving a car “as big as a whale,” he informs us that we are 15 miles from the “Love Shack, baby!”
For 50 years now, Fred Schneider’s perpetually animated voice has been an invitation to party—on the dance floor, in the car, at the cookout or in the living room. The B-52s frontman’s “sprechgesang,” or spoken song delivery, always heralds something exciting, out-there or foreboding, but never boring—like the ultimate dream-casting for a school principal you wish made the morning announcements.
Schneider and fellow lead vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson carved out their own deliciously kooky lane in late-’70s post-punk. The B-52s became known in the emerging New Wave scene for a sound and style that was both retro and futuristic. The band played with music and moods of yesteryear—like the 1960s beehive, or “B-52” hair Pierson and Wilson wore like vintage crowns piled on their heads—but their creations were entirely new.
This summer, years after their “retirement” from touring, the party never really stops for the B-52s.
“People don’t want us to leave,” Schneider tells New Jersey Monthly ahead of the band’s latest Garden State return.
While they got their start in Athens, Schneider is one half of the group’s New Jersey contingent.
“I still have family and friends there,” he says, newly 75 and “just groovy.”
“I still have friends from grammar school there. And every once in a while, I’ll go to, like, the ShopRite and all of a sudden, there would be somebody I sat next to in seventh grade, eighth grade.”
Oceanport, Athens and galaxies beyondFor the B-52s, past, present and future exist in something of a cosmic swirl.
The band marked its 50th anniversary by playing the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands before a storm and tornado caused a show cancellation at June’s Retro C Trop Music Festival in France. (Schneider called the circumstances a “total disaster” on Facebook.)
On July 11, the undeterred B-52s take the party to Freehold with fellow Jersey-connected act Dramarama opening. Before the show, Schneider, his fellow New Jersey bandmate Kate Pierson and Dramarama (which formed in Wayne in 1982) are being inducted into the Count Basie Center for the Arts Walk of Fame in Red Bank.
The B-52s show is part of the ParkStage summer concert series at the East Freehold Showgrounds in Freehold. It’s just one way the B-52s have defied their own 2022 announcement about retiring from touring. An extended slate of farewell shows was only the beginning. In April, the band wrapped a residency at the Venetian Las Vegas that started with dates in 2023. Last year, they had their Cosmic De-Evolution tour with Devo, which was just revived for more dates this fall.
“Touring’s gotten a lot easier than it was and we just cut back totally,” Schneider says. “We do a series of shows, we don’t really tour.”
Playing in Monmouth County means returning to his childhood stomping grounds. The B-52s singer-songwriter was born in Newark and spent his youngest years in Belleville before moving to Oceanport with his family in 1957. Schneider grew up watching Soupy Sales “religiously” and Officer Joe Bolton, both formative to his choice sense of humor. He was a big fan of elementary school in Oceanport, but he found Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch less fun.
“I didn’t like going to Shore Regional because it was very cliquish, but I wound up liking everybody OK, even in high school. But I decided that ‘you know, I’ve got to get out of here,’” Schneider says. “I went to Georgia because I wanted to study conservation, but let’s just say I didn’t.”
He intended to major in forestry at the University of Georgia in Athens, picturing a career in wildlife conservation. “Thank God I went there because I stayed and got into the band,” he says.
Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson. Photo: Shutterstock/Ron AdarLiving down South, Schneider linked up with his bandmates: Georgia locals Cindy Wilson, her brother Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland, plus fellow New Jerseyan Kate Pierson. Pierson, 78, grew up in Weehawken and Rutherford, near Schneider’s grandparents in the adjacent town of Lyndhurst. “When I was a little kid, they would take me to Rutherford,” he says, but he only crossed paths with Pierson in Georgia.
Schneider would make it back to Jersey over the years, but the Peach State had him hooked. “After I went to college in Georgia, I stayed there ’cause I really liked it. And then I would visit my family on the Shore,” he says. When he was still in school, he’d return home for summer work at Chicken Delight. (“I don’t miss that,” he says. “People were rude.”)
The B-52s took shape in 1976 as a kind of side project between friends. “We just happened to one night get together,” says Schneider, who had little music experience at that time. “I never sang in high school and I never really sang in grammar school except ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.'”
But he could work with words. “I like writing and we jammed,” Schneider says. He was living in Atlanta and ready for a change, so he moved back to Athens with music on his mind. “I said ‘let’s do this as a hobby or something’ … There wasn’t a definite plan or anything. But then all of a sudden things took off once we played Max’s Kansas City (in New York).”
By 1977, they were taking over the parties of the world, armed with Schneider’s exclamations and the alternately electrifying and haunting voices of Wilson and Pierson, who is also an anchor on keys and synth. Ricky Wilson was the band’s original guitarist until his death in 1985, after which Strickland moved from drums to guitar (he retired from touring in 2012).
“We started out as a party band, and we know how to write music and write songs that people can really dance to, up-tempo,” Schneider says. “We’re not slow dance-and-smooch. We’re dance fast-and-smooch.”
These days, when he’s off the road and at home, he spends most of his time on a different shore. “Once the band took off, we all moved (to) upstate New York together, and I wound up in New York for a while, and now I’m out on Long Island.”
Today, when Schneider says “Shore,” it sounds more like “shoooawhr” — drawn out like a Southerner. But as a new arrival to Georgia, he was an outlier in that regard.
“I had a thick New Jersey accent, so they wanted to hear me talk,” he says, barely getting the words out through a gut-busting laugh.
The never-ending partyThe B-52s stopped touring for a few years in the mid-’80s after guitarist Ricky Wilson, 32, died of complications of AIDS.
“We stayed in touch,” Schneider recalls. “We all lived in New York but I never thought about quitting. I had to give Cindy and Keith their time to mourn because it was a tremendous blow to the band.”
The band returned in a big way in 1989 with Cosmic Thing, their highest-charting album at No. 4, and home to two of their most popular songs, the ubiquitous “Love Shack” and “Roam.”
Now, 50 years on, Schneider says mutual respect keeps the music going.
“We’ve always shared everything equally—credit, money—which, you know, a lot of bands don’t, and that usually leads to some problems,” he says. “Everyone shared equally in writing royalties, everything from the beginning. We had our bad moments, but like every band, somehow we always manage to pull together. And now it’s been really great.”
B-52s concerts dance through the band’s ’70s, ’80s and ’90s eras, drawing a spectrum of generations.
“Everybody’s always been invited to our party,” Schneider says. “I mean, my mother used to come to all the shows in New Jersey, and she said, ‘they want me to sign autographs.’ I said, ‘go ahead, Mom’ … It’s fun. I don’t get tired of doing ‘Rock Lobster’ or ‘Love Shack.’ And it’s a lot better than wedding bands.”
Of course, those same songs have become staples of weddings and other life events.
“People want to escape,” he says of the band’s concert-parties. “This is a great time to try to escape because it’s just crazy.”
Like other members of the group, Schneider has released solo albums as well as two albums with his other band, the Superions, which he calls “really satisfying.”
While The B-52s have been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since the early aughts, the band has not been nominated. But after releasing seven albums since 1979, receiving three Grammy nominations and retiring without retiring, there’s still more to come.
Fans can look forward to a B-52s documentary that has been in the works for several years from director Craig Johnson. Yes, it’s still on the way, Schneider confirms.
“A book of lyrics is coming out, I believe a photo book … things are in the works,” he says. The film’s executive producer is B-52s fan and former “Saturday Night Live” star Fred Armisen, a drummer who played with the band at “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” in 2025. “He’s a great guy,” Schneider says. “We share really bad videos we find on Instagram and Facebook.”
Armisen also joined Schneider and Pierson in May for a performance at a celebration for the 40th anniversary of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” as part of the Netflix is a Joke Festival at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. “We’ve met Pee-Wee and had lunch with him and stuff like that, and we were such fans,” Schneider says of Paul Reubens, who died in 2023 after being diagnosed with leukemia and lung cancer.
Schneider always likes to play gigs back home in Jersey for the creature comforts of it all. “I still know my way around,” he says, remembering Sundays spent junking and antiquing in Englishtown. “I would tell my brothers and sister ‘OK, who wants to go to church, and who wants to go to the flea market?’” (The flea market won.)
Some of his fondest Jersey concert memories include the Sea.Hear.Now festival in 2019, when Schneider was crowned king in front of thousands on the beach in Asbury Park. “One of my nephews was the rock lobster who dances onstage,” he says. “I mean, we were going, like ‘Oh my God, look at all these people’ … You want to party in New Jersey, call us.”
The B-52s returned to the Shore town for Stone Pony Summer Stage in 2023.
“What I really miss is Asbury Park as it was back in the day, because it was just amazing,” Schneider says. “We would go there from 1957 on. Of course, it went downhill totally. But luckily, it’s coming back. But it can’t be what it was—nothing can be what it was.”
He turned 75 on July 1 and sees the age as less of a milestone than “maybe a stone I’ll drag around.”
“I’m not as spry as I used to be, but I think my voice has gotten a lot better, which is a good thing,” he says. “And rather than pony across the stage, I just try to really take command of what I do. And I feel like I do because the band is doing really well this late stage in our career. But you know what? What happens happens. And we’re gonna keep going until someone decides ‘you know, I want to retire.'”
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At the heart of this boutique’s philosophy is the idea that wellness should feel approachable. The store’s owner, Kris Haas, focuses on simple practices that customers can incorporate into daily life. Haas, a former school teacher, was prompted to launch her wellness business during the pandemic, when many people, especially teachers, were feeling highly stressed, she says.
Botanica Boutique offers a range of products to help folks unwind and manage stress. For instance, the Hack Your Nervous System card deck is designed to help people regulate stress in real time. Each card offers an actionable technique to calm the body and mind, whether through breathing exercises, sensory grounding, movement or mindfulness prompts.
“It gives people something concrete they can actually do,” the shop owner explains. “Sometimes when people are stressed, they don’t know where to begin. These cards make wellness feel accessible.”
That same practical approach extends throughout the store’s carefully curated inventory. Shelves are filled with blank journals and guided notebooks intended to support self-reflection, emotional processing and mental clarity. Journaling, Haas says, can be a powerful antidote to spiraling thoughts and chronic stress. “Writing things down helps people slow their thinking and process what’s happening internally,” she says. “It creates space between you and your worries.”
Photo: Courtesy of Live Love Lens/Jamie MeierShe also stocks herbal remedies and natural wellness products that soothe the nervous system, including calming supplements such as California poppy (considered a mild sedative) and skullcap (an anti-anxiety herb), along with CBD products. A proprietary, handcrafted botanical tea line with targeted wellness objectives—like sleep, focus and calm—is also in the works. She’ll also soon provide dried herbs, and guidance for customers creating their own personalized blends.
What makes the store distinctive is the meticulous care behind every product selection. Haas personally tests and vets each item before it reaches the shelves, ensuring quality and authenticity. “I’m pretty particular,” she admits. “If you see something here, you know it’s a good product.”
Photo: Courtesy of Live Love Lens/Jamie MeierSupporting fellow independent makers is central to the business model. Whenever possible, the owner prioritizes sourcing from women-, BIPOC- and queer-owned businesses, creating a retail ecosystem rooted in community and inclusivity.
That sense of connection extends beyond the retail operation. The shop regularly hosts events designed to foster community, creativity and healing. Gatherings range from monthly tarot- and oracle-card reading nights to collaborative wellness experiences with other local entrepreneurs and practitioners.
“I love creating experiences where people feel seen and nurtured,” the owner says. “There’s magic in bringing people together.”
The post Former School Teacher’s South Orange Boutique Is Part Apothecary, Part Curiosity Shop appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Illustration: Daniel GuideraIt’s not officially summer until the day I turn the kitchen of my place down the Shore into a factory for fiori di zucca fritti (fried squash flowers) and, somewhere around blossom number 150, curse myself for buying a whole case. My sister calls it Squashapalooza, a fitting name for a tradition involving too much produce, hot oil, and at least one existential moment.
When I was young, if my dad spotted the bright yellow-orange blossoms while shopping in the summer, he’d buy a few dozen. My mom would clean them, dip them in a batter (Bisquick, eggs, Romano cheese and water), and fry them into crispy, salty treats she called zhuzhadille, a word somehow derived from her grandmother’s Neapolitan dialect.
The annual tradition started in 2010. I was between jobs, and my mom had just finished cancer treatment. One afternoon on the beach—where all conversations inevitably turn to food—fried squash flowers came up. Neither Mom nor I had eaten them in years, and suddenly, we needed them. The next morning, I called Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck and, in a moment of questionable judgment, ordered a case. The bulk price seemed like a win—until reality set in.
The box was enormous—large enough to fill a shopping cart and attract curious looks. On the drive back to Lavallette, I kept muttering, “My mother is gonna kill me.” Mom’s reaction on seeing the box: “You’re out of your f$#%ing mind.” She wasn’t wrong.
We got to work. Squash blossoms demand respect. Each must be opened, inspected for hitchhiking bugs, relieved of its stamen (a move we now call the Mary Pop, after the friend who perfected it), and gently rinsed.
That fry session was a marathon. My mom mixed the batter while I piped ricotta, Romano and basil into the larger blossoms. One by one, we coated the flowers and slid them into the oil, where they puffed, crackled and turned golden.
We kept going until we ran out of Bisquick, eggs and oil. So we took a break for dinner on the deck, with towers of fried squash flowers, a Caprese salad with sun-ripe local tomatoes, crusty bread, and plenty of rosé. It was the perfect summer evening—except for the pile of raw produce still awaiting my attention.
After a quick supermarket run, I was back at it. By the time the last blossom was cooked and the fried flowers were wrapped in foil for sharing, it was nearly midnight.
More than a decade later, Squashapalooza continues. Each summer, I order a case, make the pilgrimage to Delicious Orchards, spend hours prepping and frying, and, somewhere around blossom number 150, curse myself. But I wouldn’t change a thing.
Though my mom is no longer with us, when my friends tuck into that platter of fried squash flowers, it feels like the tradition she and I started together lives on. And there’s nothing more delicious than that.
Jo Ann Liguori is a writer and editor who spends the summer in Lavallette, lives in Brooklyn the rest of the year, and can be found on Instagram all the time
@AuntJoCooks.
The post Oh My Gourd! The Messy, Delicious Joy of Frying Way Too Many Squash Blossoms appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
George Washington and New Jersey were perfect together. In New Jersey, Washington’s Continental Army achieved early victories over the British army at Trenton and Princeton. Here, Washington played cat and mouse with the British for several years, hiding his army’s movements behind New Jersey’s mountains, while his scouts surveilled the Brits from the ridgetops.
It’s estimated that more than 600 battles and skirmishes were fought in New Jersey during the American Revolution. Many of the homes that played key roles in those historic moments—including homes where Washington slept—have been preserved as witnesses to America’s epic struggle for independence. Here’s a selection you can visit as New Jersey commemorates the nation’s semiquincentennial.
Ford MansionMorristownWashington, his wife, Martha, his aides and his servants spent the frigid winter of 1779-80 at the gracious home of the wealthy Ford family. The home is part of the Morristown National Historic Park; guided tours are offered throughout opening hours, 11 am-3 pm, Thursday-Sunday. The neighboring Washington’s Headquarters Museum has an impressive display of Washington artifacts, including the general’s sword. FREE.
30 Washington Place; 973-539-2016
The Hermitage MuseumHo-Ho-KusPhoto: Courtesy of the Hermitage MuseumIn the summer of 1778, Theodosia Prevost—whose soldier husband had thrown in his lot with the British—invited Washington to bunk at what she described as her “commodious” home. For Prevost, it was a means of showing loyalty to the rebel cause. Washington made camp on the Hermitage grounds from July 11 to 14, along with Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayette, future president James Monroe, and future vice president Aaron Burr, who married Prevost (after her husband’s death) in the stone farmhouse, which was later transformed into the Victorian Gothic mansion. Guided tours ($10) of the National Historic Landmark are offered 1:15-3:15 pm, Friday-Sunday. The home will celebrate America’s 250th on July 11 with musket firing and craft demonstrations.
335 Franklin Turnpike; 201-445-8311
Boxwood Hall State Historic SiteElizabethPhoto: Ken SchlagerHamilton slept here. Lafayette slept here. Washington did not, but he did drop by for lunch with the home’s owner, Elias Boudinot, who preceded Washington in the pre-Constitution presidency of the new republic. Today, the three-story mansion is frayed, but still sports its intricate crown moldings and marble fireplaces. Each room is furnished with antiques and reproduction wallpaper to reflect a period in the home’s long history. Open 9 am-5 pm, Monday-Friday. Call ahead for a fact-filled, one-hour tour. FREE.
1073 E. Jersey Street; 908-282-7617
Dey MansionWaynePhoto: Courtesy of Passaic CountyIn 1780, Washington spent the better part of July, and then October and November, headquartered at the three-story-brick-and-brownstone home of Theunis and Hester Dey (pronounced “die”). An hour-long tour provides details of the rooms where Washington slept, worked and greeted the likes of Mad Anthony Wayne and Lafayette. Period furnishings fill the impressively maintained home; additional artifacts at the greeting center include Washington’s shaving mug. Open 10 am-5 pm, Wednesday-Sunday; admission $5. Passaic County will celebrate America’s 250th birthday at the mansion with its annual July 4th picnic, which is free.
199 Totowa Road; 973-706-6640
Thomas Clarke HousePrincetonThis modest, white-clapboard 1772 farmhouse sits atop the rolling hill where, on January 3, 1777, Washington rallied his troops for a pivotal victory in the Battle of Princeton. The house, which served as a field hospital after the clash, offers two rooms with extensive displays of period artifacts and weaponry. This year’s July 4th celebration will include a reading of the Declaration of Independence, musket firing and living-history demonstrations. Open 10 am-noon and 1-4 pm, Wednesday-Sunday. For battlefield tours go to pbs1777.org. FREE.
500 Mercer Road; 609-921-0074
Whitall House MuseumRed Bank Battlefield ParkThis 1766 brick farmhouse on the Delaware River served as a hospital for American and Hessian soldiers in October 1777. Open for tours 11 am-3 pm, Thursday-Sunday, April 6-October 22. FREE.
100 Hessian Avenue; 856-853-5120
Hancock HouseLower Alloways CreekBuilt in 1734, this house was the site of a 1778 massacre of at least 10 citizens and militia. Open for tours 9 am-4 pm, Wednesday-Saturday, and 1-4 pm, Sunday. FREE.
3 Front Street; 856-935-4373
Steuben HouseRiver EdgeOne of three historic homes at Historic New Bridge Landing, the Dutch sandstone Steuben House witnessed the Continental Army’s desperate withdrawal from the British in November 1776. The grounds, with interpretive signage, are open daily, dawn to dusk. The Bergen County Historical Society will open the Steuben House on July 4th for a walking tour. Admission to the site is $12.50 or $7.50 for students.
1201 Main Street; 201-343-9492
Rockingham Historic SiteFranklin TownshipDating to 1710, the wood-frame house served as Washington’s final headquarters in the waning months of the war in 1783. Visit rockingham.net information about taking a guided tour of the home. FREE.
84 Laurel Avenue; 609-683-7132
Craig HouseFreeholdThe Craig family farmhouse served as a field hospital for the British during the 1778 Battle of Monmouth. Restored with period furnishings, it’s now part of Monmouth Battlefield State Park. Open 1-4 pm, Sunday. FREE.
Route 9; 732-462-9616
Abraham Staats HouseSouth Bound BrookThe house was the headquarters, from March to June 1779, for General Baron von Steuben, who brought Prussian training and tactics to the Continental Army. Tours are by appointment. FREE.
17 Von Steuben Lane; 732-369-3583
Cannonball HouseSpringfieldBuilt in 1741, this yellow clapboard house survived the Battle of Springfield, during which the New Jersey militia beat back a superior British and Hessian force. Artifacts on display include a cannonball that penetrated the house during the 1780 battle. Tours are by appointment. FREE.
126 Morris Avenue; 973-912-4464
Jacobus Vandeveer House & MuseumBedminsterThe Dutch-style farmhouse, with its heavy wood beams and Delft-tiled fireplace, served as headquarters for General Henry Knox, Washington’s artillery chief, during the second Middlebrook Encampment of 1778-79. Admission is $10 or free for visitors ages 12 and under.
3055 River Road; 908-397-3377
Indian King Tavern MuseumHaddonfieldThis is a tavern, not a home, but Indian King Tavern was the site of several sessions of the New Jersey Legislature during the Revolution. Tours are offered Wednesday-Sunday; hours vary, so check before visiting. FREE.
223 Kings Highway East; 856-429-6792
Ken Schlager is a lecturer at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and the former editor of New Jersey Monthly.
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Dogs in a Pile, the Jersey Shore-based jam band that is quickly climbing the ranks of the national music scene, may be playing venues like the Stone Pony nowadays, but the group doesn’t forget its musical roots.
“One of the things we’ve always been about, from when the band first started, is that all of our fans were just our friends, and they were just enjoying having their buddies’ band playing backyards and stuff,” says bassist Sam Lucid, a Sea Girt native. “And it’s always been a super-close family vibe, and that’s what we try to portray to new people.”
Dogs in a Pile is currently touring in support of Distroid, which came out last year.The quintet of accomplished and ambitious 20-somethings is performing at the storied spot in Asbury Park for the third consecutive year, with its 2026 show slated for Saturday, August 8. The group is currently on the road in support of their third LP, Distroid, released in November 2025.
“We had the freedom to make it sound exactly how we wanted to,” singer and guitarist Jimmy Law, a Point Pleasant native, says of the album.
Distroid—produced by the band’s keyboard player, Jeremy Kaplan—sounds true to the Dogs experience, coming close to capturing the band’s buzzworthy live show. There are tricky stylistic shifts, such as the driving-country-to-chill-reggae transition of “Shenanigans,” as well as sprawling epics like the grandiose “Thomas Duncan, Pt. 3,” and plenty of Jersey swagger in the Ocean Avenue Stompers horns-assisted “My Disguise.”
“Every single one of those dudes are like the best at what they do—so when you put them all together like that, that’s a serious force,” says Jersey Shore tastemaker Tim Donnelly, a journalist and event producer who cofounded the annual Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, which featured Dogs in a Pile in 2022.
The band’s current lineup—Law, Lucid, and Forked River-native drummer Joe Babick, alongside Kaplan and guitarist/singer Brian Murray, both from Long Island—have been together since 2019. But, as Donnelly notes, Law had been making waves on Asbury Park stages since his preteen years.
“Everybody knew about Jimmy, and then all of a sudden this band gets put together and Jimmy’s a part of something, he’s not the [only] thing,” Donnelly says. “That was really amazing to me, just to see the talent level of all of these guys and how they’re able to push each other, but more importantly, in how they do it in that whole Grateful Dead kind of improvisational situation. You can’t teach that stuff—it’s got to be there inherently, and they have that, and that is rare. Bands work their whole lives to do that.”
Photographer Jay Blakesberg, a Clark native best known for his images of the Grateful Dead, first saw Dogs in a Pile at the Peach festival in Pennsylvania in 2022 and has been a fan ever since.
Noting how the band borrowed its name from a Grateful Dead lyric, in the song “He’s Gone,” Blakesberg says, “I think that everybody expects them to be a Grateful Dead tribute band, and they’ve got that music deep in their veins as young kids, but they are not…. They’re just rock-solid, really good, improvisational, groovy jam-band music that’s got their own twist.”
Blakesberg, whose musical history with Asbury Park dates back to seeing the Jerry Garcia Band at Convention Hall in 1977, says Dogs in a Pile has found their place in the city’s musical landscape. “Asbury Park’s just got the vibe, and now they’ve got the band,” he says.
The demand is evidenced by the band’s touring schedule across the country and their growing Dog Pound Facebook fan group.
“Thinking about the fans and how supportive they are can really help you,” says Lucid. “As a touring musician, it’s easy to get discouraged, but when you think about, We can write these songs, and people are singing them back to us and loving them and posting on Facebook, that that song really brightened their day or changed their life in a small way—that’s really what it’s all about.”
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A burger “straight-up”—no condiments, extra-crispy french fries, perhaps a Coke—and Bruce Springsteen is “in heaven.” If you subscribe to the centuries-old adage, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” then Andre Fowles can reveal quite a bit about New Jersey’s most famous son.
As the primary personal chef for Springsteen and his wife, singer/songwriter Patti Scialfa, Fowles cooks lunch and dinner at the musicians’ Colts Neck ranch several times a week. His gig runs the gastronomical gamut, from meals with such high-profile guests as Sting or the Obamas (for the latter, in Spain, he whipped up tapas and seafood paella) to family feasts each Sunday in Jersey (where his veggie-laden lasagna is in heavy rotation). Fowles bakes all pastries from scratch, save for the cinnamon buns and powdered donuts Springsteen fancies from the nearby family-run market Delicious Orchards. “Even when Bruce is on tour, we’ll package up some of [those treats] for him,” Fowles says. “It’s like a taste of home—made in New Jersey, stuff that he grew up on.”
Fowles, 37, a Culinary Institute of America alum and three-time champion on the Food Network’s Chopped, published his first cookbook, My Jamaican Table, this year. A passionate homage to the vibrant flavors of his Caribbean homeland and to the women who raised him and taught him to cook, it comprises recipes he says have swirled in his head for years. He guides readers through Jamaican classics like jerk chicken, curry goat, and rice and peas, as well as reimagined fusion dishes like Guinness-braised short ribs, a jerk smash-burger with bacon jam, and rum-cake tiramisu. Springsteen penned the book’s foreword, writing, “We both believe in bringing people together, whether it’s around a table or a stage.”
Fowles’s approach in the Springsteen kitchen, he explains, is “as healthy as possible without compromising on the flavors.” Rather than relying on, say, gobs of butter to attain peak tastiness, he layers spices, mixes marinades, and spotlights produce at its peak. Garden-fresh salads, salsas and chimichurris accompany grilled steak and seafood. (The fridge is always stocked with homemade hot sauce for Scialfa, whose spice tolerance is higher than Bruce’s, Fowles confirms with a hearty chuckle.) For lunch on the April afternoon when we spoke, he’d fixed a roast chicken, broccoli with garlic confit and baby potatoes, and an herby frisée salad with a lemon vinaigrette.
Of course, some delicacies you “let be,” Fowles says. He makes a mean fried chicken (bathed in buttermilk, impeccably seasoned and cooked to crunchy perfection) that Bruce “absolutely loves.” He’s also a fan of Fowles’s kicky mac and cheese, and cacio e pepe is “one of his favorite pasta dishes in the world.”
Fowles lauds the Springsteens as “grounded…incredibly humble, beautiful people….They see you for who you are. They shake your hand and give you a hug: ‘What’s going on? How is the family? How is your day going? Come sit; come talk with me…’ Their home becomes your home.”
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Take a look at a map of New Jersey, and it’s hard to miss the countless specks of blue dotting every corner of the state. From High Point to Cape May, reservoirs and lakes both public and private are waiting to be enjoyed.
Darlington LakeMahwahNestled in the northwest corner of Bergen County, Darlington County Park, with its lake, is a prime summer spot. The lake’s main attraction is the inflatable Splash Zone obstacle course—there’s one option for kids between 39 and 48 inches tall, and one for visitors who are 48 inches tall and up. For a quieter time at the lake, there are swimming areas, too. Other activities in the county park include catch-and-release fishing, picnicking, trails and basketball.
Tomahawk LakeSpartaSoon to celebrate 75 years, Tomahawk Lake’s water park features a handful of slides and rides, plus a selection of rowboats, paddleboats and bumper boats, volleyball, a miniature golf course and more. Adults can enjoy a beer garden while kids can choose from multiple snack bars.
Lake HopatcongSussex and Morris countiesPhoto: AEROJO Drone ProductionsThe lake stretches roughly 4 square miles and is shared by Sussex and Morris counties, holding the title of New Jersey’s largest body of fresh water. Its popularity among visitors has been 150 years in the making. On the water, visitors can take their choice of boat, kayak or hydrobike and hit the open water to their heart’s desire. Tours take guests to see Halsey Island, Great Cove and more of the lake’s most notable landmarks. Or families can just spend a day along the lake shore swimming, cooking on the provided grills, and picnicking.
Sunrise Lake Beach ClubMorris TownshipJust a ten-minute drive from downtown Morristown, this lake within pretty Lewis Morris County Park offers a small beach, swimming, an inflatable obstacle course (ages 7 and up; passing a swim test is required), paddleboat rentals and a snack bar. Day and seasonal passes are on offer, as are camps and “munchkin Mondays” from 9-11:30 am. —Julie Gordon
Round Valley ReservoirLebanonLebanon’s 2,350-acre, 180-foot-deep reservoir is one of Hunterdon County’s crown jewels. This largest reservoir in the Garden State is a serene spot which offers swimming with lifeguard supervision, boating, fishing and wilderness camping—the only New Jersey state park to do so (permit required).
Turkey Swamp ParkFreeholdThis 17-acre lake in the Pine Barrens offers rentable kayaks, canoes, rowboats and paddleboats. Visitors can also fish along the shore for bass, catfish and bluegills or take a fishing rod out on a boat. The park offers hiking trails, camping, an archery range and multiple playgrounds. —Jessica Hammer
Deal LakeMonmouth CountyThough it’s a stone throw away from the ocean, Monmouth County’s largest lake has given Shore residents in the area a taste of lake life since it was created from an estuary in 1890. Deal Lake features different channels and ponds that wind through the surrounding towns. Fish for bass and carp, rent a kayak from Deal Lake Dock Co., or coast around the 27 miles of shoreline on a motorboat—just be wary of shallow waters and no-wake zones!
Union LakeCumberland CountySouth Jersey’s biggest lake is an outdoors lover’s dream, offering a vast area perfect for boating, fishing, birding and more. Watch for bald eagles and ospreys before hitting the water yourself. Public boat ramps are available, and everything from kayaks to motorboats up to 10 horsepower are permitted.
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As a child, Jules Duffy painted. Later, even with a thriving interior design business, Duffy painted. “When my kids were migrating out of the house, I knew I had more time. I wanted something to fill that void,” she explains.
With her watercolor talent well honed, she decided to explore oil painting. She had a lot to learn and began taking classes and attending workshops. “I wanted to learn the proper way, the proper strokes, the proper methods,” she says. “I created a personal passion, not just a career passion.”
Duffy’s glossy notecards feature florals, marine scenes and Harbor Island, Bahamas—a favorite spot for inspiration. A set of five is $35. Photo: Laura MossDuffy’s work, now displayed in galleries and private collections, is inspired by color. As a sought-after interior designer, she’s known for splashes of saturated hues. “My love for color paved the way for my interior design career,” she says. And that career paved the way for her to explore painting with the same keen eye.
Duffy splits her time between Chatham and Bay Head. “I’m drawn to the water,” she explains. “Living at the Shore, I’m constantly inspired by the changing water and sky.” One of her favorite subjects: sailboats. Her husband, Lawrence, is a skilled sailor, and she often captures his likeness on the water. “Since I started painting, I look at the world through a completely different lens. It’s added so many meaningful layers to my life,” she says.
Duffy partnered with a high-end puzzle company to create these hand-cut wooden works: “They’re truly bespoke, heirloom pieces.” Photo: Laura MossDuffy’s original oil paintings can cost thousands of dollars. She also creates more affordable giclées—canvas prints of her work—that she enhances by hand. “I paint over the print so you can see the brush strokes. I make it an original. I’m constantly striving to take my art to the next level. It’s a lifetime of education,” she says.
“Painting is a journey, an adventure,” Duffy says. “You need to be willing to dive in and make mistakes. Trust me, there are a lot of paintings I’ve done that no one will ever see.”
For more on Duffy’s work, visit julesduffyfineart.com.
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If you close your eyes while you listen to Marel Hidalgo play his guitar, his music will usher you to a place of energy, layered rhythms and improvisation that has a satisfying depth. Open your eyes, and you will find a 17-year-old musical phenom, likely spiffily dressed in a full suit, who draws soul from his instrument as though he has been mastering it for a lifetime.
Hidalgo, a Neptune native, picked up his first guitar at age four, and the connection quickly grew from play to commitment. “The passion grows as you learn and are challenged more and more. You start thinking that there’s nothing in the world you would rather do all day long than play music,” he says, adding, “That’s when everyone around you gets worried.”
Hidalgo calls his father, Mahonrry Hidalgo, his “unintentionally first musical mentor.” Mahonrry, who, with his wife, Eslin Morris, owns Luna Verde, a vegan Mexican restaurant in Bradley Beach, enjoyed playing music for his toddler son. “One of my earliest memories is listening to Charlie Parker and [Russian composer Igor] Stravinsky,” Hidalgo says. “My dad thought that playing those two completely different artists for me was a way to open my mind to complexity.”
By six, Hidalgo had earned the respect of other musicians and was leading a band, directing it as he saw fit. “I was very strict; since I was a little kid and they were adults, I was given a pass,” he says. “I wanted the band to sound like the original recordings of Jeff Beck, Santana and Joe Satriani’s albums to the note.”
Hidalgo received his first guitar instruction from Jerry Franklin, a teacher at Big Beat Music Studio in Neptune. Fine-tuning his natural talent, he learned how to “recognize patterns, rhythms, sounds, pitch, melodies, chords and harmony, all by ear.” He experimented with different genres before settling on jazz, for the moment, while still recognizing the gifts of other genres. “Blues is the root of everything, reggae gave me a sense of groove, progressive rock developed my ear and guitar technique, Latin and jazz fusion [gave me] a more sophisticated understanding of rhythm and the feeling of syncopation.”
That musical fluency has allowed him to share stages with contemporary greats like Billy Hart, Monty Alexander, Roger Humphries and John Lee. Hidalgo says carrying the tradition of jazz into the next generation is not just an honor, but a responsibility. “If we understand this art form as one that is passed from generation to generation, musician to musician, when you are in the presence of someone, let’s say, like Mr. Alexander, you are also in the presence of Oscar Peterson,” he says, naming a succession of artists whose influences spring from jazz’s musical lineage. “A little secret: If you listen carefully, you can always hear the voices of the ones you came from cutting through the noise.”
Leading ensembles and playing solo jazz guitar are both edifying as Hidalago continues to explore music. “Solo jazz guitar is by nature freer,” he says, “and gives more room to explore the song from top to bottom. I don’t have to be tied down to the original form, and I can come up with arrangements/sections on the fly. Within the more traditional jazz group, the interaction between all the members is what makes the song sound best. As Wynton Marsalis put it, ‘Jazz is democracy in action.’”
Self-assured beyond his years, Hidalgo recognizes the scope of opportunities his talent has garnered. At the age of six, he played at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; at nine, he made his first appearance on the Exit Zero Jazz Festival Mainstage; last year, he brought his Jamaican Jazz Group to the New York Guitar Festival in Bryant Park; and in April, he acted as arranger, orchestrator and soloist, leading his jazz quartet in front of a large wind orchestra at the Teatro Nacional in Costa Rica. “The scenery doesn’t change the essence of the music,” he says. “It reaffirms that music is a universal language.”
Hidalgo keeps a tight schedule, performing, writing arrangements for large ensembles, orchestrating and practicing. While this is not the life of a typical Jersey teen, he sees little sacrifice in his busy schedule. “A few hours of lost sleep or long flights….Doing what you love is a privilege that most people unfortunately don’t have,” he notes. That sense of purpose has remained a constant. After one of his earliest performances, Hidalgo told an interviewer, “I like to play music because it makes me happy, and it makes people happy.” He says today, “Nothing has changed ever since.”
To learn more, visit @marelhidalgo on Instagram or marelhildagomusic.com.
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When the first wave of uncomfortable summer heat rolls in, many New Jerseyans follow a routine as old as time—pack up the car and head toward the Shore in a futile effort to beat the traffic. But hiding in plain sight off of Route 80, Lake Hopatcong offers just as much summer fun.
The lake stretches roughly 4 square miles and is shared by Sussex and Morris counties, holding the title of New Jersey’s largest body of fresh water. Once an area made up of two smaller lakes, it was altered in the 19th century to become the source of the Morris Canal. The result was a sprawling lake that’s continued to attract visitors from far beyond the borders of the Garden State.
[RELATED: 8 Best Lakes in New Jersey to Visit This Summer]
“I’ve had people from New York, Washington, and even Europe who have come out on tours with me,” says Paige Block, a tour guide at Lake Hopatcong Adventure Company, which offers kayaking, hydrobiking and other outdoor activities.
Its popularity among visitors has been 150 years in the making. When railroads boomed in the late 19th century, it didn’t take long for a connection to be made at Nolans Point along the lake’s east side. The arrival of the first passenger train in 1882 established Lake Hopatcong as a go-to summer spot. Attractions over the years have included an amusement park, roller rink and tavern.
Photo: AEROJO Drone ProductionsWhile the landscape in 2026 is far different, Live the Lake NJ, a family of businesses on Lake Hopatcong, still offers a host of activities that appeal to sunbathers and adrenaline seekers alike. On the water, visitors can take their choice of boat, kayak or hydrobike and hit the open water to their heart’s desire. Tours take guests to see Halsey Island, Great Cove and more of the lake’s most notable landmarks.
Aboard Miss Lotta, a 57-foot Skipperliner, passengers are treated to various themed cruises, including happy-hour and cocktail rides, a narrated historical tour, and lunch, brunch and dinner cruises. (Don’t worry—the boat has a fully enclosed dining room.) Private cruise packages are also offered.
Other activities include an 18-hole mini-golf course with holes themed after Lake Hopatcong history. A handful of dining options are available at Nolans Point. The Windlass has been serving Italian and American eats to lakegoers for more than 60 years and offers porch dining and live music events. Alice’s features open-air dining and the Big Fish Lounge, home to live music and various games.
Or families can just spend a day along the lake shore swimming, cooking on the provided grills, and picnicking. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, fees for residents are $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends and holidays; for nonresidents, it’s $10 on weekdays and $20 on weekends.
Photo: AEROJO Drone ProductionsLive the Lake shares Lake Hopatcong with the thousands of residents who live on its shore and in the surrounding area. Former resident Jessica Murphy has lived in three of the four surrounding towns on the lake and got married on its shores. “The lake was a big part of my life all the time. Growing up, I spent pretty much my whole summers there swimming and sailing,” she says.
Murphy’s lake love continued into her adult life, when she served as editor of the Lake Hopatcong News, a publication dedicated to news and culture in the lake region. She also cofounded the nonprofit Lake Hopatcong Foundation and served as its president and executive director for nearly 10 years. The organization devotes itself to preservation and sustainability efforts for the lake, especially those that go unnoticed.
“There are a lot of invisible things that help make the lake healthier,” Murphy says. “It can sometimes be difficult to get people to rally around something like storm water management. Buy-in and coordination can be difficult for those things that you don’t really see, but are making a quiet difference underground.”
Though private properties surround most of the lake’s perimeter, Murphy says a distinct pride exists among residents and a sense of community can be found, especially during difficult times.
She recalls that, while working at the foundation, residents offered support during a 2019 algae bloom that shut the lake down for a whole summer. “When it first happened, I remember that people were calling us asking, ‘What can I do at my house? What type of fertilizer should I be using? Is there anything I can do?’” she says. “People cared about the lake and were quick to step up during a crisis.” Murphy hopes lake residents will continue this mindset even when it isn’t demanded by an emergency.
Whether it’s as a booming tourist attraction or a sleepy lake for residents, Lake Hopatcong requires the continued support of visitors, locals and admirers for its preservation. To donate to the foundation, visit lakehopatcongfoundation.org.
James LaForge is a former editorial assistant at New Jersey Monthly and a current fellow at Business Insider.
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Wall Street banker-turned-TV anchor Stephanie Ruhle’s Jersey hustle delivers ratings. After four years hosting The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, she’s moving from weeknights at 11 pm to a new two-hour morning show on MS NOW, Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle, debuting today at 9 am.
“In many ways, I’m sad to leave The 11th Hour,” Ruhle told New Jersey Monthly in an interview a few days before her final episode. “I love our show, I love our audience, I love late night,” she said. “I love the irreverent vibe of it all. The good news is we’re not going to lose that sort of irreverence. I think we need that on morning TV. Right now, there are lots of folks out there who feel disconnected from the media, or they want to tune out because they’re overwhelmed by news.”
Money, Power, Politics aims tohelp viewers learn about the most important issues of the day. It has carried over elements of The 11th Hour—the show’s Nightcap roundtable, marquee guests and thoughtful analysis—and will introduce audience involvement, including a call-in segment.
“When I see people on the street, they say, ‘You’re asking the questions on your show that I’m screaming at my TV about!’ I don’t want people to scream at their TVs. I want them to be part of the show,” Ruhle says.
Ruhle, who recently turned 50, grew up in Bergen County’s Park Ridge. She and her husband, Andy Hubbard, have three children and split their time between Manhattan and Long Beach Island, where they’ll soon decamp to their vacation home for the summer. Ruhle will continue to anchor her show while she’s in New Jersey, including for a number of live broadcasts.
Ruhle with her family in Long Beach Island. Photo: Eric Hance PhotographyAfter graduating from Lehigh University in 1997, Ruhle initially pursued a career in banking. But even as she rose through the ranks—she was previously a managing director for Deutsche Bank—she always dreamed of working in television. In 2011, while speaking at a White House event, she was asked what she wanted to do next. Taking a leap, she revealed her interest in broadcasting.
A panelist at the event offered to introduce Ruhle to Andy Lack, then head of Bloomberg Television. When they met, she asked Lack to take a chance on her, offering to work for the lowest salary in the organization if he gave her a chance to anchor a show and taught her how to be on TV. He agreed, and the rest is history.
After five years at Bloomberg TV, Ruhle followed Lack over to MSNBC, where she first co-anchored a business-focused show with her friend and colleague Ali Velshi. In 2022, she moved into the anchor position at The 11th Hour—a role that Velshi will now be taking over.
Photo: Courtesy of MS NOWRuhle believes that her background in business helps viewers make sense of what’s happening today.
“Even if you don’t care about politics and never vote, you care about the world around you,” she says. “We want to make a show for people that want to be informed and engaged.”
Does she believe that the country is deeply politically divided? Not so much.
“I think for the most part, people are Jersey-style. We’re practical, right?” she says with a laugh. “We want to live in a safe town. We want to be financially secure, and socially free, and we want our kids to go to a good school. We want to have jobs and we want to be able to afford healthcare. That doesn’t mean one side is good or one side is bad. It means: Let’s understand what’s happening in the world.”
Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle airs on MS NOW weekdays from 9 am to 11 am ET.
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Surfing isn’t just another hobby for Caroline Duerr. Raised in Brielle among the tight-knit Shore towns near Manasquan, surfing was part of everyday life. Her father, Scott Duerr—a South Orange native and East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame inductee—passed down his love of the sport early.
“He’s the definition of a rad dad,” Duerr says. “When we could barely swim, we’d be out there with floaties and little buoys on our backs.” Her mother, Leslie, remembers the occasional side-eye from beachgoers, but surfing is just what the Duerrs do.
Duerr is our June 2026 cover model. Buy the issue here. Photo: Ann Coen[RELATED: 33 Water Activities to Try at the Jersey Shore]
Still, learning wasn’t easy. Duerr remembers the fear of being under too long and taking waves head-on. “Sometimes you learn your limits the hard way,” she says. Her first board, a custom, hot-pink Byrne she named Beep Bop, was her prized possession until it snapped during a high-tide session. “We got her fixed, but she was never the same. I was devastated,” she says.
Now 31, Duerr splits her time between the classroom and the beach, teaching English at the K-8 New School of Monmouth County and coaching advanced girls’ surf teams at Pink Pineapple surf camp in Manasquan.
“Surfing does so much for your confidence as a young girl,” she says.
A lifelong athlete, Duerr played collegiate soccer and, more recently, took up skateboarding, winning the first-ever women’s competition at FDR Skatepark in Philadelphia in 2021. Across disciplines, she sees a clear through line. “Movement is a form of medicine,” says Duerr. “There’s an art to falling.”
Caroline Duerr has been surfing since childhood and more recently took up skateboarding. Photo: Ann CoenThat philosophy carries into everyday life—whether it’s a tough school day, a family emergency, or encouraging a young surfer to get back out there. “When things get overwhelming, I remind myself to stay calm and breathe,” she says. “You always come out stronger on the other side of the wave.”
The ideal Shore day of her youth reflects that same rhythm.
“I’d start with riding my bike with my sisters to the beach,” Duerr says. “We’d stop at Brielle Bagels—I’d get a pork roll, egg and cheese with an orange juice—catch the drawbridge like we always do, and then longboard with our friends. We don’t plan on seeing anyone, but everyone just shows up. That’s the Jersey Shore we grew up on.”
The day would end the way all good beach days do: a burger and milkshake (with hard ice cream) from Carlson’s Corner, a quick shower, family dinner at home, and Kohr’s Frozen Custard with fireworks lighting up the sky at Jenkinson’s Boardwalk.
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It’s a familiar scenario for any busy parent: It’s 4:30 pm and you’ve just arrived home. The kids make a mad dash for the kitchen, grabbing whatever snacks they can get their hands on. Amid the chaos, you need to figure out a plan for dinner.
That’s where Rachel Mansfield comes in.
Mansfield’s cookbook is out August 4 from Simon & Schuster. Over the last 10 years, Mansfield, a Short Hills mom of three, has built a brand around healthy, simple, kid-friendly recipes, which she shares with her 1.3 million-strong Instagram community and in her new cookbook, More, Please!: Feel-Good Meals for Busy Families and Their Picky Eaters, out August 4 from Simon & Schuster. Earlier this year, she also launched a kids’ snack-food line, Cadootz, which sells organic, non-GMO, gluten-free—and actually tasty—products (and is newly available at Target).
“My recipes aren’t elaborate; they’re not going to have you spending hours in the kitchen or with ingredients you’ve never heard of,” she says. Her recipes are ready in 30 minutes to under an hour.
It all started 10 years ago, when Mansfield was let go from her full-time executive assistant job. Equipped with a love of cooking and baking, she started sharing her healthy recipes for overnight oats online, expanding from there as her popularity grew.
“I’ve always had a passion for making food that tastes good but also makes you feel good,” she says. “I don’t want people to sacrifice flavor for health.”
She gave herself six months to see if she could turn her passion into a profitable business. She succeeded.
Beyond recipes, planning is a key part of Mansfield’s success in her own home. “On Sundays I map out our entire week,” she says, from her kids’ activities to a detailed meal plan for lunches and dinners. She doesn’t meal prep, per se, but does assemble a lot of lunchbox items, like washed and cut fruits and veggies.
“Having a plan makes such a difference because then you’re not frazzled,” she says. “And if you keep your pantry and your fridge stocked up, you’re not going to want to spend the money ordering food.”
Her new book features 100 of her top recipes, from Breakfast-for-Dinner Burrito Bowls to 20-Minute Quicker-than-Takeout Shrimp Teriyaki. Instead of being organized by appetizer, entrée and dessert, it’s categorized by the way a person might actually decide what to cook for a family, with chapters like “What to Do With a Pound of Ground Meat” and “Not-So-Boring Chicken.”
“I came from a house where my mom made three to four different meals every night; she was running around like a crazy person trying to make me the pizza bagels I wanted, and my brother the chicken fingers, and my dad a meatloaf,” Mansfield says. “And I said, ‘I’m not doing that.’ Like, ‘You get what you get and and you don’t get upset—that is what we’re having.’”
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The world’s biggest sporting event hits the Garden State on Saturday, June 13. Here are some terrific places to take in all the action.
Truly Believe Bar Installation: Now through Sunday, July 19
: Texas Arizona, Hoboken
: With a grand opening on Tuesday, June 9, Texas Arizona will be transformed into a U.S. Soccer headquarters.
Library FC: Soccer Viewing Party: Thursday, June 11 through Friday, June 19
: Hoboken Public Library, Hoboken
: If you’re looking for a family-friendly way to watch the World Cup, the Hoboken Library will be streaming matches.
Soccer Bar Party: Thursday, June 11 through Saturday, July 11
: Madd Hatter, Hoboken
: Enjoy good food, drink specials and the World Cup streamed on more than 100 TVs.
The Hutton World Cup Watch Parties: Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: The Hutton Restaurant, Jersey City
: For casual World Cup viewing, the Hutton will be streaming matches on their patio.
Pier 13 : Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: Pier 13, Hoboken
: Experience the World Cup from the waterfront at Pier 13. Featuring food truck, drinks and live music, this is a perfect destination for casual viewers.
World Cup Headquarters: Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: Asbury Ale House, Asbury Park & Howell
: Experience the World Cup at Asbury Ale House with good food, drink specials, DJs, giveaways and more.
Red Bank World Cup Activation Series : Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: Various Red Bank locations
: The World Cup Activation Series includes public watch parties at Count Basie Park and other immersive experiences throughout town. This is a part of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s NJ World Cup Community Initiative Grant Program.
Soccer at the Shore: Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City
: Enjoy the World Cup from the pool side at Harrah’s. Featuring global flavors, signature cocktails and elevated resort entertainment.
Summer of Soccer: Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19
: Pier Village, Long Branch
: Travel through the village and collect stamp, unlock rewards, and enter to win the grand prize. Wave Resort is also offering outdoor watch parties at the Carousel Bar and Pool Bar featuring branded giveaways and Brazilian-themed food, music and more.
*Flag Cities: Friday, June 12 through Friday, June 26*
: Various locations
: This World Cup fan festival takes place in various cities in New Jersey throughout the month, with live broadcasts, food trucks, soccer activities, live music and more.
The Pig and Parrot: Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, July 19
: The Pig and Parrot (all locations)
: With 30 different screens, the Pig and Parrot will be hosting watch parties at all of their locations with drink specials, games, DJs and more.
Big Match Block Parties: Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, July 19
: Various Hoboken locations
: This city wide soccer celebration spans six neighborhoods and will feature outdoor viewing parties, family-friendly programming, food and more.
Big Match Block Parties: Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, July 19
: Various Hoboken locations
: This city wide soccer celebration spans six neighborhoods and will feature outdoor viewing parties, family-friendly programming, food and more.
Jersey Fan Hub: Sunday, June 14 through Friday, June 26 and Wednesday, July 1 through Wednesday, July 15
: Sports Illustrated Stadium, Harrison
: Enter for free and enjoy real-time broadcasts, live entertainment and more fan experiences from inside a professional soccer stadium.
Soccer & Science: Sunday, June 14 through Sunday, July 19
: Liberty Science Center, Jersey City
: Throughout the summer the Liberty Science Center will be offering events ranging from FC Meet & Greets, soccer themed After Dark activities, drone soccer, the puppy World Cup and more.
FIFA World Cup 26 Soccer Watch Party: Sunday, July 19 (2 pm)
: BergenPAC, Englewood
: Watch the final on the big screen at Bergen PAC.
International Soccer Finals Watch Party: Sunday, July 19 (2-5:30 pm)
: The Lawn on District Drive at The Park, Berkeley Heights
: Watch the final with food, lawn games, local vendors, live music, a kids’ zone and more! Registration is encouraged.
The post Where to Watch the 2026 World Cup in New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
March 14, 2025, is a day that Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky will never forget. It’s when filming wrapped in the tiny Cape May County borough (population 3,000) on the new Steven Spielberg blockbuster, Disclosure Day.
As the legendary director, who spent part of his childhood in Camden County, was about to helicopter out of there for his New York City home, the mayor realized it would be his last chance to present Spielberg with a parting gift he’d prepared. Approaching him, Pikolycky offered him an oversized brass key to the town. Spielberg appeared both grateful and surprised, the mayor recalls.
“He seemed really moved. He jumped up in the air and said, ‘No one’s ever presented me with a key.’”
Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s fourth sci-fi film about the possibility of life beyond our planet, is set for release on June 12.
The bulk of it was filmed in New Jersey, although the fictitious setting for the flick, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, is Kansas City. In addition to Woodbine, scenes were filmed in places including Buena Vista Township, Jersey City, Middlesex County, Milmay, Montville, Morris Township and Tuckahoe.
Though fans are familiar with Spielberg’s takes on other-worldly beings, New Jersey itself isn’t alien to the 79-year-old, who spent five of his very early years, from 1952 to 1957, in Haddon Township, when his father worked as an engineer at RCA in Camden. After watching his first-ever movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, in 1952 at the Westmont Theatre, young Spielberg went home and commandeered his dad’s new movie camera to film his own version of the colossal train wreck he had just viewed on-screen.
Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky presents Spielberg with a key to the town. Photo: Laurie E. BoydHis semi-autobiographical 2002 film, The Fabelmans, includes memories of his years in Jersey. And on March 7, 2023, the Camden County Board of Commissioners installed a historical marker down the street from the Westmont Theatre (now a fitness center) commemorating the site where Spielberg was inspired to become a filmmaker.
Since his childhood in Jersey, Spielberg has been back at least four times to film. In Disclosure Day, a particularly thrilling car-chase scene filmed in Wildwood. The Exxon station on Route 202 in Montville appears on-screen, and spectacular train-crash scenes explode along historic tracks in Woodbine and Tuckahoe.
“They really liked the Woodbine area,” Pikolycky says. “For one thing, we have trains, tracks and a train yard that could be used for the train-crash scene. We also have a vacant factory that was big enough to put a train and all the necessary paraphernalia for the movie inside.”
Tony Macrie, president, CEO and general manager of Cape May Seashore Lines, which owns the train complex, says he was grateful to be part of the shoot. “It’s good for the community and the state of New Jersey. We stayed in the background, trying not to be obnoxious, but helped with whatever was needed,” he says.
In Woodbine, Pikolycky gave Spielberg and the crew office space in municipal buildings “and arranged with a realtor for the 150 crew members to rent houses and condos in Ocean City, Sea Isle, Avalon, Strathmere and Stone Harbor.”
Filming also boosted the local economy, a trend that many towns have experienced with the recent influx of film projects.
“The crew’s presence here brought in lots of money,” the mayor says. “Our restaurants, caterers and coffee shops had a rush of business.”
During his time in town, Spielberg was “really down-to-earth,” says the mayor—even though he arrived daily to set by helicopter. “He wore blue jeans like anyone else,” Pikolycky adds.
“Getting Steven Spielberg here wasn’t a shock. My reaction was, Well, if you’re going to get anybody, you might as well get the best.”
The post Steven Spielberg Gets a Warm NJ Homecoming appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Two years ago, while studying a map of African countries, Montclair resident Liza Cohn had an epiphany: she noticed that the country of Chad resembled a human head.
“There was this guy literally sitting in the middle of the continent of Africa,” recalls Cohn, a former lawyer and self-proclaimed “lifelong learner” who has taken multiple classes at the Montclair Public Library’s Adult School.
Cohn contacted her close friend Stephanie Troeller—a fellow Montclarion and a cartoonist who has worked with DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.—to ask if she wanted to collaborate. Eventually they brought to life Dad in Chad, a board game that follows the cartoon character Dad on his journey home to Chad, spanning Africa’s 54 countries. Along the way, players learn all about African geography, wildlife, culture and sports.
“We understood together that we could make a game about learning…that was easy, fun and memorable,” says Cohn.
Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie TroellerDad in Chad went through a testing phase in New York and New Jersey schools, where Troeller and Cohn observed students playing an earlier version of the game, later incorporating their feedback. The game is currently stocked in 268 schools across 35 U.S. states, thanks to a grant from Seasholes Sheridan Family Foundation, which Troeller says shares her and Cohn’s vision of “immersive educational experiences that bring people together.” (The game is also newly available on Amazon.)
“I know this sounds crazy,” adds Troeller, “but I believe that this little goofy cartoon character [of Dad]…taps into the inner humanity of all of us.”
Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie TroellerThe post Two New Jersey Moms Create Educational Board Game Now Used in Schools Nationwide appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Imagine walking into a party where every person in the room is one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet. Meanwhile, an R2-D2 robot weaves through a crowd of hundreds dressed in black-tie attire, beeping playfully.
This was the scene at a recent event at Jersey City’s Liberty Science Center (LSC), which hosted innovators and philanthropists for its 14th annual Genius Gala.
The soirée spotlighted Project Supernova, a $40-million, largely state-funded expansion to LSC’s facilities aimed at cementing New Jersey as a premier destination for science and technology.
The transformation will bring a physics-themed miniature golf course, a river otter habitat, a goat playground, expanded animal exhibits, and other major upgrades to the center’s planetarium and traveling exhibition spaces.
The evening’s Genius award honorees included de-extinction paleogenomicist Beth Shapiro, rare disease researcher and physician Dr. David Fajgenbaum, and early AI pioneer Yann LeCun, who lives in Rumson.
LeCun, the son of an aerospace engineer, grew up in the Paris suburbs before moving to New Jersey. He spent the early days of his career working in artificial intelligence at the former AT&T Bell Labs facility in Holmdel—now Bell Works—where in the 1980s he and his colleagues helped pioneer convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that helped U.S. Postal Service systems read and sort handwritten ZIP codes.
Formerly a chief AI scientist at Meta, LeCun is the founder of Paris-based AI startup Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs. Accepting his award, he offered a more reassuring view of AI. “It’s not going to take your job—it’s going to change your job,” he said. “[…] It’s going to transform society, but it’s not going to create mass unemployment.”
LSC’s Project Supernova is expected to be completed in 2028.
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Maplewood looks like the kind of town that movie directors try to recreate when the script calls for an idyllic locale: tree-lined streets, commuters stepping off trains with coffee in hand, laughing friends outside cafés, bookstores and bakeries.
Just 35 minutes from Manhattan, the town has several burgeoning downtowns and on weekends the sidewalks buzz with families, shoppers, and locals drifting between boutiques and restaurants.
If you are unfamiliar with this Essex County burb, it may seem like just stop along way to nearby destination towns like Montclair and Morristown, but this municipality, 26,000 residents strong, is worth a stop—there are even municipal lots with free parking downtown.
Where to EatBreakfast spots like Able Baker offer fresh scones and breads, and their own variety of house-made blueberry pop tarts. Grab a tea or a coffee, or bring a box of Joe for the group along with a bag of sweet treats to be welcome at any gathering. For savory morning starts, try Village Coffee for breakfast sandwiches or generous platters, or stop in Perch Home, where you’ll be tempted to start shopping since this bistro started out as a lifestyle boutique and expanded into a shopping destination with a restaurant inside.
There is no shortage of restaurant options, along Main Street. You’ll find Thai, Chinese, Italian, American, soup, salad bowls. At longstanding Irish pub, St. James’s Gate Publick House, Guinness is listed as a starter and you’ll find a killer prime-rib French dip among other standards, including fish and chips. Down the street, Osteria LK, one of New Jersey Monthly’s top restaurants, serves red-sauce favorites and creatively elevated American dishes. For stylish cocktails and a selection of well-executed American dishes, Luna Stella is tucked just off the main drag.
Pasta at Porta Rossa. Photo: Courtesy of Porta RossaAcross town, check out Porta Rossa Pasta + Provisions, where you can procure pastas made fresh daily for takeout or eat in, if you can score one of the dozen seats or sit outdoors in good weather. This Italian market and café, opened in 2023, caters and hosts private events. Perla Oyster is another must-stop. Mollusk lovers may pause at this seeming fish-out-of-water raw bar in the burbs, but delight will follow with the fresh changing selection of oysters, plus clams, shrimp cocktail and a menu of dips, spreads and savory snacks. Nearby is Artie’s, a pizza spot that morphed from the former well-known Arturo’s.
Where to ShopStroll along down Maplewood Avenue, and you’ll find a healthy variety of shops, including clothing boutiques, a book shop, florists, wine store, jewelers, toys, coffee shops and more.
Maker + Muse on Maplewood Avenue. Photo: Courtesy of Maker + MuseTake Maker + Muse, a curated collection of jewelry, home goods, art and more, filled with finds from independent makers.
Mues Shop on Baker Street in Maplewood. Photo: Courtesy of Mues ShopAt in the emerging Baker Street area, lifestyle store Meus Shop offers an array of local artisans creating everything from self-care items, like soaps and scents to home décor, jewelry and gifts.
Handmade candles at Ceru on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood. Photo: Courtesy of CeruOn the Springfield Avenue side of Maplewood, Ceru, a women’s boutique, has an array of clothing designers with well-known and emerging brands, plus an apothecary with beauty buys, a home section with hand-picked décor items, and a selection of jewelry.
Can’t-Miss EventsSummer brings the Maplewoodstock Music and Art Festival, now in its 22nd year. This year it is scheduled for July 11-13, in Memorial Park, and it will once again, bring together more than 20 bands, art and food vendors, for two free days of music and fun. In December, Dickens Village, a storybook recreation of scenes from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, comes to live as a true town square of miniature houses completely and uniquely furnished for the holiday season. For the first three Saturdays of December, the village is open and Santa is house, there is tree and menorah lighting and a DJ, as well as other special events.
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Across the decades, the Broadway Theatre of Pitman has featured entertainers ranging from comedy legends (Abbott and Costello) to country-music superstars (Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash) to Oscar winners (Bing Crosby, Shirley Jones).
The classic-style theater, which seats just over 1,000 and features a balcony and elevated boxes, plays a leading role in the Gloucester County community. To mark its centennial, Richard L. Eldredge recounts the venue’s history in a new book called Pitman’s Broadway Theatre at 100: The Story of a Beloved Landmark and the New Jersey Town That Saved It (Ardmore Avenue Publishing).
“I thought I was going to tell the story of a building, but I’m really telling the story of a town through the lens of a building,” says Eldredge, a Pitman native now living in Atlanta.
The Broadway opened in May 1926, showing silent films with accompaniment by a Kimball organ, which is still played before shows. The theater pivoted to screening talkies and serving as a stop on the vaudeville circuit. In the 1970s and ’80s, then owner Clayton Platt staged country and rock concerts.
“The theater has been able to reinvent itself,” a key to its longevity, Eldredge says.
Under the ownership of Peter Slack since 2006, the Broadway focuses on live theater with its Mainstage season of musicals, along with children’s plays, tribute concerts and comedy shows. “We get about 125,000 visitors a year,” says Nick Blood, the Broadway’s marketing manager.
The Broadway celebrates its 100th anniversary June 5-7 with A Century on Stage: A Legacy of Theatre, 100 Years in the Making. The show pays tribute to Broadway musicals from the 1920s to today, with an orchestra.
One role of the theater remains unchanged, Eldredge says. “It’s an economic engine for Pitman.”
Learn more about the theater and event at thebroadwaytheatre.org.
The post How Pitman’s Broadway Theatre Became a Beloved, 100-Year-Old South Jersey Landmark appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It was late January, and the excitement was building among young women across the country. Valentine’s Day was approaching, and Parke—the wildly popular brand known primarily for its crewneck sweatshirts with the company’s name emblazoned across the front—was doing something it had never done before. Purple.
The previous spring and summer, many of Parke’s customers, who identify as much with the brand’s owner, Chelsea Parke Goles, as they do with its clothing, had been messaging the company on social media about how Parke had never made a sweatshirt in that color. So, to celebrate this year’s holiday of love and romance, Parke went purple. The line sold out quickly. And the connection between the company and its customers became stronger.
“I was seeing every girl I know posting on their personal Stories when the Valentine’s Day drop happened,” says Jessica Ricco, who grew up in River Vale and is a recent University of Georgia graduate. “They were upset when they didn’t get it. I never saw anything like it.”
For Goles, who grew up in New Vernon and started her eponymous brand in 2022, it was perfectly normal. Parke doesn’t use traditional advertising methods. It connects through messages, influencer videos and building relationships on social media, and uses pop-up stores that draw throngs of customers and monthly product line drops to generate excitement and demand.
“Our Valentine’s collection included purple only because people told us they wanted it,” says Goles, 29. “We wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
At a time when people under 30 (particularly women) are looking for smaller brands that emphasize connection and are promoted by influencers and word of mouth, Parke has created a new paradigm. You can’t call the company, but you can message its team. And a team member will answer. Quickly. Engage on Instagram or TikTok, and you are likely to get some sort of response.
Goles wears Parke’s oversized denim jacket, $230. Photo: Madison Lane Photography“Smaller companies using social media like this have a better grasp of who their audience is and can bring them along for the ride in way big companies can’t,” says Dr. Kevin Lyons, a professor at Rutgers who teaches a course in supply chain management for the fashion industry.
Parke has more than 490,000 Instagram followers. Goles has 150,000. The direct-to-consumer model relies heavily on customer engagement and storytelling. Goles is as much the Parke brand as any item it sells; sweatshirts range from $125-$140. She uses social media to relate the challenges and successes on her entrepreneurial journey and has said “transparency is key.” If you have spent any time on a college campus, you can tell the model works.
“Oh, I’m a big fan,” says Addison Figel, a student Villanova from Belle Mead who has a number of Parke sweatshirts.
It’s a model larger companies just can’t replicate.
“Customers and followers want to feel like they know [Goles] and are engaged with her,” says MarySheila McDonald, the John J. Scarpa Professor of Entrepreneurship at Villanova. “They want to have a relationship.”
Parke may not adopt every idea its customers propose, but the growth in sales over the company’s almost four years in existence—$100,000 in 2022 to $16 million as of November 2025—demonstrates that the formula works well. It’s a perfect strategy for the post-pandemic period, when McDonald says direct to consumer marketing “has exploded.”
“When we started the brand, we were at a different stage of social media,” Goles says. “There weren’t that many brands connected to the community. That’s why it’s so valuable for Parke to get feedback from customers in real time. Without it, we wouldn’t be as successful. We connect with people every day. Our team is messaging back and forth every day.”
It would be great to say Goles has been designing outfits and counseling friends on fashion decisions since she was a girl, but that’s not the case. “When I was in middle school, I had a uniform for school,” she says. “On weekends, I played sports and rode horses. I didn’t have many clothes beyond school and sports and horses.”
The Heritage Varsity Mockneck Sweatshirt, $130. Photo: Courtesy of ParkeGoles graduated from Morristown Beard School in 2015 and went to Dickinson, where she played field hockey and majored in art studies. While there, her interest in fashion began to gather momentum, and in 2018, she studied in Florence for a semester. “I spent more time looking at fashion websites than listening to teachers,” she admits.
When Goles was 16, she met Kira Kramer, who was dating her brother Jackson and would eventually marry him. The two bonded quickly, and during one early 2020s summer in Loveladies, while each was working “jobs we weren’t obsessed with,” they spoke about someday starting a business together—although neither had an idea what that project would be. “We wanted to make it special and cool and make it a great environment for others,” Goles says.
“We talked about it as a dream,” Kramer adds.
During the pandemic, when Goles was working for a jewelry company after spending some time in the wholesale fashion business, she moved to Miami and started learning about the vintage denim business and particularly how the companies involved in it weren’t necessarily targeting women. She and Kramer decided that would be their joint project and connected with a wholesaler in Los Angeles who provided the denim that they turned into women’s jeans. The partnership succeeded “instantly,” says Goles. (Goles is creative director and CEO of Parke; Kramer is COO.)
But customers found two pairs of jeans that were the same size didn’t fit the same way, due to inconsistencies in the denim. So, in 2022, Parke pivoted to sweatshirts, which sold well right away. From there, Parke expanded to denim jeans, overalls, shorts, skirts, dresses and jackets—with only a small fraction of the content distressed. The clothes are manufactured overseas and warehoused in Middletown, Pennsylvania. With each new product and special-occasion launch, sales grew. So did customer loyalty, thanks to the quality of the apparel and the community Goles built.
“She seems to be very transparent,” says Mae Dolan of Old Tappan, a rising senior at Ohio State. “I follow her on Instagram, and she does Q&As and puts polls up. People type in what they want to see, and she really responds.”
The engagement goes beyond the products. When Chelsea married Nicholas Goles in September 2025, fans could track the event on social media. They could also see her “Dream Registry” on the Over the Moon website. On May 25, she announced the birth of their daughter, Willa; her Instagram post drew 84,000 likes in a day. By curating her life, she can create an aspirational model for young women.
“We now see more females in fashion,” Goles says. “Ten or 20 years ago, there were so many men running women’s wear brands.”
Goles can’t identify any one thing that has made the brand successful, although she says the team of 20 (not counting those in warehouse) works “really hard.” And there is a hometown component to the prosperity. “My Jersey roots have guided me,” Goles says. “I think a lot of entrepreneurs come from Jersey. It’s a great place.”
As the Parke community swells, Goles and the team will continue to create a culture built on engagement and quality products. That’s a good combination.
“We like where we are,” she says.
So do Parke’s legions of customers.
The post How Chelsea Parke Goles Built a Cult Sweatshirt Brand Gen Z Can’t Quit appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
You think the Super Bowl’s big? Compared to the World Cup, it’s like vacationing in Nebraska versus hitting the Jersey Shore. The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France reached 1.42 billion people worldwide, according to FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. That’s 11 times the number of people who saw Seattle thump the Patriots this past February in Super Bowl LX. In other words, it’s gigantic.
Unless you’ve spent the last year locked in a monastery, you know that it’s coming to the Garden State from June 13-July 19. But what else do you know? The favorites? The top players? Where to watch? When?
Read on, and you’ll be able to speak soccer—or futbol—like you have season tickets to the English Premier League.
MetLife Stadium, pictured here during a kids’ clinic after a Copa America game. Photo: Courtesy of FIFA/Fiona CaswellTHE BIG DEALSince the United States’ main professional soccer league is at best the fourth most popular in the nation, and it would be unwise to tell a big-time hockey fan that Major League Soccer is ahead of the NHL, it is natural that some people are a little cynical about the World Cup’s popularity. Sure, it’s big in Europe, but so what?
Actually, it’s big everywhere—except maybe the United States, and that could well change when this year’s World Cup champion is crowned. There are 195 countries in the world, and almost all of them have significant soccer profiles. Just about every European country tried to qualify, including Gibraltar, Malta and Liechtenstein.
It’s impossible to walk through neighborhoods in Central and South America (and some in Jersey) without seeing someone kicking a soccer ball or some sort of facsimile, depending on how poor the area is. Fifty-four African nations vied for nine bids—in other words, all of them.
According to FIFA, 2.21 billion people watched at least 20 minutes of play during the 2022 World Cup. That’s greater than 25 percent of the world’s population. As for the financial side of things, Forbes reported that the 2022 World Cup generated $9 billion of revenue, with $7.5 billion going to FIFA. More than 1 million tourists traveled to Qatar for the event. So, yeah, it’s pretty big.
Photo: Courtesy of Mike Stobe/FIFA via Getty ImagesTOP TEAMSSpain: La Roja are the defending European champions and the no-doubt top-ranked team in the world. Standouts like Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal form the core of a side considered by some to be a prohibitive favorite.
France: The French won the World Cup in 2018 and have a lineup filled with players who are stars on teams all over the world. Kylian Mbappé won the Golden Boot as the best player in the 2022 World Cup and is a dangerous attacker. Jules Koundé leads the defense, and Michael Olise is an excellent attacking midfielder.
Argentina: The defending champs still have that Lionel Messi character, and while he is currently tormenting MLS teams, Lautaro MartÍnez may be even more dangerous on the attack. Rodrigo DePaul is an outstanding midfielder, and Emiliano Martínez could be the world’s best goalkeeper.
England: That’s right, England. The country that gave us the sport has won just a single World Cup, in 1966. Harry Kane is one of the world’s most productive strikers, and Jude Bellingham is a dangerous midfielder. John Stones is the best English defender, but injuries limited him this year.
TOP PLAYERSLionel Messi at MetLife Stadium in 2024. Photo: Shutterstock/lev radinLionel Messi/Cristiano Ronaldo: They are the obvious choices, but they are lions in winter. This will no doubt be Ronaldo’s final World Cup for Portugal, and it could be Messi’s last for Argentina. Each still has some magic left, and it behooves all fans to watch them once more.
Kylian Mbappé, France: The ultradangerous striker can score at any time and brings a consistent pace that overwhelms most opponents. His leadership is almost equally important, especially for a loaded French team that might need some egos managed.
Vinícius Júnior, Brazil: He’s still young and growing, but Júnior might just be a worthy successor to the long lineage of Samba standouts. He is lightning fast on the wing, brings a style that Brazilian fans expect, and could dribble through a minefield without getting a scratch.
Pedri, Spain: This 23-year-old doesn’t have ESP, but it sure seems that way when he reads the game two or three moves ahead. He’s a stabilizing force in the midfield and can set up teammates with creativity and efficiency.
Santiago Gimenez, Mexico: He’s not as polished as some of the Eurostars, but he still can score in bunches and put huge pressure on opposing defenses. He gets a chance to perform in front of home crowds and should put on a show.
JERSEY PLAYERSFrom left: Brendan Aaronson, Matt Turner and Johnny Cardoso. Photos: Courtesy of the U.S. Soccer FederationBrendan Aaronson, or the “Medford Messi,” plays for Leeds United in the English Premier League. The Shawnee HS product has played in 56 games for the USMNT and has scored nine goals and registered seven assists.
Goalie Matt Turner hails from Park Ridge and went to St. Joseph’s Regional HS. He plays for Lyon in the French League but was loaned to MLS club New England last summer. Turner has played for the U.S. team 53 times.
Although Johnny Cardoso moved with his family to Brazil at just three months old, he was born in Denville. The midfielder has made 22 appearances for the National Team and plays club ball for Atletico Madrid.
HOW IT WORKSPhoto: Courtesy of FIFA/Marcio MachadoFor the first time in the history of the tournament, 48 teams will compete, sorted into 12 groups of four. Each team will play the other three teams in its group (the United States is in Group D, with Paraguay, Australia and Turkey). A win is worth three points and a tie, one point.
The two teams with the most points in each group will advance to the round of 32, along with eight third-place teams. They will be determined by total points first. If that doesn’t break every tie, goal differential will be considered, followed by total goals scored. If that doesn’t do it, there are four other criteria.
From there, it’s pretty simple. The first-place teams play against the third-place finishers, and the second-place squads face off against each other, leaving 16 countries. Unlike the group stage, when there can be ties, all contests from the round of 32 until the final will consist of 90 minutes of regulation, followed by 30 minutes of overtime (a goal does not end the OT), and if the game is still deadlocked, penalty kicks.
The 16 will play to determine the eight quarterfinalists. Then come the semis, and on July 19, the two remaining countries will face off at MetLife Stadium for the World Cup championship.
BIGGEST EARLY GAMES United States vs. Paraguay, June 12: This game has no great significance in choosing a champion, but it’s the United States’ first, and a chance to show that it belongs among the world’s best. * Brazil vs. Morocco, June 13: A big one early on. The sixth-rated Samba squad takes on another top-10 team, which reached the World Cup semifinals in 2022. * England vs. Croatia, June 17: The Three Lions believe they have a chance to win the World Cup this time, but Luka Modrić and the Croats are a European power with big hopes, too. * Uruguay vs. Spain, June 26: This will be the Spaniards’ biggest group stage test. The game will be played in Zapopan, Mexico, 5,100 feet above sea level, which helps the high-altitude-conditioned Uruguayans. * Colombia vs. Portugal, June 27*: The last day of group play brings a big one from Miami, where Ronaldo’s Selecao das Quinas takes on Luis Diaz and a dangerous Colombian squad.
WORLD CUP HISTORYUntil the 1920s, the top soccer nation in the world was determined in the Olympics, but as the sport’s professional profile grew, it moved away from the amateur spirit of the Olympic movement, and something new was needed.
Although FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, was founded in 1904 and declared that it had the authority to stage a world championship, nothing was done to make that happen until 1928, when FIFA secretary Henri Delaunay’s resolution to stage the World Cup was adopted. It took place in 1930, and Uruguay was chosen as the host country for a variety of reasons.
First, the country said that it would pay all travel and hotel expenses for visiting teams. And it promised to build a new stadium in Montevideo, its capital. The event would celebrate the nation’s 100 years of independence and feature 13 teams. The hosts were quite inhospitable and won the tournament by defeating Argentina, 4-2, in the final. The United States reached the semifinals but was routed, 6-1, by Argentina.
Since then, the World Cup has been staged every four years, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II. Brazil has won the most titles—five—with Germany and Italy second (four), although the Germans have reached eight final matches, more than any other country. No team from a continent other than Europe or South America has reached a World Cup final.
THE PLACES TO BEJust about every fan in New Jersey knows the perfect place to watch soccer, so any list of futbol bars is bound to have some exclusions that anger folks. Consider this a random sampling rather than an exhaustive list (and find more places to watch here):
- Mulligan’s Pub, Hoboken: This may be an Irish bar, but no matter what game is being played, you can bet it’s on.
- Redd’s Restaurant, Carlstadt: Those heading to games at nearby MetLife Stadium would be wise to check out Redd’s 50 TVs.
- Varitage Brew Works, Bloomfield: This brewery provides plenty of craft beers and an abundance of soccer talk.
- Galpao New Jersey, Newark: It’s a bar, but it’s more of a community, especially when teams from Central or South America are playing.
- D’Arcy’s Tavern, Bradley Beach: From early-morning Premier League games to late-night international matchups, this Shore spot offers plenty of TVs, food and drink.
- Firkin Tavern, Ewing Township: Come for the 100-inch screen and stay for the game room and English-Irish vibe.
- Reunion Hall, Haddon Township: This isn’t a bar; it’s a complex. Reunion has three restaurants, two bars, and inside and outside seating.
TV GUIDEEvery World Cup game will be televised live in the U.S., primarily by Fox. The network, FS1 and streaming service Fox One will provide coverage of the entire tournament, with a record 70 matches to air on Fox, 40 in prime time.
The network will provide expanded coverage of USMNT games, including a three-hour pregame show before the United States’ first game of the tournament, against Paraguay on June 12. Fox’s ad-supported streaming service, Tubi, will show two games free of charge. Meanwhile, Spanish-language network Telemundo will air 92 of the 104 games live, with Universo showing the other 12.
The World Cup final on July 19 will be broadcast on Fox at 3 pm.
IF YOU GOPhoto: Shutterstock/quiggyt4Those fortunate enough to secure tickets to World Cup games at MetLife Stadium (which FIFA is temporarily calling New York New Jersey Stadium to align with sponsorship regulations) must comply with FIFA’s stadium code of conduct. The list of what can be brought in is quite short. Food is not permitted. Neither are drinks. Banners are allowed, but they cannot contain any content that is offensive, political, racist, etc. Only clear bags are permitted, and they can be no bigger than 12″ by 6″ by 12″. Non-clear clutches and bags no larger than 4.5″ by 6.5″ are allowed. Non-clear bags with medical applications are permitted, and all bags will be subject to inspection.
FIFA and MetLife officials are encouraging fans to use public transportation, since traffic tie-ups around the stadium could be substantial. Ticketholders taking trains from Penn Station and New Jersey stations will be routed to the Secaucus Junction station and will board match day-only trains to the stadium and pay a pretty penny to get there. Fares from New York are skyrocketing to $105 roundtrip from the usual $12.90, reportedly to cover operational costs. (Originally, tickets were $150 but were reduced following controversy.) In addition, shuttle buses will run to the stadium from park-and-ride locations at transit hubs. Those using rideshare apps will be dropped off outside the grounds and brought onto the premises by shuttle buses.
The best advice for those going is to leave extra items at home. And leave early. Really early. It’s going to take time to get to and into the stadium, thanks to huge crowds and expanded security protocols.
Michael Bradley is a writer who lives in suburban Philadelphia and an assistant professor at Villanova University.
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From the tip of Cape May to Sandy Hook, these 10 bayside retreats are the local’s secret for stress-free summer days. They typically offer calm waters, easy parking and a relaxed vibe.
Sunset Beach, Cape MayAs you can imagine from the name, this is the most popular beach at sunset on the Jersey Shore. But during the day, the crowds evaporate, and there’s plenty of space to plant an umbrella and draw up a beach chair with barely anyone nearby. No beach tags are required, and the parking is free.
Higbee Beach, Cape MayFarther north on the Delaware Bay, Higbee Beach is known for its outstanding bird-watching, particularly during the spring and fall migration. It’s also known as an unofficial nude beach, unsanctioned by any entity, although discreet nudity is rarely ticketed. This narrow beach with high dunes is secluded, so birds almost always outnumber beachgoers.
William Morrow Beach, Somers PointOverlooking Great Egg Harbor Bay, William Morrow Beach is Somers Point’s go-to beach playground, a protected beach with lifeguards in the summer. On the south side, the beach is anchored by a fishing pier and playground, with Ocean City viewed in the distance. To the north, toward Absecon Island, there is a small bandshell with free summer evening concerts and marinas dotting the shoreline.
Longport Dog Beach, Egg Harbor Township Separated by the bay from the main section of Longport, the Longport Dog Beach is a special place: pets are allowed off-leash all summer. Take a long walk along the half-moon beach as your pup splashes happily in the bay’s warm waters. Note that parking is extremely limited.
Graveling Point Beach, Little Egg Harbor TownshipHalfway between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, finding a swimming beach takes effort. But if you pass through Mystic Island to Graveling Point Beach, your reward is a blissfully untouched stretch of sand with no food stands or boardwalks. A large circular shallow pool of water protected by jetties makes this an ideal spot for families with young children.
John Bartlett County Park, Berkeley TownshipJutting out on a long, thin peninsula into Barnegat Bay, John C. Bartlett, Jr. Park near Bayville in Ocean County offers a small swimming beach alongside a multitude of free outdoor facilities. Walking paths, exercise equipment, a kid’s playground, picnic tables and a fishing pier will occupy every member of the family for the whole day.
Ocean Gate Beach, Toms RiverWith Netflix establishing studios in Fort Monmouth, Ocean Gate Beach on Toms River is destined to be featured in many idyllic 1950s-style summer beach scenes. Steps from mid-20th-century homes, people bike and walk along a ground-level boardwalk, stopping to climb a two-story pavilion while children frolic at a splash pad or swim in the calm water. In season, Ocean Gate charges $7 for a daily beach badge, but parking outside of the permitted spots is free.
Maxson Avenue and River Avenue Beaches, Point Pleasant BoroughIf Point Pleasant Beach’s prices or crowds are too much, head over to Maxson Avenue or River Avenue in Point Pleasant Borough. Tucked along the Manasquan River, these side-by-side spots offer guarded beaches, restrooms and a fishing pier. Daily beach badges are not available, but a season badge covering both guarded areas is $20, compared to the $18 daily beach fee at the Point Pleasant Boardwalk. Parking is free.
Memorial Park Beach, Neptune TownshipMemorial Park along the Shark River in Neptune Township is a free, easygoing alternative to the bustle of nearby oceanfront beaches in Avon-by-the Sea and Belmar. Amid picnic tables under shade trees and wide views of the tranquil river, relax with a book, walk along the water’s edge or let your children loose on the playground. Bocce-ball fans will enjoy the free courts and free parking.
Bayside at Sandy Hook, Gateway National Recreation AreaSandy Hook’s oceanside is justifiably popular with sunbathers and surfers, but don’t overlook its bay beaches—they’re among the most picturesque in New Jersey. Kite-boarders, kayakers, swimmers, paddle boarders, birdwatchers and dog-lovers flock to these long tidal coves for warmer, shallower waters and glowing sunsets. Park admission is $20 per carload.
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“It’s a whole process,” Michaela Jaé Rodriguez says by phone from her Newark home about her morning routine. It’s the same house she lived in as a child and then bought from her mom.
Rodriguez, best known for her role as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista in the FX series Pose, starts with meditation and music, whether its Lo-fi or ambient sound like rain falling. Then, there are twenty minutes of stretching and daily affirmations in the mirror, where she’ll give herself “some boost,” followed by a lengthy skin-care process.
All of this takes place before heading out the door for performances across the river in The Rocky Horror Show, her Broadway debut.
The revival, which is playing a limited run at Studio 54 through November 29, is based on the wacky cult-classic 1975 film. Rodriguez plays the memorable role of Columbia.
“I’m happy for people to see me play a character that is different from other characters that I played before,” Rodriguez says of Columbia, whom she infused with nods to the movie and inspiration from her own life. “I was so excited to just jump right into her, because even though she has this high, cute, squeaky voice, there is a person and a human behind that.”
Rodriguez, 35, started her acting career off-Broadway in a production of Rent, playing Angel, followed by one-episode stints on TV shows like Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries and Luke Cage.
Her breakout role came in 2017 on Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking show Pose; she won the 2022 Golden Globe for best actress in a TV drama, the first transgender actress to earn the accolade.
For Rodriguez, the art of acting began as a child. Born in Newark, Rodriguez moved to Jackson for five years before returning to Newark for high school.
“Had a pretty good upbringing. Had a really gorgeous home, which I pride myself in saying my mother and father did their thing on that,” Rodriguez recalls.
By her preteen years, Rodriguez was back in Newark at Queen of Angels, a now shuttered Catholic school. Rodriguez also joined a summer youth workshop at NJPAC.
At the age of 13, Rodriguez auditioned for Newark’s well-known Arts High School with the Fugees’ version of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Rodriguez was inspired by New Jersey’s own Whitney Houston, who was raised in East Orange.
“A lot of people in Newark shared the same kind of mentality of being very classy, but also a little edgy and urban. Whitney was that,” Rodriguez says. “Growing up in north New Jersey was actually quite liberating. It was good to be around individuals like myself, who are POC.”
Arts High School was the first public school in the United States to specialize in visual and performing arts. Notable alumni include singers Sarah Vaughan and Connie Francis, tap icon Savion Glover, and newly minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan, who took home the best actor award at this year’s ceremony for his role in Sinners. Jordan, 39, was graduating when Rodriguez was entering the school as a vocal major.
“I got to share a small bit of space with him,” she says, adding that his mother was her guidance counselor.
“There’s something in the waters over here in Newark, where there’s just a good threshold and a pool of talent,” Rodriquez says.
“It’s inspirational to see someone from your home school. If [Jordan] can do it, then I know I can do it,” she says proudly.
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Taylor Decker’s perfect summer beach day with her three-year-old daughter and two-year-old twins starts when she pulls into the parking lot at Surfrider Beach Club. She has surprisingly few items to get out of the car. Her parents’ beach cabana and her own family’s locker have what she needs for the day: swim diapers, buckets, sunscreen, towels, blankets and beach chairs, stashed there since Memorial Day.
Wheeling the kids down the hallway Decker has known since she was their age, she passes rows of lockers, small changing rooms, cabanas of varying sizes, and a 25‑yard swimming pool. She sets up her space on an immaculately groomed patch of sand near palm trees—the same spot her parents favored when she was a child.
She starts with bagels and coffee. Her twins nap while her three‑year‑old gets alone time in the pool. Next is playground time and lunch. At dinnertime, her parents and grandmother arrive—four generations around a picnic table. At day’s end, Decker gives the kids a shower at the beach, pulls pajamas over sun‑tired bodies, and heads home, where they go straight to bed.
“There’s just something so wholesome about seeing your kids walk around the beach in their pajamas, talking to and engaging with people that you consider family,” she says.
Decker’s view of the perfect family summer is something that’s shared by thousands of people from Monmouth County and up and down the Jersey Shore. It’s why news anchor Brian Williams fondly recalls biking to Surfrider, singer Charlie Puth talks about once hustling to make money at Driftwood Beach Club, and New Jersey’s most famous rocker has had a club membership for years.
Surfrider Beach Club’s pool. Photo: Ryan JohnsonToday, there are about 15 private seasonal beach clubs from Cape May to Long Beach Island, Spring Lake to Sea Bright. Many localities also run their own municipal or community beaches with seasonal badges. The dividing line is simple: Seasonal club memberships include storage facilities, changing rooms, snack bars and pools, while municipal beaches have limited parking and amenities.
Nowhere are the private beach clubs more visible than in Sea Bright, where seven oceanfront clubs are clustered among borough‑run beaches wedged in between Ocean Avenue and the water.
Surfrider Beach Club’s owner and managing partner, Nicole LoBiondo, runs the club with her brothers, continuing a family operation that dates back to the mid‑1980s. The club started as a simple structure, expanded over the years, and then was rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy, which damaged all the Sea Bright beach clubs. Now, the 650 families who are members enjoy a club that includes a lap pool, playgrounds, an area for grilling, a Tiki bar for adults, a snack bar and an event space that is used for weddings.
A view of Sea Bright’s public beach, Surfrider Beach Club, Sands Beach Club and Ship Ahoy Beach Club in the distance. Photo: Ryan JohnsonFor many families, the appeal is less about pools and playgrounds than about the guaranteed parking, storage and familiar faces.
A seasonal membership with a locker starts at $6,000 for a family of four. A beach cabana, which is typically shared by multiple families, begins at $26,000 and includes a private changing space, shower, electricity and loft storage. Some clubs in Sea Bright charge as much as $40,000 for a family membership that includes a beach cabana.
But don’t rush down to the club to sign up this summer. Like many of the private clubs, Surfrider’s waiting list has 180-200 families on it.
Getting in, however, isn’t always straightforward. When Tom Aronne, who spent a decade as a member at Surfrider, started looking for a club years ago, he made the rounds.
“At Chapel Beach Club, they literally laughed at me and said, ‘The only way you’re getting in is if you have a family member who has been here for decades and then passes away, leaving it to you,’ ” he says. To Aronne, the process felt opaque and personal. “Whether you call it politics or favoritism, these clubs are looking for people who fit their mold.”
A cabana at Surfrider Beach Club. Photo: Ryan JohnsonAronne says his Surfrider years defined his kids’ summers—and also revealed how club membership functions socially. “When you live in this area and meet another couple, the beach‑club question is one of the top three you get: Where do you live, where do your kids go to school, and what club are you at? When you say which club you’re in, it gives a little bio about you—almost like a social résumé.”
Robert Manse, a member at the nearby Sands Beach Club, recalls how quickly he committed when his name finally came up on the waiting list. “I literally drove the check over on a winter day and dropped it in their mailbox because I was so excited,” he says. “Every year, I joke that when we get the email for the first check, I write back, ‘This is my favorite bill I get all year round,’ just to make sure we’re locked in.”
Private beach clubs like Surfrider and Sands represent a deep local history of private clubs at the Jersey Shore. Greg Kelly, a local historian, says Sea Bright’s first true private club, Sea Bright Beach Club, dates to about 1895 and was founded not by locals, but by wealthy Rumson families who lived nearby on estates.
“Even at the turn of the 20th century,” he notes, “some wealthy visitors wanted exclusivity—their own place, separate from the general public.”
Kelly says of the current beach clubs, “They’re very well run, often family run, and the operators treat people right.” Those elements matter, he says, because joining “doesn’t make sense on paper.” He adds, “Maybe the air is a little sweeter in Sea Bright.”
Patricia Spahr, who spent 38 years as Sea Bright’s tax and sewer collector, knows each of the seven Sea Bright clubs intimately because, initially, she had to physically read all the clubs’ deduct water meters—devices that track water used for pools and irrigation that doesn’t go into the sewer. At first, she says, the clubs were collections of new and old buildings.
After Superstorm Sandy, which destroyed all the clubs, she says, “each rebuilt differently, but they all look great.”
For years, however, they were also at the center of a fight over how much of their sand the public could actually use. In the 1990s and 2000s, the state allowed several clubs to limit the public to a narrow ribbon of sand at the water’s edge, even after taxpayer‑funded replenishment widened their beaches.
“They used to have off‑duty cops on quads at each end of the club’s beach,” recalls surf instructor Thomas Anderson. “They’d watch everyone walking through, and if someone stepped more than a few feet up or tried to put down a blanket, they’d swoop in like you were setting up on the White House lawn.”
After legal challenges and a state Supreme Court ruling, the clubs and the borough ultimately agreed to open up much more of their frontage to general beachgoers, allowing the public to swim, fish and otherwise use part of the beach in front of the clubs.
Up and down the coast, many elite clubs keep a low profile. Cape May Beach Club, for example, notes on its website that it is a long‑established, members‑owned club that only accepts new members through referrals. Spring Lake Bath and Tennis Club lays out a detailed dress code on its site, with rules about the dining room and requirements for mostly white tennis clothing.
Aronne says that even inside this little world, boundaries matter. He recalls attending a swim meet among clubs. “I went up to the bar at Sea Bright Beach Club and ordered a vodka on the rocks. They asked if I was from Sea Bright Beach Club. When I said I was there with Surfrider, they refused to serve me. It felt almost like crime families—like you’re a Bonanno, not a Lucchese, and you can’t drink here.”
Sea Bright’s mayor, Brian Kelly, sees the clubs as both economic anchors and part of the town’s identity. “They’re a huge part of who we are,” he says. After Sandy, “the beach clubs were among the first entities to rebuild, and many were open by that summer, which helped kickstart the town functioning again.” He describes them as successful businesses that help fuel a robust restaurant and shopping scene in a small community of about 1,700 residents.
When asked to describe to a person outside of Jersey what’s it like to join a private beach club, Surfrider member Decker says, “It’s the difference between going to the beach and living at the beach.”
R.C. Staab is a travel writer, book author, playwright, and wildlife and Jersey Shore enthusiast.
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Doggone it—this is cuteness overload!
New Jersey photographers Lauren Kara Majors—who specializes in newborn and family photography—and Stephanie Blum—who does a lot of pet photography—recently joined forces for a newborn puppy photo shoot, and their adorable results are going viral, with more than 3.1 million views (and counting).
“It doesn’t get any cuter,” says Blum.
The idea took shape six weeks ago, with a shared Pinterest board quickly following. As for the subject of their photo shoot, that was an easy choice. Blum raises puppies for the Morristown nonprofit the Seeing Eye, so they planned to photograph the next dog she raised.
Photo: Lauren Kara Photography and Stephanie Blum PhotographyTimmy, a 7-week-old Black Lab, arrived at Blum’s home on May 11.
On shoot day, which took place at Blum’s studio, Majors carefully wrapped Timmy in a variety of fabrics and posed him delicately with some props—just like she does with her newborn human clients. Timmy slept for most of the hour-and-a-half shoot, and took breaks as needed.
Even though she typically works with babies and kids, Majors says she felt comfortable with this shoot because she’s had dogs throughout her life, including now, and loves being around them. “I’ve always wanted to do a puppy newborn shoot,” she says. “This has always been in the back of my mind.”
Photo: Lauren Kara Photography and Stephanie BlumAs for trying this type of photography at home, it could prove difficult, as not every pooch has the temperament that’s right for it. Timmy’s age also means that he sleeps most of the time, ideal for a shoot. Blum notes that Seeing Eye pups are “very used to being handled” and are “very well adjusted.”
Volunteers like Blum raise Seeing Eye puppies—who eventually go on to work as guide dogs for blind people—from the ages of seven or eight weeks until they’re 13 to 16 months old, teaching them skills like house manners and exposing them to various social situations. Get more information here.
Lauren Kara Photography specializes in newborn and family photography, while Stephanie Blum Photography specializes in portraits, headshots, maternity and pets. Both photographers are based in Mendham.
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Ask any commuter about NJ Transit, and they’ll undoubtedly have a lot to say. So does Kris Kolluri, who serves as president and CEO of NJ Transit and executive director of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What is NJ Transit doing to improve rider experience?
When Governor Sherrill came into office, her focus was on trying to get NJ Transit to be modern and reliable. It requires two parts: One is the foundational infrastructure, and the second part is the train cars and buses. On the first category, and you’ll see this in the budget, we are about to advance one of the most ambitious of infrastructure investments the state has ever seen. Equally important, the governor has committed to modernizing the buses and trains. Sixty percent of our buses, of our trains, are from the 1970s and ’80s. You don’t get to build a reliable system if you have train cars from that older generation. This year alone, we are going to start receiving 40 brand-new multilevel cars. We’re going to see about 180–250 brand-new buses that’ll get delivered just this year. And from that point on, we will essentially start receiving, between the two, several hundred a year, until 2031. So when you add these two factors together is how you build a reliable system.
What message do you have for commuters who will eventually enjoy the fruits of these labors, but who are experiencing issues right now?I take the train every day, so it’s not like I don’t experience those dreaded middle seats. It would be a really nice day when we can say that those dreaded middle seats are being phased out, which is what we hope to do between now and 2031. I think the customers who long asked for reliability are finally in a position to see physical evidence of how that is going to happen. Let me talk about the Portal Bridge [over the Hackensack River]. This is a 116-year-old bridge, which every year would break down in the summer, and somebody would have to go there with a sledgehammer and knock the rails in place, because when the bridge opened they wouldn’t be able to close it. Sometimes it caught on fire. This was no way to run a modern rail system. So we, along with Amtrak, are replacing that bridge with a $2.3 billion brand-new bridge. The first track opened the 16th of March, and by the end of this year or early next year, the entire brand-new bridge will be open for traffic for the first time in 116 years.
How will this help with delays going into New York City?The 10-mile corridor between Newark and New York Penn Station is the busiest train corridor in the Western Hemisphere. These bridges and, in some cases, the tracks themselves and the signal systems are decades old and, in some cases, [more than 100] years old. In the case of the Portal Bridge, it is 116 years old. So it is time that we replace them, and we’re working together to do that. The customers ultimately will be the beneficiaries of it.
How will the Gateway tunnel project make the commute into NYC easier?The two new tracks that the Gateway tunnel will provide will allow Amtrak to repair the existing two tunnels one at a time. The existing tunnels are well over 100 years old and sustained damaged by Superstorm Sandy. The new tunnels will allow us to maintain full service while the existing tunnels are fully modernized. Once that rehab has taken place, it will set the stage for doubling the capacity—from 24 trains per hour during the weekday peak hours to 48 trains per hour—by having four tracks under the Hudson River in and out of New York City.
How does Governor Sherrill’s focus on affordability relate to NJ Transit?When she ran for office, the governor talked about an affordability agenda that, in her view, is not only about trying to lower costs, but trying to make housing more accessible for people who can’t buy houses because the cost of housing is so expensive. At NJ Transit, we own about 8,000 acres of property. We are going to try and develop almost 800 acres of that property over the next 30 years. What does that look like? That means we can generate not only up to $60 million a year for NJ Transit, but we can also advance the governor’s affordability principles by building affordable and workforce housing on properties owned by NJ Transit next to bus stations and train stations. That $60 million a year roughly equals a 6 percent fare increase. I’m not saying we don’t need any other source of money, but I think in New Jersey, especially, we need to be, now more than ever, focused on how we can self-help. On financial challenges, families in New Jersey do it all the time. When they are in a bind, they don’t typically look to others to solve their problems. They tighten their belt, or they come up with ways to either save or to make more money. We are trying to do the same thing in New Jersey at NJ Transit.
This summer in New Jersey, it’s all about the World Cup at MetLife Stadium and going down the Shore. First, let’s talk about the World Cup. How is NJ Transit preparing to get fans to the games?New Jersey has eight games coming up. We are responsible for moving 40,000 people per game. It is an extraordinarily complex, expensive proposition, but it is something that we should all be happy about and celebrate. But it is a challenge, a logistical challenge that we are trying to contend [with]. We’ve been planning for this for two years, and we look forward to moving 40,000 people.
How do you work to make things run smoothly with all those people and all those games?We have to orchestrate a very complex set of operational rules, essentially focusing on moving fans four hours before the game and two hours after the game. But remember, our obligation isn’t just to the fans. Our primary obligation is to our commuters. We need to make sure that while we’re doing this game, we have to continue [to move] our commuters.
What lessons has NJ Transit learned, so far, in its World Cup preparations that you’ll use moving forward?I saw firsthand the hard work and dedication of our NJ Transit employees delivering a seamless travel experience during last summer’s nine FIFA Club World Cup matches, including the finals. That was in addition to the dozens of major concerts and sporting events we successfully deliver every year to and from MetLife Stadium. We have been planning for the upcoming FIFA 2026 World Cup for more than two years, and each day I see how our employees are planning for success. Beyond the confines of World Cup, as I ride the train to work for my regular commute, I see this dedication each and every day, and that’s why I am confident we will have a great World Cup.
What’s your response to the controversy surrounding the $150 round-trip ticket price from Penn Station to the World Cup matches? How can you explain this price to people going to the games? [EDITOR’S NOTE: After this interview was conducted, fares were reduced to $105.]
In order to provide safe, reliable, and secure transportation to the eight matches at NYNJ Stadium [MetLife Stadium], NJ Transit needs to incur extraordinary security, labor, materials, and infrastructure costs totaling at least $48 million, or $6 million for each match. Governor Sherrill has been clear, and I agree, that this substantial cost should not be borne by our regular commuters. NJ Transit has committed to delivering a service that safely moves 40,000 fans per match to and from the stadium. The ticket price simply allows NJ Transit to just break even on the cost of providing that service over the course of the eight matches.
With Shore traffic a nightmare every summer, is there a focus on trains to the beach this season?Taking the train down the Shore is a great idea to beat the traffic and parking. During the summer months, we offer additional train service between Long Branch and Bay Head, making it a convenient way to enjoy all that the Jersey Shore has to offer. And stay tuned for our promotional offers we provide during the summer for great savings.
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Fish, crustaceans, insects and worms are among the staples of a seagull’s natural diet. Yet at the Jersey Shore, it seems they’re more attracted to pizza, french fries and funnel cake.
Take Ocean City, for example. Seagulls became increasingly aggressive as they swooped down from the sky, their beaks grabbing treats from people’s hands.
Mayor Jay Gillian’s patience finally reached its limit in 2019 when he witnessed a gull yanking a slice of pizza from a toddler in a stroller on the boardwalk. “I said, ‘That’s the last straw! Something must be done,’” the mayor recalls.
The city had already tried fishing line, jarring sounds and plastic owls to keep gulls at bay. Nothing worked. So Gillian assigned George Savastano, the city’s business administrator and municipal engineer, the daunting task of finding a humane solution to the escalating gull takeover.
Photo: Matt ZugaleWhat Savastano came up with has been used successfully every summer since then: a professional team of falconers (bird handlers) who release trained falcons, Harris’s hawks and, occasionally, a Eurasian eagle owl into the Ocean City sky. It’s the only program of its kind at the Jersey Shore.
The goal is for these raptors, or birds of prey, to scare gulls back to bays, marshes and the ocean—their natural habitats.
“When George first told me about this idea,” Gillian recalls, “my reaction was, ‘You have got to be kidding!’ But the method has been very effective.”
Photo: Matt ZugaleAccording to Erik Swanson, owner of East Coast Falcons of Lodi, the Bergen County company that Ocean City hired for the gull abatement program, the problem isn’t that gulls prefer junk food to what they eat in nature. It’s that tracking down crabs and oysters requires effort, while grabbing a french fry from a person’s hand is a piece of cake.
Angelina Caselli of Newfield, Gloucester County, oversees the Ocean City falconers. Three of them traverse the boardwalk, beach and business districts every day, seven days a week, from 8 am-9:30 pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and on weekends for a month before and after the high season.
Photo: Matt ZugaleThe 2026 price tag is $370,000, says Daniel Kelchner, the city’s director of community services. The cost is justified, Gillian notes, because “the problem had become more of a public-safety issue than a nuisance. The program helps not only our residents and visitors, but also the seagulls, whose health is improved when they eat what they’re meant to eat.”
Caselli, 22, was only 16 when she joined Ocean City’s seagull project, becoming manager three years later.
She says East Coast Falcons’ 16 birds have names. One falcon is named Karen “because she likes to talk a lot,” Caselli laughs. Two of Harris’s hawks are brothers Marco and Polo. Ozzy is the owl.
Caselli says the birds begin their training, which takes just a month, at the impressionable age of two months.
Photo: Matt ZugaleIn Ocean City, about a dozen raptors take turns soaring for about two hours at a time before returning to their trainers’ arms, which are protected from their sharp talons by a falconry glove. What makes the birds return to the trainer? “They know they’ll get a treat,” Caselli replies. “They’re food motivated.”
Many beachgoers who frequent Ocean City’s sands are grateful for the program. “Three times I’ve had a gull take a slice of pizza from me,” says Vincent Malfitano, 63, an Ocean City novelist and retired attorney. “Now we eat inside a CoolCabana, which stops seagulls because they don’t come under things. The falcons and hawks help, plus they’re part of the entertainment.”
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Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Monmouth County writer and director Kevin Smith turned his place of work into a makeshift film set, bringing together a cast and crew of trusted confidants to create a semi-autobiographical independent sensation.That’s the story of Clerks, Smith’s 1994 debut film, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—and it’s also the case for Smith’s 16th and latest feature, The 4:30 Movie, set for a theatrical release on September 13 via Saban Films.“I’ve got a type, as they say,” says Smith, 54.Clerks was a vision of ’90s snark and ennui, a day-in-the-life saga of convenience- and video-store employees that was famously filmed where Smith worked at the time, the Quick Stop in the Leonardo section of Middletown. The 4:30 Movie, on the other hand, is a summer-of-’86-set comedy about a group of teens hanging out at their local movie theater.Smith shot his new film at Smodcastle Cinemas, the five-screen Atlantic Highlands movie house he has co-owned since 2022. It’s the theater Smith frequented—and loved—as a kid.Smith sat down for a conversation with New Jersey Monthly on the afternoon The 4:30 Movie had its first prerelease screening, held for a handful of superfans at Smodcastle, where his love of film was cultivated in his youth. After the screening, one fan in the lobby could be heard remarking, “This is a new Kevin Smith, and I like what I saw.”“I know the movie feels good, man,” says the Red Bank-born, Highlands-raised Smith. “It just makes people feel warm inside. If you grew up in the ’80s, it’s really going to hit you someplace, but it just has all the lack of and overwhelming urgency of being a 16-year-old kid.”[caption id="attachment_342890" align="alignnone" width="778"] Smith directed The 4:30 Movie following his stay in an Arizona treatment center after a mental health episode. "It was the only movie I could make at that time," he says. Photo: Courtesy of Ralph Bavaro[/caption]It’s a film Smith describes in adjectives the general public doesn’t normally associate with the off-color work of the man behind Dogma, the Clerks trilogy and Tusk.“It is a very nostalgic, sentimental trifle, but they’re all trifles, really, at the end of the day,” Smith says. “But there’s something really sweet about it, there’s something really warm and wonderful about it. And it was the only movie I could make at that time.”The time he’s referring to is the aftermath of a mental health episode in 2022 that led to his stay in a treatment center in Arizona. There, he dealt with trauma stemming from past sexual abuse and body shaming that had, in turn, fueled the people-pleasing, marijuana-smoking public persona he had become known for.“When I got out of the joint, I was like, I’m not going to smoke weed anymore, because I had stopped for the whole time I was in there,” Smith says. “And so, I was in this weird place of not knowing who I was to be going forward. Because I knew who my identity was: I’m the guy that made Clerks, and I smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that. And then, suddenly, that aspect of it was kind of removed. So when I was going into this [new movie], it was more like, Well, how about before all of that?”Before all of that—the speaking engagements, convention appearances, and work on comic books, TV shows, films and podcasts—there were a childhood spent at the old movie theater on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands and friendships with the likes of Ernie O’Donnell, now Smith’s business partner as the co-owner and operator of Smodcastle Cinemas.“There are moments for me where [The 4:30 Movie] is tough to watch, from an emotional standpoint, because that’s us growing up,” O’Donnell says. “But it’s so charming....It’s a great coming-of-age [story].”For Smith, the film is highly personal. “I don’t want to be like, ‘This is the most personal movie I’ve ever made,’ but my God, it’s a secret origin story,” he says. “At the end of the day, it’s, ‘Hey, how’d you ever become a filmmaker after all?’ and it tells that story.”Growing up in Highlands, Smith was one of three children of Grace and the late Donald Smith. There, he attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help parochial school and then Henry Hudson High School, acting in school plays and creating comedy skits with friends, including O’Donnell. At the time, Smith “was a long way from realizing that I could be a filmmaker,” as he wrote in his 2021 book, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash: The Definitive Visual History, but, “I was always drawn to being the center of attention to some degree.”Now, looking back on his Monmouth County youth, Smith says, “I think it’s fair to say, having seen how other people grew up and having raised a kid of my own, I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.“I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up,” he continues. “New Jersey made the difference. It puts a chip on your shoulder to some degree because you live in the shadow of New York, which is always the center of attention, and because of that, it tends to make you try harder.”Smith has certainly followed that credo. In addition to a legendary film career and his ownership of Smodcastle Cinemas, he’s the longtime proprietor of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a popular comic book shop in Red Bank named for two of his most famous characters.Over the last two years, the theater has become a go-to destination for movie fans, hosting festivals, new releases, revival screenings, live events, and celebrity appearances from the likes of Bayonne native and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and actor/collaborators Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams and Justin Long.Rumson writer and actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, known for comedic roles in movies like Baby Mama and Men in Black, is among the artists who has benefited from Smith’s work; Fallon’s 2022 film, Shelter in Solitude, which she wrote and starred in, held its world premiere at Smith’s theater as part of the inaugural Smodcastle Film Festival.“Kevin personifies New Jersey,” Hogan says, “because he is hilarious, hardworking and loyal.”Fallon says Smith’s theater gives “filmmakers of all ages a chance to experience film festivals, readings, movies and moviemaking. Kevin is all about sharing his talent and giving back.” The third Smodcastle Film Festival is set to take place October 24-27.Smith is outspoken about his love of New Jersey, and now the state is showing him some love right back. The director is being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame this fall alongside other Garden State luminaries, including Oscar winner Meryl Streep and Giants quarterback Phil Simms. The ceremony is set to air on Fox 5, My9 and social media starting November 13.“Being a New Jersey business owner is a huge point of pride with me,” Smith says. “I’ve traveled and I’ve lived elsewhere and whatnot, but this state made me who I am, and I feel like I probably love it more than it loves me—I definitely love my hometown more than it loves me, that’s for damn sure. New Jersey’s always been kind of nice to me and stuff, but it made all the difference. I wouldn’t have been on this journey had it not been for being from here.”[RELATED: For Zach Braff, Making Movies in New Jersey Is Deeply Personal]
Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.
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“I love that art has the ability to connect people to their higher selves,” says artist Alison Scherr of Peapack. With her reputation for painting emotive, larger-than-life interpretations of the movement of light and patterns in nature, Scherr has amassed a steadily growing fan base.She began her career as a photographer in New York City, collaborating with magazine and record-label clients, often adding a layer of paint to her images. She later evolved into a prop stylist, designing still-life sets for ad campaigns and magazines for such luminaries as Condé Nast and Bloomingdale’s.“As a photographer, I captured people and created elaborate costumes and magical worlds,” she says. “But when I moved to the New Jersey countryside in 2012, my world and physical space opened up, and I began painting full-time. The subject matter of my paintings started with people, then moved to florals and, more recently, to abstracts on canvas. I also create representational plexiglas paintings that sometimes include hidden messages.”The most monumental painting she has sold thus far, Field Burn ll, is 7 by 9 feet and hangs in an art collector’s light-filled, modern home in Wyoming. “I sell a lot of paintings directly to collectors, both established and first-time art buyers,” she explains. “I often work with interior designers and also love making pieces for corporate spaces.” Her art has been exhibited in several states, and a large commissioned piece hangs in Washington, DC, in the lobby of a building adjacent to the White House.[RELATED: Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Color in Your Home]
Scherr has worked out of multiple studios, recently at Whittemore Nature Preserve in Oldwick, and also in a privately owned manor house. “Now I’ve taken over our dining room and living room, where incredible, big windows let the light come in,” she says. (Scherr lives in what she calls the Hobbit House, a former water-cistern structure built into the side of a berm.) She typically paints her oversized canvases on the floor, unstretched, using industrial materials. “I like the support of the floor beneath, and it gives me the flexibility to walk around, or on top of, the canvas. My paint strokes are very broad and splashy, and the process requires a lot of physical effort,” she notes. ”As I create with a mix of house paint, ink, pastels and spray paint, I turn off my thoughts and allow music to guide my movements.”A curated collection of Scherr’s work resides at Pottersville and Main, an interior-design studio and retail shop in Gladstone, just a stone’s throw from her home. “I love working with owners John and Geoffrey,” she says. “In fact, we’re collaborating on a collection to debut in their space soon.” Scherr also plans to launch a bespoke jewelry line when the leaves begin to fall.To view Scherr’s work, visit AlisonScherr.com or @AscherrArt on Instagram.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy opens a wooden gate and steps inside a muddy pen to pet a group of donkeys. She’s dressed in a wrinkled, loose-fitting linen shirt, brown cargo pants, and beige boots with red laces—an outfit to ward off ticks. Her signature long, blond locks are tied back in a low ponytail. Getting dirty isn’t of concern as she enthusiastically walks the grounds of her farm, one of two in New Jersey that she owns with her husband, Thom Hinkle, to show off the cows next.It’s a stark contrast to the image audiences probably have of one of Broadway’s most endearing—and funny—leading ladies, who has been charming theater lovers since her breakout role as Amber Von Tussle in the 2002 musical Hairspray. Bundy, who went on to originate the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical in 2007, has taken the literal meaning of her iconic character’s name all the way to the actual woodlands of Hunterdon County.[caption id="attachment_342280" align="alignnone" width="778"] Laura Bell Bundy and Thom Hinkle are raising their son, Huck, on their Tewksbury farm. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]During the pandemic, Bundy, who grew up on a lake in Lexington, Kentucky, and Hinkle, an executive producer for television who was raised in Union County’s Roselle Park, decided to leave California, where they’d been living for the past seven years.After briefly considering farms in Kentucky near Bundy’s family, they decided to head back to the East Coast. Bundy missed working on Broadway, and Hinkle wanted to experience four seasons again.First, they looked at properties in Connecticut and New York, then expanded the search to New Jersey, where they are now raising their 5-year-old-son, Huck, on a farm in Tewksbury. In the midst of huge renovations, they bottle maple syrup, plan to open a boutique membership winery in a few years, and even expect to host farm classes and events.“I’ve fallen in love with New Jersey—I can’t believe how much it looks like Kentucky,” says Bundy.[caption id="attachment_342282" align="alignnone" width="778"] The farm's goats were rescued when they were 10 days old. Bundy bottle-fed them for three months. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]The Hunterdon County farm they settled on in 2021 is about an hour’s drive from midtown Manhattan. “I’m not interested in living in suburbia. If I’m going to be outside of the city, I might as well be outside the city,” Bundy says, explaining why they picked a home so far west on Route 78, when their jobs are mostly in New York City.Right now, she’s filming the movie Miracle on 74th Street there. When I meet her for a farm tour, she holds up her long nails, which are part of her look as an “Eastern European lady,” she says in the character’s accent before stepping away to take a call related to the project—also starring Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Dan Hedaya as her husband. Last fall, during her run of The Cottage on Broadway, Bundy would drive into the city, leaving home between 4:30 and 5:30 pm to make it in time for a 7 pm curtain. “The only traffic we have here is you could get behind a tractor,” she says.“Or a cow,” adds Hinkle. “I never thought we’d move back. The farms we saw here were nicer than the ones we saw in Kentucky.”The welcoming community has made them feel right at home. There’s a neighborhood Facebook page, a town Christmas tree lighting, and Fourth of July festivities with potato-sack and relay races.“People wave to you,” Hinkle points out.“It’s the most neighborhoody feeling I’ve ever had in my life, even though the properties are fairly spread out,” Bundy adds.[caption id="attachment_342294" align="alignnone" width="778"] Buy our September 2024 issue here. Photo: Chris Buck; Hair & makeup: Dylan Silver[/caption]The only downsides? It takes three days to mow the lawn, and it’s an almost 20-minute drive to the nearest ShopRite, where Bundy does her own grocery shopping. “But now, with Whole Foods Amazon delivery, my life is much easier,” she adds. “I also buy from local farms, and we have a few small general stores.”Their property boasts a barn, pond, creek, sheep, goats (which were rescued at 10 days old, and Bundy bottle-fed them for three months) and maple trees. Hinkle collected sap from 80 trees over two months and boiled it down to 60 8-ounce bottles of delicious syrup, which he’s been gifting to friends.[caption id="attachment_342283" align="alignnone" width="778"] Hinkle makes maple syrup from trees on the farm and bottles it for friends. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]There’s no cell phone reception, which Bundy feels is a blessing. Not being plugged in to the internet all the time helps clear her mind and allows for more creativity. “I would much prefer to be on a bicycle all day and jump in a creek—that’s my happy place,” she says, offering carrots to feed the goats.Perhaps it worked. It was their bike rides that inspired the couple’s next great adventure. In September 2022, they purchased another farm that they always passed on their excursions. It cost $1.2 million, and nearly every building was in disrepair. The best part about the deal was that the state offered them money to preserve it as part of its efforts to maintain open space, support local agriculture and protect the environment. “We felt it was win-win,” says Bundy. “We preserved 58 acres through the State Agriculture Development Committee, who were a joy to deal with. Although selling off lots could have been more financially lucrative, we decided to preserve the land to benefit Tewksbury, the town we deeply love, and to respect our neighbors and the community.”[RELATED: Exploring the Future of Farming in New Jersey]
Now, the couple secures their helmets and hops on electric bikes to show me just how close in proximity the two properties are. It’s an impressive two-mile ride weaving through the woods. I follow in my car. “Having a project like this farm appeals to us,” Bundy explains, who is leading on the design concept. “We are idea people. We like birthing a concept and seeing the concept through.”“She just vomits creativity. She’s a producer’s dream, the amount of ideas that she comes up with—I love it,” says Hinkle, who does a lot of the manual labor, along with hiring contractors. There are several tractors on site, too, some of which have seen better days, with Hinkle at the wheel. He works on the farm from 9:30 am until about 12:30 pm, and then goes back home to work on his TV projects on L.A. time.[caption id="attachment_342311" align="alignnone" width="778"] "We’ve really become New Jersey loyalists and want to continue to spread the message that Jersey really is a beautiful place,” says Hinkle of his and Bundy's attitudes about the Garden State. Photo: Chris Buck[/caption]The 300-year-old farm boasts five outbuildings, one of which will ultimately become a wine-tasting room and is one of the first things you see as you drive up the gravel road. “We’re uncovering things probably built in the 1700s-1800s and bringing back to life, things that have been hidden on this farm,” Bundy says as the couple points to the newly repointed stone walls that were covered up by the previous owner’s garbage. They are the fourth family to hold the deed to the property.“This could be France. This could be Spain. This could be Italy, and it’s right down the road from us,” Bundy says, imagining the possibilities as they map out their plans. Bundy outlines with her arms where custom glass doors will go to store the wine. The heralded Ironbound Farm and Ciderhouse in Asbury was a sort of inspiration to them in terms of operating a farm-to-table business.[RELATED: Forget Napa Valley! NJ Wines Are Better Than You Think]
A short walk uphill leads to the main barn on site. They envision live music, educational classes and dining events—all related to farming, due to local ordinances associated with the sale. Once covered floor to ceiling with hay, it will be the primary focus of restoration next year.Across the way, Bundy shows off her future “she shed,” a tin barn. She wants to add a dance floor.Bundy gets into the back of a Polaris ATV as Hinkle steps into the driver’s seat to show off the rest of the property. I take the front passenger seat. They point out three homes: one they plan on moving into this fall after selling their current house; a second one they updated, where Hinkle’s parents now live; and a third cottage, a Dutch Colonial built in the 1700s, stripped to its bones, the architectural plans still in the works. Bundy walks through it with ease, noting the irony that she was renovating a cottage while performing in The Cottage on Broadway. Once it’s ready, she’ll hang up a photo of her from the show as part of its decor.The cottage overlooks an acre of white pinot grigio and grüner veltliner grapes, which were planted this summer and will take roughly three to five years before they can be bottled. Until then, they’re allowed to import grapes and bottle the wine under their name—which they haven’t decided on yet. The goal is to have the tasting room—though probably not wine—ready for a soft opening for Memorial Day weekend of 2025.Hinkle aptly named the 73-acre farm the Hardscrabble, after the first home Ulysses S. Grant built with his hands, and “because Hardscrabble was already taken,” Hinkle explains of his affinity for the 18th president who summered in Elberon. Hardscrabble is also a term that means hard work, and they feel it couldn’t relate more to them. “That’s us,” Hinkle says. “It’s like we do a lot of hard work, but we’re also kind of a mess.”Along the ATV tour, we take a look at five apple trees that were once part of an apple-processing facility on-site, according to records the couple researched. One of the historic apple barns was damaged by the earthquake earlier this year, since the farm is three blocks from the epicenter.Inside, an elevated platform stage has performance-space potential that Bundy can’t help but demonstrate with a little shim-sham. “We’re going to sing ‘Little Lamb!’” she kids, referencing Gypsy, a show she did at the Paper Mill Playhouse back in 1998—staying true to her musical theater roots along the tour.Some might wonder how entertainment professionals know how to revive a farm. “Thom is one of those people that figures out how to do everything quickly,” Bundy says.“We’re kind of doing it as we go—flying the plane as we learn how to fly,” Hinkle says jokingly, adding that the state offers grants, loans and calls with experts to help them. “There’s this network where we dial in once a month and ask a question to all these experts that have been doing it forever. They give you free advice. It is like the most supportive environment we’ve ever been in.”On top of renovations, Bundy and Hinkle are filming their own mostly unscripted reality show about bringing the farm back to life. They plan to release the 22-episode show themselves as soon as they can—Hinkle’s experience as an executive producer will certainly come in handy. “We are about to approach brands to see if someone wants to sponsor the show,” Bundy adds.They’ll also show their family life. Audiences can expect to see the family’s late bulldog, Polly, being exhumed from their current home address and reburied at the Hardscrabble. “We buried her at our current farm. About a month later, we decided we’re moving here,” says Hinkle. “And so what do you do? Do you leave the dog buried with strangers, or do you take her with us?”“Partly why we’re doing this show is to familiarize people with this area and try to get more young people out here. We’ve really become New Jersey loyalists and want to continue to spread the message that Jersey really is a beautiful place,” Hinkle says of their mission, before handing me a bottle of his homemade maple syrup to take home. “We want a place where people can come together.”Leigh Scheps, who grew up in Holmdel obsessing over Broadway, is a full-time senior reporter for Inside Edition Digital and freelance writer with bylines in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and more.
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“This home comes alive each summer. Every house has a season, and our season is definitely summer,” says homeowner Dana Dore of Farmingdale.A passionate, lifelong DIYer, Dore has built a solid reputation in the design community by adding charm and color to her family’s 1,700-square-foot, builder-grade home. These days, she’s a professional stylist, blogger and Instagram darling with Adored House by Dana Dore (@adoredhouse) with 23,000-plus followers.“When guests first visit, they’re surprised it’s only 12 years old with 8-foot ceilings,” Dore says. “Because of my decorating tricks, our home appears much older and larger in photos.” Some of her fool-the-eye faves include tall furniture, beadboard walls and vertical-striped upholstery and drapery fabric.[caption id="attachment_341080" align="alignnone" width="778"] The dining room appears a century older than it actually is, elevated by a collection of pre-loved tableware, board-and-batten walls, a vintage bar cart, old botanical charts, and a painstakingly restored antique pine cabinet that Dore promises never to paint. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The Monmouth County residence, home to Dore, husband Bob and their two daughters, welcomes with a laidback, rural feel in a quiet community. Despite a modest local population of 1,500, it’s an easy drive to bustling Belmar and Manasquan beaches.“I like to infuse our home with nautical references in artwork and found objects, but I also have a good mix of timeless beach objects, since we’re just 10 minutes from the Shore,” Dore says.[caption id="attachment_341693" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Stylist Dana Dore and her daughters celebrate summer with a lemonade party in the backyard of their Farmingdale home. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The vast majority of decor within the home is vintage because she believes that “nothing compares to the quality and overall appearance of antique art and furniture.” Even the not-so-old flower beds overflowing with hydrangea, gaura and roses give the impression of a mature vintage garden.“When we first bought our beige, totally characterless Farmingdale house, I was comfortable doing much of the work by myself. Bob loves gardening and cooking, but he lets me handle most everything else,” she says.[caption id="attachment_341077" align="alignnone" width="778"] A quiet bedroom corner peeks into a sweet bathroom sporting a black-and-white floor, hand-painted by Dore. Antique pine cabinets are found throughout the home, and an old wicker basket corrals a collection of antique quilts. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Dore grew up in New Jersey, where her parents inspired an appreciation for antiquing, painting, wallpapering, arranging (and rearranging) furniture, operating power tools and tackling minor plumbing and electrical challenges. It seemed only natural for her to go on to study art and design, which evolved into a 14-year career in retail display, where she used her handy skills to decorate shop windows.Today, as a social media content creator, Dore inspires others to add personality to their own digs, even those homes that lack character.[caption id="attachment_341078" align="alignnone" width="778"] A jaunty striped pagoda umbrella Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]When she and Bob, a chef at the Asbury Ocean Club, first saw their home, the price was right and the community was perfect, but the new colonial-style house was not what they envisioned. Dore finally agreed to purchase the property after her husband assured her that she would have free rein to make it her own.“Especially today, with a shortage of real estate inventory on the market, sometimes people who dream of an old home wind up settling for a newer house without charm,” she notes. “As I always say, 'Love the one you’re with.' You can make almost any place your dream home.”[caption id="attachment_341076" align="alignnone" width="778"] The girls’ sisters suite is decorated with inlaid Art Deco beds, cotton bedding, and a classic Morris & Co wallpaper reimagined in a cheery citrus palette by Ben Pentreath. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]In 2016, she began her slow but steady transformation of first-floor living areas as well as the primary bedroom and children’s room. “A big driver for me is my daughters, who inspire my style,” Dore says. “When I designed their sisters suite, it was a huge collaboration. They were quite vocal about their wallpaper and room layout preferences, and I completely understood their feelings because, when I was 16, my parents allowed me to make over my bedroom all by myself. Back then I enjoyed the walking tours of Cape May homes, so my room was inspired by Victorian design.”[caption id="attachment_341081" align="alignnone" width="778"] Charming details are found in every nook and cranny. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Throughout the residence is an exuberant palette. Dore especially gravitates to summery yellows and greens, with a healthy dollop of old-school stripes and gingham. After watching home-renovation shows like This Old House and Martha Stewart Living as a kid, she especially likes to hunt for unusual found objects for her home. Case in point: the family’s coffee table is an indestructible old ship-hatch door, perfect for game night with the kiddos.An ardent thrifter, Dore is rather addicted to Facebook Marketplace. “We’re fortunate to live in New Jersey, because there are amazing finds on Marketplace within driving distance,” she says.She’s even been known to motor a couple of hours to snag finds like the kids’ twin beds, the kitchen table and a roomy TV cabinet. Her must-haves for a perfect summer house with Shore vibes? White bed linens, just-picked flowers on the table, and fresh-baked treats made with Jersey peaches.“My best advice is to give yourself the time and grace to fill your home with things you love for the people you love,” she says.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
[RELATED: Bay Head Retreat Is Family’s Long-Awaited Dream Home]
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[caption id="attachment_341301" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]Easy, breezy, warm-weather looks include the Britt linen shirt, $188, and flowy Ophelia maxi skirt, $188, from J.McLaughlin shops and jmclaughlin.com. The Remi geometric swimsuit offers posh style for fun in the sun; $245 at Nordstrom stores and nordstrom.com. Get comfy with Enola double-buckle espadrille sandals; $158 at Neiman Marcus and neimanmarcus.com. The beaded, layered Manhattan stacked bracelet is chic yet casual; $95 at francesvalentine.com.Created by NJ’s own Bobbi Brown, Jones Road Miracle Balm imparts an all-over, instant glow. Available in scads of shades; $38 for 1.75 ounces at jonesroadbeauty.com. Mallorca cat-eye sunglasses wow in classic tortoise shell style; $79.50 at J.Crew stores and jcrew.com.The DeMellier Capri raffia tote keeps you organized at the beach and beyond; $395 at Bloomingdale’s and bloomingdales.com. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Now in its 10th year, the Just Jersey retail store in Morristown has proven to be a trailblazer for the buy-local movement.For the last decade, co-owners Tina Bologna and Paul Miller have stocked their shop with goods made only by Jerseyans—much of it also Jersey-centric, with wares boasting the attitude the state is known for, folklore like the Jersey Devil, and iconic sites like Margate’s Lucy the Elephant.“We were surprised that there was demand for not just Jersey made, but also Jersey branded,” admits Bologna.Collecting Jersey makers in one place may seem like a no-brainer today, but in 2012, when Bologna created a print catalog of items by local crafters and artisanal food producers to sell for a school fundraiser, the idea was a novel hit, so she continued to expand. “I wanted to make a bigger impact,” she says.In 2014, the first retail venture came in the form of a pop-up shop. Since then, the original 30-40 craftspeople have grown to more than 300, offering thousands of products.[caption id="attachment_341290" align="aligncenter" width="778"] "We're like the gift shop of New Jersey," says Tina Bologna. Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]The goods are as diverse as the state, with an inventory that includes greeting cards, jewelry, cookbooks, and a variety of home goods, from travertine coasters to tea towels and pillows.“Each item has a great story,” Miller says. “From the seaglass wall art done by an artist in Cape May to the hand-turned bowls made from storm-felled local trees.”[caption id="attachment_341293" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Stocked items from New Jersey makers include wall art, ceramic goods, handmade cutting boards, and much more. Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]Just Jersey has also become a go-to shop for corporate gifting. “We do a lot of gift baskets. We can create all kinds of themes,” says Miller, an experienced entrepreneur who previously owned a natural fruit juice chain as well as a store for triathlon enthusiasts.One popular basket is the Italian sampler, which includes Jersey-shaped pasta, locally made Italian gravy, biscotti and more.[caption id="attachment_341291" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]“Every item here reinforces a company’s commitment to the place they call home,” says Miller. “New Jersey is important to our business’s customers, their employees and the surrounding community. Everything here reinforces the value of their brand.”Students taking summer immersion trips are also regulars. “The students bring their international hosts gifts,” Bologna says. “We have stuff going all over: Japan, Spain, Portugal. They like to bring a bit of their state pride to share.”Realtors, too, flock to Just Jersey. Where better to get a welcome gift that can be customized with your town and zip code?[caption id="attachment_341292" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Andy Foster[/caption]“We won’t let people forget there is more to Jersey than housewives and Sopranos,” Miller says.Visit Just Jersey at 163 South Street in Morristown; 973-590-2820.
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He wants to get better, better, better!Jack Antonoff announced this week that he has rerecorded his debut Bleachers album, Strange Desire, for its 10th anniversary.First released in July 2014, the album—best known for its lead single, "I Wanna Get Better," the Jersey-born band's first No. 1 hit—arose during a “rough time with the full armor of sonic chaos. Voices fluttering around me, hotel room walls echoing in the vocal takes,” Antonoff wrote on Instagram. "[...] It was the sound that I called Bleachers. That feeling of being there but in no way at the center. Watching and dreaming. Shouting from a corner. In the shadow. I wrote from that misunderstood place and I still do."[caption id="attachment_339784" align="aligncenter" width="632"] Bleachers' debut album, Strange Desire, came out a decade ago this July.[/caption]The Bergen County-raised producer and musician, 40, who often waxes poetic about his native New Jersey sitting in the "shadow" of neighboring Manhattan, explained that the album will feature "all eleven tracks reimagined without the armor I needed" a decade ago."Anytime you put out an album, you’re trying to give more context to people; give them as much of who you are in that moment," Antonoff told NJM earlier this year.The project's slightly altered title—A Stranger Desired—is a nod to the audience his band has built in the years since: "It wasn't only a strange desire to write these songs," Antonoff reflected in the post. "There was something unknown to me happening. I was looking for you: my people."[caption id="attachment_339783" align="aligncenter" width="632"] Bleachers' A Stranger Desired is out September 6.[/caption]Those strangers have showed up in droves to Bleachers' 2024 international tour, which kicked off days after the band released a self-titled fourth album in March. It played Antonoff's sold-out Shadow of the City festival at the Stone Pony Summer Stage last month, and is currently slated to conclude at Madison Square Garden in October.The announcement comes after Antonoff's work on several rerecorded albums with his longtime collaborator and close friend Taylor Swift.The first song on A Stranger Desired will be released August 2. The full album is out September 6.[RELATED: Stone Pony Celebrating 50 Years in Asbury Park]
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Get weekly design advice and inspiration from the experts at Design NJ sent to your inbox.Email[caption id="attachment_339325" align="alignnone" width="778"] The backyard dining and lounge areas of this Spring Lake colonial feature yellow accents—just like the inside. Photo: Alyssa Mancini[/caption] * Related posts from Design NJ:* * Shore Home Combines Contemporary and Coastal Aesthetics * Relaxed Style in Monmouth County * Ocean County Couple Build a Guest House on a Lot Next Door Built in 1910, as Spring Lake was gaining popularity among New Yorkers and Philadelphians for its serene seaside boardwalk, beautiful beaches, spring-fed lake and quaint downtown, this home still delights with time-honored details and modern-day comforts.
The home is nearly 5,000 square feet and has six bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, and a wealth of windows for abundant natural light. The current owner and her family “loved the bones of the house, but wanted to give it a very different feel,” says Geneva Goldsmith, founder of Lightcodes Style, a boutique interior design firm serving clients in the Jersey Shore area. “The previous owners had a very traditional look with dark flooring, trim and decor.”Her client preferred a light and airy feeling that also felt “beachy, cozy, and welcoming to both adults and kids.” This concept would extend to the adjacent cottage/pool house, which has its own kitchen, living area, bedroom and bathroom.Inspired by the town’s sense of place and the allure of other coastal destinations, such as the Italian Riviera, the French Riviera and the Riviera Nayarit, Goldsmith gave this project its own flavor by naming the main house and cottage the Riviera Beach House and Riviera Beach Cottage, respectively. “When I learned that Spring Lake was called the Irish Riviera nearly a century ago, the name felt like a perfect fit,” she says.Click here to continue reading this story on Design NJ.
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The New Jersey Hall of Fame has announced its class of inductees for 2024—and the group includes some of the biggest names in Hollywood.Meryl Streep, who grew up in Bernardsville, Paul Rudd, who was born in Passaic, and Kevin Smith, a Red Bank native, are on this year's list, which features 18 New Jerseyans who have achieved greatness in categories including performing arts & entertainment, sports, and education & science.“The 2024 class of inductees of the New Jersey Hall of Fame illustrate the New Jersey ethic of hard work, determination and grit,” Jon F. Hanson, Chairman of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to celebrate the contributions of 18 new Inductees so future generations can learn about their journeys.”Streep, one of our country's most celebrated actors and a three-time Oscar winner, got her start in a fifth-grade play, then starred in musicals at Bernards High School. Things came full circle for the Jersey native in the late '90s, when her movie One True Thing filmed for several months in nearby Morristown.Rudd, of Clueless and Ant-Man fame, spent his early life in Passaic but moved to Kansas City as a kid and attended the University of Kansas—but we're happy to claim him as our own.Clerks director Smith has supported New Jersey throughout his career, filming and setting his movies in his home state, including his newest, The 4:30 Movie, which comes out in September. He's also the owner of the popular comic book store Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in downtown Red Bank. In recent year he bought his childhood movie theater in Atlantic Highlands and renamed it Smodcastle Cinemas. "It’s a dream come true for a fat kid from New Jersey who spent his childhood at the movies," he told us in 2022. "I can just go down in my bathrobe and watch the latest releases on my screens.”The pre-taped induction ceremony is set to air November 13 on Fox 5 My9 and social media.A full list of inductees is below.Performing Arts & Entertainment* Lesley Gore,Tenafly, singer-songwriter of "You Don't Own Me" and “It’s My Party" * Warren Littlefield, Montclair, former NBC Entertainment president * Paul Rudd, Passaic, actor * Kevin Smith, Red Bank, director, producer, writer * Meryl Streep, Bernardsville, actress
Arts & Letters* Gay Talese, Ocean City, journalist
Sports* Dick Button, Englewood, two-time Olympic gold medalist in figure skating * Tim Howard, New Brunswick, soccer player * Ron Johnson, Madison, football player * Phil Simms, Franklin Lakes, former New York Giants quarterback
Enterprise* George Cooney, Bogota, chairman emeritus of EUE/Screen Gems Ltd * Peter Cancro, Point Pleasant, founder of Jersey Mike’s * Donald Katz, Newark, founder of Audible, Inc.
Education & Science* Elizabeth Coleman White, Whitesbog, botanist * John Forbes Nash, Princeton, genius mathematician * Avi Wigderson, Princeton, computer scientist, mathematician
Public Service* Father Edwin D. Leahy, Newark, Benedictine monk and Catholic priest, headmaster of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark * Geraldine Thompson, Lincroft, founder of VNA Health Group
Meanwhile, entertainment fans looking to get their Jersey celebrity fix can visit the New Jersey Hall of Fame's brand-new Entertainment and Learning Center at American Dream in East Rutherford. The 10,000-square-foot center features interactive exhibits that celebrate our state's icons. Since 2008, the Hall of Fame has inducted more than 230 New Jerseyans, including Buzz Aldrin, Frank Sinatra, Ray Liotta, Bobbi Brown, Dionne Warwick, Charles Addams, David Chase and Kelly Ripa.The Hall of Fame is also behind the Garden State Parkway rest stop program that renamed service areas for famous residents of the Garden State like Jon Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, James Gandolfini and Judy Blume.
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[caption id="attachment_339224" align="alignnone" width="960"] Illustration: Kay Wolfersperger[/caption]On a deep August afternoon, I sat in my stifling Montclair attic staring forlornly at a horrid turquoise casserole dish that hadn’t seen daylight since my wedding shower.My husband and I had sold our 1905 colonial and we were scrambling to empty out the beloved home our family had spent 23 years filling up. Paul and I had earmarked key items for the apartment we were downsizing to in town, unloaded some things on our 20-something sons, donated what we could, and rented a storage space for supposedly important objects I now only think about when paying our monthly invoice.That left a house still brimming with stuff that, while not particularly valuable, didn’t belong in a landfill: a dusty fabric doll from somebody’s Cancun vacation; a vat of screws, washers and errant metal things that belonged to something, somewhere; a purple V-neck from my mom I’d rediscover in my closet each year and swear to finally give a go. (I never did. I hate purple.)Figuring WTF, I snapped a pic of the odious casserole and listed it on Facebook Marketplace for $10. A couple of nibbles came in, one wanting additional photos and the brand (did he think it was Tiffany?), another countering $5.With the clock ticking fast toward move day, I had about as much time to quibble over crockery as I did for a spa extravaganza at the Short Hills Hilton. I settled on a new price ($0) and reposted it on my local Facebook Buy Nothing page. The description: “I hate this dish. Maybe you won’t.”A clay pot that couldn’t command $10 just days before suddenly had dozens clamoring. In a blink, a woman arrived at my house, raced up our flagstone walk with the glee of a newly named Price is Right contestant, and left with the casserole and a basket of smelly candles to boot.Pumped, I posted more, taking a brief minute to explain to Buy Nothing browsers (and myself) why the object in question wasn’t making my cut.“After 22 years of planting tomatoes and getting about five total per season, we are giving up. Please take these tomato baskets.”“Could not look less hideous in this bike shirt, no matter how hard I pedal.”“I hope that where I am going, I will never have to use this horrid Shop-Vac.”And for that sad little doll from Cancun, a simple “Help me” made her case.As the weeks ground on, my daily Buy Nothing posts and visits became a precious ray of light amid the downsizing chaos. Each exchange provided a chance to spare the landfill. To delight another person I might not otherwise have crossed paths with. To attach a face, and sometimes a name, to something I’d owned and, possibly, loved before sending it out into the world.I sit in my apartment today, loving each of the spare belongings that share our small space. I take joy knowing that, somewhere nearby, someone is appreciating something that couldn’t come with us. And I hold out hope that maybe, just maybe, my mom’s purple V-neck, still hanging in my bedroom closet, will finally get some wear this year.Peg Rosen writes for numerous print and digital publications. She lives with her husband, Paul, and moyen poodle, George, in an uncluttered Montclair rental.[RELATED: Emptying the Nest: How We Decluttered Our Home of 30 Years]
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Mike Considine was deep into a career as a finish carpenter when lightning struck. Not literally, of course; he had what he describes as an aha moment. Why not create a refillable candle, something that would be reusable, environmentally friendly, toxin-free and sustainable?Fortunately, his wife, Olivia Apt, was game.“I’ve always liked to create,” she says, “but I never really found my own craft.”The couple combined forces and got to work, brainstorming ideas and sketching designs. Before he knew it, Mike had switched his artistic medium from wood to clay, and, in the midst of Covid-19 lockdown, voila: Lovelight Handmade was born. “It’s a joint creation,” says Mike.[caption id="attachment_338953" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Lovelight Handmade hosts creative learning experiences through hands-on workshops for people to create their own candle scents, to throw pottery and more. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The concept is simple: a cylindrical ceramic vessel with a refillable candle. Mike worked on honing his pottery skills (“I got all my mistakes out of the way early,” he jokes), while Olivia threw herself into researching waxes and scents, ultimately procuring materials that are certified clean, vegan, and void of any toxins.“We’re very particular about our scents,” Olivia says. “They’re clean. No chemicals. No headaches.”[caption id="attachment_338954" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Lovelight Handmade has a shop in Bradley Beach. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]As their roles evolved, Olivia discovered a new passion: glazing. Drawing inspiration from the sea, she developed an aesthetic that has become their trademark.Creations in hand, the couple began doing the farmers market circuit in and around Asbury Park, where they make their home. They sold vessels in three sizes and various glazes, along with candle inserts scented with lavender, white tea, sage, grapefruit and other refreshing fragrances.“Because it was Covid, people were in their homes,” says Mike, “so business took off right away.”Certain they were onto something, they soon developed an e-commerce presence, shipping “anywhere and everywhere,” Mike says. In May 2023, they opened their retail shop on Main Street in Bradley Beach.The couple concede that their learning curve has been steep, especially on the business side. Says Olivia, “We’re each wearing a lot of hats, learning as we go.” Adds Mike, “We’re grinding.”Undeterred, the pair have branched out into dishes, pitchers, vases and other ceramic designs, but candles remain their bread and butter. “Half of our business is refills,” explains Mike. “That tells me our idea is working.” And, as business continues to grow, so do their ideas. Lovelight Handmade’s vessels can have the LVLT logo imprinted on the ceramic, or customers can create a personalized message, perfect for, say, bridesmaid gifts.“I have a difficult time with the label of ‘artist’,” says Mike, “but what we’re creating here is very rewarding.”Lovelight Handmade is located at 57 Main Street, Bradley Beach (732-455-9514).
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Musician and actor Stevie Van Zandt and his half-brother, playwright and producer Billy Van Zandt, now have another honor to add to the list. This spring, the street where they grew up, Wilson Avenue in Middletown Township, was ceremonially renamed Van Zandt Way.The renaming, sponsored by the New Jersey Hall of Fame and Middletown Township, was attended by Mayor Tony Perry, former NBC news anchor and Middletown native Brian Williams, and officials from the New Jersey Hall of Fame.“We have both been awarded for our work, but being honored by our hometown is obviously very special,” said the brothers. “We will try our best to keep our street proud!”Stevie Van Zandt, musician, songwriter, and actor, is best known as a founding member and guitarist Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, but also has a solo band called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. He gained acclaim for his portrayal of Silvio Dante in the Emmy award-winning HBO series The Sopranos, which earned him multiple Screen Actors Guild Awards and an Emmy nomination. He is an inductee of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Hall of Fame.Billy Van Zandt is a celebrated playwright, actor, director and producer. He is the writer of the best-selling memoir Get in the Car, Jane (Adventures in the TV Wasteland) and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his television special I Love Lucy: The Very First Show. Other credits include You’ve Got Hate Mail, Love, Sex, and the I.R.S., and Silent Laughter. He’s also a stage and screen actor, with notable performances in The Godfather Part III and Jaws 2.
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Unless you’re a bonafide Swiftie, you may not know that the Pennsylvania-born megastar is also a New Jerseyan: For 12 summers, her family owned a home on the bay in Stone Harbor, which she has called a “magical place to grow up.”This summer, at the Stone Harbor Museum, you can get a peek into Swift’s formative years in the idyllic Shore town. Swift, 34, vacationed there from 1992 until 2004, when her family moved to Nashville to help her break into the music industry.The exhibit includes photos of Swift as a child in Stone Harbor, provided by her family. Other items include four vinyls of her Midnights album that form a clock display, a “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film poster, a Taylor Swift-inspired Peter Max poster, and a Midnights-themed guitar signed by Swift.“We are thrilled to have these items,” Teri Fischer, president of the board of trustees for the museum, said in a news release. “Taylor Swift is definitely part of the Stone Harbor story, and I know that she does delight and inspire so many of us.”[caption id="attachment_338133" align="aligncenter" width="778"] "When I would run out of material, I'd just start making up songs on the spot," Swift once said of playing in cafes in Stone Harbor. Photo: Shutterstock[/caption]The Swifts were woven into the fabric of Stone Harbor. Scott Swift, the singer’s father, was an EMT with the Stone Harbor Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, while the budding star herself could often be found playing her music in local coffee shops and cafes.“I used to sing karaoke at Henry's [on Third Avenue] and play acoustic shows for hours on end at Coffee Talk, a little cafe on 98th Street,” Swift said in a 2009 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I used to drag my parents into those places all the time, and all of their friends would show up and put dollars in my tip jar. When I was younger, I used to play for hours and hours in cafes like that. When I would run out of material, I'd just start making up songs on the spot.”Henry’s has since shuttered, along with the Italian Garden restaurant, another favorite of Swift’s. But for those who want to walk in the shoes of the pop icon, the Coffee Talk cafe is still open, along with Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream (which is also one of New Jersey Monthly's favorite ice cream shops). For an authentic reenactment, order the cookies ‘n’ cream, which Swift says was her favorite."When I was little, I used to walk in there and just stare up at all the flavors and toppings, completely frozen and unable to make a final decision,” she told the Inquirer. “I was always so overwhelmed.”The Swift memorabilia will be on display at the museum through the end of September.Swift was back at the Shore last summer, when her close pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff married the actress Margaret Qualley on Long Beach Island—causing a frenzy among Swifties and paparazzi. Antonoff, who grew up in Bergenfield, has a home on LBI with Qualley.
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Anyone who’s raised teens knows it can be challenging to schedule summer family time when kids also want to enjoy weekends with friends. For this Bergen County family, the solution was to build their long-awaited dream home down the Shore, with abundant living space for overnight gatherings throughout the season.“The homeowners wanted the ability to entertain numerous friends and family members, so we opted to make all 6,200 square feet multipurpose to accommodate lots of visitors coming in and out during summer months,” says interior designer Sarah Brady, founder and creative director of Salt Design Company in Red Bank. “With three growing boys, our clients emphasized the need for livability without compromising style.”[caption id="attachment_336244" align="alignnone" width="778"] A custom coffee table, comfy seating with durable fabrics, and a surfboard wall sculpture adorn the light and bright living area in this Bay Head home. Photo: Linda Pordon[/caption]The project began in 2021 with the help of lead designer Kiera Gannon and cabinetry designer Karen Vazquez and was completed in 2022. “Our design approach gave way to coastal touches while keeping the overall feel grounded and organic,” Brady says.The sprawling home’s three finished levels were designed by Jeff Schneider Architect in Bay Head and constructed by Jonathan Cantor of Signature Home Builders in Englewood Cliffs. Throughout the residence, built-in cabinetry was constructed by Dave Larstana of MDM Woodworking in Hawthorne.[caption id="attachment_336245" align="alignnone" width="778"] The mudroom gets a lot of action when three teens and friends grab beach towels and gear. Photo: Linda Pordon[/caption]The first-floor living area boasts reclaimed wood beams, V-groove paneling, beaded chandeliers, and cozy, very forgiving seating in durable performance fabrics. Even the mudroom is designed for throngs of guests, with a stacked washer/dryer (a backup to the main laundry room) and lots of cubbies to corral pool towels and beach gear.[caption id="attachment_336242" align="alignnone" width="778"] Organic elements and a clean, fresh backdrop combine for a show-stopping, spacious kitchen. English white-oak floors withstand foot traffic as well as a bit of sand and surf. Photo: Linda Pordon[/caption]The adjacent kitchen is organically calm in multiple quiet tones. Benjamin Moore’s Pale Oak paint pairs well with white-oak cabinetry and floors. Large parties are a snap, thanks to maintenance-free quartz counters, a six-burner Wolf range, two 30-inch Sub-Zero column refrigerators, and two hardworking dishwashers. The dining area, which looks out to the front porch facing the ocean, welcomes crowds with a generously proportioned table and comfy custom chairs with rope bases and cleanable faux leather.[caption id="attachment_336248" align="alignnone" width="778"] Built-in queen and king beds abound in the three kids’ rooms, with scads of trundle and cabinet storage. Photo: Linda Pordon[/caption]With a whopping seven bedrooms, six full bathrooms and two half baths, there’s plenty of room for parents, kids, the family dog and visitors to party. In fact, during summer months, the seashore colonial-style home welcomes out-of-towners every weekend.Sleepovers are easy with kid-friendly bunk rooms, each sporting queen and king beds for a total of 10 teen beds. “Unique to any of our previous projects, we created three distinct bunk rooms, each intentionally designed for one of the sons, but meant to transition as they age,” says Brady. Another three en-suite guest rooms and the master bedroom are outfitted for grown-ups. Additional living area on the second floor offers a quiet space to watch the surf, enjoy a drink from the built-in bar, or work from home.[caption id="attachment_336246" align="alignnone" width="778"] Beds are cleverly tucked into dormers and window-seat areas. Photo: Linda Pordon[/caption]“Who wouldn’t want to weekend here?” asks Brady. “With this perfectly appointed custom home located in the heart of Bay Head, guests can ride bikes, surf or take a short walk to town for oysters, cocktails or ice cream. It’s summertime at the Jersey Shore at its very best.”[RELATED: Reimagining a Three-Generation Retreat in Stone Harbor]
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If you think small kids and pets can’t play nicely in a beautifully appointed home, consider this active family who dared to dream in vivid color.When New Jersey interior designer Kerri Pilchik envisioned the first-floor refresh of this stone-front colonial home situated in Ridgewood’s Old Country Club neighborhood, she considered the family’s busy lifestyle and love of entertaining.“Although the couple has two little boys and an English bulldog, the mother adores delicate decor details like scalloped edges and pretty upholstery trim,” says Pilchik. Because the children already had plenty of room to play in the family room and on the lower level, it was decided that kids and fine decor could coexist under one roof, so the plan for beautiful fabrics and finishes began.[caption id="attachment_334358" align="alignnone" width="778"] Baby blues and captivating corals punctuate this Bergen County home’s living room and foyer, where vintage and new decor are mixed for a cohesive look. Photo: Jane Beiles[/caption]The homeowners and designer agreed that a cheery, soft-pastel palette would effectively link all the rooms on the first level of the home. Sculptural furniture, organic textures and abundant objets d’art would pull it all together.Visitors entering the pale-blue front door are greeted by a complementary blue mirror by Ooomph. The welcoming foyer is anchored by an updated oushak rug and a chic, gilded-leaf ceiling light.[caption id="attachment_334361" align="alignnone" width="778"] A mid-century china-cabinet-turned-cocktail-bar Photo: Jane Beiles[/caption]The living room walls are awash in natural grass-cloth wall covering and punched up with a custom-color light fixture by Colleen & Company, a pair of glamorous framed bird prints, a mid-century china-cabinet-turned-cocktail-bar, and a comfy sofa upholstered in ivory fabric. The space also includes a vintage coffee table by Mastercraft, slipper chairs by Oomph, and a cozy window-seat nook with a pair of rattan chairs infused with bright coral.“To add balance to the room, I varied the saturation of the colors and the scale of the prints,” Pilchik says. “We agreed at the onset of the project that the formal living room was intended mainly for adults, but the sofa was covered in very forgiving performance fabric, just in case.”[caption id="attachment_334360" align="alignnone" width="778"] A cozy window-seat nook Photo: Jane Beiles[/caption]The adjacent dining room is accentuated with daring petal-pink grass-cloth wallpaper, which acts as a neutral backdrop. Window treatments include sunny-yellow Roman shades by Brunschwig & Fils and draperies in a large-scale botanical fabric by Schumacher. Dining chairs embellished with rush seats and backs are by Redford House. An over-the-top glass and brass chandelier steals the show by day and night.To add symmetry to the dining area, a pair of ornate gold mirrors reflect light around the room. Beneath each mirror resides a sculptural Chinoiserie cabinet with lacquered white grass-cloth finish, providing plenty of storage for china and glassware.[caption id="attachment_334356" align="alignnone" width="778"] A hand-painted floor and black chairs anchor the dining room and ensure that the petal-pink grass-cloth walls do not appear “too sweet.” Photo: Jane Beiles[/caption]The walnut-stained floor is jazzed up with a hand-painted geometric pattern, “executed by the talented Shelly Denning of Stamford, Connecticut, so the space wouldn’t read as too sweet,” Pilchik says.“The dining room dimensions were constraining, but I love a creative challenge. Unfortunately, the space wasn’t large, so although we could accommodate a dining table and chairs, we couldn’t fit a properly sized area rug. Instead of a patterned rug, we painted the floor to add pattern and interest.”[RELATED: Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Color in Your Home]
Today the entire first level is party central, pulled together with an imaginative balance of furniture and decor. The energetic family enjoys colorful dinner parties, as well as casual cocktails in the living room during holidays and special occasions, with room for grownups, kiddos and critters alike.ABOUT THE DESIGNER“I had no idea I was being considered, but when I found out, I was ecstatic, of course,” says interior designer Kerri Pilchik of Ridgewood. Named one of House Beautiful magazine’s Top 15 Next Wave Designers, Pilchik is known for her sophisticated, approachable, layered interiors. She also was a guest designer at the Spring 2024 Design on a Dime fundraising event in New York City. Pilchik, a former attorney, is pictured at right in one of her whimsical spaces embellished with Schumacher’s fantastical Thistle wallcovering and large-scale Wheel of Fortune medallion walls by Abnormals Anonymous.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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The largest topiary producer in New Jersey and one of the best-known decorative topiary purveyors in the United States, Atlock Farm grows specimens ranging in height from 8 to 80 inches. The place is a plant-lover’s paradise.Classic topiaries—hand-pruned shrubbery grown in individual pots—have been mainstays of design for centuries, achieving cult status among interior designers and home-decor enthusiasts. “If you look at design magazines from 30 years ago and even 60 years ago, you’ll see topiaries featured in beautiful spaces. It’s a horticultural art that will remain forever,” says Ken Selody, ornamental gardener and owner of the Somerset County farm.Selody’s interest began in 1990, when Allen Haskell of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was regarded as the king of topiary. “I had a successful business growing unusual garden plants in the late eighties and was intrigued by topiaries, but was groping around in the dark before I met Haskell. He was very generous with his time and even introduced me to Margaret Williams, his top cutter,” Selody says. After Haskell passed in 2004, Williams began working for Atlock Farm, and soon topiary lovers from all over the East Coast flocked to Selody for their topiary needs. Williams remains on his team today.[RELATED: How to Find the Best Houseplant for Your Space]
About 25 years ago, Selody gained widespread recognition as a gardening expert and contributing editor for Martha Stewart Living magazine. He supplied noted American horticulturalist Bunny Mellon’s Oak Spring Farm with Wedgwood thyme topiaries, delivered a truckload of plants to a swanky New York City party thrown by Tom Cruise, and contributed topiaries for a scene in the 2009 film Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep.The gregarious Selody shared his expertise on a widely viewed HGTV.com appearance in 2022, which included tried-and-true growing tips and a tour of his farm. Although some regard topiaries as finicky plants, Selody maintains they simply require regular watering and sunshine. One might think his own home would be loaded with topiaries, but Selody admits, “I live with seven cats who treat plants like scratching posts. So I’m content to live with fresh topiaries in my greenhouse 12 hours each day.”Atlock Farm, 545 Weston Canal Road, Somerset; 732-356-3373; @atlockfarm on Instagram.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_331266" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photographer Stephanie Blum poses for a self-portrait, along with photogenic pup Jay, who is being raised by Blum and her husband as a potential Seeing Eye guide dog. Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie Blum; hair and makeup by Ericka Medina; blossoms by Colly Flowers in Morristown[/caption]When Stephanie Blum spent her early years in fashion as director of merchandising for Calvin Klein’s design team, she didn’t foresee her future as a full-time photographer specializing in pet portraiture.“I love this job because I always wanted to work with people and their animals,” Blum says. “Growing up, my family had a lot of rescue animals, so I’m comfortable around pets, and I know how to read a dog’s body language.”She adds, “Pets are beloved family members, so clients like to include them in professional images to celebrate their intimate bond.” Blum also captures the likenesses of solo humans and other critters in her Mendham Borough studio.Full services with Stephanie Blum Photography begin with an at-home consultation to meet adults, kids and pets in their own environment. “Understanding how my clients live helps me envision a creative concept that will represent their authentic style,” she says. “It’s also good for animals to meet me before they visit the studio.”Clients choose Blum because she makes photo shoots stress free by suggesting what to wear, providing professional hair and makeup artists, and offering posing guidance.After the shoot, it’s time for the big reveal. Images are immediately available for viewing, and clients can select from digital portraits, heirloom-quality photo albums, and framed wall-art options.Blum usually works with canine clientele because, she explains, “cats are not always willing participants.” However, she would be happy to collaborate with cooperative kitties, as well as horses, birds, bunnies or reptiles.Blum and hubby Michael Ansell have two pups of their own: 12-year-old Winnie and 11-year-old Benji. In 2023, the couple volunteered as foster parents in the Morristown-based Seeing Eye’s puppy-raising program. Last November, they brought home Jay, a 7-week-old black Labrador retriever, and they are teaching him socialization and good manners for one year.“I wanted to give back to the community because I’m blessed with good vision,” says Blum. “Michael and I are delighted to raise Jay to one day serve a visually impaired person.”She is also working on a “pet project” in her spare time. Later this year, Blum will release a coffee-table book that features her portraits of rescue dogs and their poignant backstories. Proceeds will benefit See Spot Rescued, a Jersey City nonprofit dog-rescue organization that re-homes lucky pooches.Stephanie Blum Photography, 2-A Hilltop Road, Mendham; 732-598-1291.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_331248" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]A nifty slanted shade with whip-stitch detail gives the Arroyo brass floor lamp by Elan Byrd personality; $798 at luluandgeorgia.com.The Newark lamp has a rattan ginger jar-shaped body with a Belgian linen shade; $790 at hvlgroup.com.Earth-toned beads strung in an organic mollusk shape make for a whimsical statement; $1,564 at laylagrayce.com.The Nathan James wall-mount, pulley-style lamp sports a shapely, open-weave shade; $85 at amazon.com.Inspired by Florida palms, the Palma table lamp’s textured ceramic body and natural-fiber string shade offer a beachy vibe; $590 at troylightinglights.com.A lyrical silhouette on the Winona floor lamp features a leather-wrapped arm and solid oak side table; $1,095 at sohohome.com.
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Day-trippers and locals flock to Shoppons Run Flower Farm in Stockton not only for its burgeoning blossoms, but to share sparkling conversation with proprietor and master gardener Peter McCrohan.“I work with all kinds of customers—the floral designers who order large quantities of just one or two fancy varieties, as well as locals who prefer a humble bouquet wrapped in a rubber band,” says McCrohan, who grew up in Princeton.His goal is to plant just enough each season to meet market demand. “I find a home for mostly everything I grow,” he adds. Quince blooms in March and April; then come peonies in May and June. In August through October, the dahlia crop, for which McCrohan is best known, is at its most vigorous and colorful. The farm also raises lilacs, tiger lilies, nerines, bittersweet, spider lilies and trumpet-shaped crinums.[caption id="attachment_331489" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A field of dahlias appears as if imagined by Monet himself. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Shoppons Run took off in 2021 when a New York Times real estate-section article raved about Delaware Township. One of the images showed McCrohan, in his signature cowboy hat, cutting flowers in his bucolic field. Soon after, he was featured in Princeton-area publications and even snagged a magazine-cover photo, making him a bit of a local celebrity.[RELATED: The Best Outdoor Activities in New Jersey]
McCrohan is the real deal. He graduated from Cook College at Rutgers with a degree in horticulture, then farmed in Arizona and California for 20 years. Tired of the dry climate, he moved back to the East Coast in 2010 to put down roots on the tract of preserved land that is now his farm. “I bought this property when I was 60 years old and now I’m 73. I grew flowers out west, but had never raised dahlias,” says McCrohan.[caption id="attachment_331490" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The striped Tartan dahlia is a show-off in the field as well as the vase. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Today, he tends the 14-acre Hunterdon County parcel with his cat, Leo, a good mouser and an ambassador of goodwill at the farm. He employs no staff, but a legion of loyal volunteers helps plant dahlias in spring and digs up the heavy tubers in fall.“I operate the rototiller and tractor, but personally don’t plant or lift,” McCrohan admits. “We have it down to a science. On four separate mornings, I lay about 600 dahlia pots (2,400 total) in rows four feet apart. The volunteers come right behind me to plant them. We work up an appetite for a nice lunch in one of my five outdoor salons.” His salons are vignettes assembled with a quirky collection of well-loved outdoor furniture that McCrohan snagged at local garage sales.[caption id="attachment_331491" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A bouquet of Karma Chocolate, Cafe au Lait, Castle Drive and pompoms is simply elegant. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Among his volunteers are a retired dentist and an English professor. “Volunteers experience the whole process from seed to blossom, so they feel a part of it,” he says.McCrohan is passionate about the science of farming. “These days, there’s an inability for young farmers to own land. But in Delaware Township, there’s a lot of farmland available, with great support from New Jersey conservation groups. It’s a statewide revitalization of agriculture, because our loamy soil offers so many exciting opportunities for young people to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables.”[caption id="attachment_331493" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A Karma Chocolate blossom is popular among floral designers, as well as bees. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Meanwhile, back on the farm, McCrohan is on the lookout for new colors and varieties of dahlias. He keeps a nucleus of 25 varieties and tries three to five new types each season.“I like to swap dahlia tubers with other gardeners. Some like tiny pompom dahlias, while others prefer huge dinnerplate dahlias that grow 7 feet tall.”Later this year, he will begin taking orders for already-started dahlias in 4-inch pots.[caption id="attachment_331495" align="aligncenter" width="778"] A close-up of a Cafe au Lait dahlia in full bloom. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]After each busy season, how does McCrohan relax?“I own a vintage BMW motorcycle and like to visit Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, riding up one side of the Delaware River and back down the other. That’s my idea of a half-day vacation. Then I come right back to the farm.”[caption id="attachment_331496" align="aligncenter" width="778"] At the end of the day, even the gardener himself can’t resist cutting a bouquet. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]This passionate gardener and proponent of local agriculture sums up his love of flower farming like this: “Growing dahlias is like cooking scallops. They are good not because the chef is good, but simply because they are naturally good.”Shoppons Run Flower Farm (87 Worman Road, Stockton) is open most weekends, but it is best to call first: 520-850-3226.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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The Senjyo rattan pendant, designed by Hiroshi Koshitaka, is simply stylish; $2,740 at curreyco.com.Twenty-piece Fantasia flatware, available in 20 hues, mixes and matches with any tablescape; $426 at westelm.com.Perk up your kitchen with colorful, artisanal Bornn enamelware swirl mugs. Set of four; $80 at anthropologie.com. Treat your next soirée to pretty and colorful block-print napkins with scalloped edges. Set of four; $49 at markandgraham.com. The Riviera rattan lounge chair features bouclé cushions and a glamorous French feel; $2,100 at jonathanadler.com. Snuggle up with Reef pillow covers in hydrangea blue or grass green; $228-$248 at serenaandlily.com. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Because of Jersey’s great debate, carrying this canvas tote will give folks a hint of your exit on the GSP; $10.99 at truejersey.com. By now this shorthand for the exclamation “Oh, my God!” is such common vernacular, it merits this artful rendering in bubbly gold letters; from $1,250 at ashleystarkhome.com. This tome keeps the Sopranos’ story going with character-driven recipes; $21.49 at amazon.com.A pinewood frame displays a time-worn American flag; $399-$799 at potterybarn.com. This enduring sign of peace takes the form of porcelain candle holders; $54 at jungalow.com.This multicolored arc, rendered here in sparkly sequins, is a symbol of inclusion and diversity; $260 at jonathanadler.com.Folks of a certain age know that Birkenstocks defined hippie culture, circa 1970; $160 at nordstrom.com.
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[caption id="attachment_329734" align="alignnone" width="778"] Kathryn Tappen's Jersey residence was designed with a Maine-farmhouse feel. Photo: Tory Williams[/caption]Television personality Kathryn Tappen, known for her NBC Sports coverage of football, hockey, golf and the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, has always designed her own playbook.A native of Morristown, Tappen grew up playing youth baseball and basketball on boys’ teams because girls’ teams didn’t exist at the time. At Villa Walsh Academy, she was laser focused on track, earning academic and athletic scholarships to attend Rutgers University. Tappen majored in journalism, ran with the cross-country and track teams, and was an Academic All-American and Big East All Star. But during all those years of sports, she had another passion: interior design. In fact, as a child, she kept a journal of thoughtful pencil sketches and floor plans for her one-day dream home.“Sports has embodied my life, personally and professionally, but my hobby has always been home design and decorating,” she says.[video width="720" height="1280" mp4="https://njmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2videokt.mp4"][/video]So, when Tappen pulled up stakes from her Manhattan apartment in 2022, she envisioned exactly the home she wanted. The busy sportscaster’s television career requires continual travel, so she craved solitude during her personal time. “I missed nature, so I began scouting land in Morris County, where I grew up,” she says. Tappen found a bucolic lot a stone’s throw from her parents’ residence. “Building my home from the ground up appealed to me,” she adds.Under the guidance of architect Timothy Bryant of Manhattan, with the assistance of Jeff Rawding and Karl Nichol at F.J. Rawding AIA in Morristown, the renderings were put into a CAD system. Then the project was handed off to builder Jay Grant of Grant Homes in Mendham.[caption id="attachment_329735" align="alignnone" width="778"] The New England-inspired staircase was built by Grant Homes of Mendham. Photo: Tory Williams[/caption]One of Tappen’s favorite vacation destinations is Maine. So, with the help of designer Sarah Steinberg, she incorporated a New England aesthetic in her kitchen and bathrooms.“My home is my respite, and it’s especially relaxing to sit in the kitchen with my cat, Tuxy, as we enjoy the long view out the window to the field in the backyard,” she says.During her free time, Tappen stays fit at the Mendham Golf and Tennis Club, where she often golfs with her mother, a three-time club champ.[caption id="attachment_329731" align="alignnone" width="778"] Throughout the main living area, organic and vintage accessories play nicely with plush furnishings and a pretty palette of creamy whites and pale blues. Photo: Tory Williams[/caption]Designer Jenny Madden of Westfield collaborated on the living, dining and bedroom areas by adding creamy-white and pale-blue coastal colors and suggesting reclaimed beams, union-made Chicago-brick veneers, and patina-rich vintage accessories. “It’s important to add character and history to make a home livable,” says Madden. “It was especially meaningful to Kathryn to integrate heirloom pieces into her design.”Those family objects include a 60-inch, round, pine dining table, handmade for Tappen’s grandparents in 1965, restored by Atlantic Restoration in Dover. “My dining table has special sentimental value, but it’s also a work of art. There’s not one nail in it,” Tappen says.[caption id="attachment_329733" align="alignnone" width="778"] Tappen entertains at her heirloom dining table. Photo: Tory Williams[/caption]The main living area is decorated with a light and airy blend of dreamy sofas and occasional chairs, natural textures and white oak floors. The welcoming kitchen, awash in white, is party ready, with a 48-inch, duel-fuel Wolf range, a generous island with quartz countertop, and a Sub-Zero fridge to hold mega quantities of Super Bowl food and beverages.As for the hospitality wing, Madden says, “a unique element of the project was the guest suite with bedroom, bath and sitting areas. Kathryn was willing to venture outside her comfort zone, and the result is a boutique-hotel-style haven with a darker, moodier palette and a woodsy, rustic vibe.”[RELATED: Step Inside George Oliphant’s Historic Family Home in Montclair]
The exterior of the farmhouse-style home is classic clapboard with a cedar roof. Although the structure is new, it exudes all the charm of historic architecture.[caption id="attachment_329761" align="alignnone" width="778"] Character-rich details include a reclaimed-brick herringbone floor and a dramatic fireplace. Photos: Tory Williams[/caption]“I built this home with hopes to grow into it. Coming back to this part of New Jersey feels like I never left. It’s a beautiful blend of quiet country farmland and the bustle of nearby Morristown,” says Tappen.The 42-year-old adeptly pivots between her television career and her love of interior design. Will her two worlds ever overlap? “Let’s just say I’m considering some interesting possibilities,” says Tappen. “Stay tuned.”Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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People may like to poke fun at New Jersey, but our stories are undeniably American. From newspapers to broadcast to viral moments, these Garden State stories went national in a big way.The Jersey Devil Is Born in the Pinelands1735As legend has it, the mysterious creature said to roam the Pinelands was born as the devil-esque 13th child of a woman named Mother Leeds. Today, the Jersey Devil is reportedly the only state demon in the country. Our NHL team is also named for it.Nearly Whole Dinosaur Fossil Found in Haddonfield1858William Parker Foulke discovered the world’s first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in a marl pit in Camden County. That discovery, the Hadrosaurus foulkii, a plant-eater with a duck-shaped bill, is now the official state dinosaur. Read about a Haddonfield home redesign inspired by the 19th-century discovery here.Thomas Edison Invents the Light Bulb in Menlo ParkJanuary 1880Thomas Edison, who had labs in Menlo Park and West Orange, created some of the most important inventions of all time, among them the movie camera, the phonograph, the automatic telegraph and, most famously, the light bulb, for which Edison received the patent in January 1880. Today, Edison-focused tours are available in both towns.
President James A. Garfield Dies in Long BranchSeptember 19, 1881Garfield was the only president to die in New Jersey. He was shot and wounded in Washington by Charles J. Guiteau, and later died of an infection while staying at Francklyn Cottage, a Shore escape from the country’s capital. Garfield had been president for just four months before the shooting. Guiteau was executed in 1882.Roselle Is First U.S. Town With ElectricityJanuary 19, 1883It’s fitting that a Jersey town was the first one lighted by electricity from one generating station.Paterson Silk Strike Changes HistoryFebruary 25, 1913About 25,000 workers went on strike, shutting down the important silk industry in Paterson for five months. The workers, mostly immigrants, sought improved conditions in the mills. Although the workers didn’t get everything they desired, the strike played an important part in the country’s movement to improve workplace conditions.Cliffhanger Joins Movie Lexicon From Fort Lee1914The film term cliffhanger originates from the silent serial The Perils of Pauline. It starred the actress Pearl White, who literally hung over the cliffs of the Palisades of Fort Lee and left audiences on the edge of their seats with anticipation as they wondered what would happen next. Fort Lee is known as the birthplace of film, with many early studios and projects.Prohibition Fuels Atlantic City DebaucheryJanuary 17, 1920The start of Prohibition sparked an era of Mob activity, bootlegging and political corruption in Atlantic City. Today’s New Jerseyans saw a slice of that time when the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire ran from 2010 to 2014. The series starred Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson (based on real-life political boss Nucky Johnson) and West Orange’s Michael Pitt.Lindbergh Baby KidnappedMarch 1, 1932In one of the most infamous crimes in American history, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son was kidnapped from the family’s home and found dead two months later, just a few miles from their residence. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the murder of baby Charles A. Lindbergh in 1936. In 2023, a judge shut down a possible re-examination of the case.M&Ms Created in Newark1941The first batch of the iconic candies was made at 285 Badger Avenue. The Mars Wrigley factory is now in Hackettstown. (Read more about iconic candy brands born and bred in Jersey here.)Self-Service Gas Ban Begins1949Today, New Jersey is the only state left in the country that doesn’t allow people to pump their own gas at service stations. The practice stems from the state Legislature passing the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, citing driver safety and convenience. Government players have attempted to get the self-service ban reversed over the years, but so far, it has never happened.Three Planes Crash in Elizabeth1951-52In one of the most shocking and tragic stories in New Jersey history, three planes crashed in Elizabeth in a 58-day period from December 1951 through February 1952. All either took off from Newark Airport or were en route to land there. Judy Blume, an Elizabeth native, used the events as the setting for her 2015 novel, The Unlikely Event.Newark Riots Tear the City ApartJuly 12-17, 1967The five-day uprising left Newark devastated for decades. An incident of police brutality sparked the riots in the midst of frustrations about housing discrimination, unemployment, and the failure of leadership to reflect the mostly African American community. The governor sent in the National Guard. Twenty-six people died and many were injured.Grateful Dead Concert in Englishtown is Biggest Ever in U.S.September 3, 1977More than 107,000 fans rocked out, making it the biggest ticketed concert in U.S. history.Physicists Win Nobel Following Discovery in Holmdel's Bell Labs1978Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered cosmic background radiation, proving the Big Bang Theory.Baby M Case Stuns the Nation1987-88New Jersey was at the center of the nation’s first surrogacy controversy when Mary Beth Whitehead decided she wanted to keep the baby she’d birthed as a surrogate for the Sterns of Tenafly. Whitehead used her own egg. The Sterns won custody. The case ignited a debate on the morality and legality of surrogacy and helped gain protections for parents. These days, hopeful parents are increasingly choosing surrogacy in the Garden State.‘Crazy Eddie’ Gets Prison Time1996[caption id="attachment_328696" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Paul Hayes[/caption]Crazy Eddie, the electronics store chain that rose to prominence in New Jersey for its cut-rate prices and notoriously frenetic TV commercials, later become notorious for its dramatic fall from grace amid a colossal fraud scheme. Founder Eddie Antar ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of racketeering conspiracy. He served time and died in 2006.JFK Jr.'s Fatal Flight Leaves From FairfieldJuly 16, 1999John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren took off from Fairfield’s Essex County Airport at 8:38 pm with Kennedy piloting his new Piper Saratoga, headed to Martha’s Vineyard. At 9:41, the plane hit the water, killing all three. The accident was caused by Kennedy’s spatial disorientation descending over water at night; hazy weather reduced visibility.9/11 Claims 750 New Jerseyans’ LivesSeptember 11, 2001An estimated 750 New Jerseyans were among the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001. We had the second highest death toll of any state, following New York. Ten years after the attacks, New Jersey dedicated its official 9/11 memorial, called Empty Sky. Located in Liberty State Park, the powerful memorial faces the World Trade Center site. Twenty years after the attacks, New Jerseyans shared personal stories with NJM about 9/11's impact on their lives.Jim McGreevey Comes Out as 'Gay American'August 13, 2004Then governor Jim McGreevey shocked the world by resigning, admitting to an affair with a man, and declaring, “I am a gay American.” Nearly 20 years later, in 2023, McGreevey announced a run for mayor of Jersey City. In recent years, he’s been working with formerly incarcerated people through his New Jersey Reentry Corporation.Charles Kushner Weaves a Sordid Web of Scandal2005Real estate mogul Charles Kushner was embroiled in scandal long before son Jared married Ivanka Trump. In pleading guilty to various charges, he admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his sister’s husband, and paying someone $25,000 to film the tryst. The reason? Kushner's sister was a cooperating witness against him. Kushner got two years in prison.Sopranos Series Finale AirsJune 10, 2007When The Sopranos ended its six-season run, the series finale sparked an intense debate that never died. The final scene was filmed at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, making the eatery a household name far beyond the Garden State. For years a plaque hung in the booth where the Soprano family sat that read, “This Booth Reserved For the Soprano Family.” In late February, the restaurant announced that it was auctioning off the booth on eBay amid desperately needed renovations.Bob Dylan Detained in Long BranchJune 2009When cops got a call about an “eccentric-looking old man” walking around Long Branch, it turned out to be music legend Bob Dylan. The 24-year-old police officer who responded to the call didn’t recognize Dylan, nor did she initially believe him when he told her who he was and that he was in town on tour. It was a a shock when she used his passport to verify his identity.Hurricane Sandy Wreaks Havoc on Jersey ShoreOctober 29, 2012[caption id="attachment_328725" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Quintano[/caption]Hurricane Sandy left destruction and years of rebuilding in its wake. It devastated our Shore and caused billions in damages. Read about what's next for the Jersey Shore a decade later here.Bridgegate Scandal in Fort Lee Shocks EveryoneSeptember 9, 2013Staff members of then governor Chris Christie apparently schemed to shut down the busy lanes into the GW Bridge during rush hour in retribution for the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee’s refusal to back Christie’s bid for re-election—even though Christie is a Republican. The misadventure resulted in massive headaches for drivers and a nine-count indictment.Super Bowl Held at MetLife February 2, 2014The game between the Broncos and the winning Seahawks was the first Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold-weather city.Tracy Morgan Nearly Dies in Cranbury Car CrashJune 7, 2014[caption id="attachment_329278" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Alex Millauer/Shutterstock[/caption]Comedian Tracy Morgan was in a wheelchair for five months, broke every bone in his face, and says he considered suicide after a Walmart truck crashed into his limo on the Turnpike. Morgan’s friend James “Jimmy Mack” McNair, died in the crash. The truck driver pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and four counts of third-degree aggravated assault.'The Situation' Sentenced to PrisonOctober 5, 2018[caption id="attachment_328723" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Mike Sorrentino[/caption]Jersey Shore star Mike Sorrentino spent eight months behind bars for tax evasion. He spoke candidly with New Jersey Monthly last year about his road to redemption following prison and drug addiction.Ivana Trump Buried in BedminsterJuly 2022Even though she'd been divorced from Donald Trump for three decades when she died, Ivana Trump was buried at his Trump National Golf Club. Her gravesite is reportedly located in a quiet spot, away from the hubbub of golfers passing through. The former president has said in the past that he wants to be buried at the golf course.Senator Robert Menendez IndictedSeptember 22, 2023Did anyone say gold bars? That’s what was found in the home that Senator Robert Menendez shares with his wife when it was searched by federal agents, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash—all central to the stunning charges against the pair. He has been accused of acting as a foreign agent to Egypt and helping to advance the interests of Qatar in a bribery scheme.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingShaquille O’Neal Has Never Forgotten His Newark RootsAlpine Is the Beverly Hills of New Jersey: Why Celebs Are Drawn to Bergen County HamletWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
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Chatting with Richard Lewis, as I fondly look back on it, was less an interview than a ride on a wild and crazy comedy roller coaster. You’d hang on for dear life and let out shrieks—of laughter—at his fantastical ad-libs.This only encouraged Lewis, who’d spin ever crazier stream-of-consciousness riffs on his fears and neuroses and supposedly traumatic memories of growing up in Englewood.He used to joke that he made so many trips to his school nurse that a plaque to him was erected in the Dwight Morrow High School nurse's office.Did he really work as a paper carrier for The Record, his hometown paper, for just one dreadful day?“I only delivered the papers to therapists’ houses,” Lewis claimed the first time I spoke with him, when he was starring in the ABC sitcom Anything But Love, in 1989. “You can’t throw the papers up against the door, because they might be having sessions, so I would tiptoe...“I got so nervous, because I was so frightened of dogs. In one house, it wasn’t a dog; I think it was one of these huge box turtles. It was a horror. I blame The Record for most of my fear of animals, because of that one day on the route.”Lewis, who died on Tuesday of a heart attack at age 76 in Los Angeles, is credited with coining the phrase “(Blank) from hell," (as in day and date and dream from hell). He was born June 27, 1947 in Brooklyn, but grew up in Englewood. His father, Bill, a co-owner of Ambassador Caterers in Teaneck, died in 1971. His mom, Blanche, was an actress in community theater.Their son came of age as a comic in the late 1970s and early '80s, just as cable television was about to make stars out of standups. Lewis’s HBO comedy specials had names like I’m in Pain, I’m Exhausted and I’m Doomed. That last one was nearly identical to a show I saw at BergenPAC in April 1990. Dressed in trademark black, with slightly stooped shoulders, and hands touching his forehead, he’d pace the stage like a nervous panther, periodically stopping to consult a topics list, six feet long, placed atop a prop grand piano.Lewis made 48 appearances on Late Night With David Letterman and had a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall. But he never stopped performing in his home state—from Englewood to Atlantic City—and never missed a chance to talk to his hometown newspaper.When Lewis said he’d grown up in “the house that guilt built” (aka “the Suffer Dome),” one sensed that there was real pain behind many of these references. He confronted his struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse in his standup routine and his memoir, The Other Great Depression. Sober since August 1994, Lewis is survived by his wife Joyce Lapinsky, whom he married in 2005. And despite having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years ago, Lewis told his fans, via a video he posted on social media last April, that he was doing well and was happy.Lewis became known to a younger generation of fans thanks to HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which Larry David tapped his longtime friend to play a version of himself. As David said in a statement on Wednesday, the two were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, three days apart. But they did not meet up until their pre-teens—at an upstate New York State sports camp. Their on-screen chemistry was incomparable.While going through my old Lewis clips, I found one from 2010, to promote a comedy show he was doing with Susie Essman at Montclair’s Wellmont Theater. Lewis started off by explaining why he’d mistakenly called me the day before, when I was at a meeting. He blamed the mishap on a nightmare from hell.“Five minutes before I call you, eight Hasidic dinosaurs were chasing me, saying, “You’re not religious enough,” he said, adding, “ You should see the size of the skullcaps they had on.”There was only one Richard Lewis.Virginia Rohan is the former longtime TV critic for The Record newspaper.
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The list of residents and one-time residents of this Bergen County town reads like an awards-show nominations bill. Alpine is replete with well-known residents like comedians Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan, as well as political pundit Kellyanne Conway. One-time residents include musicians (Britney Spears, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and O’Kelly Isley of the Isley Brothers, who is now buried in Paramus), athletes (Patrick Ewing), entrepreneurs (Norman Sas, inventor of electric football, and John Ringling of Ringling Brothers Circus)—and others.With a median house price of $5.8 million, what is it about this tiny enclave of fewer than 2,000 residents that attracts celebs? Yes, it sits on a cliff that overlooks the Hudson and is close to New York City, but that can be said of other nearby towns. “There are three reasons celebrities flock to Alpine: proximity to New York, lower taxes and privacy,” says Realtor Joshua Baris of NJLux.com (Coldwell Banker). Baris, who sold Diddy’s seven-bedroom, nine-bath house in 2016, has been selling million-dollar properties in Alpine and other tony towns since 2002. He has had his share of celebrity clientele and, he says, understands what they are looking for. “Even though it is a wealthy town, it has a close-knit feel,” Baris says. “I wouldn’t say everyone knows everyone, but everyone knows who is there.”[caption id="attachment_329412" align="alignnone" width="778"] “I had to make miracles happen to get that house,” Chris Rock said of his Alpine pad in his 2009 special, Kill the Messenger. “I had to host the Oscars to get that house. To this day I don’t even believe it’s my house; that’s why I keep a bag packed right at the door.”* Photo: Shutterstock/Featureflash Photo Agency[/caption]At 9.22 square miles, this low-profile town has no downtown, no postal delivery, no supermarket and a single restaurant. In other words, if privacy is paramount, this is a place not to be fan mobbed. “Everyone has a P.O. box,” says Baris. “Without postal delivery, one less person comes to your front door.”In grammar school, Alpine kids enjoy a 1-to-6 teacher ratio. There is no high school in town; students attend Tenafly’s secondary school. Other neighboring towns, including Cresskill and Closter, provide services like shopping, coffee shops, drugstores and restaurants minutes away.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingShaquille O’Neal Has Never Forgotten His Newark RootsWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
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[caption id="attachment_328719" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Long before Shaquille O’Neal became an NBA superstar, the Big Aristotle was born in Newark. While the 7-foot-1 center lived in Germany and Texas before attending Louisiana State University, he has credited Newark’s Boys & Girls Clubs of America for giving him a safe place to hone his skills on the court.The first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, O’Neal went on to enjoy a 19-year career with the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavaliers and Celtics. A Hall of Famer, MVP and four-time champ, he and the late Kobe Bryant formed one of the game’s great dynamic duos in Los Angeles, though they clashed at times.With an unmistakable frame, O’Neal has found as much success off the court as on it. He’s been a spokesperson for brands like Wheaties and Icy Hot, appeared in numerous films, and released multiple rap albums, cementing him status as a pop-culture icon.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the ConversationHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local IconsMartha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans GuessingWhy Jersey Is the Perfect Home for the Latest Era of Satirical Tabloid Weekly World News*
O’Neal now works as an analyst for TNT’s NBA programming, often providing comical commentary on the sport he once dominated.He also hasn’t forgotten where he came from. He has tried his hand at real estate—among other business ventures—developing multiple projects in New Jersey, including ones in Newark. In 2022, he DJed on the streets of Jersey City before Flo Rida put on a Fourth of July concert.O’Neal was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.
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[caption id="attachment_328717" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Queen Latifah has a long list of accolades on her résumé, from her role in the ’90s sitcom Living Single to hit albums, Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performances in Chicago and Bessie, and last year, a Kennedy Center honor. She even had her own talk show for a while. But the 54-year-old got her start as Dana Elaine Owen in East Orange’s nascent hip-hop scene.“Growing up in New Jersey prepares you for whatever you might encounter outside in the world,” the Newark native once told New Jersey Monthly. “We’re not afraid to go places and try things.”That sentiment couldn’t ring truer for this star. In 1989, she released the album All Hail the Queen on Tommy Boy Records. The smart, flowing and edgy track “Ladies First” didn’t just hit number 6 on Billboard’s rap chart, but also proved to be a pioneering record for female MCs, previously absent in hip-hop culture, adding a layer of feminism to a movement of consciousness. She also set up Flavor Unit Records and Management in Jersey City. Among the stable of artists she signed was Naughty By Nature, also from East Orange.Her 1993 record Black Reign went gold, thanks in part to the single “U.N.I.T.Y.,” a rap classic that confronted misogyny in urban communities.Later work saw her put her angelic voice to jazz and pop and delve into decades of TV, film and social justice. She has been working on an affordable-housing development in Newark for the last several years.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’6 Social Media Influencers From New Jersey Who Are Driving the ConversationHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite SonJon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local Icons*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
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[caption id="attachment_328695" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert weren’t born in New Jersey, but the comedic icons have been tickling people’s funny bones from home bases in the Garden State for years.The two friends skyrocketed to fame on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which Stewart hosted from 1999 to 2015, taking a humorous and often blunt look at current events; Colbert was a correspondent on the program before getting his own show, The Colbert Report (2005 to 2014). There, he portrayed an over-the-top conservative pundit, typically mocking real-life right-wingers in the process. Colbert, in character, even announced a not-so-serious presidential campaign in 2007.In 2015, Colbert gave up his alter ego to host The Late Show on CBS. Stewart, meanwhile, hosted The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV+ from 2021 to 2023. In early 2024, Stewart delighted fans when it was revealed that he would return to his old stomping grounds on The Daily Show as a part-time host through the 2024 election. The stars have each won multiple Emmys, Grammys and Peabody Awards.Stewart, who has an animal sanctuary in Colts Neck, has used his platform to advocate for 9/11 first responders and veterans. Colbert, who lives in Montclair, helped start the Montclair Film Festival and is a familiar face around town.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffHow Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Aren’t Jersey Natives, But They’re Local Icons appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328722" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Frank Sinatra was 15 when he quit school and began singing at church-basement dances and social clubs in his native Hoboken. He hooked up with a trio called the Three Flashes, and together they passed an audition for Major Edward Bowes’ Amateur Hour radio program—the American Idol of its day. Bowes made Sinatra part of the group and renamed it the Hoboken Four. That episode was short-lived, and Sinatra went back to singing locally.In spring 1938, when he was 22, Sinatra took a job as a singing waiter at the Rustic Cabin, a roadhouse on a desolate stretch of Route 9W in Englewood Cliffs. That’s where the popular bandleader Harry James discovered Sinatra and signed him to sing for $75 a week. Next, Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey’s band and sang his way to national stardom.Splitting from Dorsey, Sinatra made his solo debut at Newark’s Mosque Theater. That led to his historic sold-out performance on December 30, 1942, at New York’s Paramount Theater. By that time, Sinatra was living in Hasbrouck Heights with his first wife, Nancy.As Sinatra’s career took off, he abandoned New Jersey for Hollywood. Still, he often slipped back into Hoboken to visit his parents at the grand home he had purchased for them at 909 Hudson Street or to buy trays of chocolate-covered apricots at Lepore’s on Fourth Street.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
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[caption id="attachment_329007" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Illustration: Andrew Ogilvie[/caption]Long before he was a world-famous talk show host, Stephen Colbert was just another denizen of my suburban New Jersey town. He and his wife, Evie, raised their three kids in Montclair and prided themselves not on their impressive resumes, but on being good neighbors and community members. They joined nonprofits and helped launch the Montclair Film Festival. Stephen hosted events at his kids’ schools and taught Sunday school at Immaculate Conception Church.Like most people who’ve been in town awhile, I have a few stories about crossing paths with Colbert around town. I’ve seen him give hilarious surprise performances at fundraisers, jumping onstage and singing with the band dressed in a suit as David Byrne or in gray wig and beard as Dr. John. Once, I was walking toward the Wellmont Theater for his interview with singer Mavis Staples when my friend spied him taking selfies with fans. She grabbed my arm and, like groupies, we took off. As I approached him, fumbling with my phone, he took it, flipped it expertly, and shot. In the photo, he’s making a silly face; I’m smiling ear to ear.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken's Favorite Son*Martha Stewart Is a New Jersey Icon Who Always Keeps Fans Guessing
One Halloween, he made a surprise appearance at his own door. My eldest daughter and a friend, bored teenagers at a neighborhood party, had decided it would be more fun to go trick-or-treating at the Colberts’. When they asked me for a ride, everyone laughed. “Yeah, Stephen Colbert is going to come to the door,” they teased.His neighborhood was quiet; no other trick-or-treaters were in sight as we approached his house, despite the inviting pumpkin lights lining the path. Nervously, my daughter’s friend rang the bell. The door swung open and there stood Montclair’s most famous resident holding a bowl of candy, his younger son on one side and a fluffy, well-behaved dog on the other. We gaped for a minute before the girls remembered why they had come—ostensibly, anyway.“Trick or treat!” they said, stepping forward for their take, thanking him and complimenting him on the decorations. Sounding like any run-of-the-mill dad, he said, “Thanks! We worked hard on it.”Being the funnyman he is, though, he couldn’t resist a joke. Noticing me gawking out of view (or so I thought), he peered into the darkness. “How about you? Candy?” he asked, grinning.That was more than a decade ago, and things have changed in Montclair and the world. As host of the top-rated Late Show, Colbert is more security conscious. He’s still involved with the film festival, but doesn’t mill around with fans before events. His kids grown, he’s no longer a presence at their schools or handing out Halloween treats. But at his core, he’s still a regular guy.A few years ago, as I walked down the steps of my house with my dog, he happened to be striding up the street toward me. Without thinking, I blurted out, “Hi, Stephen!” He stopped, smiled, stuck out his hand and said, “Have we met?”
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[caption id="attachment_328708" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Illustration: Raul Arias[/caption]Domestic goddess. Influencer. Swimsuit model. Is there anything she can’t do?When New Jersey Monthly ran a profile of Martha Stewart just a little over a decade ago, she had long been considered a home and media icon—a status that didn’t budge even during her 2004 prison stint for fraud. But nobody could have predicted that the domestic goddess from Nutley would add titles like social media star and even Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to her resume—all in her 70s and 80s.MORE FROM OUR POP CULTURE ISSUE*:The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New JerseyGet to Know NJM Cover Star Jack AntonoffWhy New Jersey’s Live Music Scene Will ‘Always Be Booming’How Frank Sinatra Became Hoboken’s Favorite Son*
Yes, posing is in Stewart’s roots—growing up in the 1950s, she earned cash working as a model after school at the now defunct department store Bonwit Teller. But that certainly didn’t mean that she would land the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue last year at the age of 81, a coveted gig typically taken by much younger stars. Nor did anyone expect that she’d strike up a friendship and business relationship with the wild, weed-loving rapper Snoop Dogg.But that’s the thing about Stewart. She’s always surprising us, keeping her relevant and interesting to an audience that seems to be expanding by the day.On Instagram, Stewart has 2 million followers, who drink up her occasional thirst traps and other fun snippets from her life in Bedford, New York, and the Hamptons (she moved out of New Jersey years ago).Her Instagram bio recently described her as “Entrepreneur. Author. Cook. Gardener. TV Host. Podcast host. Eternally curious. Teacher. Student. Mother. Grandmother. Friend.” That sounds about right, but what about “Jersey native?”
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When a guitar-wielding Jack Antonoff ambled onto the stage at MetLife Stadium last May—about 25 minutes from the Bergen County suburbs of his childhood—he fiddled for a moment with the lapels of his leather jacket, brushing them aside to bare the bold yellow lettering splashed across his signature T-shirt: “Welcome to New Jersey. Now, go home.” Delighted cheers rippled through the already roaring crowd of 82,000 fans.Antonoff’s longtime collaborator and close friend Taylor Swift had just called him onstage as her first surprise guest for night one of three sold-out New Jersey shows on her Eras Tour, the omnipresent musical phenomenon of 2023.The pair performed a playful acoustic rendition of “Getaway Car”—a song they cowrote for Swift’s 2017 Reputation album and whose studio inception was partially captured on film. As later shown in the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift and Antonoff composed aloud four finished lines in a fevered span of less than 30 seconds. (The since-viral scene has been memed and even Halloween costumed by fans far and wide.)“A few miles away [from MetLife], that song was made in this tiny little space,” Antonoff recalls to New Jersey Monthly, referring to his cozy, 200-square-foot Brooklyn home-recording studio, wallpapered with the same colorful tiger design from his boyhood bedroom. Over the course of the past decade, this studio has become the fabled, fertile ground for many of his prolific music-making endeavors, including writing and producing partnerships with some of the world’s most renowned pop stars: Lana Del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent, Clairo and, of course, Taylor Swift. “It’s crazy,” he continues. “The coolest part, though, is also to play to that many people, acoustic, and have it feel massive and explosive.”Antonoff has always worn duality well. The Bleachers frontman and former fun. guitarist, who turns 40 on March 31, took home his 10th Grammy earlier this month, including his third consecutive producer of the year award. (Swift declared him a “once-in-a-generation producer” while accepting the Grammy for album of the year, Midnights, which Antonoff coproduced.) But among many artists and fans, he’s known as much for his high-powered musical prowess as he is for his empathic and largely egoless studio presence. For all his fame and commercial success, he seems sustained by one solemn pursuit: making good songs. “Age, or success, or lack of success, or accolades…all these external things, they just sort of get left at the door when I go into work,” he says.[caption id="attachment_328824" align="alignnone" width="1222"] Buy our March 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]While Antonoff’s comfort zone is most closely affiliated with 20- to 40-something women, he also weaves gracefully among genders, genres and generations. He’s worked with Harry Styles, the 1975, Diana Ross and the “brilliant” Patti Scialfa, whose “ornate…sad and grimy…beautiful” forthcoming album he calls “some of my favorite music ever.”In his own indie rock band, Bleachers, whose new self-titled album is out March 8, Antonoff’s work is simultaneously aching and anthemic, sorrowful yet hope suffused. “When two people are looking at a painting and one person sees a dead body, the other person sees a flower, right?” Antonoff muses. “You hear a song and it’s the saddest thing you’ve ever heard; your friend hears it and they want to, like, bump it in their car and party.”Antonoff grew up idolizing New York City from the North Jersey suburbs, only to move there and realize just how much mystery and majesty his home state holds. These days, Antonoff and his wife, the actress Margaret Qualley, relish the quietude of Long Beach Island—where they own a home equipped with a small studio, just three blocks from the house where Antonoff vacationed as a child. “It’s the best place, and we’re living there year-round now...basically anytime I don’t have to be in the city, we’re in LBI. And I actually prefer it in the winter. It’s really sweet, and just a really nice, small town.” He adds, “I don’t get wrapped up in dumb shit when I can look out at the ocean. It’s real perspective-shifting to see a large body of water—it kind of makes you just want to focus on the things that really matter.” Antonoff and Qualley even tied the knot on LBI this past August at Parker’s Garage, in front of celebrity friends including Swift, who caused quite the commotion when she arrived in town.[RELATED: The 50 Biggest Pop Culture Moments in New Jersey]
For years, Antonoff has been gripped by not just an unabashed pride for the Garden State, but also a frenetic obsession with its mythology, especially as it relates to New York City. He philosophizes: “The amount of literal energy that’s shooting off of…Manhattan, in proximity to where I grew up—what does that do when it hits New Jersey and sort of dissipates? I think it creates such a funny place that lives in…the shadow of all that energy.”Childhood drives meant constant confrontation with the skyline. Being so close to a “totally different life,” he says, is a “powerful, very medieval concept.” Jersey music, he once told Seth Meyers, elicits feelings of “a torch worth carrying.”Bleachers songs—synth-heavy, horn-haunted—are steeped in such meditations. Antonoff often sets mournful lyrics to deceptively boisterous sounds—a sensibility he gleaned in part from his local predecessors and contemporaries. New York music, he explains, “can be more pulled back…and relaxed…because people are going to pay attention either way.” But Jersey has to make more noise. “From Sinatra to Southside Johnny to E Street to Gaslight Anthem to My Chemical Romance—all this music, it just flies out at you, daring you to listen and dig into what is being said there,” he says. “I think a big part of the New Jersey sound is having to deliver a lot of sadness with a lot of fireworks—because otherwise, we might get looked over again.”[caption id="attachment_328802" align="alignnone" width="778"] “I used to go to a diner on Christmas," says Antonoff, pictured here at Legends Diner in Secaucus. "I'm Jewish, and I used to go when I didn't have a partner or anything, and I'd just be home and Christmas didn't really mean much to me. And I would go to the diner on Christmas—maybe like noon on Christmas Day. And it was a really interesting array of people. There was a lot of sadness in the room.” Photo: Alex Lockett[/caption][RELATED: Jack Antonoff Loves a Good Jersey Diner]
Born in Bergenfield, Antonoff was raised in a Jewish family in New Milford and Woodcliff Lake, where his parents, Rick and Shira, got him hooked early on classic rock. He attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County in New Milford, then commuted to high school at Manhattan's Professional Children’s School. In the tenth grade he formed a punk band, Outline, with friends, borrowing his parents’ minivan to travel to shows they'd booked down South.When Antonoff was 18, his 13-year-old sister, Sarah, died after a long battle with brain cancer. At a time when most of his peers were absorbed in college plans, “There was such a do-whatever-the-fuck-you-want energy in the house,” he recalls—an ethos of, “Life is short, and it’s precious, and do whatever the hell you want.” It was an attitude that helped Antonoff avoid "cookie-cutter" suburban expectations as he pursued music over higher education. “In that kind of middle-class Jersey upbringing I had...college was king—SATs and college and all this crazy stress," he says. "…Not going to college was pretty bold. …[Those New Jersey towns] can be really heavy in terms of expectation, and there’s not a lot of space...for people who have a different concept of what they want their life to be. I was really lucky because I didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought, because my family was cool with what I was doing.” He remains immensely close to his parents and older sister, the fashion designer Rachel Antonoff, who are often spotted at his shows and have made cameos in his videos.[caption id="attachment_328803" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Alex Lockett[/caption]Antonoff was playing in another band, Steel Train, when, in 2008, he joined the New York-based band fun. He cowrote the group’s massive 2012 hit single, “We Are Young,” which reached number 1 on the Billboard chart and won the Grammy for song of the year. In 2013, Antonoff and Swift wrote and produced their first song together; he has since credited her for cementing his status in the industry as a bonafide producer. They’ve subsequently collaborated on 10 albums, including those in Swift’s mammoth rerecording project.Antonoff released Bleachers’ debut album, Strange Desire, in July 2014. The next summer, he launched Shadow of the City, a music festival held at Asbury Park’s Stone Pony Summer Stage (June 15 this year). “I always wanted to have a place where [our audience] could be like, ‘OK, I’ll meet you there’…our place where we can all [reunite],” he says.Bleachers projects are often accompanied by what can only be described as ultra-earnest spectacles, carried out in gloriously laborious fashion. Amid the release of Gone Now (2017), Antonoff hired a company to remove his childhood bedroom from his family’s Woodcliff Lake home, where he’d lived until age 27, and load it onto a trailer. He brought the wheeled relic on tour so fans could listen to his album inside the same world that birthed it: music and collectibles cluttering every inch; drawers still teeming with clothes; a disheveled twin bed. “Touch whatever you want,” he wrote to fans in a long, reverential statement, explaining that the exhibit was also a metaphor for how intensely he was struggling to let go of a cumbersome past. “Anytime you put out an album,” he says, “you’re trying to give more context to people; give them as much of who you are in that moment. The album itself is like the Bible—but then everything around it is...a way to bring people further and further in.” (The bedroom is parked outside his parents’ house; he plans to bring it to this summer’s Shadow of the City.)Antonoff widely described Bleachers’ third album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night (2021), as fixated on a specific journey—the drive from New York City back home to Jersey, to build a future with someone you love. The song “Chinatown” features vocals from Antonoff’s idol turned dear friend, Bruce Springsteen; its video sees him driving the Boss around their native state in a Cadillac convertible (never mind that he didn’t have a license at the time).“I’ve spent a lot of time in a car with Bruce, just driving around, listening to music,” Antonoff says. “...[Driving is] where I do my best thinking, and my best listening—whether it’s [to] other people's music or my own. I just hear things very clearly...I know what I gotta change; I know what I'm feeling, what I'm not...Anytime I've cruised around with [Bruce], we're usually listening to some new mixes of either my music or his, and kind of testing it out in the car.”Antonoff has also recorded inside the (Jersey-bound) Holland Tunnel, shot a music video at the Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights; and partnered with Razza in Jersey City to put out a limited-edition tomato sauce. He released a podcast series, God and New Jersey, in which he dissected, with fellow NJ-bred artists, why we’re “a punch line for some people, Zion to others,” he wrote on social media. He played a live-streamed Bleachers concert inside a bus that barreled over the George Washington Bridge, cruised down the Parkway, then rolled up to the Stone Pony.This month’s Bleachers release coincides with an international tour that kicks off March 19 in London, stops at Coachella and returns to Jersey for June’s sold-out Shadow of the City. The album, Antonoff says, arose uncommonly quickly. “Not really since my first album did I feel like there was just this rush of life that had to be documented right now,” he says.“We all have these stories: ‘Oh, I’m not good at relationships...I'm too focused on my work.’ …I think about it like armor,” he says. “For anything not going well in your life, you need armor to wear because it's a little too painful to just say, ‘Well, this just isn't going well.’ (Laughs.) And maybe that's just because it's just not time yet, you know? ...And so for my whole life, when it came to relationships, I had all these one-liners and these concepts that I would live by—and that all kind of crumbled when I met my wife. …It's often when something good happens and we feel comfortable that we then can look back and say, ‘What was that? [Who] was that person who had to be so hard on themselves and had to be so tough and have all these answers for why they weren't in relationships that were working?’...I found myself writing a lot about [a] laying down of this past self and making peace with [it].”Writing one of the album’s future singles, “Alma Mater,” Antonoff imagined himself driving, mostly around LBI, “kind of having my life and culture just whip by me,” he says. “Frankly,” he deadpans, “I was thinking about, like, Wawa more than any person.” The video for the album’s third single, “Tiny Moves,” stars his wife, Qualley, who choreographed and co-directed, dancing late at night in a Jersey parking lot, the New York City skyline behind her, until sunrise.Is Bleachers a wiser older sibling to his last album? “In a weird way, I think it’s, like, a freer younger sibling—but maybe that’s kind of the same thing, said in different ways,” he grins.“I wrote some really young-sounding songs later in life,” Antonoff says. “And I’ve written...songs when I was really young [but] sort of accessing this older, wise person. Right now, I feel pretty grounded in my actual moment on Earth.”
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one of our free newsletters here*. Want a print magazine mailed to you?* Purchase an issue from our online store*.The post Jack Antonoff Is Producer of the Year, Taylor Swift’s Favorite Collaborator and New Jersey’s Biggest Fanboy appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_328716" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration: Emily Krill[/caption]Sure, we’re known for Sinatra, Springsteen and The Sopranos, but New Jersey has added so much more to the cultural landscape. Here are the 50 biggest pop culture moments in New Jersey's history. 1. The Sopranos Premieres[caption id="attachment_328778" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy[/caption]When The Sopranos debuted on HBO on January 10, 1999, nobody could have predicted that a little show about a New Jersey mobster/suburban family man would become one of the most iconic pieces of television ever made. It was especially personal for New Jerseyans. It filmed in our homes, our stores, even our strip clubs. It inspired other productions to flock to the Garden State, a trend that grew as the years went by. Sure, there were critics—mostly Italian American groups who said the show reinforced stereotypes—but even they would be hard-pressed to deny its impact on our state and pop culture. The 2007 series finale is debated to this day, and fans still flock to Holsten’s to sit in Tony’s booth. The show had a revival during the pandemic, and we can’t imagine its popularity ever dying. —Julie Gordon2. Bruce Springsteen’s Debut Album ReleasedBruce Springsteen’s debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., came out in January 1973 to average sales but critical raves and launched Springsteen on a path toward superstardom. Singles included “Blinded by the Light,” “Spirit in the Night” and “Growin’ Up.” The cover features a 1970s souvenir postcard proclaiming Springsteen’s Jersey roots, despite a push by the record company to promote him as a New York City artist, and despite the crime and civil unrest Asbury Park was experiencing at the time. In 2013, Rolling Stone deemed Greetings “one of the 100 greatest debut albums of all time.” *—Julia Martin[RELATED: Read Our Cover Story With Producer of the Year and Proud New Jerseyan Jack Antonoff]*
3. ‘What Exit’ Joke Originates on SNL“What exit?” It’s the biggest Jersey joke of all time—quite the accolade, considering the number of Jersey jokes out there. But what’s the origin? It was Valentine’s Day 1981 when Joe Piscopo (a Passaic native), in the SNL sketch “Paulie at the Card Store,” said, “You’re from New Jersey? What exit?” Piscopo went on to use the zinger throughout his career. For New Jerseyans, the joke makes perfect sense, since the Turnpike and Parkway crisscross the state from Bergen County to Cape May County. —Connor Carlin4. Bet on Atlantic City, Monopoly, and Miss AmericaAtlantic City boasts a slew of historical accolades that resonate beyond the state’s borders. This resort town has a permanent place on a globally known board game (yes, Monopoly, we know where St. James Place is); it boasts the first sand-evading, wood-planked, raised walkway—the country’s first boardwalk, built in 1870, rebuilt in the 1890s, and still standing. Then there’s the phenomenon of the Miss America pageant, which began in AC in 1921. And, of course, in 1978, East Coast casino gambling began with the opening of Resorts International in AC. —Deborah P. Carter5. On the Waterfront Shows Hoboken GritHoboken may have lost its grit, but in 1954, its shabby bars and dockside shanties provided the perfect locations for the classic Marlon Brando film On the Waterfront. Rooftop scenes were shot along Hudson Street, and two historic churches—Our Lady of Grace (for exteriors) and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (interiors)—figured prominently. —Ken Schlager 6. Mall Culture Is BornWhen it opened its doors on October 11, 1961, the Cherry Hill Mall became the first enclosed shopping center on the East Coast, birthing mall culture as we know it. It led the region by creating an air-conditioned, 1.3 million-square-foot, dual-winged megaplex. The mall offered an experience beyond retail that included fountains, a pond, tropical plants, and an aviary with exotic birds. Today, many malls are shuttering as patrons return to downtown shopping areas or go online, but the Cherry Hill Mall continues to thrive, with 130 stores and plenty of eateries—but no more birds. —DPC7. Campbell’s Soup Gets More Than 15 Minutes of FameCan you name a more iconic soup than Campbell’s? The “mmm mmm good” brand’s Camden factory made the world’s first jar of ready-to-eat soup, beefsteak tomato, in 1895; two years later, the process of condensing came along, allowing for the small cans we know today. Fast-forward to 1962, and the Jersey soup became a pop-culture icon thanks to Andy Warhol. His Pop Art piece Campbell’s Soup Cans features 32 cans of the soup, which the artist ate daily for 20 years. The Camden factory is still in operation. —Emily Melvin8. Broadway’s Hamilton Name-Checks New JerseyAlexander Hamilton was a Jersey boy. He lived and studied in Elizabeth, fought at Trenton, Princeton and Freehold, spent two brutal winters in Morristown as General Washington’s aide-de-camp, helped turn Paterson into an industrial city, and died in a duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, the very spot where his 18-year-old son had been killed dueling two years earlier. So it’s not surprising that Lin Manuel-Miranda tossed a few Jersey jokes into his Broadway musical Hamilton when it opened in 2015. One laugh line is, “Everything is legal in New Jersey,” from “Blow Us All Away,” a reference to the Garden State’s reputation for overlooking illegal activities such as gambling and, fatefully in Hamilton’s case, dueling. —J. Martin9. New Jersey Earns Place as the Diner Capital of the WorldLet’s face it: New Jerseyans are hungry to claim diner supremacy. Although we weren’t technically home to the first diners—those cropped up in Rhode Island and Massachusetts before the turn of the 20th century—we can thank Bayonne’s Jerry O’Mahony for giving us serious greasy-spoon credibility. The key moment came in 1912, when O’Mahony, who owned horse-pulled lunch wagons in Hudson County, pivoted to building such wagons himself. He sold his first to a restaurant entrepreneur who operated it in what is today Union City. “The transaction helped set in motion New Jersey’s golden age of diner manufacturing, which in turn made the Garden State the diner capital of the world,” local diner expert Michael Gabriele explained in New Jersey Monthly’s 2018 diner-themed issue. —Jennifer Finn10. Whitney Houston Remembered in Starry Home-Going Ceremony When Whitney Houston died suddenly in February 2012, her star-studded home-going ceremony was held at her childhood church, New Hope Baptist in Newark. Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and Houston’s cousin (and fellow New Jersey native) Dionne Warwick performed. Kevin Costner and Clive Davis delivered eulogies, and Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey were among the mourners in the nearly four-hour-long ceremony. The 48-year-old’s casket was carried to Fairview Cemetery in a golden hearse, a fitting farewell for music royalty. —Dionne Ford11. Chris Christie Becomes a Beach MemeIt was Fourth of July weekend in 2017, the day after Governor Chris Christie had shut down the state’s parks and beaches because of a budget standoff, when a photographer caught him lounging near the state-owned governor’s beach house at Island Beach State Park. Christie denied being there until a photo surfaced of him in shorts, baseball cap and flip-flops. It triggered widespread outrage and countless memes of him in his beach chair in preposterous and hilarious locations. —J. Martin12. Jersey Shore Invades the Jersey ShoreLove it or loathe it, Jersey Shore became a phenomenon when a group of 20-something party animals with nicknames like “Snooki” and “The Situation” invaded our TVs—and beaches—as the show hit MTV on December 3, 2009. Seaside Heights, where the cast lived, quickly gained national name recognition and became a tourist spot. In the years since, it’s tried to shed the party-town image portrayed on screen. As the cast grew older, the show spun off into Jersey Shore: Family Vacation to includes the stars’ partners and kids. Season 7 premiered in February. —JG13. Aaron Rodgers and Tommy DeVito Dominate Football HeadlinesFor Jersey football teams, 2023 was a rollercoaster year. Future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers moved from Green Bay to the Jets, bringing high hopes that he’d lead the team to their first Super Bowl win since 1969. That dream was quickly quashed when he was injured in the fourth play of his debut, sidelining him for the season. The Jets would end up with yet another losing season. The Giants also failed to make the playoffs, struggling after losing their starting quarterback to injury. But fans were able to turn lemons into limoncello when Cedar Grove local and third-stringer Tommy "Cutlets" DeVito became the feel-good story of the year as the Giants’ starting quarterback—fully embracing his Jersey and Italian American roots along the way. —JG14. Jersey Brings Us ‘Rapper’s Delight’[caption id="attachment_328724" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy[/caption]Although it is named after a neighborhood in Harlem, Sugar Hill Records, which introduced hip-hop to the mainstream with the 1979 Sugarhill Gang classic “Rapper’s Delight,” was formed and based in Englewood. Legendary producer Sylvia Robinson brought together Englewood’s Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee at her Bergen County studio and changed the face of modern music forever. —CC15. Jaws Reportedly Inspired by New Jersey Shark Attacks Many believe Jaws was inspired by the first recorded fatal shark attacks in American history, which occurred off the coast of Jersey in 1916. Jaws novelist and screenwriter Peter Benchley insisted that wasn’t true—even though his story of a man-eating shark terrorizing a fictional New York summer resort is very similar to what happened here. Either way, Benchley wrote the novel while living in Pennington, and Steven Spielberg (who lived in Haddonfield as a kid) made it into cinematic history in 1975. —Ed Condran16. Bon Jovi Changes the Face of RockPerth Amboy native Jon Bon Jovi formed his eponymous rock band in Sayreville in 1983. Their first hit may have been “Runaway,” but Bon Jovi has stayed close to the Garden State over the years, particularly through his philanthropic JBJ Soul Kitchen Community restaurants. —JF
17. Philip Roth Puts Newark in the Spotlight Author Philip Roth grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark, which inspired much of his writing. Roth set his 1959 novella, Goodbye, Columbus, in tonier Short Hills, but his best-known novel, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), put Weequahic High School on the literary map. —KS18. NJ's First Drive-In Movie Theater OpensOn June 6, 1933, a culture of Friday night hangs, first dates and seeing a film from the comfort of your car was born. The first drive-in movie theater in America, Camden Drive-In, was located in Pennsauken, initiating a boom that would sweep the country. Now, there is only one drive-in left in Jersey: Vineland’s Delsea Drive-In. —EM19. Stone Pony in Asbury Park Becomes an IconThe iconic music venue in Asbury Park that launched the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and Jon Bon Jovi is still a vibrant music hub. Repeatedly threatened by development, the Pony was saved by the musical community and renovated in 2000, with a summer stage facing the ocean. A visit there is a pilgrimage to rock fans around the world. —J. Martin20. Gotham City Is in New Jersey Since its introduction in Batman #4 in 1940, Gotham City has served as the Dark Knight’s stomping grounds. Though the location of Gotham has varied in different Batman incarnations, the most consistent is somewhere in southern New Jersey. DC writer Mark Gruenwald referred to “Gotham City, New Jersey” in Amazing World of DC #14 (1977), and artist Dick Dillin gave a detailed map showing Gotham near Egg Island in The World’s Greatest Superheroes (1978). —CC[RELATED: How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend]
21. Surviving Action Park Is a Rite of Passage Surviving Vernon’s Action Park, nicknamed Traction Park and Class Action Park due to its dangerous rides, was a rite of passage for Jersey youth in the early ’80s. One of the country’s first waterparks, it attracted about 1 million thrill-seeking visitors a year and later spawned movies, TV shows and books. It closed in 1996 after six fatal injuries and legions of broken bones, reopening, with safer rides, as Mountain Creek Water Park in 1998. —J. Martin22. Teresa Giudice Flips Table on The Real Housewives of New JerseyIt was the table flip heard round the world. In 2009, when an outraged Teresa Giudice flipped a restaurant dinner table over during the Season 1 finale of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, she cemented the show’s place in pop-culture history and set the stage for dramatic reality-TV moments to come. That includes RHONJ’s current 14th season. —JG23. Michelle Obama's Official Portrait Painted by NJ Artist[caption id="attachment_329066" align="alignnone" width="778"] Michelle Obama portrait photo: Randy Duchaine/Alamy; artist Amy Sherald photo: Kyle Knodell[/caption]Art lovers already knew Amy Sherald for her sober-faced, matter-of-fact portraits of African Americans when, in 2018, she painted the official likeness of Michelle Obama to hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, skyrocketing her reputation. The colorful, softly hued painting became an iconic image of one of the nation’s most popular first ladies. In 2020, Sherald’s posthumous portrait of Breonna Taylor for the cover of Vanity Fair also gained national attention. Today, the artist continues her work from her Jersey City studio. —DPC24. Four Seasons Rise to Fame Jersey’s famed doo-wop/rock quartet, the Four Seasons, led by Newark native Frankie Valli, officially formed in 1960 after a failed audition (as the Four Lovers) at a Union County bowling alley called—you guessed it—the Four Seasons. Hits like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man” followed. Jersey Boys, the Tony-winning musical about the group, charmed Broadway from 2005 to 2017, and a Clint Eastwood film hit theaters in 2014. A streaming adaptation stars Wyckoff-raised Nick Jonas as Valli. —JF25. New Jersey Monthly DebutsFormer Princeton roommates Hendrix Niemann and Christopher Leach founded this very magazine in the 1970s, and it’s still going strong today. “We felt the coverage, both broadcast and print, of New Jersey tended to be overly negative and stereotypical,” Niemann told NJM in 2016 about their reason for starting it. The first issue came out in November 1976. The magazine has always covered serious issues plus the fun side of life. In 1982, Norman B. Tomlinson Jr. of the Morristown Daily Record bought NJM and moved it from Princeton to Morristown, where it remains today under the leadership of his daughter, Kate S. Tomlinson, the publisher/editor in chief. —JG and KS26. Kevin Smith Films ClerksWhen Kevin Smith caught Slackers in 1990, the Red Bank native was inspired. He maxed out his credit cards and made the now iconic movie Clerks for less than $30,000. The 1994 film, which was shot at a Leonardo Quick Stop, became a critical and commercial success and was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry. Smith made two sequels. He remains a force in Jersey arts as the owner of the Red Bank comic book shop Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. In 2022, he purchased Atlantic Moviehouse, where he used to go as a kid. —EC27. Yogi Berra Leaves His Mark Legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra lived in Montclair for more than 50 years, so it was fitting that in 1998, the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center opened at Montclair State University. Along with exhibits honoring the achievements of Berra and others, it provides educational programs and camps emphasizing respect and sportsmanship. Two months after opening, Berra and his former manager, George Steinbrenner, with whom he hadn’t spoken in 14 years, reconciled there. Berra died in 2015 at age 90. —J. Martin28. Zach Braff Releases Garden StateA lot of filmmakers shoot in New Jersey, especially since Governor Phil Murphy reinstated tax incentives in 2018. But fewer set their plots here. An exception is Zach Braff. The actor/director, who grew up in Maplewood and South Orange, filmed and set his acclaimed 2004 directorial debut here, even titling it Garden State. A decade later, his 2023 movie, A Good Person, filmed at his high school, Columbia. “I love my hometown, and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” he told New Jersey Monthly last year. —JG29. The Fugees Score Big-Time In 1996, South Orange-based hip-hop trio the Fugees had a huge hit with their second album, The Score. The New York Times said the album placed the band at the “forefront of pop music.” The Fugees’ version of the Roberta Flack song “Killing Me Softly With His Song” reached number 1 in more than 20 countries. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean both went on to have huge solo careers. In 2023, Hill gave a nod to her hometown when she invited members of the marching band her high school, Columbia, to perform with her at the Prudential Center. —Jacqueline Mroz30. @NJgov Rocks Social MediaWith its viral “your mom” tweet in December 2019, @NJgov proved official government accounts don’t have to be boring. Melding Jersey attitude and pride, the X (formerly Twitter) account posts important updates along with memes praising full-serve gas. The edgy account battles @nycgov about bagels and more. Cocreator Megan Coyne now posts from the account @WhiteHouse, but Jersey’s account is still going strong. —Sharon Waters31. Carole King Sings About Suburbia In the early 1960s, Carole King, who would become one of the most successful female songwriters of all time, was living near Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange with husband and collaborator Gerry Goffin when they wrote their hit song “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” It went on to become one of the Monkees’ most successful singles, peaking at number 3 on the charts. Goffin apparently wanted to write the song because he disliked their suburban life; it was a commentary on the boredom and conformity of it. —J. Mroz32. War of the Worlds, With Alien Invasion Set in NJ, Sparks PanicThe infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast ignited panic when listeners thought aliens were invading Earth—with their entry point in New Jersey. Orson Welles’s fictional radio drama, based on H.G. Wells’s sci-fi novel of the same name, said that Martians had invaded the small community of Grovers Mill in West Windsor. Since the 1980s, a bronze monument to the broadcast has stood there. —JG33. Cake Boss PremieresTLC’s reality show Cake Boss skyrocketed a family-owned Hoboken bakery to national stardom when it premiered in April 2009, bringing its lively owner, Buddy Valastro, along for the ride. The original Carlo’s Bakery set up shop in 1910. Now, there are nine Carlo’s locations and 28 vending machines across the county. Cake Boss went off the air in 2020, but Valastro debuted two new shows on A&E in 2023. —EM34. Sea Hear Now Festival Rocks Asbury Park Sea Hear Now has brought superstar musicians to Asbury Park’s shores since its inaugural festival in 2018. The likes of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and more mega-acts have made this a top-notch jamboree for music fans of all ages each September. The festival also includes surfing and art. —Gary Phillips35. WBGO Becomes NJ’s 1st Public RadioNewark is to thank for introducing the state to public radio. In 1979, WBGO 88.3FM aired for the first time, playing jazz music from Newark. It soon became a 24-hour station affiliated with NPR. WBGO remains active today. —EM36. Les Paul Changes Music in NJ Music legend Les Paul created the first solid-body electric guitar design. Though he was born in Wisconsin, Paul spent much of his life in Mahwah, and his most influential discoveries were made in the Bergen County town. In September 2011, the Mahwah Museum honored Paul by unveiling a permanent exhibition titled “Les Paul in Mahwah.” He died in 2009 at age 94. —EM37. Rachel Zegler Gets Her Big Break[caption id="attachment_328734" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: Courtesy of Ramona Rosales/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp[/caption]After a nationwide search that drew 30,000 aspiring actresses, Clifton’s own Rachel Zegler was picked to play Maria in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of West Side Story, which filmed in Newark and Paterson. The now 22-year-old has since been in box office biggies like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and her star is only poised to rise. —CC38. Judy ‘Blume’s’ in New JerseyJudy Blume, the beloved author of books for children, young adults and adults, grew up in Elizabeth. She began writing in 1959; her books include bestsellers Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. In 2015, Blume published In the Unlikely Event, based on a bizarre series of plane crashes that took place in her hometown in the early 1950s. Blume has sold more than 82 million copies of her books. —J. Mroz39. The Watcher Creeps Us OutHow would you feel if you moved into your dream home and discovered that someone was watching your house and your family’s every move? That’s the story behind The Watcher, a real-life drama that took place on a suburban street in Westfield and was turned into a popular Netflix show in 2022 starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale. In both reality and fiction, the family was plagued by ominous letters and sinister threats. The real Watcher was never found. —J. Mroz40. VMAs Choose Newark In 2019, the MTV Video Music Awards eschewed cities like New York and LA for Newark’s Prudential Center, marking the first time the awards show was held in New Jersey. The show featured Jersey tributes including performances by Wyckoff’s Jonas Brothers. The VMAs returned to the Rock in 2022 and 2023. —Leigh Scheps41. New Jersey Mourns Anthony BourdainThere are few people who blended a love of food, travel and Jersey pride quite like Anthony Bourdain. The late chef and host of numerous travel shows grew up in Leonia and considered himself a Jersey boy, regardless of where life took him. In his words, “to know Jersey is to love her.” After his passing in 2018, legions of local fans mourned him, and the state created the Anthony Bourdain Food Trail, featuring 10 local restaurants profiled on his show Parts Unknown. A map can be found at visitnj.org. —CC42. Cheaper by the Dozen Based on Real FamilyPublished in 1948, the novel Cheaper by the Dozen was based on the real-life stories of a Montclair couple (authors Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) and their 12 children. A bestseller, the book inspired several film and stage productions. The actual Gilbreth house, on Eagle Rock Way, last sold in 2015 for $2.75 million. —KS43. Count Basie Comes BackRed Bank native Count Basie kicked off his jazz career playing Jersey Shore nightspots. He became a giant of the Swing Era after relocating to Kansas City, but on February 3, 1938, he triumphantly returned to his hometown for a show at the River Street School, about a mile from the theater that now bears his name. —KS44. Addams Family Has New Jersey Roots [caption id="attachment_328690" align="alignnone" width="778"] Charles Addams in 1952 Photo: Courtesy of Library of Congress/Bob Sandberg[/caption]Charles Addams, the cartoonist who in 1938 created the macabre Addams Family for the New Yorker that spawned the legendary TV show, grew up in Westfield, playing in the Presbyterian Cemetery and drawing cartoons for the Westfield High School yearbook. Two houses there, on Elm Street and Dudley Avenue, inspired the ghoulish family’s mansion. The TV show, which ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966, has inspired movies, other series, songs and, some think, goth subculture. —J. Martin45. Friday the 13th Scares America Fans still flock to Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco in Hardwick to see where Friday the 13th was filmed in 1979. The special tours showcase the Boy Scouts camp that served as Camp Crystal Lake, where the movie’s murders happened. The slasher film that spawned a franchise was also shot at locations in Hope and Blairstown, where Roy’s Hall shows the cult classic every Friday the 13th. —SW46. Author Harlan Coben Comes Full Circle Blockbuster mystery author Harlan Coben, who grew up in Livingston and now lives in Ridgewood, is the author of more than 35 bestselling novels, with many set in Jersey and adapted into Netflix series. All things Garden State aligned when the TV version of his thriller Shelter, which aired last year, was filmed at his alma mater, Livingston High School, and 20 local towns. —J. Mroz47. Paper Mill Gets Saved and Nabs a Tony Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse, opened in 1938, suffered a financial crisis in 2007. A save-the-theater campaign raised more than $1 million in four weeks to finish the season. In 2016, the Paper Mill was awarded the Regional Theatre Tony Award, elevating its status as two shows, A Bronx Tale and Bandstand, transferred to Broadway. —LS48. Jersey Fans Go Wild For Taylor SwiftNobody had a bigger 2023 than Taylor Swift, so it’s only fitting that she caused a commotion not once but twice in New Jersey last year, first with a trio of massive, sold-out MetLife Stadium shows in May and then when she traveled to Long Beach Island for the wedding of her close pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff to the actress Margaret Qualley. Swift literally stopped traffic upon her arrival in Beach Haven, attracting hordes of fans and, unsurprisingly, causing a bit of uproar among locals for all the fanfare. Fun fact: Swift, who grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, spent her childhood summers at the Jersey Shore. —JG49. SZA Defends Maplewood Hometown[caption id="attachment_328726" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photo: UPI/Alamy[/caption]Maplewood singer SZA stood up for her dad’s favorite family-owned café, Village Coffee Shop, in 2017 when a Starbucks set up shop nearby. The Grammy winner shared frustration with changes in her hometown, urging city slickers flocking to the ’burbs to “shop local and be polite,” writing on social media that people who move to small towns need to “learn how to be a part of a community.” —Falyn Stempler50. Pinegrove Shuffle Goes Viral In 2016, the band Pinegrove, formed by Montclair natives Evan Stephens Hall and Zack Levine, broke out in the indie-rock world. Their album Cardinal was recognized by Spin magazine, and they regularly toured North America and Europe. The band went on hiatus in 2022, so it was a surprise a year later when social media began buzzing with new Pinegrove-inspired videos. Not only was the group not forgotten, but their lyrics and beats had become the backdrop for an arm-flowing, one-step dance dubbed the Pinegrove Shuffle. After a TikTok video went viral, countless new versions popped up and led to a huge increase in Pinegrove plays on streaming platforms. —DPC
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[caption id="attachment_328313" align="alignnone" width="778"] The open-concept living space inside the former Cokesbury Presbyterian Church is embellished with a 10-foot-high chandelier and a dramatic brick fireplace. The coffee table is a repurposed antique sleigh. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]When Laura and Rafe Sharón first laid eyes on the former Cokesbury Presbyterian Church in Tewksbury Township five years ago, they weren’t sure what to make of it. The circa-1880 structure had been on the market for a year and was in dated condition. The idea of turning a former church into their residence was at the same time intimidating and exhilarating for the couple, who are not particularly religious.[caption id="attachment_328312" align="alignnone" width="778"] The circa-1880 structure was converted into a school in the 1960s, then became a residential property in the 1980s. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]“When we first walked through the front door into the sanctuary area that had been stripped of church pews, we both felt it had great energy, but at the same time, it was very calming,” Laura says. “When I saw the 20-foot ceilings, I thought the place was so cool. But we were in for a challenge because there were no bedrooms.” However, the building’s ecclesiastical past didn’t stop these divergent thinkers from going for it. The couple, who were engaged when they moved in, soon married in front of the dramatic fireplace that stands where sermons were preached long ago. Their minister was a friend who performed the ceremony as their children looked on.[caption id="attachment_328314" align="alignnone" width="778"] Laura and Rafe Sharón relax in their church-turned-home. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The antique church was converted into a school in the 1960s, then became a residential property in the 1980s. Among the couple’s renovations were restoring the original stained glass windows and covering them with tempered glass for added protection, and hoisting a 10-foot chandelier to the highest point of the ceiling. One of the trickiest bits of design magic involved the addition of two sleeping areas within the residence. Laura and Rafe now slumber in a large, open space that was once the upstairs choir loft. They also created a diminutive guest room and a bathroom on the main floor.[caption id="attachment_328311" align="alignnone" width="778"] Beloved pooch Truman welcomes guests in the front vestibule. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Rafe notes, “It’s a pretty quiet neighborhood, since there’s a cemetery in our side yard.” A licensed architect who had previously owned a thriving Princeton business, he reinvented himself as a psychoanalyst in his 50s. Rafe now works from home in the main sanctuary area, at a huge desk reimagined from an original church door. Behind his desk are proudly displayed photos of his grandfather, a respected psychotherapist who used to collaborate with Sigmund Freud.[RELATED: Couple’s Loft at Hoboken’s Old Wonder Bread Factory the Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread]
Also in the primary open space is a music area with a piano, a cello and guitars, where family members enjoy jam sessions. Nearby is a gigantic wooden bakery table that bears century-old knife gouges. Snagged at auction, its identical sister table was scooped up by Ralph Lauren. Rafe’s artist grandmother’s original abstract sculpture also decorates the space.[caption id="attachment_328310" align="alignnone" width="778"] The lower-level family room is surrounded by original stone walls and decorated with vintage found objects, comfy seating and an antique workbench reimagined as a bar. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Laura, a former Air Force staff sergeant and retired mounted police officer, enjoys decorating the unconventional interior with antiques and unexpected relics. Her most recent project was redesigning the lower-level kitchen with bold blue cabinetry flanked by a large, vintage island that had once resided in a New York deli. The kitchen area was dug out of the church-basement crawl space and expanded into a cozy downstairs family room with original stone walls. The kitchen’s rustic ceiling beams are gnarled and mismatched because the crawl space area was never intended to see the light of day.[caption id="attachment_328309" align="alignnone" width="778"] Blue cabinetry and gnarled beams accent the kitchen, which was once a crawl space. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Behind the heavenly home is a gracious pool area with an outdoor fireplace, a bar, a brick courtyard and a fountain, all surrounded by colorful gardens. The couple’s three exuberant dogs, Truman, Esther and Schooner, have free run of the fenced property.“Living here, at the site of hundreds of weddings, baptisms and funerals, makes us feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves,” says Laura. “We plan to buy plots in the church cemetery next door so we can always remain here in spirit.”
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Years after graduation, when former college roommates and renowned soirée-throwers Amy Tomlinson and Courtney Curzi Murray left their lucrative corporate jobs to start an event-planning business, they wanted to keep the party going.“We still had a passion for entertaining, but realized that adult party planning wasn’t always fun,” says Tomlinson, of Summit. Then the idea came to them: What if someone curated a no-fuss tablescape for event hosts? And what if those hosts didn’t have to stay up late washing dishes and table linens?In August 2023, they launched Spoon + Salt, a luxury tabletop-rental company, serving most of New Jersey and parts of New York and Pennsylvania. “Our vision is to offer curated tabletop looks in an easy way, delivering complete tabletop decor to our client’s home, then collecting it after the party,” says Murray, of Phillipsburg, a former marketing vice president. Tomlinson, a merchandising and project-management expert, adds, “We also believe this is a good way for clients to recycle, by not having to buy new dishes and linens when hosting an event.”[RELATED: This Point Pleasant Shop is Stocked for All Your Stylish Soirées]
The partners offer more than 10 curated tablescape styles, viewing every table as a blank canvas on which to make a creative statement. Their concept is straightforward. Party-throwers browse tabletop designs and choose the one that best fits their occasion, personality and number of guests. The order is placed, and soon a hand-delivered tote bag containing dinnerware, glassware, flatware and linens arrives, along with table-setting tips. After the party, hosts lightly rinse their rented dishware and repack the tote bag to be picked up by Spoon + Salt. Costs range from $120 to $160 for four place settings, plus $35 for round-trip delivery.“In 2024, we’re adding more colored glassware and napkins to round out our extensive inventory for dinner parties, bridal showers, weddings and more,” says Tomlinson. “Amy and I enjoy what we do and are always available for complimentary design consults.”“We love to be invited to the party!” Murray adds.For more information, visit Spoon + Salt's website, or call 908-818-0400.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_326380" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]Give your boudoir a new look for the new year with an organic, toxin-free, fair-trade bed ensemble from this Summit-based maker; prices vary at bollandbranch.com. Toasty toes are only two socks away! These fluffy footies will keep the cold at bay; $26 for three pairs at nordstrom.com. No more wet heads on chilly days! This soft, terry turban is a hug for your noggin—and helps dry your tresses; $19.99 at hm.com. A chunky, chenille-soft cover in buttery beige is a sure comfort; $60 at cozey.com. The Alaia organic-cotton spread offers a layer of texture and softness; $210 at luluandgeorgia.com. Named for Josephine Baker, a cabaret darling of the 1920s, this cotton-chenille throw gives Art Deco vibes; $199 at johannahoward.com. This open-weave, cotton-knit blanket comes in earthy shades and features a twisted-rope fringe; $103 at ballarddesigns.com. These sumptuous, absorbent, Turkish-cotton towels feature a ribbed texture and a fluffy weave; $85 per set at potterybarn.com.
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[caption id="attachment_326391" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]No matter which way you wear it, this reversible puffer jacket offers a cozy layer; $288 at jcrew.com. The Jocelyn Fair Isle knit cap is a happy accessory to take you through the winter; $65 at bloomingdales.com. Show your stripes with a preppy Niko wool-blend scarf; $325 at nordstrom.com.The Vinny ribbed pullover is super versatile. Dress it up, dress it down; $298 at veronicabeard.com. Dolce Vita Runaway boots in faux suede put a little country in your step; $220 at anthropologie.com. The Una leather and suede cross-body bag is a woven wonder; $248 at J.McLaughlin in Harding Township. The Jupiter stacked bracelet plays nicely with jeans or a cocktail dress; $95 at francesvalentine.com. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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When interior designer Samantha Stathis Lynch and husband Christopher began searching for new digs with extra work-from-home space, they discovered an intriguing loft listing in the original Wonder Bread factory in Hoboken.“We wanted something different, with character and original details. I like layered spaces with quirky-yet-comforting architectural details,” says Samantha, the principal of Samantha Ware Designs. Chris adds, “I’m English, and I had dreamed of the kind of classic loft you see in the movies.”[caption id="attachment_326307" align="alignnone" width="778"] The spacious living room offers an industrial vibe with high ceilings and expansive urban views. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]As soon as the couple entered the newly constructed, 1,700-square-foot Wonder Lofts apartment with gigantic windows, 16-foot ceilings and exposed brick, they were sold. They were especially intrigued with the open-floor-plan space, located in what had been the original working bakery, founded in 1909 and in operation until the 1960s.[RELATED: Peek Inside an NJ Designer’s Belmar Bungalow]
“Our apartment is loaded with character, but it had a modern, white kitchen, which we immediately changed,” says Samantha. “My style is eclectic, with a mix of old and new. Pairing something perfect alongside something imperfect gives a home a soul.” The couple chose a bold, dark blue on new Shaker-style kitchen cabinets and added brass hardware and fixtures. A handmade tile backsplash in a classic brick pattern is reminiscent of Manhattan subway stations just across the Hudson.[caption id="attachment_326305" align="alignnone" width="778"] The formerly white kitchen is party-ready after being reimagined with blue Shaker-style cabinets, brass hardware and a handmade-tile backsplash. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]The couple created a designated office area in the main living room with a hefty campaign-style desk, vintage decorative pieces, and a large photograph by Trevor Parker of Delmonico’s Manhattan steak house. The living room was amped up with a plush Moroccan Beni rug plus soft furnishings: a neutral-linen slipcovered sofa from Jenni Kayne, blue-striped Zak and Fox pillows, an ink-blue ottoman, and a pair of mid-century modern chairs reupholstered in show-stopping Pierre Frey fabric. A media console was made with custom shelving embellished with exposed-pipe detailing.[caption id="attachment_326308" align="alignnone" width="778"] The primary bedroom wows with a plush velvet bed and well-appointed pillows and linens. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]The primary bedroom has a fresh coat of Farrow and Ball’s green-gray Cromarty, while an 11-foot fabric panel flanks the enormous window. The velvet bed is complemented by a striped linen coverlet, a cheery green throw from Hollywood at Home, and Peter Dunham pillows. The focal point is a second large Trevor Parker photograph that rests above the bed.[caption id="attachment_326309" align="alignnone" width="778"] Samantha's office, loaded with antiques, doubles as a guest room when family visits from England. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]A second bedroom serves as both an office and a guest bedroom. A contemporary brass Kelly Wearstler desk lamp and a queen-size Murphy bed (disguised as a large, checker-print table) add personality to the highly functional space. An heirloom antique desk sits alongside a childhood portrait of Samantha’s mom, while an 18th-century chest of drawers offers extra storage. “Sustainable vintage and antique decor add vibrancy to our home and are also environmentally responsible. Antiquing really is the way forward,” Samantha says.[caption id="attachment_326311" align="alignnone" width="778"] The couple entertains on their patio, where wicker and inherited teak furnishings play nicely among hydrangea and English roses. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]Just outside the living room is a spacious patio, set against the backdrop of the former factory’s original Victorian smokestack. Here, transitional wicker lounge furniture and Samantha’s parents’ former teak dining set have found a home near limelight hydrangea, English roses, lavender and plumbago. “Having grown up in the English countryside, I’m partial to green fields and cottage gardens, so it was important to create a little English-inspired oasis,” Chris says. Adds Samantha, “Gardening has become a passion of mine. It’s a sort of therapy when your hands are covered in dirt and you watch something you’ve cared for grow.”[caption id="attachment_326306" align="alignnone" width="778"] Samantha prepares lunch, which she'll serve out on the patio. Photo: Trevor Parker[/caption]“Lofts and apartments can feel cold and industrial, so it’s important to add layers of playful colors and patterns and unexpected furniture and art,” the designer says. “In our case, we wanted this to feel like the Cotswolds or a London row house. I think we struck that balance between industrial and comforting, honoring the space’s history while making it feel like home.”Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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New Jersey experienced losses in 2023.We pay tribute to the stars who died this year who were born in New Jersey, made their home here, or represented our state in another, memorable way. Although they are gone, the legacies of these celebrities live on in their work and in our memories.Andre Braugher1962-December 11, 2023 [caption id="attachment_325352" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Shutterstock[/caption]The star of TV shows including "Homicide: Life on the Street" and, more recently, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was born in Chicago but lived in South Orange for more than two decades with his wife, the actress Ami Brabson. The Essex County town was where the couple raised their three sons, Michael, Isaiah and John Wesley. “After living in Harlem and Park Slope and Baltimore, we realized we liked this whole backyard thing,” he told New Jersey Monthly in 2019. He also said the Garden State "can be shockingly beautiful.” A graduate of Juilliard, Braugher died of lung cancer. He was 61.Suzanne Shepherd1934-November 17, 2023The actress had roles in two famed Mob projects: Goodfellas, where she played the mother of Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco), and The Sopranos, the iconic New Jersey show where she played the mother of Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco). Shepherd, who was born in Elizabeth, died peacefully at home in New York City at the age of 89, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Suzanne Shepherd was a powerful actress and a force to act with…may she rest in peace," Bracco, who starred in both Goodfellas and The Sopranos, wrote on Instagram when Shepherd died, sharing a photo of herself and Shepherd with Falco.George 'Funky' Brown 1949-November 17, 2023The drummer, songwriter and founding member of the Jersey City band Kool & the Gang died of lung cancer at the age of 74. He co-wrote the group's 1980 hit “Celebration” and other iconic tunes. Brown and six other classmates formed the band (originally dubbed the Jazziacs before getting a new name) as teenagers in the 1960s in Jersey City. "In loving memory of our dear brother, cofounder and the funkiest drummer the world has ever seen," Kool & the Gang wrote on social media at the time of Brown's death. "His beautiful soul is now at rest. We love you George. Thank you for giving us the sound of happiness."Ron Cephas Jones1957-August 19, 2023The Emmy-winning star of "This Is Us" grew up in Paterson and, in 1978, graduated from Ramapo College, where he acted in productions including Cinderella Ever After. The actor spoke at the commencement of the Class of 2017 via video instead of in person because of his ongoing battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the school, a disease that would claim his life in August of 2023. He said to the graduating class, "Never stop learning…And never stop loving. It’s the thing that we need most in this life, is to love." Cephas Jones moved to New York after graduation but an addiction to heroin halted his career in the arts, as he described to the New York Times in 2021. He got clean in 1986.Tony BennettAugust 3, 1926-July 21, 2023[caption id="attachment_325353" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Shutterstock[/caption]Bennett was born in Queens and is usually thought of as a New York singer, but he lived in the Garden State, Englewood specifically, from 1957-1971. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011, an honor presented to him by Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of Frank Sinatra, a Hoboken native. Bennett spoke highly of the Garden State at the time, saying in a speech at his induction: "I moved to Englewood, New Jersey, and I had the most wonderful time. I loved it so much, and I had so much optimism in those days. I still do." He also spoke of his son Daegal's life and recording studio in Englewood. Bennett died at the age of 96 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.[RELATED: NJ Celebrities Who Died in 2022]
Carol Higgins ClarkJuly 28, 1956-June 12, 2023The mystery writer, who penned the popular Regan Reilly mysteries, died of appendix cancer at the age of 66. She was the daughter of famed novelist Mary Higgins Clark. Carol Higgins Clark grew up in Washington Township and graduated from Immaculate Heart Academy in Bergen County. She was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016, and was introduced by her mother, a fellow Hall of Famer. At the induction event, Carol said she'd been told it helps to be Irish to be a good storyteller, but countered that thought by noting: "I say it helps to be from New Jersey" (via NJ.com).Wayne ShorterAugust 25, 1933-March 2, 2023[caption id="attachment_325354" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Photo: Shutterstock[/caption]The jazz icon and multiple Grammy winner from Newark graduated from Newark Arts High School in 1952. In 2017, the saxophonist and composer described Newark to WBGO as as a “a place that conjured up a lot of imagination.” He said of his childhood in the Ironbound section, “When we got our bicycles, we would go down to the marshes, where Newark Airport is now, and ride the bikes a little bit into the soft earth, and in those tall weeds. We’d go as far as we can—like, dare each other: 'How far can you go?'” He died at the age of 89.
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Kevin Jonas scored some major dad points this week.The eldest Jonas Brother brought his daughters, Alena and Valentina, to the New Jersey Devils game on Thursday night. Although the team lost 6-3 to the Edmonton Oilers, the trio appeared to be having a blast together in a photo snapped at the game."Great night out with my girls at the @njdevils game!" he captioned the snap on Instagram.The hockey-game appearance comes two months before the Jonas Brothers—made up of New Jersey natives Kevin, 36, Joe Jonas, 34, and Nick Jonas, 31—perform at the NHL Stadium Series on February 17 at MetLife Stadium, when the Devils take on the Philadelphia Flyers. Although all three Jonas Brothers grew up in Wyckoff, Bergen County, Kevin is the only sibling to still reside in the Garden State. He and wife Danielle Jonas, who wed in 2009, are raising their two girls in Denville, the town where Danielle grew up.The family lives just a few blocks from Danielle's parents and close to many of her childhood friends, which makes things easier when Kevin is on the road with the band. “It’s been a blessing—really nice for us to have a safe place here and a community around us,” Kevin told New Jersey Monthly in 2022.When Kevin is not out on tour, he, Danielle and the kids love spending time outdoors together; in the summer, they head down the Shore. "It's our own version of the Hamptons," he said. "It really is incredible."Although Joe and Nick no longer live in their home state, Kevin and Danielle make sure they get their fill of Jersey foods when they're back visiting. “We still bring the Taylor ham to them,” Danielle, 37, told us. “Or the meatballs.”As Kevin described the family, “We are true Jersey, through and through.”The Jonas Brothers, who formed in 2005, broke up in 2013, and reunited in 2019 to huge fanfare, performed earlier this month on their home turf during tour stops at the Prudential Center in Newark.
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On Tuesday, Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito pulled a surprise play and delighted his fans. But this time the skillful move was in Morristown, not East Rutherford, and involved pizza, not a pigskin.The appearance of the undrafted rookie sensation at Coniglio’s Old Fashioned came after a scheduled appearance at the pizzeria had been canceled because of a reported dispute about DeVito's fee. On Sunday, the pizzeria posted on social media that they would no longer be hosting DeVito on Tuesday, claiming they “received word from his agent that his appearance fee would be doubling," from $10,000 to $20,000, following the Giants’ win over the Green Bay Packers last Monday.But the hometown hero made it right, walking through the doors of the South Street pizzeria Tuesday with his marketing agent Sean Salci. Sean Stellato, the flashy, fedora-wearing NFL agent who had been negotiating with the pizzeria and accompanied DeVito on an earlier appearance that day at Bubbakoo’s Burritos in Livingston, was conspicuously absent. [caption id="attachment_324923" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Coniglio and DeVito plan to host a charity event together in January at the pizzeria. Photo: Courtesy of Coniglio's Old Fashioned pizzeria[/caption]It was later reported that Stellato had been replaced as DeVito's marketing representative by Maxx Lepselter, but remains DeVito’s contract agent in football matters.“It was really important to me,” DeVito, who lives in Cedar Grove, told the New York Post of appearing at Coniglio's. “As soon as I was made aware of it...that’s when I was like, ‘We need to go in there, meet him face to face, set things right, eat the awesome pizza and have fun.”During his visit, DeVito, 25, posed for photos with Coniglio and his wife, Shealyn, and held Penny, the couple’s 11-month old baby. Over egg creams from an antique machine and chicken cutlet sandwiches, DeVito’s favorite, the two agreed to a charity appearance there in January. At the event, which doesn't yet have a date, DeVito, of Cedar Grove, will sign 100 autographs and Coniglio will sell 100 chicken cutlet sandwiches with proceeds going to Knights of Columbus charities. [caption id="attachment_324924" align="aligncenter" width="778"] DeVito held baby Penny when he popped into Coniglio's on Tuesday night. Photo: Courtesy of Coniglio's Old Fashioned pizzeria[/caption]Coniglio had decided to cancel the event when the quarterback's appearance fee had reportedly doubled following the team’s third win in a row. “We are a small family-run business & decided $20,000 was a bit steep for 2 hours,” read his message on Instagram.Stellato said it was a misunderstanding; he thought negotiations still were ongoing since no contract had been signed. But Coniglio was not having it, and made it clear Stellato was not welcome at the pizzeria. In an Instagram post in which he apologized for the cancellation, he said, “We’re Italian too & don’t like when someone says one thing & does another.”
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[caption id="attachment_324814" align="alignnone" width="778"] Skating in the 2026 Olympics is the primary focus for 16-year-old Isabeau Levito, one of the top figure skaters in the U.S. Photo: Ronald Gray; makeup: Andrea Hunter[/caption]Many parents have endured the frustration of convincing a cranky toddler to eat dinner. They plead. They beg. Bargain. Cajole.
“If you finish your vegetables, you can watch TV.” “Clean your plate, and you can have dessert.”
It is often a futile effort.
After Chiara Garberi Levito watched her daughter, Isabeau Levito, pantomime Johnny Weir’s free-skate routine during the 2010 Olympics, she had the ultimate weapon in their dinner wars. Isabeau was transfixed by Weir’s performance, and Chiara decided to enroll her daughter in a weekend skating class.
“She loved it,” Chiara says of the class. “That’s how I would make her finish her meal. I would say to her, ‘If you finish your meal, we can go to the rink Saturday.’”
Isabeau ate. And she skated. She skated so well that, last January, she became the U.S. women’s champion. Two months later, she finished fourth at the World Championships. The 16-year-old is chasing more success this year and is aiming for a spot on the 2026 U.S. Winter Olympics team that will compete in Milan, her mother’s birthplace.
[caption id="attachment_324627" align="alignnone" width="778"] Levito practices at her home rink, the Igloo at Mount Laurel. Photo: Ronald Gray; makeup: Andrea Hunter[/caption]Levito lives in Mount Holly and trains in Mount Laurel. She thrives on the eight-hour days she spends at the Igloo, her home rink, where a team of coaches, led by Yulia Kuznetsova, prepares her for competition. Though she must sacrifice many ordinary teenage hobbies, Levito is happy. She is homeschooled, but has plenty of friends at the rink. “She can relate to 3-year-olds and 21-year-olds,” Chiara says. She loves to read, crochet and knit. “My hobbies are grandma-esque,” Isabeau admits, laughing.Some may think Levito has surrendered her youth to pursue gold medals and world championships. But women’s figure skating, at its highest levels, is a young person’s sport. Twenty-one of the 30 female Olympic winners have been 20 years old or younger. If Levito is going to reach the pinnacle, she must devote the next several years to her skating, even if that means postponing things like college. Not that she is leading a cloistered existence. “I do have a social life,” she says, laughing.
[RELATED: Behind the Scenes of NJM’s Cover Shoot with Figure Skater Isabeau Levito]
[caption id="attachment_324619" align="alignright" width="350"] Buy our January 2024 issue here. Cover photo: Ronald Gray[/caption]Levito also has a maturity that allows her to handle the pressure of competing against the best in the world. While other 16-year-olds are fretting about getting their driver’s licenses, Levito is completing polished routines before large crowds and exacting judges. She says skating’s precise nature and the techniques needed to land jumps are “really satisfying for my perfectionism.”
Levito has an emotional strength that allows her to relax when competing and an intensity that helps her grind through workouts. “She wants to give all of herself to the sport and the fans,” Kuznetsova says. “Sometimes, I have to calm her down and tell her that it’s okay to make mistakes and that she can learn from them.”
When Levito steps onto the ice to compete, she gains confidence from her extensive training and becomes calm. She thinks only of succeeding.
Her mother may fret—“I squeeze my purse and have sweat in my hands,” she says—but Levito is composed.
“In competition, the majority of it is based on [the] mental, because physically, if you’ve been training right, you can do it,” she says. “The only thing that’s keeping you from doing it is handling the nerves. It’s so important, especially when you’re out there on your own and everything’s on you, to be able to handle that and not let that just drown you.”
[caption id="attachment_324621" align="alignnone" width="778"] Levito spends eight-hour days training at the Igloo at Mt. Laurel. Photo: Ronald Gray; makeup: Andrea Hunter[/caption]Chiara named her daughter after Michelle Pfeiffer’s character in the 1985 movie Ladyhawke, Isabeau of Anjou, who sometimes takes the form of a red-tailed hawk. Chiara loved Pfeiffer and the name. “It’s different,” she says. Chiara had always liked skating, but she worried because Isabeau’s first few sessions weren’t too smooth.
“She kept falling every two minutes,” Chiara says. But Isabeau kept getting up, and it was easy to see she had talent. Perhaps more importantly, she had a strong drive.
“She’s very intense,” Kuznetsova says. “She will say, ‘I need to do it. I want to do it. I will do it.’”
Kuznetsova skated in her native Russia, but never reached the Olympics. She believes Levito can get there “to realize her dream and my dream” and lists “consistency and confidence in herself” as Levito’s primary strengths.
Polina Edmunds, a two-time U.S. national silver medalist and the host of Iron Butterfly podcast about figure skating, describes Levito as “an elegant, dainty skater.” She considers the structured, Russian-style training Levito receives crucial to her success. The Russian approach blends artistry—Levito has taken ballet classes— with athleticism and demands extreme mental toughness from an early age.
“The fire to compete is very much present in [Levito] because of the years of childhood hard work,” Edmunds says. “She has such a grit. She comes to win.”
By the time Levito was eight, she was mastering sophisticated techniques and difficult jumps. She trained with a different level of commitment than other young skaters, and Kuznetsova saw tremendous potential. When Isabeau was nine, Chiara removed her from school so that she could devote more time to training.
In 2018, Levito won the U.S. juvenile championship. The next year, she was a silver medalist in the intermediate division. In 2021, Levito became the U.S. junior champion. A year later, at the World Junior Championships in Estonia, Levito became the first U.S. world junior champion in 14 years.
MORE WINTER FUN*:Join NJ's Curling Craze*Quirky Places to Go Ice-Skating*Yes, There’s Dog Sledding in NJ: ‘It’s a Lifestyle’*Where to Cross-Country Ski in NJPolar Plunges at the ShoreBeat the Cold with Indoor Activities Last January, in San Jose, California, she won the U.S. title. After posting the top total in the short program, Levito unfurled a clean free skate that resulted in the best score of her career. NBC commentator Tara Lipinski, a U.S. national champion and Olympic gold medalist, described Levito’s performance as “perfection, precision.” She said Levito was like a “heart surgeon” and that she floated across the ice “like a ballerina.”
“[Winning the title] means the world to me,” Levito says. “It was a milestone in my skating career. It was so important to me.”
Two months later, at the World Championships in Japan, Levito entered the free skate in fourth place. However, she fell during her first jump, a triple lutz-triple loop combination. That error kept her in fourth.
“It was tragic,” she says. “I went in more confident than I had been all season. I was so ready for that first jump, but it didn’t happen.”
But Levito does not worry about what happened in Japan. “I don’t want to psych myself out,” she says.
That forward-thinking approach was obvious during the first event of the 2023-24 International Skating Union Grand Prix of Figure Skating, when Levito finished second at the Humana Skate America competition in October in Allen, Texas, behind only Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx. In November, she won her first gold at an ISU Grand Prix.
In December, Levito overcame a disappointing short program to finish fifth at the Grand Prix finals in Beijing. Levito had the third-best free-skate score, which was boosted by a triple Lutz-Euler-triple salchow combination.
“With her mentality and how she can compete, she’s really strong,” Edmunds says. “She doesn’t fall apart in competition. She comes out and hits it. She definitely has a bright future, barring injury.”
As Levito works toward the keynotes of this season, the 2024 U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio, January 22-28, and the World Championship in Montreal, March 18-24, she remains committed to her training. At times, she is stressed about her schoolwork—“My teachers wouldn’t say I’m balancing school and skating so well,” she says with a laugh—and she is always looking for the next book to read. (Taylor Jenkins Reid is a favorite author.)
When Levito is on the road competing, she brings as many as five books with her. Sometimes, she reads them all. At other times, she only reads 30 pages. “I might be just hanging out with people or actually doing schoolwork,” Levito says.
Skating in the 2026 Olympics remains Levito’s primary focus. And it would be a family reunion of sorts. Not only did her mother grow up in Milan, but Levito’s grandmother still lives there.
“It’s a crazy coincidence,” she says. “Some would say it’s fate.”
Or just the inevitable by-product of plenty of hard work.
Michael Bradley is a writer based in suburban Philadelphia and an assistant instructor at Villanova.
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IT'S A SETUP! Amp up your tablescape with this charmingly detailed dinnerware; setting is individually priced starting from $9.99 at hm.com. SPICE IT UP: Petite mosaic tiles lend an NYC subway vibe to these fanciful salt and pepper shakers; $32 at anthropologie.com. BLUE-PLATE SPECIAL: Classic blue-and-white dishware with eclectic patterns strikes a traditional-meets-modern tone; from $50/set of four at ballarddesigns.com.PUT ME ON A PEDESTAL: Serve anything from soup to nuts in the whimsical Chroma ceramic bowl; $195 at jonathanadler.com.HAPPY HUES: Just like a favorite wardrobe piece, this stemless suite goes with everything; $170 at nordstrom.com. GET THE POINT: This royal-blue mahogany chef’s knife from Japanese maker Korin has a modern ergonomic design; $149 at korin.com. STOCK A SMOCK: Chefs of all stripes will applaud this cross-backed apron with two front pockets; $39.95 at crateandbarrel.com. GO WITH THE GRAIN: Handsome wooden bowls feature an elongated silhouette that shows off the Italian olive-wood grain; $40 for four at verveculture.com.
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[caption id="attachment_323298" align="aligncenter" width="778"] "Jersey Shore" star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino gets candid about everything from his drug abuse to stint in prison to wild sex parties. Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Serrantonio[/caption]When most people hear the name Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, they likely think about his famously chiseled abs or those infamous nights at sweaty Shore nightclubs alongside pals Snooki, Pauly D and JWoww. Or fans might find themselves repeating the crew’s ever-present catchphrase, “Gym. Tan. Laundry.”Those glory days of MTV’s Jersey Shore, which premiered in 2009 and skyrocketed Sorrentino to immediate international stardom, seemed like a 20-something party boy’s dream come true—and it was for Sorrentino, who had been trying to break into showbiz for years. But behind that shiny exterior of newfound fame was a drug addict desperately battling to hold onto his life.In recent years, Sorrentino, now 41, has gone public about his struggles with substance abuse and his rocky road to sobriety. But not until now, in his new memoir, Reality Check, has he delved so deeply into the dark ride on which fame took him, marked by years of debilitating prescription drug abuse, wild sex parties with strangers, mounds of financial debt, and an eight-month stint in federal prison for tax evasion.“At a certain point, when I was down to the rock bottom of rock bottoms, I would sometimes think to myself, What’s worse? Never going for your dreams, or achieving them?” Sorrentino tells New Jersey Monthly. “Obviously, in the earlier years, it was like gasoline to fire, you know? All the excess money, the excess fame, no one ever saying no to me for anything. Everybody wanted a piece of me. But then there was an obvious cost to that.”*
The reality star, now eight years sober and a married father of two with a third on the way, has called New Jersey home since the age of six, when he moved from Staten Island to Manalapan in Monmouth County. Growing up in a big Italian family, Sorrentino was surrounded by people—his mother, a homemaker; his father, an electrical engineer; two older brothers, Frank and Marc; and a younger sister, Melissa—and a lot of delicious home-cooked meals, as anyone who watched Jersey Shore will remember.The family planted their roots in the Garden State, Sorrentino writes, because of “the Mafia lifestyle” in their old Staten Island neighborhood, even though that very lifestyle “was romanticized in my household,” with movies like Goodfellas on repeat.“That’s partially why we ended up leaving Staten Island—to get away from that life,” Sorrentino writes. “My dad knew all the made guys from the neighborhood, and lots of the kids he had grown up with ended up in that line of work.”[caption id="attachment_323300" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Sorrentino and his wife, Lauren, live with their two children, 2-year-old son Romeo and nearly 1-year-old daughter Mia, in Holmdel. They are expecting a third. Photo: Courtesy of Munoz Photography[/caption]As a teen, Sorrentino was a popular class-clown type and troublemaker, but he never crossed the line to bully, he writes in the book. His antics, as he describes them, “meant no harm”—like the time he drove across the front lawn of Manalapan High School instead of waiting for traffic to clear up, or the time he thought it would be funny to cartwheel across the stage at graduation but ended up kicking the school’s principal in the face.Between the pranks, the parties and, yes, some schoolwork, substances were starting to creep into Sorrentino’s life. The first time he drank alcohol, at Hawkins Park in Marlboro, he got arrested.Writing of his attitude back then, Sorrentino remembers, “If you told me not to smoke weed, I was going to sell coke. If you told me to drive carefully, I would do donuts in the parking lot. In fact, right after I got my license, I smoked angel dust on the way to homecoming in [my brother’s] hand-me-down Pontiac Sunfire that our father gave me…and wrecked it after hitting a sewer grate and bottoming out.”*
Nineteen was a pivotal age for Sorrentino, but not in a positive way. That’s when what he calls his “love affair” with “the devil,” prescription opiates, began, starting a downward spiral that would only intensify as his public persona grew.By the time Jersey Shore came into his life a couple of years later, through an open casting call held at an Atlantic City nightclub, Sorrentino had all but given up on his dreams of fame. He’d worked as a server at Main Street Bistro in Freehold, a stripper at Club Abyss in South Amboy, an underwear model, and, yes, a drug dealer. He’d failed out of Kean University, yet earned his associate’s degree in business management from Brookdale Community College, where he also met his future wife, Lauren, in a math class.[caption id="attachment_323303" align="alignright" width="350"] "Reality Check" is out December 19 and available now for preorder at mikethesituationbook.com.[/caption]In his memoir (out December 19 from Ballast Books), Sorrentino could have easily glossed over the difficulties he’s experienced and the mistakes he’s made, as many celebrities do, hiring crisis-management teams and avoiding the truth at all costs. For a long time, Sorrentino did attempt to hide his drug problem from his employer, MTV, as well as his castmates and the world. But now, after putting years of failed attempts at getting clean behind him and looking forward to a life of sobriety ahead of him, he has no reason to hold back any longer.In the book, he candidly describes the lengths to which he went to score drugs while MTV’s cameras were following him around. He gets frank about the seemingly endless string of orgies he’d have with strangers while out on the road for public-appearance tours.He reveals that his accountants, while working on his financials in his tax-evasion case, estimated that he’d spent a staggering $500,000 on drugs during the height of his addiction.Andy Symonds, his cowriter on the book and the president and publisher of Ballast Books, says Sorrentino could not fully remember some of the details and stories he wanted to include in the memoir because he had been high, so the star used old photos and new conversations with friends to help recreate the accounts for publication.“The darkest years were probably from 2013 to 2015, before I went to rehab, the years I was experimenting with Adderall,” says Sorrentino. “I was, you know, hearing voices and seeing things that weren’t there. I’m sure if I would’ve went to a doctor, they would’ve diagnosed me with schizophrenia or some sort of mental disorder because of the self-medicating and all the mixing of substances I had put myself through.”Eight years ago, after a terrifying wake-up call stemming from a drug score in New Jersey, Sorrentino got clean for good. He details his intense recovery process in the book.[RELATED: The Sorrentinos Reflect on NJ Wedding 5 Years Later]
Then came another setback: prison. In 2019, Sorrentino served eight months for tax evasion at Otisville Correctional Facility’s minimum-security prison camp (which has been called one of the best federal prisons to do time) in upstate New York.But, clearly a changed man, Sorrentino seemed to almost thrive in prison. Newly married, he was popular among the inmates, making friends with guys with nicknames like Andy Cucumbers and Tony Meatballs; he even became buddies with Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s disgraced former lawyer, on the inside.As a sober person with strong faith, Sorrentino maintained the strict routines in prison that he had created during his recovery. He exercised, read a lot, ate well. He also tried to be supportive of inmates who seemed to be in a worse mental state than he was.“I was definitely helping a lot of guys in prison,” Sorrentino says. “Mental health is something that’s not necessarily talked about, and the guys in there—a lot of guys weren’t doing good.”Sorrentino recalls seeing some fellow prisoners sitting in their bunks, alone and depressed, staring at the wall, not eating. “You could just see the life just draining from them,” he remembers. “And then the opposite was, you know, people like myself, who were constantly exercising and reading books and trying to better themselves and trying to help others, and having conversations and trying to make the best of a negative situation. A lot of guys really appreciated that mindset.”*
These days, Sorrentino’s life is about as different as it could be from the one he had 15 years ago. He lives with Lauren and their two children, 2-year-old son Romeo and nearly 1-year-old daughter Mia, in a beautiful home in Holmdel, Lauren’s hometown. They are due to welcome their third child in March.“All I’ve ever wanted my whole life is to have a big Italian family, and now I have it, and I worked hard to have it and keep it, and for us to thrive and grow together,” he says.Sorrentino loves New Jersey and chose to raise his family in the Garden State, but as anyone who lives here knows, New Jersey hasn’t always loved Sorrentino back.Jersey Shore became a phenomenon as soon as it hit the airwaves in December 2009, when eight strangers moved into a house in Seaside Heights for a summer of partying, hooking up and having fun. Over the years, critics have panned the show for its portrayal of Italian Americans as nothing more than party-hopping “guidos” and “guidettes,” for the antics its cast brought to Seaside Heights and the surrounding towns where they filmed, and for creating yet another Jersey punchline for the rest of America to laugh at.But Sorrentino dismisses the backlash. “You know, once you get on such a mass scale of entertainment, where everybody knows you and you’re a household name, you’re not going to get a hundred percent approval,” he says.During the heyday of Jersey Shore, the show did contribute to a boost in tourism in Seaside Heights, officials said at the time. Sorrentino also notes that, these days, he and his costars have “matured.” Many have families and run their own businesses.Most of them, like Sorrentino, live in the state that made them household names.For Sorrentino, part of evolving and getting sober was focusing on honesty and communication. That’s one reason why he wanted his wife to read his memoir as he wrote it, despite the emotional toll of learning about many of the more shocking moments from her husband’s past. “I’m so proud of him,” she says.In the two decades she’s known him, Lauren has stood by the reality star through some truly difficult periods. They did break up at points, but when she was with him, she was his rock.She says, “There was a point in time where all I had besides Mike and, of course my family, was my faith. So that’s really what I leaned into. At the end of the day, when you’re facing some really hard things, that’s the really best way to achieve it.”In addition to being a father, a reality star and, now, an author, Sorrentino is an active member of the recovery community. He speaks to high schools and other groups in New Jersey and around the country. He sees his memoir as an extension of that outreach.“Jesus Christ is my savior and he saved me. I believe that I was spared,” Sorrentino says. “[There were] many times I could’ve not been here. I was spared to share my story and to help others.”
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[caption id="attachment_322856" align="alignnone" width="778"] Each year at the Hacienda Fox Run residence in Sussex County, an 11-foot tree is embellished with 1,000 baubles, garland and flocking. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Each year, when the holidays roll around, this Sussex County family celebrates in a big way as homeowners Ana and Victor welcome kids, grandkids, parents and pets to their traditional Cuban-American Christmas event.
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“Our heritage is important to us, so every year we enjoy the holiday with four generations,” Ana says. She left Cuba as a toddler, and husband Victor arrived in the United States in 1972. Both grew up in Hudson County and they were high school sweethearts.
[caption id="attachment_322860" align="alignnone" width="778"] A mini tree loaded with vintage crystals and cherished holiday photos of kids and grandkids from over the years. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Preparations for the annual Christmas festivities begin as Victor sets up the 11-foot spruce tree in the living room and Ana climbs the ladder to single-handedly add sparkly baubles and tinsel garland. This labor of love typically requires about nine hours until all 18 large storage bins are emptied. “We have more than 1,000 ornaments that our family has been collecting for years,” Ana says. “Our six kids and four grandkids know that ornaments are my favorite gift, so they’ve given me unusual ones from all over the world.”
[caption id="attachment_322862" align="alignnone" width="778"] Ornaments are Ana's favorite gift. She has over 1,000 from all over the world. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Once the evergreen masterpiece is so full it can’t hold one more decoration, Ana’s favorite part begins: flocking the tree. Although it sounds like a complicated process, she simply buys a dozen bags of recycled garbage-bag flocking from Walmart and begins layering it on the branches. “It’s really fun and easier than it sounds,” she says.
Their Spanish-style home is expertly festooned from floor to ceiling by Ana, a self-taught decorator. Nicknamed Hacienda Fox Run, the residence overflows with vintage Christmas objects, fine art and quirky decor acquired at local estate sales, thrift stores and antique shops.
[caption id="attachment_322859" align="alignnone" width="778"] Holiday feasts are prepared in the Spanish-style kitchen, the heart of the home. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Here, Cuban art, a French farm table, an Italian stone fireplace, Eastern Indian textiles and Asian sculpture all coexist peacefully. “We celebrate diversity and welcome all cultures, and I think that’s reflected in our decor,” Ana says.
The couple purchased their home in 2019, but actually fell in love with the property the first time Ana drove past it 20 years ago. “I admired the Spanish architecture and the way it was situated in the woods. So when we discovered the home was available, we grabbed it.”
[caption id="attachment_322857" align="alignnone" width="778"] Family members spend hours baking cakes, cookies, flan and guava bars for Christmas dinner, attended by 24 people. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Once the tree decorating is complete, it’s time to plan the traditional Cuban-American Christmas Eve dinner. Two long tables and a children’s table are set for 24 guests. The menu includes lechon asado roast pork, rice, beans and yuca. Festive lamb is also served. “Noche Buena is a love-filled Cuban Christmas Eve where all generations gather in our finest as the aroma of lechon asado fills the air,” Ana says.
Dessert is an extensive buffet of sweets, including Victor’s aunt’s flan, marzipan turrones, frosted gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies, and whimsical custom cakes in the shapes of Santa and a Christmas tree, baked by daughter Briana, a self-taught cake artist. (View her creations on Instagram: @magical_n_sweet.)
[caption id="attachment_322861" align="alignnone" width="778"] Five energetic shih tzus—Anabella, Lupita, Penelope, Max and Otis—pose for their annual Christmas portrait. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Following dinner, Ana and Victor’s five shih tzus are welcomed into the living room while the children dance to Spanish and American music and the family exchanges presents. “Since there are a lot of us, we buy gifts only for the kids,” Ana says. “Then grownups play a white elephant game, and we each walk away with one silly gift.”
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By the time December 25 rolls around, the whole family is happy to spend the day in their pajamas eating leftovers, dancing, and hanging out with the pups. “Christmas with my family is my happy place,” Ana says. “And we’ll do it all again in 364 days!” Recipe for Classic Cuban Guava BarsIngredients:* 1 cup sugar * 1 stick butter, softened (not melted) * 2 eggs * 2 cups self-rising flour * 16-ounce package of Goya guava paste (available at Walmart)
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar and butter. Beat 1 egg with 1 cup of flour. Then beat the other egg with the other cup of flour. Add the sugar/butter mixture to the egg/flour mixture. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with butter. Pour half the batter into the dish. Cover with sliced guava paste. Then cover the guava with remaining batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Slice into bars and enjoy!Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Get weekly design advice and inspiration from the experts at Design NJ sent to your inbox.Email[caption id="attachment_322247" align="alignnone" width="778"] Designer Alexa Ralff added hits of color to her neutral sunroom with vibrant throw pillows and artwork. Photo: Christine Gatti[/caption] * Related posts from Design NJ:* * A Retirement Remodel in Montclair * In Skillman, Concocting a Kitchen Renovation * A Bergen County Home Meets Age-Appropriate Modernism “I love a good project,” says Alexa Ralff, owner of AHR Designs in Millburn. That’s why the designer was thrilled with the idea of purchasing a 100-year-old residence and renovating it to meet her family’s needs. “It’s a typical center-hall Colonial in Maplewood,” Ralff says of the home she shares with her husband, Steve, and two children, Wyatt and Avery. “I love quirks and a traditional home; honoring the 1920s history of this house was my pleasure.”Ralff’s aesthetic combines a variety of styles. “I am a classicist, a bit boho and a tad traditional—but in the most casual way; I love all things pretty.” She also loves all things orderly. “I can lean into more is more with decor in terms of my love of color and pattern,” she explains. “But I was raised by a professional organizer mom, so I like a lot of pattern but not a lot of ‘stuff.’ I like a clean counter, I don’t like a lot of tchotchkes; the eye needs a place to land.”
In this case the eye very often lands on the walls. The home is furnished in a palette of blues, greens, peaches and pops of pink. “That’s driven by all of our favorite colors,” the designer says. And much of that color comes from the wall coverings, which are one of Ralff’s favorite ways to elevate a room’s decor. “I’d wallpaper everything if I could,” she says. “I love things layered. Wallpaper acts as one of those layers.”
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We don't need a celebrity magazine to tell us that Jersey guys are sexy, but the accolade sure doesn't hurt.Five gents from New Jersey made People magazine's brand-new "Sexiest Man Alive" list, ranging from a 36-year-old pop star (Kevin Jonas) to a 68-year-old TV legend (Kelsey Grammer).Although all three Jonas Brothers—Kevin, Joe and Nick—grew up in Wyckoff, Kevin is the only member of the band who still lives in the Garden State because of a promise he made to his wife, Danielle, also a New Jersey native. “I got a year not in New Jersey,” Kevin told New Jersey Monthly with a laugh last year. “Most of my work was elsewhere.”The couple are raising their two daughters in Denville, just a few blocks from Danielle's parents' house and many of her childhood friends. Although Kevin joked about moving back to Jersey, he also proudly said: “We are true Jersey, through and through.”Filmmaker and actor Zach Braff, also on the list, grew up in South Orange and Maplewood, attending Columbia High School. New Jersey means so much to him that he not only films projects here, but also sets many of his projects in New Jersey.“I love my hometown and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” the 48-year-old told New Jersey Monthly earlier this year.Braff's directorial debut, in 2004, was even called Garden State; he wrote, directed and starred in the highly lauded film alongside Natalie Portman. His newest feature, A Good Person, which came out in March, filmed in Braff's hometowns as well as locations in Clifton, Elizabeth, Morristown and other local towns.As part of its "Sexiest Man Alive" cover story, People each year puts together a list called "Sexy at Every Age," which features one man at every age (from 20 to 70 years old). Two sixty-something Jerseyans made that list: Jersey City native Nathan Lane, who is 67 years old, and Kelsey Grammer, who spent part of his childhood in Woodbridge and Atlantic Highlands and is 68 years old.In the category of "Sexiest Morning Host," a Jersey guy, Nate Burleson, is a runner up. The CBS Mornings host and former NFL wide receiver lives in Franklin Lakes with his wife and kids. (Mark Consuelos won that category; he's not from Jersey himself but is married to his Live cohost Kelly Ripa, a proud New Jersey native.)Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, a Maine native with no Jersey ties, covers the issue as this year's "Sexiest Man Alive."
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[caption id="attachment_319780" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]BE A WRAPPER: A between-seasons go-to, this lightweight kimono-inspired jacket is a style statement with wide sleeves and a belted waist; $145 at nordstrom.com.EARTH TONES: The Fidji pillow from the Free Spirit collection features hand-embroidered details; $32 at cozey.com.SINK IN: This plush, cognac-colored chair sacrifices no comfort for style; $1,998 at luluandgeorgia.com. TABLE TALK: A tightly rendered diamond pattern adds interest to this table runner, which serves as a centerpiece with or without table settings; $9.99 at hm.com.LOOK AT ME: The oversized Anuel floor mirror, rendered in oak and walnut, visually opens up any room and adds an architectural touch; $2,295 at sohohome.com.
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[caption id="attachment_321761" align="alignnone" width="778"] Beverly Lee (far left) and the Shirelles were Passaic classmates. Photo: Pictorial Press Limited/Alamy Stock Photo[/caption]In many ways, the girl groups that ruled the airwaves six decades ago—from the Shirelles and the Angels to the Ronettes and the Crystals—remain “in everyone’s minds and around them all the time,” says Laura Flam, coauthor with Emily Sieu Liebowitz of But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, a recently released oral history of several ’60s girl groups (Hachette Books). They serenade us “in movies...and in the background: in a taxi, in the grocery store—everywhere,” Flam says. And yet, Sieu Liebowitz laments, most of the women behind these songs are not household names.
[caption id="attachment_321770" align="alignright" width="350"] An oral-history format lets the women of the girl groups “speak for themselves,” coauthor Laura Flam says.[/caption]In part a response to this injustice, the duo’s book is a treasure trove of illuminating accounts directly from the girl-group members themselves, who were trailblazers not only in their recordings—reminiscent of summer nights, teenage-tinged yearning, and transistor radios tucked into pockets or under pillows—but also in their songwriting, performing, touring and, in the case of the many Black girl groups, “desegregating [of] pop music and culture,” the authors write. Even as they endured rampant sexism, racism and mistreatment, “these girls created a space for being women in public,” Sieu Liebowitz says. We spoke to two of these artists with deep Jersey roots.
Beverly Lee • The ShirellesLee was born and raised in Passaic, where she met the other founding members of the Shirelles—Shirley Owens, Doris Coley and Addie “Micki” Harris—by junior high. In 1961, their hit single “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” became the first number 1 song by a Black girl group. Regarded as rock ’n’ roll’s first female supergroup, the Shirelles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. The city of Passaic renamed a portion of Paulison Avenue, near Passaic High School, Shirelles Boulevard in 2008. Lee, 82, currently lives in Passaic, where she enjoys walks in the park, still sometimes takes the bus, and serves as an usher/deaconess at St. Paul Baptist Church “any Sunday I’m home.”
What do you recall about Jersey’s music scene in the late ’50s and early ’60s?Well, it was male dominated, and you heard mainly male groups. After [the Shirelles] were introduced to show business, we broke that cycle. We were [later] universally credited as the creator of the girl-group sound.
You and the other founding members of the Shirelles were teenagers when you wrote what would later become your first single, “I Met Him on a Sunday,” on the fly at your Passaic apartment in 1957. How did you come to record it?We were fooling around in gym at Passaic High, and the teacher said, “There’s gonna be a show. Do the show or fail gym.” Quite naturally, we opted to do the show. We brought “I Met Him on a Sunday,” [about having] your first date, your first kiss and the whole nine yards, and you don’t know what you’re doing, and everybody’s nervous. The kids went berserk. One of my classmates said, “They stomped so hard that the ceiling was cracked.”
As a result of that show, we discovered that we had a classmate, Mary Jane Greenberg, whose mother, Florence Greenberg, owned a record company, which we had no knowledge of. Mary Jane asked us to let her mother hear the song, and she pursued us constantly. We got tired of her chasing us, and we finally said, “Okay, we’ll let your mother hear the song.”We went and sang the song in Florence’s living room, and she fell in love with it and wanted to record it. We were teenagers and knew nothing about show business, but we were excited. And we all told a white lie—telling our parents, “You’re the only one who won’t sign [the contract].”
The first time we heard the song was in Passaic High, on the intercom. Florence had arranged for the principal to [play it]. We were in the classroom, and...it was quite an experience.
In August 1963, the Shirelles performed at the first integrated fundraising show held in Birmingham, Alabama. In the book, you recall that you were “a part of the civil rights movement and didn’t know it.” What is it like to realize, in hindsight, the kinds of barriers you broke?Well, at the time, we were young, and we were having fun, and we didn’t know the dangers of what we might encounter. I’d never been [down] South before; [I’d only been] as far as Washington, D.C. We went on a chartered plane. When the plane landed, we heard that the Ku Klux Klan had marched before we got there. [The National Guard] had to guard our plane. Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.], we were told, led the caravan of cars to the hotel, like the leader he was. [At the hotel,] we could not leave. Everything was guarded. It was frightening, but we had praying parents, and we knew that God was on our side and we would be all right. We still didn’t know at the time that we were making history. When I saw Dr. King sitting to my left, I said, “Oh, dear God.” Words couldn’t describe it.
When “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” was initially introduced to the Shirelles, you actually didn’t want to sing it; you thought it was too country-esque. It ended up becoming your biggest hit, and the new book describes it as “an anthem for a generation and for a nation coming into its own adulthood.” How do you feel about the song now?It’s true that we didn’t like the song when we [first] heard it, because Carole [King, who wrote the music,] did the demo, and it was very, very twangy. It sounded like a country-and-western song. [But producer] Luther Dixon said, “You’re gonna do this song.” [Then] when we went to the studio, we heard a lush arrangement with strings and violas. As a matter of fact, I believe Carole played the kettledrums [on the record] ’cause she didn’t like the way [the other] guy was playing [them]. That’s girl power. We had girl power in that song. Because we had the right—a female has every right—to ask that question: Will you still love me tomorrow?
Peggy Santiglia Ricker • The Delicates, the Angels[caption id="attachment_321759" align="alignnone" width="778"] The Angels’ Peggy Santiglia Ricker (far right) hails from Belleville. Photo: Pictorial Press Limited/Alamy Stock Photo[/caption]Santiglia Ricker grew up in Belleville, across the street from Branch Brook Park. She formed her first girl group, the Delicates, with two elementary-school classmates. (In 2013, part of Belleville’s Union Avenue was renamed The Delicates Drive.) In high school, she joined the Angels and sang lead on their 1963 number 1 hit single “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The Angels were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005. Santiglia Ricker, 79, now resides in Maryland but returns to New Jersey often to visit family. “It’s a special place,” she says.What was your musical upbringing like in Belleville?My sister sang opera. My dad played clarinet, saxophone, mandolin...and guitar. And I started singing and recording as early as elementary school, actually. I met my two original partners [in the Delicates], Denise Ferri and Arleen Lanzotti, in second and third grade. By seventh grade, we were recording. We wrote theme songs for an extremely popular New York DJ at the time, Murray the K. And that’s how we started as the Delicates, not because we were—well, we were innocent—but because Denise’s parents owned a delicatessen on Union Avenue.
It was rare for girls, especially of such a young age, to be writing their own material back then. What do you recall about those early songwriting days?Well, at that time, we wrote about our two favorite subjects: boys and cars. In that order. And then probably boys again. It’s funny—we didn’t even think of it as writing; we thought of it as making up songs. About friends and [such]. So some, of course, were [written] at the deli, or in back of the deli, where [Denise’s family] lived; some were [written] in my house; sometimes at school, when we would have a break, and an idea would come to us. ...Now, maybe at the time, we were just trying to impress our friends. We certainly weren’t thinking about making money. We did love to perform. But that is how it started—with friends that had natural musical ability.
You were a senior at Belleville High when sisters and Orange natives Barbara “Bibs” and Phyllis “Jiggs” Allbut asked you to join the Angels. You sang lead on “My Boyfriend’s Back.” Fast-forward to the summer of 1963: You were at the Jersey Shore with your family when Bibs and Jiggs called and said, “Peggy, come home! We have a hit record!”“It’s climbing the charts!” It was a very exciting time. Of course, at that time, we didn’t have Sirius radio, or even FM [stations in cars]. I can remember riding around in a convertible...with Jiggs and Bibs. Every major station that you turned to, we would hear “My Boyfriend’s Back.”
And in the late ’60s, under a pseudonym, Peggy Farina, you wrote, with Bob Gaudio, the lyrics to “Beggin’,” which became a Four Seasons hit.Yes...and at the time...it did get on the charts, number [16] in the country, which I was very happy about. Then, a number of years later, “Beggin’” was also in the [2005] Broadway show version of Jersey Boys, which I’m very thankful for; that was just fabulous. Then, [in 2007,] a group called Madcon did [the first modern cover of it]. And then when Måneskin recorded [another cover in 2022], I didn’t even know about it until I was with a few of my step-grandchildren, who were quite young at the time. And we’re in the car, and they had their phones, and they’re playing Måneskin’s version. And they said, “Oh, this is a big hit.” And I’m listening, and I’m saying, Could it be possible? ...Oh, my God, what is going on here? But it became a huge global hit all over the world, which I am so grateful for. And I kind of joked: If people only knew that someone who wrote those lyrics could be their grandmother!
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If you’re looking to acquire or sell fine artwork, vintage or antique furniture, objets d’art, jewelry or fashion, the Magnusson Group of Morristown covers the spectrum with estate sales, online auctions and appraisals.One of the most interesting elements of their business is family estates. “Often, we find unusual things in unexpected places,” says daughter Lauren Magnusson, an appraiser and the sales director of the family business. “Once, we discovered a 1-carat diamond ring hidden in an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter container buried in a woman’s freezer.”Founder and CEO Lynn Magnusson adds, “Sometimes, families have no idea what the value is. In a hidden closet, we once found 300 unopened bottles of Johnny Walker and other Prohibition spirits. We’ve also been asked to appraise rare antique books, comic books, coins, gems, luxury handbags, contemporary art, and even Louis XIV’s personal nursery rhyme book.” Recently, while perusing the contents of an understated apartment, Lynn spied a piece of art stashed behind the fridge. The owner said, “Just take it. The family hates it,” but after researching, she advised the owner it was an oil painting worth six figures.[caption id="attachment_319772" align="alignnone" width="778"] Lauren, Lynn and Drew Magnusson. Photo: Courtesy of the Magnusson Group[/caption]Lynn, along with husband Drew, began the business in 1994, before the appraisal industry was regulated. Today, she is one of the only appraisers in the world to hold accredited/certified memberships in all three of the personal-property accreditation associations: the Appraisers Association of America (AAA), the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and the International Society of Appraisers (ISA). President and senior appraiser Drew Magnusson owned Rascal’s White Elephant Bar & Grill in Ocean Township in the 1990s, dabbled in auctioneering, and then became a USPAP-compliant appraiser.Today, he specializes in the metal market, art and antiques, and also runs their online auctions. “Since the pandemic, the online marketplace, especially for vintage and sustainable items, has blossomed,” Drew says.[RELATED: Best Thrift Stores and Consignment Shops in NJ]
After headquartering in Harding Township for 15 years, the Magnusson Group recently relocated to a sparkly, 2,500-square-foot, open-to-the-public space in Morristown. Retail inventory includes antique, vintage and contemporary artwork, furniture, silver, porcelain, luxury goods and jewelry.The store is open 9 am-4 pm Monday through Friday, with special events scheduled after hours (162 Ridgedale Avenue; 973-425-1550).HOW TO SNAG THE BEST ESTATE-SALE STUFFIs there a strategy behind getting the biggest bang for your buck at an estate sale? “You bet!” says Lauren Magnusson, who shares her top tips:1. If you’re first in line on the first day, you’ll pay a higher asking price. Negotiate a lower price by making your offer in the middle of the last day. 2. Rather than saying, “I’ll give you...” or “What’s the best you can do?” lower your voice and politely try, “Would you accept...?”3. Be sure to remove your purchases from the property before the sale ends, or expect to pay more for future access.4. Check in advance to see which forms of payment are accepted. Paying in cash typically yields a better price.
Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Beyond its green-gated entrance, Bird Haven Farm seems just as pastoral and welcoming as it might have been 200 years ago.The sprawling Pottersville property began with an unassuming stone cottage built in 1816, followed by the addition of barns in the mid-19th century. The name Bird Haven Farm is the original moniker, coined by former lady of the house and publisher Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.[caption id="attachment_317723" align="alignnone" width="778"] Beloved Bruno perches atop a vintage wicker settee near Mavec’s handmade garden-tool wall sculpture, anticipating a lunch of Serrano ham, cold zucchini soup, grilled paella and a homemade plum tart. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Current owners and bon vivants Janet Mavec and Wayne Nordberg spend many an hour tending the rustic Hunterdon County estate, as their four canines roam the 75-plus-acre parcel, darting among the century-old apple orchard and the flourishing vegetable and flower gardens.[caption id="attachment_317728" align="alignnone" width="778"] The walled courtyard contains exquisite perennial and vegetable gardens. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The family purchased the residence in 1982 and added a contemporary home and guesthouse in the 1990s. The property’s master plan, which includes a reflecting pool and a party-perfect courtyard, was hatched by the couple with the help of Spanish landscape designer Fernando Caruncho in 2002. Organic veggie and perennial gardens, along with a monastery garden, were envisioned by designer Lisa Stamm.“I grow things I like to eat,” Mavec says. Apples, pears, plums, blackberries, kale, zucchini, beans, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, onions and herbs all have a place on her dinner table.[caption id="attachment_317726" align="alignnone" width="778"] Mavec’s jewelry creations are inspired by the farm’s earthly delights. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Nowadays, Mavec, a jewelry designer who previously operated a luxe boutique in Manhattan, draws her inspiration from her surroundings as she creates 18-karat-gold-plated brass necklaces, bracelets and earrings in the shapes of fruits, vegetables, leaves, birds and natural elements found at the farm.Nordberg, an economist, also enjoys gardening, but limits his green-thumb activities to the tomato and pepper patches. “Although we’re married, we occupy separate beds in the vegetable garden,” says Mavec with a smile. “Wayne and I enjoy cooking together. We make soups, and I put up jam, chutney, applesauce and pickles.”[caption id="attachment_317724" align="alignnone" width="778"] Casual lunch is styled with a Cabana tablecloth, Laguna~B glasses, Mottahedeh salad plates and freshly picked blossoms. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The couple entertains often, assembling uncomplicated tablescapes with an eclectic mix from their collection of fine linen and china, punctuated with simple found objects. “It’s important to make an effort to present things beautifully, but it doesn’t have to be fancy or fussy,” says Mavec. “I particularly appreciate the time-worn patina of antiques.” Case in point: When Mavec discovered a mishmash of tarnished garden tools squirreled away in her barn, she turned them into an outdoor wall sculpture rather than relegating them to a landfill.“I have always loved beautiful, organic things,” Mavec says. “Even in crafting my jewelry, I channel the essence of the garden in celebration of our farm’s spirit.” Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Jon Bon Jovi is not just a famous rocker from New Jersey.He’s also a philanthropist who has been helping feed the hungry in the Garden State for years now with his JBJ Soul Kitchen restaurants, where diners pay what they can.This Saturday, October 7, the eighth annual JBJ Soul Kitchen Chili Cookoff will be held at nonprofit's Toms River restaurant. First responders from all over will compete in the fundraiser by cooking up their favorite chili recipes.Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, usually serve as unannounced judges at the event—so if you’re a fan, it’s potentially a chance to catch a sighting.[caption id="attachment_317320" align="alignnone" width="778"] Jon Bon Jovi greets members of the Toms River Fire Department, Company #1, as he tastes their chili. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Brittain/@Brittain Studios[/caption]To date, JBJ Soul Kitchen has provided 173,870 meals to the hungry. The organization's community restaurants, run by the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, serve both paying and in-need customers. Individuals and families can enjoy a delicious farm-to-table meal with dignity, in a warm, welcoming setting. Reservations are not necessary.The restaurants are operated on a “pay it forward” model, where those who are unable to pay are encouraged to join the Soul Kitchen community to learn about resources and volunteer opportunities.For those who can pay, they are asked to pay a suggested donation for their meal ($20 for lunch/$30 for dinner in Red Bank and $20 for lunch/dinner in Toms River), and “pay it forward” $20 to cover someone’s meal who is unable to afford it.The restaurants are located in Toms River and Red Bank, at Rutgers University-Newark, and at New Jersey City University in Jersey City."Our Chili Cookoff is my favorite event of the year," says Joanne Gwin, community coordinator of JBJ Soul Kitchen in Toms River. "It is a wonderful opportunity to bring the community together. Attendees have the chance to support and thank our first responders for their service, along with supporting JBJ Soul Kitchen."Fire, EMS and police departments, as well as first-aid squads, compete for first-, second- and third-place honors in the annual event. Last year’s winner was Union Beach PBA Local 291.[caption id="attachment_317321" align="alignnone" width="778"] Guests enjoy last year's Chili Cookoff at JBJ Soul Kitchen in Toms River. Photo: Courtesy of Chris Brittain/@Brittain Studios[/caption]Presale admission is $20; tickets purchased at the door are $30. Children 12 and younger can enter free of charge.This year, JBJ Soul Kitchen will also be selling beautiful ceramic bowls, crafted by students throughout New Jersey, for $20. Funds will support people who are battling food insecurity.In addition, local food bank People’s Pantry will be collecting nonperishable food items.The fundraiser will take place at 1769 Hooper Avenue in Toms River on October 7, from 1 to 4 pm.For more info, go to jbjsoulkitchen.org/chili-cook-off-2023.
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NBC's George to the Rescue, hosted by Montclair's George Oliphant, straddles the airwaves as a human-interest-story-meets-home-renovation-reveal show.The new 12-episode season, which begins on September 23, includes five filmed in New Jersey.“Our East Orange project features a single mom who suffered a brain bleed and seizure. Her daughter asked us to rescue her mother’s garden sanctuary, and CLC Landscape Design is helping us out,” Oliphant says. “Sometimes hard-working people simply fall on bad luck and run out of time and money, so we help get them to a better place.”Back in 2002, as a film and theater major, Oliphant built stage sets, and learned to use tools and hang wallpaper. Just one year later, he landed an on-camera appearance with MTV, followed by gigs on First Look New York and Open House.Today, George to the Rescue is syndicated in most U.S. cities and has global fans. Nominated for five Daytime Emmy awards in seven years, the series has earned 10 local and two national Emmys. Oliphant says, “My kids get a kick out of it. We’ll be at the mall standing in line at the Gap, or at the airport in Minnesota, and somebody will say, ‘Hey, I know you!’”[caption id="attachment_316112" align="alignnone" width="778"] George, Zoe, their youngest children and dog Sugar hang out in the breakfast nook, waiting for the older kids to return from camp. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]When he’s taking a break from starring in and executive producing the show, Oliphant tackles projects in his own abode, a beautiful 1912 Montclair home formerly owned by his grandparents, with his wife, Zoe. They have four children, ages 5-15.“There’s been an Oliphant in this house for 80 years,” George says. “We’ve done a lot of upgrading, but we were careful to keep the good bones of this residence. I think my ancestors would approve.”Adds Zoe: “We’ve made it our own over the years by mixing old with new. The result is an antique English Tudor, reimagined in a flirty, New England way.”Oliphant's latest home project? “Right now, I’m building a game room for the kids with ping-pong, foosball and darts,” he says. “But no video games or TV. [...] Zoe and I are designing a screen-free room.”Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Bestselling Ridgewood author Harlan Coben’s new TV series, Shelter, has some extra thrills for New Jerseyans: It was filmed in several Garden State towns. Viewers can see the action begin in the halls and athletic fields of Livingston High School—which is Coben's alma mater—and unfold at several iconic spots such as the Jersey Shore, the Water’s Soul sculpture on the Jersey City waterfront, the Hoboken train station and the Great Falls of Paterson. The show, set in the fictional New Jersey town of Kasselton, is about a teenager forced to move from Los Angeles to New Jersey after his father dies in a car crash. When his new girlfriend disappears, he and two friends go on a quest to find her, encountering stories of heartbreak and abuse as well as history and romance.Even less-recognizable spots were filmed in Jersey—a tony Alpine mansion, Anthony David’s restaurant in Hoboken, Montclair’s First Congregational Church, CareWell Health Medical Center in East Orange and the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg. The exterior of the Oakeside Bloomfield Cultural Center serves as the haunted home of the series’ character "Bat Lady."More filming took place in Bayonne, Hanover, Kinnelon, Little Falls, Middletown, Millburn, Morris Township, Morristown, Sea Bright, Totowa and Wayne.[caption id="attachment_316096" align="alignnone" width="778"] Author Harlan Coben was born in Newark, raised in Livingston and now lives in Ridgewood. Photo: Shutterstock/betto rodrigues[/caption]The Shelter series, now streaming on Prime Video, is based on Coben’s 2011 Young Adult mystery thriller of the same name—the first in his Mickey Bolitar trilogy. It's a departure from his other books-turned-TV-shows, like Safe, The Five and Hold Tight, which were all filmed in Europe.Steven Gorelick, executive director for the New Jersey Motion Picture and TV Commission, had a lot to do with Shelter's Garden State spotlight: He set up a meeting with Coben and convinced him to shoot his next production not in Europe but in New Jersey, NJM reported last year.Shelter is also the first book that Coben—who was born in Newark, grew up in Livingston and now lives in Ridgewood—adapted for the screen himself, alongside his daughter Charlotte Coben.[RELATED: A Q&A with Author Harlan Coben]
Filming in Garden State locations has been booming since 2018, when Governor Phil Murphy reinstated generous tax incentives for local productions. According to the commission, Shelter spent about $50 million that qualifies for state tax credits.Shelter's season finale is available to stream starting Thursday, September 21, at 8 pm EST.
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[caption id="attachment_316112" align="alignnone" width="778"] George, Zoe, their youngest children and dog Sugar hang out in the breakfast nook, waiting for the older kids to return from camp. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Long before George Oliphant became a contractor on NBC’s popular home-renovation show George to the Rescue, he and his wife, Zoe, happily resided in Brooklyn—until his father persuaded them to pull up stakes in 2010 and move to George’s grandparents’ former home in Montclair.“We knew it might be too much house for us,” he says, “but Dad threatened to sell the 1912 home that had been in our family since 1942, so we agreed.” [caption id="attachment_316118" align="alignnone" width="778"] The exterior of the Oliphants' Montclair home is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Onyx Black. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]“It’s really lovely that we were able to start our suburban adventure here in Montclair,” says Zoe, who hails from Vermont. “We’ve made it our own over the years by mixing old with new. The result is an antique English Tudor, reimagined in a flirty, New England way.”George adds, “I have fond memories of spending every holiday and summer here as a kid. We especially like knowing that our four kids go to the same school that their grandfather attended.”[caption id="attachment_316113" align="alignnone" width="778"] Shelves displaying handmade baskets by Zoe’s mom enhance the white kitchen. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The couple’s most recent reno project is a pristine but cozy kitchen with hand-brushed cabinetry, Statuario marble surfaces, a red-knobbed Wolf stove, a Peruvian walnut island, and custom triple-crown molding.“Our challenge was to update the kitchen in a traditional way so it wouldn’t feel disjointed from the rest of the house,” George says. “My general contractor, RTH Building Company, and cabinetmaker, Stephen Fanuka, really came through for us.”[caption id="attachment_316115" align="alignnone" width="778"] The century-old dining room, painted white with earthy-green accents, has a modern beaded chandelier. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The dining room, an homage to George’s grandparents, features their heirloom table and chairs, original millwork, and leaded-glass doors. A portrait of Scottish grandfather George Booth Oliphant keeps a watchful eye over holiday dinners.“There’s been an Oliphant in this house for 80 years,” George says. “We’ve done a lot of upgrading, but we were careful to keep the good bones of this residence. I think my ancestors would approve.”[caption id="attachment_316116" align="alignnone" width="778"] A butler’s pantry wows in a surprising shade of green. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]Parents and kids, ages 5-15, hang out in the inviting living room that sports a relaxed, Ralph Lauren-esque vibe, with Restoration Hardware leather sofas and an inherited coffee table. George’s Emmy awards occupy an antique bookcase, and Zoe’s cheery Romo wallpaper packs a punch in a bold cherry-blossom pattern.[caption id="attachment_316114" align="alignnone" width="778"] In the Oliphant family’s living room, laid-back luxe means extra-deep leather sofas and heirloom furnishings, all under the roof of a beloved home purchased by George’s grandparents in 1942. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]George says, “Zoe doesn’t love the camera, but I get her to perform once in a while. She has a great eye and can stand toe to toe with top designers. Her style is more modern, and I’m more traditional, so we’re truly the definition of transitional design style.”These days, Zoe’s focus is on her business as a Realtor with Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Montclair.[caption id="attachment_316117" align="alignnone" width="778"] The lord of the manor pauses on the porch to don his workboots for another day on the set of George to the Rescue. Photo: Laura Moss[/caption]The couple’s big news is that this fall, George will launch Oliphant Construction. “Besides continuing to produce the show, it’s time to start my own business. It’s a natural progression since I’ve spent the last 20 years in a master class with the best contractors and designers. I’m licensed, insured and ready to go!” he says. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_315866" align="alignnone" width="778"] Nicki Minaj is slated to emcee and perform at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo: Paramount[/caption]
When Tyler Bates joined the Prudential Center in Newark as vice president of entertainment booking in February 2020, his plan was to take the venue to another level.
Since then, Bates, who lives in Jersey City, has curated one of the most diverse arena lineups in the country, with an emphasis on Latinx recording artists.
The arena, commonly known as "The Rock," is set to host the MTV Video Music Awards for the second consecutive year on Tuesday, September 12 at 8 pm ET/PT. Stars including Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Kelsea Ballerini, Lil Wayne are slated to perform, with Minaj also emceeing the evening's festivities.
Bates chats about booking top shows and hosting hometown superstars.
[caption id="attachment_315864" align="alignright" width="350"] Tyler Bates is the vice president of entertainment booking for Newark's Prudential Center. Photo: Courtesy of the Prudential Center[/caption]
How does the Prudential Center book massive events, such as the VMAs and the K-Pop band BTS, over venues like Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center?We are in a great spot here in Newark. We're very close to public transportation, and we're just 15 minutes from Newark Liberty International Airport. And that's huge, since fans can fly in and easily travel to our venue. It's very easy to get here from New York, and it's the easiest venue for those in New Jersey to travel to for an event.
What was it like when Taylor Swift appeared at the Prudential Center for last year's VMAs?It was so out of the blue when Taylor Swift showed up. Having that kind of star power electrified the room. The entire crowd went nuts. The next day, all people talked about was Taylor Swift appearing at the VMAs at the Prudential Center.
Maplewood native SZA is performing at the Prudential Center in October, and the Wyckoff-raised Jonas Brothers are coming in December. How cool is it to host shows from hometown superstars?It's special. We had the Misfits in recently, and Gaslight Anthem [from New Brunswick] opened and just loved playing a big show in their home state. It's a big deal to play in front of your family and friends.
[RELATED: Kevin Jonas Is Rocking Dad Life in New Jersey]
The Prudential Center recently scored the NCAA Men's Basketball Eastern Regional over 3,000 applicants.That's pretty massive. An event like that really catalyzes the entire state, in a similar manner to the VMAs or the big shows that come through here and only play a handful of venues. The big events give us the opportunity to showcase the arena, Newark and the state of New Jersey to audiences that have never been here. Our goal here is to have more of these types of events so people can see what the Prudential Center is capable of hosting.
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[caption id="attachment_315781" align="alignnone" width="778"] Tony winner Laura Benanti grew up in Kinnelon and recently moved back to the Garden State with her family. Photo: Courtesy of Tina Turnbow[/caption]
When an actor plays a famous person on the big, small, or very small screen, the goal is to faithfully embody that person and to entertain an audience. No actor hopes to inspire hate. But that was the response when the actress Laura Benanti put on an accent and a lot of makeup in 2016 to play Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a role she’s been reprising regularly since then.
Upon her first appearance as the first lady, Benanti, who grew up in Kinnelon and currently lives in Montclair with her family, received threats on social media—and the hate continued each time she played the part.
For an actress, to go viral is a thrill. But the death threats tempered the excitement. “I had to move in the middle of the night because people threatened to kill me and my family,” she says of quickly and quietly moving from one New York City apartment to another.
Despite hateful rhetoric and threats, Benanti has continued to do her Melania Trump act. She appeared on Colbert’s show in April and performed a skit and a medley of songs as the former first lady onstage at the Out Montclair Pride festival in June. She is committed to the bit because she doesn’t avoid controversy when she believes in something.
“I don’t understand how anyone can not be political,” she says. “I’m so tired of being told to, like, shut up.”
In certain circles, Benanti is a household name. She has been nominated for five Tony Awards, winning in 2008 for her portrayal of Louise in Gypsy on Broadway. She is a regular on stage, has recorded albums, and appeared in films and on television (Younger, Nashville, Tick, Tick…Boom!). Next up, she appears in season 2 of the HBO hit The Gilded Age, which debuts on September 11; a tight-lipped Benanti would only say her character has a “secret“ and “scandalous” relationship with one of the show’s main characters.
These days, Benanti is perhaps as well known for speaking out about politics and her personal life and supporting community causes.
On a sunny afternoon in May, over an iced latte for me and green juice for her, Benanti described what life as a successful, working performer and parent was like. She was about to start an Off Broadway run of the play Love Letters, starring opposite Matthew Broderick. A new film alongside Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings, would be coming out in theaters shortly.
But politics and people were what really got her riled up. In 90 minutes, we covered the climate crisis, juggling career and parenthood, bodily autonomy, media literacy, local politics, national politics and former President Donald Trump. When the fact that many women supported him in both elections came up, she sighed, saying: “It is so sad. And infuriating.”
Benanti is also well known for speaking out about issues that many deem too private for public airing. In April, she wrote an Instagram post about having a miscarriage in the middle of a concert performance on a cruise ship. The post went viral, with pretty much every entertainment and news outlet in the country writing about it. She says she went public with her experience because it’s the sort of thing that should get talked about, but doesn’t.
“There is so much shame around women’s bodies and women’s issues. I was literally singing for 2,000 people [when it happened]. I was devastated,” she says. “But in a weird way, it was like I was singing this little being home.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to have an abortion, was a moment that activated Benanti. She has been very vocal about her own difficulties getting pregnant—including having multiple miscarriages, going through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and using a surrogate to carry her second child—and she says she felt a need to help women at that moment in time. “I feel like, in this case, it is doing a service to women to talk about these issues,” she says. “And in particular right now, women are being punished.”
Benanti is a Jersey girl through and through. She grew up in Kinnelon and, during the pandemic, moved from New York City back to the Garden State, citing her family’s well-being. “I had told myself we would never live in New Jersey ever again,” she says, laughing. “I’ve grown to love it.”
She and her husband, Patrick Brown, have two daughters: Ella, 6, and Louisa, 1.
Benanti says there’s no doubt her Jersey background has given her confidence. “This is how I’ve been my whole life. I’ve always had a strong sense of what I feel is right or wrong. People don’t have to agree with me, but I have always had a strong sense of justice,” she says. “That was very encouraged in my home and in my school.”
But Benanti, while proud of her outspoken nature and devotion to doing what she sees as the right thing, also muses that it may have had an effect on her professionally. “I feel like, in many ways, I have shot myself in the foot career-wise,” she says. “I am not good at schmoozing. I am not good at being a good soldier and toeing the line. I am not interested in, you know, showing only glamorous, Photoshopped pictures of myself. I think I could have had a more visible career if I had just been pretty and quiet.”
One of Benanti’s fiercest champions is her Gypsy co-star, stage and screen legend Patti LuPone. They met in 2008, both won Tonys, and they have been friends ever since. LuPone, who calls Benanti a “unique woman,” says that she is proud of her for her outspoken nature. “More people should be outspoken the way she is,” LuPone says. But she also says she can relate to the challenges it might present: “Women who are outspoken get a terrible reputation.”
But being quiet is not exactly what people from Jersey are known for. As Benanti describes it, “Jersey people don’t all agree on the same thing, but there is a passion with which we pursue whatever we think is right.”
Benanti says she never saw herself leaving New York City, but the return to her home state has been natural and a positive move for her family. She has met a community of like-minded people, and even other musicians and performers that have inspired her.
“[Montclair] is a community in a very different way than I experienced in New York,” Benanti says. “It’s a small-town feel, and I didn’t know how much I needed it.”
Benanti is active in her community. Peter Yacobellis, Montclair Township council member, mayoral candidate and director of Out Montclair, says the star’s presence in town can be felt in many ways, from attending council meetings to performing at Montclair’s Pride festival for the past two years to attending a fundraiser “where she was managing this bouncy house where adults had to climb in, and she had a Whac-A-Mole thing where whoever got the most Wiffle balls wins a prize.”
Adds Yacobellis, “She’s the real deal.”
Two days after the Pride festival, Benanti had a cold. And no wonder—she had just wrapped the play in New York with Broderick and also performed at the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence fundraiser—not to mention her daily mom duties.
But still, she talked with enthusiasm about what’s to come. She is planning to do a musical-theater workshop with fellow local mom and musical-theater writer Miranda Ferriss Jones. She’s writing an audio comedy and music special for Audible that’s in the early stages of production, and she will appear in the upcoming film Goodrich alongside Michael Keaton, out this December. Of course, she will continue to do all she can for the sake of her daughters.
“They are entirely my dedication to changing whatever I can, even if it’s in my one-mile radius,” says Benanti.
Georgia Kral is a professor of journalism and communications at Saint Peter’s University and a regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly.
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[caption id="attachment_315715" align="alignnone" width="778"] Photographer Danny Clinch co-founded Asbury Park's Sea Hear Now Festival. Photo: Justin Borucki[/caption]
Just a few feet from the beach in Asbury Park—an area rich with rock history—the Transparent Clinch Gallery celebrates music icons.
The space displays countless photographs by Danny Clinch, a renowned music photographer who started shooting for SPIN in 1991. It helps that the Toms River native can add a personal touch when customers are browsing images of legends like Eddie Vedder, Tupac Shakur, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Neil Young.
“Every photo there has a story,” Clinch says. “It’s the photograph, but then it’s like, ‘How did that photograph happen? What were the things surrounding it that were of that moment?’”
For example, Clinch shot the cover art for Bruce Springsteen’s 2020 album Letter to You. The two were walking in Central Park when it started to snow, and Clinch immediately broke out his camera, as he often has throughout his career.
[caption id="attachment_315695" align="alignnone" width="778"] Danny Clinch photographed the album cover for Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You during a snowy walk in Central Park.[/caption]
He did the same in 1992 when high school friend Tim Donnelly invited him to meet Eddie Vedder at Lollapalooza. Donnelly had an interview scheduled with Vedder for the environmental group Surfrider Foundation.
Years later, the three remain friends. In 2021, Vedder’s band Pearl Jam even played at Sea Hear Now—a massive, annual, Asbury-based surf and music festival that Clinch and Donnelly cofounded. Clinch himself joined the band on stage.
Clinch and his Transparent staff have been preparing for this year's Sea Hear Now Festival, which takes place September 16-17. They’re installing a Sea Hear Now section at his gallery, and curating art for a Transparent pop-up tent.
The tent sells art that festival musicians volunteered to make, and proceeds go to local charities. “That’s always really fun,” Clinch says, “because you discover people that you didn’t realize made art.”
[RELATED: 24 Hours in Asbury Park]
For a building dedicated to still images, Transparent Clinch Gallery features plenty of sound. With a small stage and instruments tucked into a corner, Transparent often hosts small concerts highlighting local bands.
Since Clinch is so cozy with musicians at every level of fame, it’s not unusual for big-name bands to play pop-up shows at the gallery. The Head and the Heart and the Revivalists did that over the summer before a July 9 show at the Stone Pony. The likes of Nathaniel Rateliff, Gary Clark Jr., Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and the E Street Band’s Max Weinberg have also performed at Transparent.
“I forget that we’re basically there to sell my photography,” Clinch says while recalling how, after that July 9 show, members of the Head and the Heart and the Revivalists returned to the gallery for an impromptu jam session that went past 2 am.
This year’s See Hear Now festival is fronted by the acts including the Killers, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Sheryl Crow and the Beach Boys. It remains to be seen who Clinch will play with this year, but he’s already thankful for a lifetime’s worth of unforgettable memories.
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The post How Danny Clinch Captures the Soul of Music in His Photography and Festival appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
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- Get Inspired by Real NJ Weddings Engaged New Jersey couples looking for laid-back coastal vibes can take a cue from celebrity couple Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley, who tied the knot on Long Beach Island on Saturday.The Bleachers frontman, who grew up in Bergenfield and spent his summers on LBI as a kid, exchanged vows with the Maid actress at Parker’s Garage, a restaurant and events venue that boasts stunning views of the water, according to multiple reports.The venue, which fits up to 180 guests and is part of the Shore-based Tide Table Group, aims to bring back “a golden age of Long Beach Island,” according to the hot spot’s website. From an oyster saloon to boat slips, Parker’s Garage keeps the nautical history of Beach Haven alive while boasting customized menus, strings of soft lights and a laid-back beach style.Shore-based photographer Ann Coen, of Ann Coen Photography, has shot several weddings at Parker’s Garage and calls it “one of my favorite venues on LBI.” The reason? “Perfect sunset views, excellent food, a cozy coastal vibe and also two blocks from the beach—it pretty much has it all,” she tells New Jersey Bride. She notes that Parker’s Garage does not offer an outdoor ceremony space, so many people opt for the beach or a local church for their ceremony location.In recent years, New Jersey Monthly named Parker’s Garage one of the Jersey Shore’s best raw bars, so the menu for Antonoff and Qualley’s wedding likely featured great fresh seafood.As for the vibe that Parker’s Garage couples exude, Coen says they’re “usually laid-back but appreciate great food and atmosphere.”[caption id="attachment_314833" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Margaret Qualley has been romantically linked to Antonoff since 2021. Photo: Shutterstock[/caption]The back part of the venue overlooks the bay, “so you are always guaranteed a sunset,” says Coen. “They have the boat slips out back, they kept the wood floor and walls, and all of the decor is real antiques and photos from local baymen of the last 100 years.”Couples searching for a Shore wedding venue may want to consider touring Parker’s Garage.Click here to continue reading this story on New Jersey Bride.
The post The Scoop on Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley’s NJ Wedding Venue appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Entering the world of wonders that is Cheech & Roo is a sensory experience. From the visually enchanting entryway, with framed vintage photographs and elegantly poised statuary, to the inviting scent that at once seems familiar and new. The space feels homey. Music plays softly, and guests feel welcome to indulge the urge to run a hand along one of the smooth, glossy painted chests or tug open an ornate, brass-handled drawer.
Creating this haven for all things antique, beautiful and peculiar was the natural result of owner Elisa Miranda following her instincts. “I’m visual; I want people to walk in and be wowed. There’s texture and layering; walls aren’t just painted, they are stamped or Venetian plastered.”
A former art student, in 2014 Miranda gave an old dresser she owned a new look with paint and fell in love with revitalizing and repurposing furniture.
“At that time, it was all about chalk painting,” says the exuberant Roselle Park resident, “but that trend passed.” Today, she says, the glassy finish of lacquer is the hot furniture fad, adding, “I can do any look.” Her repertoire of custom finishes is broad and her verve about the work even more vast. “We do new pieces, heirlooms, kitchen cabinets. We pick up and deliver, everything,” she says.
[caption id="attachment_314655" align="alignnone" width="778"] Miranda’s quirky items range from vintage dishes to porcelain teeth to a church’s confessional kneeler. Photo: Erik Rank[/caption]
Miranda says Garwood—known as the small town with a big heart—is an ideal location, sandwiched between the tony, million-dollar-house towns of Westfield and Cranford. “But it doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive up in,” she says.
“People are always telling me to change my prices. But I believe living good can be affordable. Bring your kids, bring your coffee. I want the just-looking crowd to come in and wander. I don’t follow people around. You can look, and you can leave. It’s about the experience.”
Maybe you will buy something, maybe you won’t—but if you see a clever arrangement of vintage pipes and go home and style your grandfather’s collection similarly, Miranda says she’ll be delighted.
Filled with repurposed furniture, Cheech & Roo is also a treasure of vintage home goods and quirky finds, plus items Miranda just loves, like goods from Bridgewater Candle Company, images from travel photographer Scott Levy of Rahway, and fanciful handmade jewelry by Bill Wagner of Cranford.
“Sometimes people come in with laptops and lounge. There’s even a couple having an engagement party here,” Miranda says. “The space has taken on its own life.”
Cheech & Roo, 246 North Avenue, Garwood; 908-619-9693
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[caption id="attachment_314644" align="alignnone" width="778"] "I'm always training," says race-car driver Frankie Montecalvo. Photo: Courtesy of Rick Dole[/caption]
A dozen times a year, Frankie Montecalvo races cars on the AIM Vasser Sullivan team, competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 32-year-old Highlands native is a 2015 Pirelli World Challenge Champion, and is currently chief of field operations at Bayshore Recycling, his family's business. Montecalvo recently chatted with New Jersey Monthly.
How do you explain a SportsCar Championship?It’s a series of races with different levels of cars that are either prototypes or similar to a street car that comes off the showroom floor. It’s the highest level of sports car racing in the world.
What do you drive?A Lexus RC F GT3 is my car. It looks similar to a Lexus RC F at the dealer—headlights, taillights, shape of the car—but we have a massive aero wing, a rear diffuser under the car, and splitters.
How fast do you go?The tracks with the longest straightaways are the fastest, like the Daytona International Speedway. There, we’re right under 190 mph for 24 hours. At Daytona, we have four drivers on the same car, and I probably drive three or four times for a total of six hours. For the shorter races (such as Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis, September 15-17), it’s two drivers per car, splitting driving time roughly in half.
Is there an ideal body type for the sport?The lighter the driver, the lighter the car. I’m 5’8”, which is a great size for a race car driver. My co-driver and I are identical in size. We fit in the same seat.
How do you prepare for a race?I’m always training—cardio, running, weights, kayaking. We have a great area here (Hartshorne Woods in Highlands) for mountain biking. Cars get extremely hot. You have fire suits on, everything is closed up in the cockpit. Airflow’s not great. It’s always hot; it’s always hard.
And for a race weekend?Racing is very mental. Get the track fresh in your mind. Luckily, my team has a simulator in Charlotte, North Carolina.
What advice would you give aspiring race car drivers?Get an engineering degree. Every driver can drive. If you can talk to the engineer in terms he can understand, it gives you a leg up on the competition.
What’s the most frequent question you’re asked by people who aren’t racing car fans?When I say I’m doing a 24-hour race, they ask, ‘How do you go to the bathroom in the car?’ The answer is that you’re sweating so much, you don’t have to.
How young were you when you started working in the family business, Bayshore Recycling?I feel like you’re born into that. I’ve been there since my dad could hold me in his arms on a bulldozer. I have a lot of respect working for my parents because they grew the business to what it is today.
When did you decide to concentrate more on your work at Bayshore Recycling instead of race car driving?When I started getting a little older, I made a decision to take it more seriously. I really needed to be there, to be more involved and to help grow our company to be more successful. It’s a family business. If I didn’t have a family business, I’d still live here in New Jersey. I love it here.
What’s your favorite Jersey drive?I always love going to Sandy Hook in the offseason. You can drive along the water on a motorcycle or in a car with no one there and the sun setting. It’s beautiful.
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[caption id="attachment_314256" align="alignnone" width="778"] Natasha Greene, seen here with her son Nate Jr., often films cooking segments from her redesigned kitchen. Photo: Mary Pat Collins[/caption]
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Glam farmhouse—that’s the aesthetic Natasha Greene was looking for in the Camden County home she shares with her husband, Nathaniel Greene, and their toddler son. It seems fitting for the digital creator whose accounts—@asiliglamcooks, @asiliglamhome and @asiliglam—bring lifestyle inspiration to hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
“I was looking for a modern, clean and elevated aesthetic for my home,” Greene says. “It was built in the early 2000s, so we were working with very traditional colonial aesthetics to begin with. We wanted to keep the integrity of the home while updating it with a more elegant and modern look.”
Designer Sarah Wilson of Chansaerae Designs based in Woodbridge, Virginia, interpreted that look to suit her clients’ lifestyle in their Sicklerville home. “I decided to go light and bright, with a lot of soft blues,” she says. “It’s a comfortable vibe. The Greenes have a young child, and they have a lot of family and friends coming in and out. I wanted to make it comfortable for them—elegant, yet comfortable.”
[caption id="attachment_314259" align="alignnone" width="778"] The Greene’s home has a “comfortable vibe,” says designer Sarah Wilson. “I decided to go light and bright, with a lot of soft blues.” Photo: Mary Pat Collins[/caption]
The elegance is evident in the kitchen, which, for Greene, is one of the most important rooms in the house. As a culinary-content creator, she sought a stylish kitchen that could serve as a backdrop for cooking demonstrations. “I work from my kitchen daily. It serves as my content studio to create new recipes,” she says.
Wilson understood that a noteworthy kitchen was essential to Greene’s work: “Natasha makes most of her videos in the kitchen. She was looking for something memorable.” To that end, Wilson incorporated white quartz countertops with black striations that make an unforgettable statement against the dark cabinets. The waterfall-style counter on the island ups the dramatic impact. “The kitchen is visible from the family room,” Wilson notes. “This was a great moment to include something gorgeous.”
Click here to continue reading this story on Design NJ.
The post Inside NJ Influencer Natasha Greene’s Redesigned Home appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_313217" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]
WHERE'S THE PARTY? Playful cotton-and-silk top rocks whimsical tassels; $220 at the Carrie Dunham flagship in Bay Head and carriedunham.com.
LAIDBACK LUXE: Hand-printed florals decorate cotton cushions that are perfect for summer picnics or poolside lounging; $298 at anthropologie.com.
JUMP RIGHT IN: The 1989 Scoopback swimsuit sports a classic navy bouquet print; $128 at J.Crew stores and jcrew.com.
TABLE READY: Keaton paisley cotton napkins add a punch of pretty to any tablescape. Set of four, $40 at Pottery Barn and potterybarn.com.
UNDER COVER: Cambria cotton bedding was inspired by a vintage block-print pattern. Twin, queen and king sizes; prices vary at serenaandlily.com.
EASY BREEZY: Comfy and lightweight, the Marea House Dress takes you from beach to beyond; $228 at shopmarea.com. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_313979" align="alignnone" width="778"] Stephanie Ruhle calls summers on LBI the “greatest escape” for her family. Photo: Courtesy of Eric Hance[/caption]
Stephanie Ruhle, anchor of political news broadcast The 11th Hour on MSNBC, seems to have a charmed life: a happy family, a fantastic job and two lovely homes—one in Manhattan and the other, a cherished Jersey Shore homestead on Long Beach Island. She would be the first to say her life is not a matter of luck, but a result of hard work.
“I have New Jersey hustle,” she says, grinning, while sitting in her corner office at 30 Rockefeller Center. In contrast to her polished image under the studio lights, Ruhle is wearing jeans, sneakers and a casual khaki jacket. But the high-spirited demeanor she’s known for and the quick smile that dazzles the camera are just as evident in person as on TV.
The more she discusses her early life and career, the more surprising her professional trajectory seems. “My mom used to tell me, ‘You’re not the smartest, you’re not the tallest, you’re not the fastest, you’re not the most beautiful, but nobody can outwork you. You can do anything you set your mind to,’” says Ruhle. “That’s just the most Jersey approach ever, right? Nobody’s gonna outwork you!” She grew up in a middle-class family in the small town of Park Ridge in Bergen County, attending public schools; she only had 70 kids in her graduating class. “I had great parents, a great family,” she notes. “I don’t have a sad story to tell.”
It seems that the things that stood out about her then (and still stand out now) were her spirit, her confidence and her driving desire to be part of the great, big, exciting world.
“New York was always sort of a dream for me, a love story,” she says thoughtfully. “One of my earliest memories was taking my dad to the train station with my mom in the morning, seeing him get on the train and saying, ‘That’s what I want to do. I don’t want to get back in this car, I don’t want to go to school. I want to live that life.’”
While in college at Lehigh University, Ruhle decided she wanted to explore a career in the banking industry. Not knowing how to get started, she wrote to alumni, seeking advice and contacts, and was offered an internship at Merrill Lynch.
Ruhle was only an intern, but she immediately set about climbing the ladder. “At the first desk I rotated on, there were a bunch of 45-year-old guys who had to go out and entertain clients every night,” she recalls. “So I made friends with every single nightclub doorman, every maître d’ at every hot restaurant, and booked dinner tables for all these guys. I told them, ‘You can’t go unless I’m at the table. It’s my reservation.’ I was 21 years old, and I went straight Jersey. I ended up meeting all the biggest clients. If I hadn’t done that, I would’ve just been the girl answering the phone.”
Upon graduation, Ruhle secured a job at Credit Suisse. But the boys’-club environment was tough on her. “Banking is the sharpest of the sharp elbows,” she says, thinking back. “There weren’t a lot of people who looked like me. I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, I didn’t go to a fancy prep school, I didn’t have a background in business. In banking, I definitely suffered from impostor syndrome. I was always competing. It was exhausting.”
Even as she worked hard in the financial sector, she dreamed of a career in television. It didn’t seem possible, especially because she was rising in the ranks at Credit Suisse. After nearly six years, she was promoted to a vice president position. Even then, she says, “TV was always in the back of my mind.”
Eventually, she accepted a lucrative job from Deutsche Bank in 2003. Right before her job was about to begin, however, she spontaneously attended an open-call audition to guest host Live! With Regis and Kelly while Kelly Ripa was out on maternity leave. “My husband thought I was insane,” she recalls, laughing. “We had to get up at three o’clock in the morning and wait in line at ABC Studios for, like, seven hours.”
[caption id="attachment_314134" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Ruhle is seen on NBC's "Today" show in June 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Nathan Congleton/NBC[/caption]
Ultimately, Ruhle wasn’t chosen for the gig, although she did make it to the finals. So she reported to work at Deutsche Bank and, after several years, was promoted to managing director in global markets senior relationship mangagement. By then, she was doing a lot of public speaking, trying to help professional women rise in the industry as she had. She felt strongly that the world of finance offered excellent opportunities for women, but was disappointed that there were few women in it. “I didn’t have any homegirls in finance,” she says, still a bit exasperated. “Nobody. I thought, This has to change.”
Advocating for women’s financial empowerment has been Ruhle’s passion for years, and it continues to be. She is the founder of the Corporate Investment Bank Women’s Network and has cochaired the Women on Wall Street steering committee. She is also a member of the board of trustees for Girls Inc. New York, and has been involved with numerous other groups as well. “It doesn’t make sense for women not to have financial autonomy,” she says. “Sharing a bed with somebody, building life with somebody, parenting with them, is really hard. And if that other person also controls all the finances in your life, that makes life extra hard.”
One day, in 2011, the White House Project hosted a presentation and Ruhle was a guest speaker. Having worked at Deutsche Bank for about eight years by then, she was asked what she wanted to do in her next chapter. It was a pivotal moment in her life.
“I realized that I was afraid,” she says. “You know, it’s embarrassing to say out loud, ‘I want to take a leap; I want to do something totally different.’ You run the risk of people laughing at you. But that day, I said it out loud: ‘I’ve always wanted to work in TV. Especially business TV.’”
That experience made her realize that television was the next critical step in her career. She told the audience that day, “Our banking system finances the American dream. We’re a country of entrepreneurship. There are amazing stories to tell. And that’s what I want to do.”
A panelist from Bloomberg News was so moved by her speech that she offered to introduce Ruhle to the then head of Bloomberg TV, Andy Lack (who went on to become chairman of NBC News before stepping down in 2020 amid controversy). Never one to squander an opportunity, Ruhle knew exactly what to say when she met him.
“I told him, ‘Pay me the lowest amount of money of anybody in your organization, but give me a real shot. Give me a show to anchor. Teach me how to be on TV. If I fail, it won’t cost you that much.’” To her surprise he said, “It’s a deal.”
Ruhle went on to co-anchor a series of shows on Bloomberg TV. She discovered that the businesses of money acquisition and news gathering weren’t so different. “Let me tell you, a trading floor and a newsroom look almost identical,” she explains. “People screaming, open floor plan, very, very intense. Everyone looks like they’re fighting, but they’re actually not. They have a common goal.” After so many years in finance, Ruhle felt right at home.
Ruhle worked at Bloomberg for nearly five years. She interviewed some of the world’s most powerful people: business tycoons, Wall Street traders, CEOs, celebrities. But she was beginning to feel a tug to her roots. The issues of real, everyday people sometimes felt more important than the concerns of her niche industry. When Lack announced he was leaving Bloomberg to accept a job at NBC, she decided to follow him.
The move gave her just what she was looking for. At NBC, in addition to finance, she reported on trends, pop culture and politics. It was a steep learning curve, especially because 2016 was a challenging time to cover America’s rapidly changing political landscape. However, it was exhilarating. Ruhle says she felt like she was in the right place at the right time.
Ruhle co-anchored a smart-money MSNBC program with her friend and colleague Ali Velshi. During that time, Brian Williams (also from New Jersey) hosted the popular nighttime show The 11th Hour, a position he slid into after losing his anchor job on NBC Nightly News when it came out that he’d exaggerated some of his reporting experiences in the field. In 2022, Williams left The 11th Hour, and the baton got passed to Ruhle.
Nowadays, The 11th Hour With Stephanie Ruhle covers a mix of political news, hard news and a bit of economic policy. Ruhle can often be seen in daytime programming, too. She’s a frequent contributor across NBC’s multiple platforms and series, including its iconic morning program, the Today show. Because the national discussion so often focuses on money matters like inflation, the debt ceiling, estate planning, Covid recovery and small business issues, Ruhle is a sought-after guest on many of her colleagues’ programs.
On May 5, 2023, Ruhle had the opportunity to interview President Joe Biden at the White House. Calling it “the honor of a lifetime,” she believes Biden granted her the interview because of her focus on economic policy and her show’s wide, national, multi-demographic audience. “I think the President sat down with me because I covered in depth a number of bills he passed in his first two years in office,” she says. “I work really hard to not just cover noise. I try to make my audience better and smarter. I can only hope that’s maybe what the White House saw.”
Fealty to truth, says Ruhle, is a critical component of every show she broadcasts.
“Look, we have a complicated country,” she says. “We have a lot of angry people. Viewers who have never watched you may assume you have an ideology or you’re pushing an agenda. Um, no. There’s no right or left with me. You know what there is? The truth. Every night we cover the truth. And that, to me, is a very Jersey thing.”
She adds, smiling, “New Jersey is a no-BS state. And I’ve tried to create a no-BS show.”
Ruhle's life on LBI [caption id="attachment_313980" align="alignnone" width="778"] Ruhle and husband Andy Hubbard with their kids, Drew, Harrison and Reese, and their cavapoo, Skipper Dipper. Photo: Courtesy of Eric Hance[/caption]
Her New Jersey ethos inspired Stephanie Ruhle to work hard (“People in New Jersey are just like scrappy builders,” she says), but her parents provided the bedrock of love a child needs to face the world with confidence. Nowadays, her parents give that same support to Ruhle’s kids. “My children will all tell you that my mother is their best friend,” she says.
Which is why, media career notwithstanding, Ruhle says the best parts of her life are long, lazy summer days spent with family on Long Beach Island. Her sister’s summer home is four houses down from hers, and her parents travel from Park Ridge every weekend to join them.
It’s an idyllic life. Ruhle’s husband, Andy Hubbard, takes their three kids swimming and sailing. Reese, 14, is in a lifeguard training program, while Harrison, 17, is among the best young competitive sailors in the state. Ten-year-old Drew performs at local venues like the Surflight Theater and Show Place ice cream parlor.
“LBI has given all of us the greatest escape from our busy, scheduled New York City life,” Ruhle says. “We can literally shout out the window and our neighbors will come over for s’mores after dinner. Having that community, that safe haven, with neighbors, cousins, grandparents—it’s truly a blessing.
“A Jersey way to think is to be on a team. That’s how I grew up.”
Linda Federico-ÓMurchú is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in outlets including NBC News, CNBC, the Today show and TheStreet.com. A Montclair resident, she is currently working on three books.
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Aaron Rodgers is officially a Jersey boy.
The Jets quarterback has been revealed as the mystery buyer of a multimillion-dollar contemporary mansion on the Montclair-Cedar Grove border, according to reports.
Rodgers bought the eight-bedroom, 9-bathroom home for $9.5 million, New Jersey Monthly has confirmed.
[caption id="attachment_310403" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The ultra-modern home spans 10,000 square feet. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company[/caption]
As we first reported in June, rumors had been swirling that Rodgers could be the mystery buyer of the new-construction, modern glass pad, which has incredible views of New York City and is located near the Mills Reserve, a wooded county park that sits on top of the First Watchung Mountain.
Super Bowl stud Rodgers, 39, was traded to the New York Jets in April from the Green Bay Packers. The team’s practice facility is located in nearby Florham Park.
As for the new house, it spans a whopping 10,0000 square feet. The sleek design includes walls of windows, an open floor plan that seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor living spaces, and a gourmet kitchen with high-end appliances, custom cabinetry and a large center island with bar seating. Impressively, the back of the house is almost entirely made of glass.
[caption id="attachment_310406" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The house features an open-concept floor plan. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company[/caption]
The home was listed and sold by Stanton Company Realtors in Montclair. Rich Stanton, the broker and owner of the agency, previously told us that he didn't know the identity of the buyer, as the home was purchased through an LLC.
He described it to us as “a very unique, modern home." And Carol Apprendi, a realtor with Brown Harris Stevens real estate office in Montclair who toured the home, previously told us it was "beautiful" and “very unusual for the area because it’s so modern. It’s a great home for entertaining and the views of the city are breathtaking.”
The mansion sits on 2.39 acres of land atop the mountain, making it very private but giving Rodgers easy access to all the nearby goings-on in Montclair, including the town's top-notch restaurant scene.
Other features of the house include a gym, media room, wine cellar and three-car garage.
New Jersey Monthly has reached out to the Jets for comment on the home purchase.
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The post Aaron Rodgers Revealed as Mystery Buyer of NJ Mansion appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_310730" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos: Courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]
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SEA LIFE: The Whimsical collection of borosilicate-glass tumblers is lightweight, yet sturdy and eye-catching. Set of four; $100 at sprezznyc.com.
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[caption id="attachment_312635" align="alignnone" width="778"] “The home is built into a rather steep hillside,” architect Jeff Jordan says. “Since the project was a renovation and the heavy lifting of building into a hill had already been dealt with, the new work was relatively straightforward. The benefit of that hillside setting, however, is that the clients have outstanding city views and a strong sense of privacy.” Photo: Greg Maka[/caption]
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- A Short Hills Renovation with Modern Flair
This Montclair home was constructed in 1956, right in the middle of the Midcentury Modern architectural boom. It’s a prime example of the era’s forward-thinking aesthetic. Still, after six and a half decades, the residence required some freshening up. Homeowners Chuck Moser and Patti Samper engaged Jeff Jordan Architects for the project.
“The home had seen several renovations through the years and had fallen on hard times,” says Jordan, whose firm has offices in Jersey City and Rutherford. “Our clients wanted to update everything from the windows and roofing to the finishes and fixtures while maintaining the original spirit of the home. Our intervention was subtle, with some minor layout changes and a big move to open up the kitchen to the surrounding living spaces and views of New York City.”
Design NJ: What are the hallmarks of the Midcentury Modern style?Jeff Jordan: Homes from this era often have flat or shed-style roofs to present a “clean” exterior profile. There are typically floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed posts and beams. Decoration is often minimal. Bedrooms and bathrooms are modestly sized to make the open living spaces feel more gracious. And most importantly, there is a strong connection between interior and exterior spaces, with adjacent gardens and patios serving as an outdoor extension of the living space.
[caption id="attachment_312613" align="alignright" width="350"] Jeff Jordan of Jeff Jordan Architects[/caption]
DNJ: What is the history of this style home?Jordan: Midcentury Modern style became popular following World War II. Architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius transformed the International and Bauhaus styles of Modernism into something that was more appropriately scaled, detailed and efficiently built for the domestic market that was booming at the time.
DNJ: What was the scope of this project?Jordan: The home had been altered through the years and was sold to the current owners with some of the interior finishes already removed. Our scope included modifications to the existing layout; installing new finishes, fixtures and lighting throughout the interior; and installing new windows and roofing on the exterior. The overall size and form of the home remained the same.
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[caption id="attachment_312149" align="alignnone" width="778"] With the help of designer Vanessa Deleon, Dolores Catania and Paul Connell created a “cohesive synergy” between modern and classic in their town house, Deleon says. Photo: Jason Ducusin[/caption]
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Dolores Catania and Paul Connell’s Bergen County residence was newly built. Still, Catania, a cast member on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and Connell, president and CEO of Manhattan-based Eco Electrical Services LLC, wanted to infuse it with their own aesthetic.
“They’re very particular,” designer Vanessa Deleon says. “They wanted to refresh the spaces and tailor them to their liking.”
Deleon, a television staple herself on programs such as American Dream Builders and Restaurant Impossible, as well as a brand ambassador with Overstock.com, is principal designer at New York City-based Vanessa Deleon Associates. She describes her clients’ design preferences: “They wanted classic elements to reflect their traditional tastes. However, this is a modern town house. We didn’t want to stray from that aesthetic too much.”
The designer merged the two styles to create an elevated urban aesthetic that both celebrates the owners’ preferences and honors the contemporary bones of the home. “We made a cohesive synergy happen with the finishes and the architecture,” says Deleon, an allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers.
In the living room, the finishes and architecture meet in a wall treatment that reaches from the fireplace mantel to the 16-foot-high ceiling. “We considered marble or stone cladding, but everything felt too hard,” the designer says. Instead, they opted for the faux-leather installation. “We hit the nail on the head,” she says of the tall expanse of quilted squares rising in uniform rows above the fireplace. The ceiling features its own geometrics in the form of L-shaped insets that are lit from within for added drama.
The effect is repeated in the primary bedroom, this time with upholstered wall panels behind the bed. “The clients wanted more than a headboard,” Deleon explains. “They wanted it to speak to the room, to be very prominent.”
The deep-gray treatment is, indeed, a focal point. The tone is reinforced throughout the space with the inclusion of tactile textiles in shades of white and gray—from the quilted bedding to the faux-fur throw to the hand-tufted rug over the chevron-patterned hardwood floors.
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After acting in an astounding 54 movies, Montclair's Patrick Wilson decided it was time to try his hand at directing his own film.
He chose Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth and final chapter in the popular supernatural horror franchise, for his directorial debut—and it did not disappoint.
The film, which opens Friday, July 7, held a private screening this week at the Village at SOPAC cinema in South Orange, a theater Wilson jointly owns with his other partners in the company Cinema Lab. Wilson, who lives in Montclair with his wife, actor Dagmara Dominczyk, spoke about what it meant for him to show his film there:
“I always thought about what it would be like to screen a movie that I made here. I kept thinking about this moment. This is a huge bonus for me,” Wilson, 50, said to applause.
The film stars Wilson and Rose Byrne as Josh and Renai Lambert, a couple that has divorced after their family experiences a series of terrifying incidents.
[caption id="attachment_312113" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Patrick Wilson, Andrew Astor, Juliana Davies, Rose Byrne and Ty Simpkins in "Insidious: The Red Door" Photo courtesy of Sony[/caption]
“In this film, I wanted to deal with trauma, and what it does to your memory,” says Wilson, who has also starred in Aquaman and The Conjuring films; Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set to be released in December.
Parts of Insidious: The Red Door were filmed in New Jersey, including Morristown, Chatham and Florham Park. Drew University in Madison was the filming locale for scenes involving the couple's son, Dalton, at college. Ty Simpkins, who stars as Dalton, also acted as a kid in Little Children, a film that starred Wilson and was based on the book by novelist Tom Perrotta, a Garwood native.
At an audience Q&A after the screening this week, Insidious actor Peter Dager called Wilson “an actor’s actor. So it was a dream to work with you.”
The film closes with another first for Wilson: He sings the song Stay, which plays during the credits. The song is a cover of the Shakespears Sisters track and is an original collaboration between him and the Swedish rock band Ghost.
“Not too many directors sing on their own soundtrack,” said Wilson with a laugh.
Of course, not too many directors have also been nominated for two Tony Awards for acting in musicals.
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[caption id="attachment_309753" align="aligncenter" width="750"] This brownstone at 55 Lincoln Park in Newark was formerly owned by Newark historian Clement A. Price.[/caption]
The former home of Clement A. Price, a historian and Rutgers professor who died in 2014, recently went under contract before it even hit the open market.
“A few people who saw the house were mainly interested in buying it because he owned it—and it’s a beautiful house,” said Compass Real Estate's Carissa Borraggine, who listed the home exclusively to Compass agents.
Interest in the 1887 brownstone Price owned at 55 Lincoln Park in Newark was amplified by the affection many felt—and still feel—for this stalwart supporter of the town.
A native of Washington, D.C., Price adopted Brick City as his home during the turbulent sixties, eventually settling in the Lincoln Park district. He became known for his fervent love of New Jersey and the city of Newark.
[caption id="attachment_309754" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] The dentil moulding along the ceiling line, and the deep baseboard moulding, are signatures of a bygone era.[/caption]
Once sought after by the turn-of-the century rich and famous, many of the homes in the Lincoln Park district reflect classic architectural elements. Price's 2,904-square-foot former residence features a handsome golden brick exterior with an arched entryway. Inside, there are original hardwood floors, exposed brick walls, crown moulding and carved trim.
[caption id="attachment_309755" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Price's home has maintained its original, ornately detailed 1887 staircase.[/caption]
The Lincoln Park area earned distinction on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The neighborhood, which spans 23 acres, includes performing arts venue Symphony Hall, historically significant landscaping, and prominent statues.
Considered the arts district, the area is host to the Lincoln Park Music Festival, and encompasses the City Without Walls gallery, as well as the Newark School of the Arts, a performance and fine arts institution.
A full-circle moment? Clement’s Place, a cabaret-style jazz club that honors Price’s passion for the music, is located on nearby Washington Street.
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[caption id="attachment_310565" align="alignnone" width="778"] Illustration by Claire Owen[/caption]
People ask me how I’ll manage when my daughter heads to college this fall. I just might fill my empty nest with caterpillars. As a Rutgers Master Gardener, I volunteer at the butterfly house at the EARTH Center in South Brunswick. Master Gardeners undergo a year of classes and field work before becoming certified volunteers for county Cooperative Extensions. We help teach the public about issues such as soil health, landscaping and the needs of pollinators.
Butterflies, ethereal and fragile, are beloved as pollinators. Caterpillars, alas, don’t get as much acclaim. After all, they ravage a lot of greenery en route to becoming butterflies. But I was delighted to encounter an Eastern black swallowtail caterpillar munching through my parsley patch last September. Here was a late-season caterpillar to admire, with its chartreuse body accented in black and yellow, and those adorable, stubby legs.
Then I spied movement in the patch: a line of determined ants, capable of devouring my caterpillar with frightening speed. Note that I said “my” caterpillar. A caterpillar is essentially a baby, and I had already bonded with it. No way was I leaving it to a gruesome fate. “OK, Chunk,” I said, “let’s get you inside.” Further inspection of the parsley revealed four additional swallowtail caterpillars, even younger—not much bigger than exclamation points.
Chunk and his friends spent the first night on a bouquet of parsley in a vase on my dresser. Like a new mom, I checked on them several times, relieved that Chunk hadn’t toddled off the vase. I ordered a mesh enclosure so they could grow up safe from predators over the next few weeks.
Every day, I’d hear the tiny plink of caterpillar poop hitting the bottom of the enclosure. Every day, I’d remove each pellet and refresh the parsley. I swelled with pride to learn black swallowtails are the state butterfly of New Jersey. I yearned for a guide—something like What to Expect When You’re Expecting Butterflies. I joined Raising Eastern Black Swallowtails on Facebook, because of course there is a group for this. I was all in.
[RELATED: Why Migrating Monarch Butterflies Love NJ]
I was fully aware that my devotion to the caterpillars helped me cope with impending changes at home. Chunk formed a chrysalis on the same day that my daughter, Audrey, started her senior year of high school. Slow down, I thought. Come back. But I couldn’t wallow. There were college applications to send and four more caterpillars to raise.
At times, I worried. “Should they be eating more?” I asked my bemused husband when the caterpillars slowed their pace. “Is this normal?” One by one, they turned green, grew large and left caterpillar-hood behind. I witnessed one of them create its chrysalis, and I was brought to tears as its chubby body disappeared. How purposeful they were.
By November, Audrey had applied to college, and two of the chrysalids had become butterflies in our backyard. They wobbled, steadied their wings, and then—zoom, gone. Through winter and spring, Chunk and the other two chrysalids hibernated in our garage, while Audrey looked forward to prom and graduation.
Any day now, Chunk and his remaining pals will emerge as butterflies. And before I know it, another summer will be gone, and Audrey will begin her first year at Rutgers. One minute, it’s all about feeding them and cleaning up their poop. You blink, and suddenly they’re wrapped up in their chrysalis, chilling in their rooms until it’s time to fly.
Kelly-Jane Cotter lives in South River. In her yard stand a large cherry tree and a small garden, where caterpillars will always be welcome.
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A luxurious $11 million contemporary mansion in Cedar Grove that is under contract by a buyer has the area buzzing with speculation that the new owner could be a celebrity like New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers or someone in the music industry.
The new construction, modern glass house has stunning views of New York City and is located on the Montclair-Cedar Grove border near the Mills Reserve, a wooded county park that sits on top of the First Watchung Mountain, and the Upper Montclair downtown area.
[caption id="attachment_310403" align="aligncenter" width="778"] The ultra-modern home spans 10,000 square feet. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company[/caption]
This very private, 10,000-square-foot architectural home has a sleek design, with walls of windows that let in plenty of sunlight, an open floor plan that seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor living spaces, and a gourmet kitchen with high-end appliances, custom cabinetry and a large center island with bar seating. The rear of the home is almost entirely made up of glass.
The home was listed and sold by Stanton Company Realtors in Montclair. Rich Stanton, the broker and owner of the agency, says he doesn’t know who the buyer is as the home was purchased through an LLC.
“It’s a very unique, modern home,” he says.
[caption id="attachment_310405" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The house sits atop a mountain. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company Realtors.[/caption]
Local gossip started mounting about the identity of the buyer once area residents found out the glamorous home was under contract. The rumor mill has speculated that 39-year-old Rodgers, a recent East Coast transplant who was traded to the Jets in April from the Green Bay Packers, could be the buyer. The team’s practice facility is in nearby Florham Park.
The house was previously owned by Matsumi Kaneda, who owned the popular Japanese restaurant Daikichi in Montclair, along with her husband Aki Kaneda. Their son, Benji Kaneda, recently took over the establishment, which has been open since 1988.
[caption id="attachment_310406" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The house features an open-concept floor plan. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company Realtors[/caption]
The 8-bedroom, 9-bathroom home was built in 2022 and also has a luxurious primary suite with an open-plan, spa-like en-suite bathroom (the large glass shower stall has two entrances) and a walk-in dressing room, as well as a home office, media room, gym, in-law suite, wine cellar, a whole house generator and a 3-car garage.
Additional bedrooms are generously sized and have en suite bathrooms and custom closets. The house sits on 2.39 acres of land atop the mountain.
[caption id="attachment_310408" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The primary suite features an open-plan, spa-like en-suite bathroom; notice the tub on the right of this photo. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company[/caption]
Carol Apprendi, a realtor with Brown Harris Stevens real estate office in Montclair, toured the home.
“The house is beautiful, and very unusual for the area because it’s so modern. It’s a great home for entertaining and the views of the city are breathtaking,” she says.
[caption id="attachment_310411" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The views of New York City are stunning. Photo courtesy of Stanton Company[/caption]
The closing is scheduled for the end of the month.
The post Jaw-Dropping $11 Million Cedar Grove Mansion Finds Buyer appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
[caption id="attachment_307987" align="aligncenter" width="778"] All photos: Courtesy of the manufacturers[/caption]
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HIGH RISE: Stuart Weitzman pumps equally elevate skirts or jeans; $475 at Neiman Marcus stores and neimanmarcus.com. Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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[caption id="attachment_309882" align="alignnone" width="778"] Storm-resistant windows let the sunshine in and inspire nighttime star gazing. Photo: Jacob Snavely[/caption]
If you’ve enjoyed the magic of a family getaway to the Jersey Shore, you might agree that the best souvenirs are happy memories made under the summer sun. For the Chung family of Stone Harbor, the Shore is particularly beloved because three generations of family have enjoyed their 1980s-era home located just two minutes from the ocean. But when it became clear that the house no longer met their daily living and entertaining needs, the grown children suggested reimagining the interior. Ultimately, two generations of family members agreed to redesign the home rather than start from scratch.
[RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Summer 2023 at the Jersey Shore]
Boutique interior-design firm Toledo Geller of Franklin Lakes accepted the project and set out to optimize outdated spaces so this getaway could seamlessly evolve with the years. Designers Virginia Toledo of Sparta and Jessica Geller of Essex Fells melded timeless architectural details with the family’s trendy style.
“This was a unique project because, instead of a knockdown, the homeowner made the best of what the space already offered,” Toledo says. Adds Geller, “Happily, the grown children who had spent many years in their Shore house had a say in the decorating process. Everybody wins because the modern, more subdued design appeals to the younger crowd and the classic style will stand the test of time.”
[caption id="attachment_309878" align="alignnone" width="778"] The foyer welcomes guests with a lavender console. Photo: Jacob Snavely[/caption]
The designers honored their client’s late wife by infusing lavender, her favorite color, throughout the home. This happy hue, found on an eye-catching lacquered console table, welcomes guests to the foyer. As a nod to the Jersey Shore setting, nautical-inspired shiplap paneling was installed on several walls, and an architectural keystone was added to an entrance wall, along with salvaged pieces of vintage seashell as a backsplash.
[caption id="attachment_309880" align="alignnone" width="778"] An 80s-era kitchen turns hip with blue cabinetry, modern lighting, neutral wood and an oversized island with stools. Photo: Jacob Snavely[/caption]
A spacious kitchen wows with dusty-blue cabinetry, mod pendant lighting, neutral wood accents and dramatic vaulted ceilings that were updated with decorative beams. The sink and island have been repositioned to maximize the breathtaking ocean view. “Our family is so pleased with the new design,” says homeowner Young Chung. “It is a calm, joyful place to spend quality time. We especially appreciate the kitchen, where we bake cakes and make ice cream to celebrate the summer birthdays in our family.”
[caption id="attachment_309883" align="alignnone" width="778"] Bedrooms are outfitted in mid-century furnishings. Photo: Jacob Snavely[/caption]
Adjacent to the kitchen, sofas and chairs in a monochromatic mashup of textures round out the lounging area. One of the family’s top requests was to revamp the floor plan to optimize views and add a second bedroom on the main floor. Doing so brought the bedroom tally up to six, enabling more guests to visit the beach retreat. One large and one small bedroom evolved into two roomy suites, each outfitted with mid-century-modern furnishings and casual cotton, linen and seersucker bedding. Beachy-green and blush-pink hues in the adjoining bathrooms add a calming, spa-like vibe.
[caption id="attachment_309885" align="alignnone" width="778"] An open, airy floor plan offers plenty of room for multiple family members to simultaneously cook, dine, watch television and work at their laptops. Photo: Jacob Snavely[/caption]
These days, the freshly redesigned beachside getaway serves as party central. Although family members go their separate ways as they travel extensively every year, all three generations reunite each summer in Stone Harbor to create new memories in the sand and surf.
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Steve Hiltner was hiking through Princeton’s Herrontown Woods in 2007 when he came across an abandoned house and cottage. “It was like being in the wilderness, on the frontier,” says Hiltner, who is a jazz musician, writer, actor and botanist from Princeton. The house was open, and Hiltner ventured inside. A few boxes of paperbacks sat on the living room floor—a sign, he thought, that someone had found shelter there in the not-too-distant past.
“I said, ‘Wow, what’s this?’” he remembers. “So that’s when I took steps to work to fix it up.”
That hike sparked a decade-long effort to restore not just the house, but the entire 150-acre nature preserve in northeast Princeton on which it sits. The garden is open to the public; the house is under renovation.
Hiltner’s nonprofit group, Friends of Herrontown Woods (FOHW), has removed downed trees, invasive shrubs, and poison ivy to turn barely passable paths into some of the region’s best easy hiking trails. Volunteers created a “botanical art garden,” called the Barden, at the entrance, while the house and nearby cottage are being prepared for renovations as meeting, performance, and educational-programming spaces.
The house, a prefab that was moved there from Morristown in 1930, played a noteworthy role in Princeton history: It became the home of mathematician Oswald Veblen, one of the first faculty members at the Institute for Advanced Study, and his wife, Elizabeth. Albert Einstein used to join the mathematician for walks in the woods and tea in the 1875 cottage, which Veblen used as a study. The Veblens donated the property to Mercer County; today, it is owned by the municipality of Princeton, but the volunteers of FOHW have been transforming it.
Work began in 2013, led by Hiltner and artists Kurt and Sally Tazelaar of Princeton, who spent much of that hot summer clearing trees and plants from trails, a massive undertaking. Builders digging out basements nearby contributed stepping stones.
It’s no surprise that the original volunteers came from the arts, Hiltner says: “You learn to make something out of something everyone else doesn’t pay much attention to. It was very much a vision, seeing beyond what’s there, seeing what it could be.”
The project grew organically from there. As a bar mitzvah service project, a local boy helped clear a looped trail in the woods. Sculptures—donated or created from repurposed materials—appeared in the Barden. The pandemic brought more volunteers.
Last year, the woods hosted an Earth Day event, outdoor readings of poetry and nature writing, a concert of Celtic music, and yoga classes. Lawn chairs dot the house’s garden.
Hiltner believes the restoration of the woods and house is in the tradition of Veblen himself.
For more information, visit herrontownwoods.org.
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The post He’s Bringing a Secret Garden in Princeton Back to Life appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Driving up and down the Jersey Shore shortly after the end of World War II, hauling laundry along New Jersey Route 35 from Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside Heights, Fred Pearl and Ed Patnaude dreamed big. With the war over, here was their chance to turn sparsely developed ocean-view land into communities of vacation homes like the suburban tracts with modest, single-family homes springing up across the country.
If they could get a bit of money together, they could build little cottages for the average working person—cop, baker, butcher and returning GI. One by one, the banks all turned them down. They had no collateral. But Ed’s brother-in-law bought into the dream when the banks wouldn’t. Fred and Ed were off on a new venture.
To make the economics work, the houses were basic: two bedrooms, a kitchen and living area, a very small bathroom with a shower and toilet, and a porch where a family could sit outside and hear the waves crashing along the beach. They divided up the land into 1,500-square-foot lots of stand-alone homes, side-by-side and back-to-back with enough room for a car (or two) to park and a small patio for barbecuing or taking in the early-morning sun.
No heat. No insulation. No air conditioning—just sticks to prop up windows. For showers, there was a tin bucket on the roof to collect rainwater that, weather permitting, would be heated by the sun. If a buyer wanted to splurge, a water heater cost $6.
In 1946, these 420-square-foot houses on cement slabs were attractively priced at $2,095. Some homes were sold with the land underneath, while others were sold at a discount, but required a yearly lease fee. They sold quickly. Fred and Ed doubled down. They helped create 4 of the 12 communities in skinny horizontal rectangles from ocean to bay. They built so many that, in the Ocean Beach III (OBIII) section alone, there are almost 1,000 houses in an area about one-third of a square mile. It may be the densest area of single-family homes anywhere on the Jersey Shore.
Despite the hurricanes and the even stronger tug of economic forces, Fred and Ed’s vision has endured.
Some 75 years later, Robert and Marie Chrone sit on their porch along Tarpon Way in a 480-square-foot house that, with some modest upgrades, looks just as it did when Fred and Ed built it. Together with their son, they purchased the home in December 2020, like many others who sought refuge at the Shore during the Covid-19 pandemic. Marie says of her husband, who works unpredictable hours as a utility-company supervisor, “He has a hard time relaxing. When you drive over that bridge…it transforms you. We’re only an hour and 15 minutes from home [in Moorestown], but we feel a million miles away.”
Robert adds, “I just park the car. We walk. We can be at the beach looking at the water in 30 seconds. It’s pretty cool.”
[caption id="attachment_309795" align="alignnone" width="778"] Robert and Marie Chrone’s 480-square-foot summer cottage is a refuge. Arriving in town, Marie says, “transforms you.” Photo: R.C. Staab[/caption]
Like many homeowners, the Chrones rent out their cottage on a weekly basis during the prime summer season, carving out two weeks for themselves. Nowadays, most of the homes are upgraded with heat and air conditioning, better siding, and new windows—critical for rentals. Families with one or two children happily pay $2,500–$3,000 a week for a vacation spot within steps of the beach. The Chrones’ rental enables them to cover most of the cost of their mortgage, insurance payments and property tax.
With home prices on most lots from $625,000 to $650,00, it’s debatable whether these homes are in reach for the average working person. But considering the run-up of property prices along the ocean in Monmouth and Ocean counties, the cottages—with their in-demand rental income—are considered a bargain for first-time buyers at the Shore looking for something other than a condo.
Fred and Ed’s clever business strategy included selling some homes outright for the capital, but selling other homes while keeping a long-term lease on the land, eventually creating an annuity for their families. One-third of the homes in OBIII still sit on leased land. It’s a dilemma for some buyers, knowing they have to pay homeowners association fees, property taxes and about $10,000 a year for the lease. Marie says, “Leased land was a foreign concept to us. Why would someone buy a house on it? We couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.” But homes on leased land sell for about $150,000 less than those on owned land, making them attractive to entry-level buyers.
Along busy Route 35, drivers can blink and never notice they’ve passed through OBIII and its 11 neighboring communities, including Ocean Beach I and Ocean Beach II, none of which are contiguous. Sandwiched between Brick Township Beaches and Lavallette, this tiny seaside section of Toms Rivers Township is variously known as Shore North, Shore North Beaches, Dover Beaches North or Lavallette, if one asks the post office for the mailing address.
[caption id="attachment_309798" align="alignnone" width="778"] Ocean Beach III may be the densest area of single-family homes anywhere on the Jersey Shore. Photo: R.C. Staab[/caption]
Each community has a homeowners association (or club, as the locals say) with separate dues, rules, beach badges and lifeguards. Most clubs have a bayside playground or community space for movie nights, barbecues, kids’ activities and more.
OBIII is different for one reason: the streets. It’s not the fact that the streets are mostly named for birds or marine life. As Kevin Iredell, who lives in Cranford and owns a vacation home on Albacore Way with his wife, Lisa, says, “Ocean Beach III is unique because it only has sandy streets.” The sandy streets have what Lisa describes as a good vibe. “This to me is as beachy as it gets,” she says.
It’s a good vibe unless you have a dog. Pets are not permitted on the paths and roads. As resident Bridget Chirchirillo describes it, “You have to have to carry them up to [Route] 35 or drive them up.”
The look of the roads contributes to another factor that people frequently mention as a key selling point. Paul and Bridget Chirchirillo had previously owned a Shore home in Bradley Beach, sold it, moved to Wall Township and started looking for another beach spot during the pandemic. They found it on Dolphin Way. Paul says, “This place appealed to us because of the sand roads and the traditional way of life. The more we spoke to people, they would say, ‘My grandmother owned a house. I grew up here. My kids grew up here. All my grandchildren—70 years of tradition.’”
[RELATED: The Pandemic Fueled These Incredible Home Renovation Projects]
Paul says when his grandchildren saw the house, “they lost their minds, they were so happy. They ran up to the dunes and the beach and saw it. The next day, they asked when they were going to come back.”
Perhaps the quaintest of the communities, OBIII today most closely resembles Ed and Fred’s original vision. “There are deed restrictions,” adds Kevin Iredell. “You can’t go up. You can’t put an addition on. You basically have to leave it the way it is. That keeps that old-school, 1950s kind of Jersey Shore feel.”
There are no McMansions and no five-bedroom houses for partygoers like those infamously featured on MTV’s Jersey Shore in nearby Seaside Heights. People who buy and rent in OBIII know what they are getting, choosing the family-oriented, quiet lifestyle, away from the boardwalks and clubs.
[caption id="attachment_309797" align="alignnone" width="778"] Ashley Swartz is among the handful of OBIII residents who live there year-round. Photo: R.C. Staab[/caption]
“It’s as if Dirty Dancing was filmed by the sea instead of a lake,” says full-time resident Ashley Swartz. When she first bought her house in 2015 while still living in New York City, she says “it felt like what I would imagine the Jersey Shore to be like in the 1950s, like time had stood still, with sand streets, these little cottages, and with children playing in the street, riding their bikes freely.”
Of course, a 500-square-foot house creates challenges, including having only one bathroom, which is typically only 40 square feet. In homes like the Chirchirillos’ that hark back to the 1940s, the bathroom is accessed by two doors—one from the kitchen and one from outside.
“It was designed for people to have their kids come right in from the beach into the potty and not have to go into the house,” Bridget says. They generally lock the outside bathroom door, but when Paul is barbecuing on the outdoor patio, everyone is warned he’ll be cutting through the bathroom to get to the kitchen.
The two bedrooms are the same size, barely big enough for a queen-size bed. Owners often add bunk beds in the second bedroom and a pull-out couch in the living room to attract renters. The Chirchirillos have told prospective renters their home sleeps six or seven people.
Storage space is severely limited as well. As Kevin Iredell describes it, “Everything we have has to have a place. We don’t bring any extra.”
[caption id="attachment_309796" align="alignnone" width="778"] Almost 1,000 tiny homes comprise the Ocean Beach III community. Photo: R.C. Staab[/caption]
Some homeowners, like the Chrones, haven’t been able to figure out how to add a washer and dryer without redoing the house completely. While space is tight inside, as Marie says, “a lot of the house is outdoor living. Almost everyone has a patio with chairs, a table and some outdoor grill.”
At first glance, the houses seem nearly on top of each other. But as John McDonough, local Realtor and one of Fred Pearl’s grandsons, says, “These are small lots on small streets. [Fred and Ed] didn’t want big houses, tall houses, to create almost a tenement affect, which you have up in the big cities of North Jersey. Most everything is in a checkerboard pattern the way the houses are laid out, so it maximizes the space between each house. You can’t be closer than 10 feet to the rear lot line. You’ve got to be 20 feet minimum away from your neighbor. So there’s always at least 20 feet from all these little houses. You don’t feel like you’re cramped, like someone is right there.”
Sure enough, despite many homeowners renting to new tenants each week throughout the summer, there’s very little complaining about rowdy behavior and noise. “We’re not a community that rents out to kids for parties,” Bridget Chirchirillo says. “People care.” Paul adds, “They respect it. It’s traditional. They want to maintain that 1950s, 1960s, maybe 1940s feel. Everybody goes to the ice cream store at night and waits to get their cone.”
Aptly, the ice cream store is a Dairy Queen.
While the vast majority of owners are families with children or retirees with kids and grandkids who come down in short stints, there are a few full-time residents. Swartz managed to buy one of the larger homes—all 729 square feet—on Osprey Way. She eventually moved to OBIII full time in 2017.
As a single professional woman without children who worked in Manhattan, Swartz says, “I could not have more different life experience than my neighbors, and sometimes that extends to politics. I have learned, which happens naturally when living in such small spaces, that despite this, we often have the same values.”
She adds, “I have beautiful neighbors; we are a family and a community, and they would and have done anything for me. I’m better at listening to hear and to better understand. Living here has made me a better person.”
For Swartz and the handful of others who live there year-round, there is one drawback: “The island becomes a ghost town as of the end of October, with street lights blinking.”
R.C. Staab writes extensively about the Jersey Shore, including the book 100 Things to Do at the Jersey Shore. In the summer, he runs, swims, kayaks and walks the beaches from Sandy Hook to Cape May.
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He might be a global superstar now, but Charlie Puth hasn’t forgotten his Jersey roots.The Rumson native, 31, is heading home on June 3 for a show at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel—made even more special because that's where he saw his first concert, James Taylor."It’s going to be a full circle, special moment,” says Puth.Although it'll be a brief trip (he has a show in Virginia the next day), the "See You Again" singer plans to squeeze in time with loved ones and indulge in his favorite pizza—a must for any true Jersey boy.“[I’m looking forward to] having Sea Bright pizza backstage after the show, an entire grandma pie to myself," he says. "But not before because then I won't be able to sing.”Puth—who has performed at arenas all over the world, released multiple platinum-selling albums and earned millions of social media followers—says his upbringing in the Garden State heavily influenced his pursuit of a music career, growing up surrounded by local acts and bands who gained small but loyal followings. He says the state has a unique way of making anyone into somewhat of a celebrity.“Everyone’s a mini celebrity in New Jersey. Whether it's a suit maker in town making suits for everyone [or] a pizza guy, everyone is a personality," he says. "New Jersey is the state with the most personalities. Growing up around that made me want to have that and then some.”Puth has come a long way from those humble Rumson beginnings. He’s gone from idolizing Jersey heroes like Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi to speaking with them occasionally over the phone. He made a name for himself with his first two albums, Nine Track Mind and Voicenotes, and is now touring the continent in promotion of his latest release, the self-titled Charlie, released last October.This album is his most personal yet, delving heavily into past relationships. Puth says it was a challenge writing and recording the first few songs, but once he got through those, he was able to create the rest of the album in its entirety with more ease.“The only way to make music that feels real is to tell the truth," he says. "The most important thing is for people to relate to it and make their own memories and experiences toward the album. If people can relate to it, it's my pleasure.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GITgqwDVgPuth has previously worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including James Taylor, Selena Gomez, Elton John and Boyz II Men. But this project features his first collaboration with a K-pop artist, Jungkook of the popular boy band BTS on the track “Left and Right.”“It was one of the most positive experiences I ever had working with a different artist," Puth says of Jungkook. "When I met him, he didn't really carry himself like he was a big presence. He was very humble, respectful of my team as we were of theirs. It was such a regimented, easy process filming the music video and getting the vocals done.”Puth is working on his next album, which he expects to finish by the end of the tour. He says the project will be entirely R&B, a genre he’s worked on before but never put together in a full album.As for the future, Puth dreams of headlining a show at the Prudential Center in Newark one day, having previously performed there as an opener for Shawn Mendes in 2017. But in the meantime, he’s grateful to perform this weekend at what will be his biggest Jersey concert to date—and to pick up a scooped sesame bagel with butter from Bagel Masters in Shrewsbury (no eggs because he’s allergic).The post How Charlie Puth’s New Jersey Roots Shaped His Music Career appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Get weekly design advice and inspiration from the experts at Design NJ sent to your inbox.Email[caption id="attachment_308750" align="alignnone" width="778"] The ceiling in this Spring Lake Heights home rises to 16 feet in the living area. With walls two to three times as thick as today’s standard construction, the inside temperature remains stable and predictable without the need for a conventional, expensive, resource-guzzling heating and cooling system, architect Richard Pedranti says. Photo by Jeffrey Totaro, courtesy of Richard Pedranti Architect[/caption] Related posts from Design NJ: * An Eco-Friendly Home in Princeton * A Long Branch Lot Reaches Its Potential * Sustainable Outdoor Living Imagine living in a comfortable, modern house with no cold drafts, no temperature variations from room to room, and virtually no heating or cooling bills. “It might sound too good to be true,” architect Richard Pedranti says, “but these pleasant conditions are the norm for people who live in a Passive House,” a building standard that emphasizes energy efficiency, comfort, health and long-term affordability.
Pedranti’s award-winning Pennsylvania-based firm, Richard Pedranti Architect (RPA), specializes in energy-efficient design and was recently recognized by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment for the design of an environmentally sustainable project in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. The home, built using Passive House principles, was recognized for its architectural excellence and energy-conscious footprint.
The prefabricated beach getaway, designed as a weekend retreat for homeowners Theresa Lang and Scott St. Marie, also qualifies as a Net Zero Energy building, meaning it produces roughly as much energy as it consumes annually. Pedranti shares the process and benefits of Passive House construction.
Design NJ: Were your clients fully invested from the start in building a home with net-zero capabilities?Richard Pedranti: Yes, they wanted a modern, comfortable and energy-efficient home with a simple one-story layout that includes a seamless connection between the inside and outside living spaces to the expansive rear yard and garden.
DNJ: What Passive House features were used in the design and construction?Pedranti: High levels of insulation, airtight construction, triple-pane windows, passive solar orientation and the use of a heat recovery ventilator — features that allow the home to remain comfortable year-round without having a traditional HVAC system.
DNJ: As far as energy use, how does a Passive House compare with a standard house?Pedranti: A Passive House uses approximately 80% less energy for heating and cooling than a traditional building. That savings tends to grab the public’s attention and prompts them to learn more. What really surprises them when visiting a Passive House are the improvements in temperature and indoor air quality. I often tell our clients the energy efficiency is a byproduct of making a comfortable and healthy building.
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[caption id="attachment_308719" align="alignnone" width="778"] Teresa Giudice walks down the aisle at the Park Chatêau Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption] Related posts fromNew Jersey Bride: * Inside Teresa Giudice and Louie Ruelas’ Wedding * Top Wedding Venues in NJ * Get Inspired by Real NJ Weddings Fifteen-hundred bobby pins, three pounds of hair, three-and-a-half hours of styling and one bejeweled crown all add up to Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice’s $10,000 wedding-day hairstyle.Lucia Casazza, Teresa’s stylist of 14 years and co-owner of the Great Cazoo Boutique & Beauty Bar in Wayne, says she wanted Teresa to “look and feel like a princess on her wedding day” last August at the glamorous Park Chateâu Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick.Because of Teresa’s large headpiece, Lucia says the TV star’s hair—which she loves to wear long—needed some height. And she certainly got it!“I refused to give her those Hollywood waves like every other bride,” Lucia tells New Jersey Bride. “That’s been trending now for long enough in New Jersey. I said, ‘I refuse to give you the same hair as everyone else.’”Although Teresa and now-husband Louie Ruelas didn't walk down the aisle until dusk, the day started at 7 am. Lucia and her team set Teresa’s hair in rollers, curled and pinned it, and executed an elaborate full installation of human-hair extensions (from the stylist’s own Lucia hair extensions line).[caption id="attachment_308645" align="alignnone" width="778"] Pre-order your copy of New Jersey Bride here to see even more photos of Teresa Giudice and Louie Ruelas' wedding. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption]Lucia says her bridal services run $2,500 and up, but that other stylists at her salon charge a range of prices.“My best advice is that a bride should do whatever she feels beautiful in on her wedding day,” Lucia says. “It’s her dream day, it’s her dream look.”Click here to continue reading this story on New Jersey Bride*.
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[caption id="attachment_308692" align="alignnone" width="778"] Teresa Giudice and Louie Ruelas tied the knot at the Park Chatêau Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption] Related posts fromNew Jersey Bride: * Teresa Giudice’s $10,000 Wedding Hair * Top Wedding Venues in NJ * Get Inspired by Real NJ Weddings Anyone who knows Teresa Giudice—either personally or from her longtime stint on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey—knows that the reality star throws one fabulous party.So it’s only fitting that her wedding to entrepreneur Louie Ruelas, held last August at the luxurious Park Château Estate & Gardens in East Brunswick, was the ultimate party—filled with jaw-dropping entertainment, decor and flowers that truly dazzled the couple’s 225 guests.“I wanted everybody to walk in and be wowed, like, ‘Oh my God, this is spectacular,’” Teresa tells New Jersey Bride. “And that’s what they did when they walked in. They were wowed.”The venue, one of the most high-end wedding locales in the state, is impressive enough on its own, with its elegant mansion set on 15 acres of stunning grounds. Pair that with Teresa and Louie’s flair for all things fun and their unique personal touches, and the day was unforgettable. Fans can get an up-close look at the wedding by tuning into the special Teresa Gets Married, which airs on Tuesday, May 23 at 8 pm on Bravo and starts streaming on Peacock the next day.[caption id="attachment_308645" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Pre-order your copy of New Jersey Bride here. Photo: Jenna Russo (@silentcapturephoto)[/caption]During the reception, guests boogied to music from a 16-piece band provided by Jordan Kahn Music Company and a DJ from Geo Events later in the evening. Jordan Kahn also put together an extravagant display of live, immersive entertainment. Sultry burlesque dancers stripped down to nearly nothing, aerialists showed off their impressive moves, a sword swallower provided some dangerous fun, and stilt walkers in metallic suits strutted across the dance floor.The couple also enlisted drummer Tito Puente Jr., a childhood friend of Louie’s and the son of famed musician Tito Puente, and saxophonist Art Crichlow to play more terrific tunes.The performers were glitzy, glamorous and sexy—just like Teresa envisioned. “I wanted the dancers to have as little clothes as possible,” says Teresa with a laugh, adding: “Yes, I’m all about sexiness, I wanted that sexy vibe.”Overall, Teresa and Louie hoped for—and achieved—a day that was “elegant, magical, timeless and classic.” Teresa adds, “I wanted a lot of entertainment because I’m all about having a good time.”It worked. The dance floor was packed all night with family and friends—like bridesmaids and fellow RHONJ cast members Jennifer Aydin and Dolores Catania, plus plenty of other television stars, including Loni Love and Bob Harper, Real Housewives of New York City alumni Jill Zarin and Dorinda Medley, and Real Housewives of Atlanta personalities Kenya Moore and Cynthia Bailey.“You know when you go to a wedding and it’s, like, nobody’s dancing? And it’s, like, everybody sitting down and eating—the dance floor is empty?” says Teresa. “I swear, I don’t remember that at all at my wedding. It was never empty.” “Luckily,” she adds, “the cocktail hour had a ton—a ton—of food,” so guests could have fun during the reception and not worry if they missed part of the dinner. “It was insane. And I’m Italian, so growing up, food was the most important thing to us.”Click here to continue reading this story on New Jersey Bride.***
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[caption id="attachment_308396" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Martha Stewart covers the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on newsstands May 18. Photo: Ruven Afanador/Sports Illustrated[/caption]This Jersey girl knows how to work it!At 81 years old, New Jersey native Martha Stewart covers the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in a plunging white one-piece bathing suit—and she rocks it."Usually I'm motivated by pay, but this time I was motivated by showing people that a woman my age can still look good, feel good, be good, blah blah blah," the home-design guru says in a behind-the-scenes video for the publication.Svelte Stewart grew up in Nutley in the 1950s, where she earned extra cash by working as a model after school at the now-defunct department store Bonwit Teller. As a teen, she was also very focused on her schoolwork and served on student council, as she told New Jersey Monthly in a past interview. “It was very important to me to be an all-around student,” she said in 2011 of her time at Nutley High School. “I was pretty centered on being smart and well read and had a lot of hobbies, and I was the art director of [the school's literary magazine] The Gauntlet.”Back then, her name was Martha Kostyra. “I lived for every day, and I tried to get all my work done, and I was a good child, basically,” she said. She went skating, attended high school football games and bonfires, and caught tadpoles.Today, she lives in Bedford, New York and has a home in East Hampton.Anyone who's followed Stewart recently won't be too surprised by her turn as a cover model. Her Instagram account has featured sultry swimsuit shots. The sexy white suit on her SI cover is by Monday Swimwear, while her vibrant cover-up comes from Torso Creations and her ring was designed by Jacob & Co.[caption id="attachment_308373" align="aligncenter" width="778"] Martha Stewart reveals her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover on Monday's episode of the "Today" show. Photo: NBC News/Today[/caption]Still, she said that posing for the SI cover was not easy. "To be on the cover at my age was a challenge, and I think I met that challenge," she said while revealing the cover on Monday's episode of the Today show.She got a call from the magazine in November and had to be ready to shoot by January. So how did she prepare?"I didn't starve myself, but I didn't eat any bread or pasta for a couple of months," said Stewart, noting she always lives a "clean life." "I went to Pilates every other day, and that was great.... I'm still going to Pilates every other day."Her past modeling experience, which helped her pay for college at Barnard, also helped.
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“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” This horticulturist’s adage is especially applicable to the imagination and determination that created 172-year-old Van Vorst Park from the ground up.
With more than 65 different species of trees, 275 types of perennials, and thousands of tulip, daffodil and iris bulbs, the Jersey City park is blossoming in a big way these days. In March, it was awarded level 1 arboretum status—a coveted accreditation granted only to educationally focused parks with numerous and diverse flora.
“Here, you’ll find unusual plantings like a rare Franklin tree, a pair of 100-foot-tall dawn redwoods and a valuable copper beech tree,” says master gardener Marc Wesson, president of the nonprofit Friends of Van Vorst Park.
A new, brightly colored playground was funded by the Jersey City Open Space Trust Fund. Photo by Laura Moss
Stroll through the 1.8-acre parcel, deeded by Cornelius Van Vorst in 1835, and you’ll experience a family-friendly venue surrounded by ornate brick and brownstone row houses. The area was expertly landscaped by florist and horticulturist Peter Henderson in 1851 when it became a formal Victorian city park, which led the way for unprecedented local growth. However, the park’s history hasn’t been a bed of roses. In 1906, after a tornado ripped out most of the plantings, the area languished for 80 years.
[RELATED: Fun Things to Do Outside in New Jersey This Spring]
“When we first moved here in 1987, my kids couldn’t play in the park because it was drug-infested, full of mud and hypodermic needles,” says Wesson, who lives right across the street and has helped maintain the park for the last 23 years. “For a few years, some of us from the neighborhood tried to bring the park back, but people kept stealing the plants,” he says.
Surrounded by ornate row houses, historic Van Vorst Park in Jersey City is an urban oasis for garden enthusiasts. The park also hosts seasonal events and a farmers market. Photo by Laura Moss
Things began to change in 1993, when community leader Clifford Waldeman established Friends of Van Vorst Park and then, in 2005, founded the Jersey City Parks Coalition. Working with local park advocates, Waldeman got traction that helped secure a $1.6 million Green Acres Fund grant. That seed money resulted in a fountain, gazebo, playground, sprinklers, new walkways and 19 empty gardens. A dog run, sprayground and pet-free lawns were added in recent years.
“After the park’s renovation in 1999, the Friends of Van Vorst Park planted and now maintain all the gardens, contributing our own time and money,” says Wesson. “We also host weddings, summer movie nights and a Halloween event. Our farmers market is open every Saturday year-round, with 100 percent of collected fees going back into the park.”
The gazebo is a favorite gathering place for kids and wedding parties. Photo by Laura Moss
Notably, only a small group of green-thumbs comprise the Friends of Van Vorst Park. These grassroots volunteers plant, trim and prune—and also rake a whopping 400 bags of leaves each fall. While some trees have been donated by local residents and organizations, about 75 percent were funded and planted exclusively by the Friends of Van Vorst Park. Wesson himself spends 1,000 hours each year contributing labor and handling the park’s paperwork.
“We’re always looking for volunteer garden enthusiasts, from Jersey City or elsewhere, to help maintain the gardens or suggest ways we can improve our verdant oasis within this urban setting,” says Wesson. “I’m happy to say that Van Vorst Park has changed this neighborhood for the better.”
A popular attraction is the fountain and birdbath. Photo by Laura Moss
He adds, “People actually move here because of our park.”
IF YOU GO: Van Vorst Park is located at 281 Montgomery Street in Jersey City. The farmers market takes place year-round on Saturdays, 8 am–2 pm. In June, the rose garden is in full bloom. To volunteer or for information, visit fvvp.org or follow @vanvorstparkJC on Instagram.
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Illustration by Steven Salerno
We loved our neighborhood in Glen Ridge but after 26 years, three kids, a cat, a dog and too many goldfish, it was time to move house.
We knew it would be hard to leave. We had a block party every September, complete with a bouncy castle and a band. On Halloween, the sheer volume of little Cinderellas and pint-size Spidermen required that you sit on your stoop, candy bowl in hand, to cater to the never-ending parade of trick-or-treaters. On Christmas Eve, those observing lined their patches of sidewalk with luminaries. During blackouts, as gas generators began to hum, strings of orange extension cords would appear, crisscrossing the street so those without generators could at least keep their fridges going till electricity was restored.
But now the movers had gone, the house was nearly empty, and two of our dearest neighbors, Bridget and Mary, were joining us in giving the house a final cleaning so it would be ready for the new owners. My wife, Jackie, had bonded with Bridget many years ago as they commiserated, heavily pregnant, in the summer heat—my wife with our first child, Iain, and Bridget with her second. Jackie met Mary in the park at the top of our street as her son, Owen, played with our twins, David and Simon. Coincidentally, we discovered, Owen was born on the same day and in the same hospital as our boys. To this day, everyone in town knows them as the triplets. They’re 22 now, but still the best of friends.
As I swept, I recalled the day we moved in. I had bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate, and not being particularly suave, managed to send the cork directly toward the kitchen window, leaving a cork-sized hole—and our first home repair—in its wake. Perhaps out of some psychic need to bookend home repairs, on the day before the new buyers’ final home inspection, I backed the minivan out of the driveway unaware that a haphazardly thrown garden hose was wrapped around the side-view mirror. As I drove away none the wiser, the faucet it was attached to pulled away from the house, leaving water to gush into our window well. Luckily, a neighbor noticed the broken faucet, retrieved a spare key we had left with another neighbor, and cut the water supply before it could flood the basement. Yet another neighbor, who happened to be a plumber, fixed the faucet in time for the inspection.
We only moved 15 minutes away, and while our new neighbors welcomed us with open arms, it’s hard to replace the bonds created while chatting at the school playground or huddled together in the bleachers for a sporting event. It took me several months to even drive down our old street because I missed it so much. But upon visiting friends there now, including the young couple who moved into our old house and whose little ones now occupy the same bedrooms ours once did, it’s not hard to realize that, “for everything there is a season.”
Our home served us well, and now it’s time to pass it on to another young family. We take great comfort in knowing the house is once again filled with toddlers and their toys, and a couple who, like us, appreciate the value of great neighbors. We wish them many years of happiness in their new home and offer only a single piece of advice: Be careful where you throw the garden hose!
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READY TO RUN: The stylish and lightweight Hoka Bondi 8 running shoe takes you anywhere you want to go; $165 at nordstrom.com.STASH IT AWAY: Whether your home gym is in the living room or a dedicated space, this metal locker has room for equipment and more; $549 at mustardmade.com.IT’S A STRETCH: Mix up your yoga practice with a roll of these wooden dice, each illustrated with a different pose; $18.95 at bando.com.EVERY WEAR: For workouts or leisure, this two-piece set features a tie-dyed print with a cropped hoodie; $55 at awakenedapparelco.com.LET IT RAIN: Stay on the grind, rain or shine, with this colorful rain poncho from the Move collection; $39 at hm.com.FUEL STOP: Stay hydrated with Essential Elements’ supplement that combines apple cider vinegar, sodium, potassium and buffered vitamin C. Individually packaged to take on the go; just add to your water to stay energized; $29.99 at essentialelementsnutrition.com.
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Because the sloped walls at this New Vernon showhouse did not have wallboard, they wouldn’t hold the tented fabric. “We had to devise a way to add wood at the top and center to hold the fabric covering,” designer Karla Trincanello explains.**** Photo by Wing Wong
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Designer Karla Trincanello says the attic room at Tyvan Hill in New Vernon (part of the Mansion in May Presents Splendor in September showhouse in 2020) was “as unappealing as possible.”
In addition to steeply sloped walls, the room had a long, narrow entry flanked on one side by a pitched ceiling and on the other by a curved concrete wall.
But Trincanello, owner of Florham Park-based Interior Decisions, was undaunted. “I studied the space and thought it would be a great ‘chic-shed.’ I’ve long wanted to do a room for a woman as her own space.”
Trincanello, a state-certified interior designer and allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers, used the unique bones of the room to her advantage. “The sloped walls reminded me of a tent,” she says, “which led to the concept of draping the walls with a beautiful soft-pink, sheer fabric to create that illusion in a luxurious way.” Though the tenting made the room seem larger, the designer “was careful to scale the furnishings so the room wouldn’t appear crowded.”
Custom built-ins line the sloped wall, creating useful space in the tight entry hall. Trincanello designed a long desk/giftwrap center flanked by two tall cabinets, one of which includes a wine refrigerator. The other features a display case for a wedding gown. “People [on the tour] loved the idea of displaying their own gowns rather than storing them away.”
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After the pandemic devastated nursing homes around the country, many elderly people wanted to find a different way of living out their golden years—one that would keep them in their homes and communities.
That’s just one reason why Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)—small, single housing units located on the properties of larger, single-family homes—have become popular in New Jersey.
“Many [elderly] people want to age in place. They want to keep the same doctors and houses of worship and neighborhoods. Disruptions can be difficult for older people to adjust to,” says Ann Lippel, a Montclair Gateway Aging in Place board member who has been advocating for ADUs in the Essex County town since 2015.
After more than a decade of discussion, Montclair finally passed an ADU ordinance in February, making it legal to have one of these tiny homes. Montclair joins a short list of other municipalities around the state that have passed ADU ordinances, including Princeton, Maplewood, East Orange and Bradley Beach. Restrictions regarding things such as square footage and number of stories an ADU can have vary by town.
An ADU adds “gentle density” to communities, says affordable-housing advocate Harold Simon. Photo courtesy of Todd Mason/Halkin Mason Photography
Harold Simon, an affordable-housing advocate and expert who lives in Montclair, recalls trying to get the same ordinance passed in town back in 2011—to no avail. “Montclair, like every other community in New Jersey, has a need for more housing, but it’s an old community,” says Simon. “There are real limits to how much more housing you could put into a place like Montclair. So you could either build apartment buildings, or you could add an ADU.”
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
ADUs aren’t just for the elderly. The units can be an alternative for any adult looking to rent. And because ADUs are built on already-owned properties, more homes can be added to the market without the need for more space. Many say ADUs are a potential solution to the housing crisis.
“It doesn’t add new infrastructure, for the most part,” adds Simon. “It’s a great way to add housing units to the community without additional cost to the community. The impact is marginal, and it adds gentle density.”
An ADU on a family member’s property can also be a great place for a recent college graduate to live if they can’t afford to pay rent, yet want some independence. Most ADU ordinances also allow for homeowners to rent out the pads for additional income.
Property taxes do increase when an ADU is added to a home, but that’s usually offset by the added value of having rental income or a free place for a relative to live.
Or homeowners can choose to move into the ADU and rent the main house, giving them extra income. Lippel says sometimes homeowners work out deals where their renters shovel snow or do other chores in exchange for a break in rent.
So what’s the next step for ADUs in New Jersey? State legislators are currently working on a bill that would allow homeowners statewide to build units on their properties. The bill, sponsored by state assemblyman Raj Mukherji, could be a step toward making more affordable housing available in the state.
Architect Marina Rubina Rubina aims to “make small places feel large.” Photo courtesy of Todd Mason/Halkin Mason Photography
There is a lot to consider when building an ADU on your property. Marina Rubina, a Princeton-based architect who has been in practice for over 20 years, has designed many ADUs ranging from 400 to 1,200 square feet, and says the tiny home and the main residence must work in unity.
“[I think of] how to make small places feel large and how people can live together on the same property and not be in each other’s way,” says Rubina, who has seen ADUs rise in popularity in recent years. “With ADUs, you get to know the people who are living next to you. It’s more of a friendly relationship than living in a giant apartment complex.”
An ADU must work in unity with the main residence, Rubina says. Photo courtesy of Todd Mason/Halkin Mason Photography
That was true for Montclair couple Joel Patenaude and Judy Hoffstein. When they moved into their home, they were thrilled to realize they could convert the former doctor’s office attached to the back of their house into an apartment for Hoffstein’s aging parents. “It made for a nice lifestyle for them,” Patenaude says. “Initially, they had their independence, and we ate with them a couple of times a week. Then we had all of our meals with them.”
The apartment had a separate entrance, giving his in-laws privacy. The arrangement worked out well for everyone, he says, including his children, who were able to spend quality time with their grandparents. As his in-laws aged, Patenaude and his wife eventually brought in hospice workers. ADUs were legal in Montclair at the time if they were used for elderly parents.
“When my mother-in-law died, I buried my friend,” says Patenaude. “We were able to develop a great relationship; that’s a really nice aspect of this.”
Jacqueline Mroz contributed to this article.
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The post Tiny Houses, Big Impact: Are ADUs a Solution to the Housing Crisis? appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Color can evoke a certain feeling in a home, offer an element of playfulness or drama. It can also be intimidating, especially when making a big change.
That’s where South Orange-based Madeline Shaw, owner of Shapes For the People, comes in. Her company paints geometric murals and offers color consultations for residential and commercial spaces.
Here are her tips for embracing color.
ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU LIKEStart by asking yourself some questions, says Shaw. What do I want for my home? How do I want to feel in a particular room? What colors do I naturally gravitate toward? “Think about what you love,” she says.
Madeline Shaw owns Shapes For the People. Photo: Courtesy of Aimee Ryan
START SMALLIf you live in a mostly neutral home, you can “take a gentle approach” to embracing color, says Shaw. Choose one hue to experiment with—something you’re drawn to—and start with accessories like throw pillows, which don’t require a huge commitment. “Most of the time, when I go into people’s homes, I can see there’s already a pattern emerging.”
TRY COLOR BLOCKING“As much as I love color, I’m not about throwing it on anything and everything,” says Shaw of her approach to her own home. Instead, she uses color blocking. “Pretty much all of our walls, apart from our living room, are white as, like, a palate cleanser. And then we have a bright-blue ceiling in one living room; in our kitchen, we have a pink ceiling that runs sort of like a waterfall from the ceiling down. And we have a bright-orange kitchen counter.”
Shapes For the People creates geometric murals in people’s homes. Photo: Shapes For the People
CONSIDER THE ROOMWhen it comes to bold declarations like one of Shaw’s patterned murals, think carefully about where and how to make your statement. A guest powder room or a playroom, for example, can be a fun spot for playfulness or an element of surprise. “If it’s your dining room, it needs to be something that’s palatable for a longer period of time, perhaps, because it’s an investment,” she says.
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For many in recent years, the formal dining room has gone the way of the dinosaur. Co-opted by spacious eat-in kitchens, these once prized rooms have been turned into homework stations, home offices or even playrooms.
But the pleasure of having a meal in a room appointed for comfort and entertainment in a way that rivals eating out is making a comeback. Instagram star Kate Rumson, whose ground-up build of a 4,400-square-foot home in Monmouth County has been chronicled on the social media platform, reminds us of this space’s original appeal.
Rumson doesn’t skimp on tablescapes. Photo courtesy of Kate Rumson
The table is the star of this room. “My recommendation is to always pay attention to the width of the dining table—it needs to be at least 40 inches wide to allow for comfortable and visually beautiful table settings,” she says. Rumson’s table choice is a chunky, solid-wood design from Hooker Furniture. “It’s perfect for hosting large dinner parties in style,” she explains.
Rumson is a fan of going all out on tablescapes, and an ample table is needed to accommodate accessories, placemats, chargers, wine and water glasses, as well as decorative elements such as flowers and candles.
Kate Rumson, right, and interior designer Eilyn Jimenez worked together on this entertaining-friendly space. Photo courtesy of Kate Rumson
“To me, no space could ever look or feel complete without flowers or greenery,” says Rumson. “I love real flowers, but don’t have the time or patience for the never ending upkeep, so I always include high-quality faux florals.” To that end, in 2021, the design entrepreneur launched her own brand of handcrafted faux flowers called Eleven Gardens.
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
Because of their inherent formality, dining rooms are a great place to juxtapose styles. “I love the mix of modern and traditional elements,” Rumson says of her space. “The vintage-inspired art and accessories make it feel lived in and warm, while the architectural chandelier adds an edgy twist. It’s the perfect blend of old and new.”
Another must-have element for the dining room adds personality and coziness underfoot. “Every dining room needs an area rug—it grounds the space and makes it feel more comfortable and inviting.” Last, but certainly not least, add “thoughtfully curated dinnerware,” which, Rumson says, “is essential for elevated entertaining and to make everyday life feel just a little more special.”
For input on her dining room design, Rumson worked with architect Dan D’Agostino of PlanArchitecture in Bergen County and interior designer Eilyn Jimenez, who hosts Designing Miami on Netflix.
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If anyone knows about creating an oasis at home, it’s Montclair-based interior designer Andrew Suvalsky. He recently transformed a 1952 Upper Montclair cottage into a bright and modern five-bedroom home, where he now lives with his husband and their two young children.
During the pandemic, many New Jerseyans created amazing retreats in their homes—in outdoor and indoor spaces. Suvalsky shares his tips on carving out pockets of sanctuary at home, no matter its size.
LET THE SUNSHINE IN“Find the sunniest room in your house and make a cozy sitting area,” says Suvalsky. His sunroom, seen above, features vintage pieces; he says the style of furniture in a sunroom should “invite you to luxuriate in an indoor, but otherwise mood-lifting, light-filled room.”
BE PARTY READYBuy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
“A little party-central space can go a long way,” says Suvalsky. “An intimate and curated bar makes staying at home that much more fun.” Stock it with great barware and beverages.
MAKE YOUR BATHROOM SPA-LIKE“Your bathroom should be the ultimate sanctuary,” says Suvalsky. He notes that fresh towels, accessories, flowers and window treatments can all be impactful. “You can keep it simple, but make sure you love all the elements so that your time in the bath feels spa-like,” he says.
MAKE A WORK SPACE WORK FOR YOUMake your work-from-home setup a place you want to spend time. “Carve out a corner space in any room for a warm and inviting desk area,” says Suvalsky. “Populate the surrounding surfaces with favorite objects and books, both for function and aesthetics.”
EMBRACE TV TIME“Let yourself enjoy the home-theater experience,” says Suvalsky. “Don’t be afraid to replace art with a big TV, even in a prominent location, like over the fireplace.” Then, when the set is off, “it can double as a screensaver for beautiful images and art.”
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Raven Tyler has been living in a repurposed school bus for six months—and she loves it.
The 33-year-old decided to give “skoolie life”—as those who live in school buses-turned-mobile homes call it—a try after seeing videos and stories online. She already felt she was paying too much in rent for her apartment and also liked the freedom that could come from having a home on wheels.
“I was giving literally all of my money away every month,” she says. “It just didn’t make much sense.”
Raven Tyler lives in her school-bus home with her daughter, dog Homi and cat MJ. Here, Tyler relaxes in the bedroom. Photo by Chris Buck
Tyler, who parks in Montclair, lives in the bus with her 5-year-old daughter Myla, a cat, a German shepherd, and, occasionally, Tyler’s mother when she visits.
So how did Tyler find her bus? Last December, she saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace for a converted school bus in Florida. She flew down, purchased it for $20,000, and drove it back to New Jersey. The bus had already been furnished by its previous owner.
The entrance features a small kitchen and a futon. Photo courtesy of Raven Tyler
The interior of the bus, which Tyler nicknamed Nelli, is designed with practicality in mind. The entryway (which includes the stairs and the driver’s seat, and which Tyler has dubbed the cockpit) is where she leaves the pets’ bowls when the bus is stationary.
Walk back, and you’ll encounter the kitchen/living room area. On one side is a small sink with a removable cover, a stove, an oven and an L-shaped counter, and across the way is a futon. Farther back is the bathroom, with a toilet and shower, plus a pantry, small refrigerator and closet.
Tyler enjoying the “skoolie life.” Photo by Chris Buck
Tyler and Myla sleep in the bus’ sole bedroom, complete with a queen-size bed, cabinets and other small storage spaces.
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
Behind the bedroom is Myla’s play area, where the cat, MJ, likes to hide out when the dog, Homi, is too playful. Tyler plans to swap a table in the play area for a bed for Myla when she gets older.
While she no longer has to pay rent, Tyler has sizable expenses, including diesel and maintenance. Still, she doesn’t want people to equate living in a skoolie with financial struggle.
Tyler knows that the skoolie lifestyle is unconventional, despite having been around since the 1970s. She catches people doing double-takes as she drives and others peeking through her windows.
“It’s just a different way of living,” Tyler says. “Just because someone lives on a bus or in a van shouldn’t be a reflection of who they are as a person. There are a number of ways to live life.”
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Midway through the film One True Thing, Meryl Streep surveys her surroundings and laments, “I wish I had redone this kitchen years ago when I had the mind to do it.”
Alas, in the film, Streep’s character, Kate Gulden, is dying of cancer. And the kitchen? That’s actually the domain of Michael Aaron Rockland and Patricia Ard, whose vintage Morristown home was the setting for the 1998 film.
Rockland and Ard purchased the ornate, Queen Anne-style Victorian in 1987. Located in Morristown’s historic district, the 1886 home is just one block from Macculloch Hall Historical Museum and the Thomas Nast Home, a National Historic Landmark where the late-19th-century political cartoonist resided for the last 30 years of his life.
Rockland and Ard have lived in their 1886 Morristown home since 1987. Photo by Laura Moss
It is only fitting that Rockland should live in an historic home. Now retired, he taught American history at Rutgers for 50 years. He is also the author of 15 books and a longtime contributor to this magazine. Ard, also retired, taught English literature at Ramapo College.
Upon moving into their six-bedroom home, Rockland and Ard began making improvements, expanding the front porch, combining two parlors into one large living room and creating a dramatic entrance to the living room, with a wide archway. They flanked the archway with two sets of twin columns, salvaged by their carpenter from someone else’s rotting porch.
Those fluted columns were destined to play a central role in One True Thing. Director Carl Franklin used them to frame several scenes; at one point early in the film, Streep ducks behind one of the columns as she awaits the arrival of her husband (played by William Hurt) at his surprise party.
The living room columns played a key role in the film. Photo by Laura Moss
The couple were taken by surprise when the art director for One True Thing and his staff came knocking. “There were seven or eight of them,” Ard recalls. They explored, measured and videotaped every part of the house. After some bumpy negotiations, a deal was struck. The homeowners were given a temporary home to inhabit during the shoot, which took more than six months. The production paid them $75,000.
“We were told later that we were totally ripped off,” says Rockland. “They bowled us over with Meryl.”
[RELATED: How Scores of New Jerseyans Get Their Homes in Movies and TV Shows]
The contract signed, a crew of 12 moved every stick of furniture from the house. Every room was painted or papered—often in flowery patterns to reflect the fictional Kate Gulden’s fussy taste. Despite the home’s high ceilings, large rooms and oversize doorways, several walls were moved to accommodate certain shots.
Rockland and Ard were allowed to visit the set as they liked, and both of their children, Kate and Josh, appeared as paid extras in some of the outdoor crowd scenes, which were shot in Maplewood. (Rockland has three other children from a previous marriage.)
The couple keeps a photo of Meryl Streep on display, which she signed while filming the movie.Photo by Laura Moss
Interactions with Streep during the shoot were limited. When she wasn’t on camera, she typically retreated to Rockland’s third-floor study where a bed had been installed for her naps. But Streep, who grew up in nearby Basking Ridge and Bernardsville, went out of her way to tell the couple how much she loved their home. “She was as nice as she is talented,” says Rockland.
His experience with Hurt was not as painless. “I called him Bill one time,” says Rockland. “He went nuts.” Hurt insisted on being called William. “I thought, What’s the matter with this guy?” On the other hand, Rockland did discover Hurt reading one of his novels (A Bliss Case, published in 1989) during a break from shooting. That compensated for the actor’s rudeness.
Production paid the couple $75,000 to film in their home for six months. Photo by Laura Moss
There were bigger difficulties with the producers. Rockland had noticed members of the crew stomping out cigarettes on the home’s precious heart-of-pine floors—despite a stipulation in the contract that there be no smoking in or around the house. Rockland stormed into the production office and declared, “If I see one more cigarette here, I’m going to stop the movie.”
Rockland was reminded that all of the floors were going to be sanded and refinished, but that didn’t stop him from repeating his threat. That’s when things got heavy. One particularly tough member of the team got up in Rockland’s face. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he snarled. For Rockland, it was like a scene out of The Godfather. Needless to say, he backed off.
Crew installed a tin ceiling in the kitchen, which the homeowners kept. Photo by Laura Moss
Finally, the shoot was over and the crew restored Rockland and Ard’s home to its original state. Well, almost.
The kitchen plumbing leaked, paint spotted the floors in some places, and an improperly replaced second-floor bathroom window tumbled from its framing one night with an alarming crash.
Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep in “One True Thing.” Photo: Photofest/Universal Pictures
Which brings us back to the kitchen. While Rockland was happy to say farewell to the fruit-print tiles and red Formica counters installed for the movie, he coveted the retro-looking tin ceiling the crew had installed. Unprompted, one of the producers asked Rockland if he’d mind if they left the ceiling in place. Bingo!
“That was a tremendous triumph,” says Rockland. “We got the ceiling for free.” What’s more, they used a significant portion of the fee they had received to remodel the kitchen yet again. Kate Gulden, no doubt, would have been pleased.
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The post What Happened When a Meryl Streep Movie Took Over One NJ Couple’s Home For 6 Months appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Ever wonder how the homes in movies and TV shows end up there? Ever wish your own house could be featured on the big screen? Well, here’s your chance!
With reinstated tax incentives leading to a boom in projects being filmed in New Jersey, production companies and homeowners both have more opportunities for work in the Garden State. The Scout Source, a Montclair-based company, serves as a go-between for both parties, representing more than 700 homes in the tri-state area for use in movies, television series and commercials.
[RELATED: What Happened When a Meryl Streep Movie Took Over One NJ Couple’s Home For 6 Months]
With a detailed database, the Scout Source can fulfill the specific requests of producers—such as a precise kitchen setup—while saving companies the pain of cold scouting. The Scout Source negotiates on behalf of the homeowners and walks them through the filming process. “It’s a lot to open your home to 80-100 people,” says co-owner David Clark.
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
The Scout Source has worked on TV shows and movies—including Zach Braff’s new picture, A Good Person, which filmed in his native Essex County—but mostly does commercials, including major ads and even Super Bowl spots.
The company worked on an Amazon commercial with celebrity couple Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson, and a Hellmann’s ad with comedian Pete Davidson. When former Giants quarterback Eli Manning shot an ad with one of the Scout Source’s clients, he signed autographs and played catch with kids who lived at the shoot site, Clark recalls.
Not every shoot brings famous faces into people’s homes. Some feature animals, like the time a crew needed to get a donkey in a bathtub. Another shoot called for an elephant in a living room. That meant finding a location with “an above-average door,” Clark says.
Of course, homeowners get more than just unique encounters. Filming typically pays $5,000-$7,000 per day, Clark says. Prep days pay roughly $2,000. The Scout Source gets a cut. Production companies will pay for hotel rooms for homeowners, depending on shoot length and logistical concerns.
People hoping to list their homes on the Scout Source should visit scoutsource.com. Co-owner Asa Miraglia says the company is interested in various styles of homes to accommodate a wide range of projects.
“We will speak to anyone that calls us,” she says. “It’s not like a like a high-end, fancy thing. We’re always open to people.”
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In the age of Covid-19, say “protection” and the mind naturally turns to masks, vaccines, social distancing, and all the other medical totems of safety and security we embraced beginning in that fevered spring of 2020. But for most of us, nothing in those days was more emblematic of protection against the danger and disorder that swirled around us than our own homes. The pandemic imbued the word home with a meaning that most of us had never given it before.
“Earlier, people were using homes as transitional spaces, because we spent most of our time at work or otherwise outside the house. During the pandemic, our homes became our sanctuaries,” says Swati Goorha, a New Jersey-based interior designer. Hardware chains like Home Depot reported unprecedented demand for tools as we labored to create those sanctuaries (or paid others to create them for us). The home furnishings industry struggled to meet demand, especially for living room and bedroom furniture. We experienced a mass craving for signifiers of comfort and filled our rooms with houseplants, reflecting a trend that Goorha labels “biophilic”—decorating that draws its inspiration from nature.
Architects Stacey Ruhle Kliesch and Gary Kliesch designed an indoor/outdoor retreat in LBI. Photo by Matt Reitinger
Even before reports surfaced that Covid was less contagious in the open air, we longed to be outside, to derive those well-documented positive emotional effects of green space where we could go to have somewhere to go when everything was locked down. We blurred the boundaries between outside and in, as backyards became the new living rooms—and kitchens, playrooms and home offices. “People couldn’t travel, so they were looking to create outdoor paradises,” says landscape architect Rich Cording, founder of CLC Landscape Design in Ringwood. In a 2021 survey for the International Casual Furnishings Association, 90 percent of respondents agreed that outdoor living spaces were more valuable than ever before, and more than one-third said they planned to create a private outdoor retreat.
“The waves are the first things you see” when you look out the windows, says Stacey Ruhle Kliesch. Photo by Jessica Orlowicz
What’s particularly striking about all of these trends is that, as the pandemic appears to be retreating, our desire for home comfort is continuing apace. A report released in February of this year by the National Association of Home Builders noted that home buyers are actively seeking “a space within the home that provides respite.” And those of us who created pandemic oases use and prize them as much today as we did during lockdown and its long aftermath.
As always, denizens of the Garden State proved themselves particularly creative at these endeavors. Their inventive refuges are testament to the adaptability and resilience of a citizenry whose trials and travails have schooled them well in the true meaning of “gimme shelter.”
TRANQUILITY ON THE WATERTheir newly built getaway became a game changer during the pandemic. Photo by Jessica Orlowicz
Just as Covid emerged, Stacey Ruhle Kliesch and her husband, Gary Kliesch, were putting the final touches on the house they’d built on Long Beach Island as a waterfront getaway for themselves and their two teenage daughters. The Ridgewood-based architects designed the house to take advantage of water views, with multiple floor-to-ceiling windows and a south-facing wall that can be folded in to create an expansive indoor/outdoor space. “Because of the elevation of the house,” says Ruhle Kliesch, “you can’t see the ground plane from any of the windows, so it’s almost like you’re looking out of the windows of a cruise ship—the waves are the first things you see.”
The couple relaxes in their chic living room. Photo by Jessica Orlowicz
Those views, she notes, “were mentally soothing,” as was the opportunity to live so much of life outdoors. They’d originally envisioned an open space outside the house facing the water, but at the last minute they decided to cover it and add a ceiling fan. It changed everything for the family during lockdown: “An area that wouldn’t have been a room became a space where we were working, dining, relaxing, using it as a classroom,” Ruhle Kliesch says. “We spent a remarkable amount of time there.”
THE FAIRY GARDENThe trees were calling to her. In March of 2021, Patricia Fusaro and her neighbor bought a stretch of wooded land and subdivided it between them. She had no specific plans for the property and never imagined that the 50-by-95-foot slice of forest would support her spirit throughout the pandemic.
Then the vision emerged: A garden that would wend its way through the trees—a fairy garden! The retired art teacher set out with a bucket to a beach on Barnegat Bay and collected all the rocks she could carry. She glued them to juice bottles to create tiny houses, incorporating all manner of found objects, from acorns to hatpins. “You weren’t going out shopping,” she explains of her need to rely on found objects. Over time, neighborhoods emerged, like Sam’s Corner, named for a neighbor’s daughter, and Amelia Court, a tip of the hat to her great nieces, Amelia and Courtney.
And at the very back of the garden, Fusaro raised a pandemic retreat for humans, a “she-shed” constructed of repurposed windows and doors, where she does her crafting and hosts tea parties.
“It was like a haven,” she says. “Making that garden got me through the pandemic.”
BASEMENT FAMILY ROOMA Chatham basement was transformed into a family hangout spot. Photo courtesy of Thomas Leonczik
During the height of Covid, Carly Russo (not her real name, as she requested anonymity) couldn’t visit her native California, so she built her longing for it into the family room she and her husband commissioned in the basement of their newly purchased house in Chatham. Maplewood-based designer Hollie Velten-Lattrell filled the modern space with organic materials and playful objects, like a wave-shaped cushion topper for a built-in bench and a floor-to-ceiling corkboard for displaying art and other pandemic projects.
In fact, says Velten-Lattrell, family rooms were a big ask during Covid. “Family life before the pandemic was much more separated and detached,” she notes. “During the pandemic, family behavior changed, and we learned”—perhaps even yearned—“to coexist more.”
The U-shaped space comprises a variety of zones: a television area, a reading nook, and a crafts/homework station. It’s the place where Russo, her husband and their kids both got away and got together during the height of the pandemic, and continue to do so today. “I’ve found all three children, at different times, sitting in that reading nook actually reading,” she says, still slightly amazed, “and there have been very fierce Just Dance competitions in the TV area”—proving that family coexistence can be fun as well as uplifting, pandemic or not.
THE HIGH-RISE HAVENA Hoboken terrace became an oasis. Photo courtesy of Raquel Langworthy
Not everyone fled cities during the pandemic’s peak. Edward and Jennifer Yruma had just started work on their Hoboken condo in the spring of 2020 when they realized exactly how important their large, river-view terrace would be. “We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could make it really livable—a place where we could work, where our two daughters could run around and have fun, where we could safely entertain,” Edward says.
To that end, their designer, Jenny Madden, put in multiple spaces for seating, including a table for ten; ordered an oversized umbrella that provided all-day shade for working; and installed a series of planters equipped with an irrigation system. “We wanted greenery to bring the outdoors into an urban environment,” Edward says.
The terrace became an extension of the living room, as well as a place to refresh pandemic-weary souls. “It really was a living area for us, which was incredibly important during the pandemic,” Edward says. “And our use of it as an extension of the house continues to this day.”
Buy our May 2023 issue here. Cover photo by Chris Buck
THE OUTDOOR OASISIt was going to be a pleasant outdoor space in Towaco, with a pool and places for grilling and lounging. Then came Covid and the realization, on the part of David and Erica Paris, that their two daughters weren’t going to summer camp—in fact, the entire family wouldn’t be going much of anywhere. Suddenly, the relatively modest project morphed into something that David describes as “an environment where everyone could come and hang out during that very uncertain time.” In addition to the pool and the lounging area, they ended up putting in an extensive outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven and a counter long enough to comfortably accommodate eight, as well as a TV space, a fire feature and a changing room.
“Prior to the pandemic, people wanted to do something nice in their backyards,” says Rich Cording, their landscape architect. “But during Covid they wanted more amenities, more lounging places, more pavilions—they wanted everything in their backyard so they’d never have to leave.”
David puts it more simply: “It was a form of sanity and serenity in a time when everyone was on the verge of losing their minds.”
THE ALL-DAY BREAKFAST HOUSESome of us discovered during the pandemic that our refuges were hiding in plain sight. In 1996, Silas Mountsier and Graeme Hardie designed the little house facing their main residence in Nutley as a place to dine, with a series of French doors that folded in to allow them to eat al fresco. Mostly, it was where they breakfasted, which is why they’d always referred to it as the Breakfast House. Covid allowed them to see and use the house as a whole new space.
“We never realized when we built this just what it was gong to mean to us,” says Graeme, “because of the view”—the house looks out on their extraordinary garden, as well as the charming, early-20th-century main house—“and the sense of openness any time of the year.”
The Breakfast House has windows on three sides, from which the couple spent much of the pandemic simply taking in the beauty of the changing light. “We worked here; we dined here; we did everything here,” Graeme says. “And that’s how the house has changed for us.”
THE BACKYARD BARPaul and Christopher Irwin-Dudek decided to install a backyard bar, dubbed the Tipsy Pig, inside a 199-square-foot shed. Photo courtesy of the homeowners
Also in Nutley, Paul and Christopher Irwin-Dudek were planning to buy a shed to house their pool furniture during the off-season. But a random post on Facebook from a couple in the UK changed their plans. The couple had created a backyard bar out of exactly the kind of shed the Irwin-Dudeks were looking for, inspiring them to install a bar of their own.
The 199-square-foot space, dubbed the Tipsy Pig, is filled with quirky personal touches, including ample memorabilia devoted to the story of Tipsy herself, whom Paul describes as “the three little pigs’ gay cousin, who was not accepted by society and therefore was left out of the story.”
Walking into the shed, you’d be hard-pressed to identify it as anything but a bar, from the faux-leather stools to the big-screen TV to the glossy, dark-wood bar itself. Though she didn’t design the Tipsy Pig (all the credit goes to the homeowners), designer Jenny Madden notes that home bars were a major pandemic trend, reflecting a desire for normalcy and camaraderie (and, yes, for alcohol).
A neighbor wept upon visiting the bar during the earlier days of the pandemic. “I can’t believe I’m actually out somewhere,” she said. Photo courtesy of the homeowners
“For me, Covid was a dark time,” says Christopher. “I’m an extrovert, and I like to hug.” Even if hugging wasn’t an option in Covid’s early days, the bar offered a meeting place for the couple and their bubble (and their teenage daughter and her bubble), a place for celebrations (Christopher even got ordained so he could perform a wedding in the Tipsy), and, of course, a refuge. The couple recalls the time a neighbor first visited the bar and started to weep. “I can’t believe I’m actually out somewhere,” she told them.
More than anything, the bar is a shared space. “It’s brought us closer to our neighbors, who’ll call and ask whether the Tipsy is open,” says Paul. “And our response is, ‘The Tipsy’s always open—it just may not be staffed.’”
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Spring is upon us, and so are warm-weather dinner parties, weddings and vacations. No wonder fans of designer Sue Sartor are embracing her effortless dresses and kaftans in classic silhouettes, intricate block prints and bright colors. We caught up with Sartor, who is originally from Summit, to get the skinny.
When did you start designing?In the early ’90s in New York City, I worked for Calvin Klein’s luxury line. I saw firsthand how being authentic and staying in your lane can do great things. Today, I’m fortunate to merge my interests of art and design by creating artisan block prints, along with my own natural silk and cotton fabrics.
What was a turning point in your career?Several years ago, I designed a unique flounce dress. When my first box of stock arrived, shoppers literally bought them on the spot. That dress silhouette, the Sue Sartor Flounce, helped define a timeless style for my line.
“Joyous prints are here to stay!” says designer Sue Sartor. Photo courtesy of Brittany Daniel
What inspires your design process?I’m inspired by vintage botanical prints and elements from the garden. Sometimes I send sketches to my artisans in India to create custom-carved block prints, or we repurpose vintage blocks. My signature details are hand-pieced contrast prints, hand piping, placket-front detailing, a contrast sash and pockets. Joyous prints are here to stay!
And your recent Anthropologie line?I’ve always admired Anthropologie, so when they reached out, it was a pinch-me moment. We collaborated to create my best-selling silhouettes in fresh, new prints, and we’re thrilled that the concept has been such a hit, with many of the styles selling out quickly.
Is your family supportive of your business?Absolutely! My husband is a general surgeon, and I waited to start my business until our three kids were grown. Once you start a business, you are your brand. Anyone who has a dream of entrepreneurship should envision everything and keep a journal of ideas. Enjoy everything you do, but be willing to outsource anything that doesn’t feed your soul.
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The refreshed façade of this Princeton home includes a new covered porch and copper accents. “We were very careful how we placed the copper so the downspouts don’t conflict with the big columns in the corners,” notes architect Marc Brahaney. Photo by Tom Grimes
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- Moroccan Mindset The exterior of Chris and Debbie Sugden’s residence in Princeton, New Jersey, didn’t need a complete overhaul, but a bit of a facelift was in order. The siding was showing its age and the overall appearance needed an update. To spruce up their home’s facade, the Sugdens called on Marc Brahaney, owner of Princeton-based Lasley Brahaney Architecture + Construction.
Design NJ: What is the architectural style of this house?Marc Brahaney: This is a colonial built in the 1950s. If you look back at past styles, this home fits in the “Adam” colonial house category. It’s reminiscent of architecture dating from the late 1700s to early-to-mid 1800s. Elements of this style include a symmetrical exterior with the entry door as the focal point, multiple pieces of trim around the front door including a fan-shaped window or wood panel above the door, individual double-hung windows that are not ganged together and that align both vertically and horizontally with panes of glass divided by muntin bars (small strips of wood), shutters and two to four chimneys. This is a builder version of what colonial architecture looked like at the time colonial was original to this country.
DNJ: What was the impetus behind the project?MB: The pre-renovation house was dressed up with shutters, with trim at the front door and with large pieces of trim at the corners that were meant to mimic a giant order of columns. Other than that, it was fairly plain and unadorned. It was a little bit like a blank slate and it was fine; but the owners had reached the point where they needed to refurbish the exterior. The siding needed some maintenance and replacement. The shutters weren’t in good shape. The windows, which were original to the home, were not operating well. The owners took the need to do some significant maintenance as an opportunity to reconsider how they wanted the house to look. That led them to call us and ask us about options.
DNJ: What was the scope of the project?MB: A fair amount of the siding had deteriorated badly, so we replaced those portions in keeping with the look of the existing siding. The project also involved adjusting the nature, proportions and detail of the trim, while working within the constraints of the mass of the house. For example, the giant columns on the corners were just flat board. We added new columns with a recessed panel for interest. Along the tops of the windows, we incorporated elaborate trim.
We also replaced the garage doors, which were okay but kind of tired. They weren’t on a par with what we were doing with the rest of renovation. That’s always a challenge with a project—knowing where to stop the level of intervention. You don’t want a situation where you do a lot of work but leave 25% of what was there. That can make the new elements look unfinished.
The biggest change was the addition of a covered porch on the front of the house. That was designed to take what was a very flat and plain massing on the front and fine-tune and modulate it by adding a significant front porch. It really enhances the look of the house.
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Though I’ve long been known for my experience with fruits and vegetables, I thought I’d digress this month to talk about some other farm products I’ve come to know: Easter and Passover plants.
Growing up in a seasonal family business—Napolitano’s Produce in Bergenfield—we had to sell whatever we could to survive “shoulder” season, the cold months from November to December and March to April, when there was no local produce to sell. In addition to picking up odd jobs like shoveling snow and delivering newspapers and telephone books, my family sold Christmas trees and Easter plants to help boost the household income. So I got to learn about many of the popular plants, flowers and trees that people use to celebrate different holidays.
Easter and Passover are interesting because, occurring anywhere from early March to late April, they can dictate big differences in which flowers and plants are available from year to year. A nice thing about these holidays arriving in early-to-mid-April this year is that frost concerns should be behind us, and many early spring flowers should be in bloom. Like most everyone, I can’t wait to enjoy their bright colors and lovely scents. (And I’m also excited that the annual planting of my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers will soon be underway!)
Produce Pete discusses the range of different Easter and Passover flowers during a segment of NBC’s Weekend Today in New York. Photo courtesy of Pete Napolitano/NBC
PERENNIALSEarly in the season, bulb plants such as tulips, hyacinths, lilies and daffodils are the most prominent. After they’ve bloomed and start to lose their flowers, these plants can be cut back to about an inch or two from the bulb top and planted in the ground. They’ll come up again next year—and for years after that. Perennials are a strong and rugged variety that weather cold temperatures very well.
Tulips are one of my favorite plants—I love how the flower opens up in sunlight and closes when it gets dark.
Hyacinths have a wonderful smell, almost like perfume, and can permeate a room. Like many flowers, the aroma can trigger a wave of memories. Whenever I remember my Grandma Morrissey, for instance, I always think of hyacinths; they were her favorite.
Lilies are among the most popular Easter flowers. Very beautiful to look at, they’ll return every year if you cut them back and replant them. A quick way to keep lilies looking clean and pretty is to pull out the pollen stems from the inside of the flower. (Just be careful not to get the pollen on the white flower—that will stain the flower and make it die sooner.)
Daffodils are also visually lovely and are especially pretty planted in your yard. When daffodils start to peek out of the ground, you know spring and warmer weather are close!
Produce Pete displays a variety of Easter and Passover flowers at DePiero’s Farm Stand & Greenhouses in Montvale. Photo courtesy of Pete Napolitano
MORE GREAT PLANTS FOR EASTER & PASSOVERMums, hydrangeas, cineraria, miniature roses and azaleas are also great plants for the Easter and Passover holidays.
Mums come in many colors and remain in bloom a long time—sometimes two to three weeks. If you cut them back and plant them, mums will grow back in the fall.
Azaleas are also very pretty, but since they don’t usually bloom this early, the products typically available now at garden centers, farmers’ markets or supermarkets are ones that have been forced to bloom. If you’re planting this kind of azalea outside, be careful with them—they’re not as strong in the beginning. However, if you plant them in a spot with southern exposure and a lot of light, they should be just fine in time.
Hydrangeas, also called snowballs, are another fine option. Once planted in the ground, hydrangeas usually won’t flower for two to three years, but then they’ll do so regularly. They might also change color—from pink to blue or purple, for instance.
Years ago, my father had a whole truckload of hydrangeas to sell for Easter. When they suddenly began to wilt, my mom—the smart one in our family!—recommended we feed them some aspirin. So we bought a case of it and diluted the tablets in a big vat of water. With a pencil, we poked three or four holes in the soil around each plant, then submerged them in the aspirin-infused water up to their soil levels. We watched as bubbles appeared in the holes, and when the bubbles stopped, we knew each plant was sufficiently saturated. Sure enough, it worked: The hydrangeas perked right up! As our family learned time and time again, mom was always right! To help your own potted hydrangeas stay healthy, simply dilute two aspirin in water and give them a drink.
Nothing warms us up after winter quite like the colors, fragrances and new growth of spring! Enjoy it all, and have a happy and healthy Easter or Passover.
About “Produce Pete” NapolitanoWith over 65 years of experience in the produce industry, New Jersey’s own “Produce Pete” Napolitano is a renowned fruit and vegetable expert, author and TV personality who’s appeared on a highly popular segment on NBC’s Weekend Today in New York Saturday mornings for over 28 years. His new book, They Call Me Produce Pete: Food, Memories and Cherished Family Recipes From America’s Favorite Expert on Fruit and Vegetables, is now available. For more information, visit producepete.com.
About Susan BloomA regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly and a variety of other well-known local and national publications, Susan Bloom is an award-winning New Jersey-based freelance writer who covers topics ranging from health and lifestyle to business, food and more. She’s collaborated with Produce Pete on a broad range of articles for over a decade.
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All photos courtesy of the manufacturers
TURN IT ON: Meg Braff’s brass table lamp with a scalloped shade perks up any space. Available in baby blue and other hues; $900 at megbraffdesigns.com. TREASURE CHEST: The Currey & Co. Santos chest in rattan and mahogany wows with a groovy swirl pattern; $2,765 from CWI.Design in New Providence. IN FULL BLOOM: Clarence House fabric and wallpaper in Marguerite pattern will elevate your home with garden-fresh style. Available at clarencehouse.com.SO SIMPLE: The classically elegant Ellen chair by Dowel Furniture is as comfy as it is chic; $1,500 at dowelfurniturecompany.com.STEP ON IT: Matilda Goad’s jute and wool rug delights with a whimsical squiggle pattern. Various sizes available at anthropologie.com.TAKE A SEAT: The new Chatham sofa offers luxe, button-tufted comfort. Fully customizable at Serena & Lily stores and serenaandlily.com.Follow our home & style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
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Tempaper & Co.’s wallpaper can be seamlessly removed and replaced without damaging walls. Photo courtesy of Tempaper & Co.
Twin sisters Jennifer Matthews and Julia Biancella Au, Jersey natives, became business partners in 2008, when they launched Tempaper. Their business revolutionized wallpaper by making it readily removable without damaging walls.
The Brick-based company’s self-adhesive designs come in hundreds of styles that run the gamut from classic to modern looks.
Celebrating its 15th anniversary with a rebranded name, Tempaper & Co., the company has put forth a revitalized website, collaborations with brands like alice+olivia, and new ventures, such as wall decals, murals and vinyl floor mats.
Wallflowers? There’s nothing shy about twin sisters Jennifer Matthews, left, and Julia Biancella Au’s peel-and-stick wall designs. Photo courtesy of Tempaper & Co.
How long does Tempaper stay up?This is our most asked question. Words like temporary are used to describe peel-and-stick wallpaper because of how the product peels off, not when. Tempaper is a long- or short-term design choice.
What is the most creative use of Tempaper a customer has shared?Along with transforming entire rooms, customers create accent walls, line bookcases, stair risers and ceilings. Tempaper has been used for backdrops on production sets for film and television, photography backdrops, retail displays, trade show booths and wedding venues.
What trends do you see in color and/or patterns for 2023?Our team is focused on embracing a traditional design aesthetic that leans into past art movements and styles, pairing them with a contemporary color palette.
The brand has always been inspired by vintage looks, especially with our chinoiserie collections. Designs for 2023 will also incorporate a lot of layering, with neutral tones with decomposed geometrics and coastal-influenced patterns. An example of that is the most recent launch, the Wild Canvas Collection, which features playful palms and folklore prints.
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When a young Short Hills family launched their multiroom decorating project, they turned to interior designer Kristina Phillips of Ridgewood, who reimagined their living room, primary bedroom and adjoining sitting-room kitchenette in a sophisticated, artistic way.
“My clients are well traveled, so I wanted their spaces to reflect the artwork they collected along the way. When embarking on a design project, I always ask the family about their favorite destinations and hotels. As soon as the homeowners mentioned Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, I understood their vibe and started to design around a beachy theme with a Mediterranean feel—cool blues, aquas and greens, punched up with bright colors,” says Phillips.
Bold artwork and painted, upholstered chairs warm up a corner of the bedroom suite, a favorite spot for a cup of tea outside the adjoining kitchenette. Photo by Jane Beiles
Having grown up in the Bahamas, Germany and France, the designer relates to her clients’ penchant for travel and their desire to bring culture, authenticity and originality to the homes she reimagines. “Whether it’s just a few rooms or a whole house, it’s important to create spaces that are unique and authentic to clients’ experiences and taste by listening first to their stories,” the designer says.
“For the living room, we wanted a space that was welcoming and sophisticated and felt like a trip to someplace new and exciting,” says the homeowner. “Seating was chosen to feel like a comfortable lounge where you can settle in and sip a cocktail, which is exactly how we use the space. The living room is now our chosen pre-dinner spot with friends who enjoy knowing the stories behind the art, fabrics and décor.”
The lounge area wows with colors, patterns and sculptural shelves loaded with books and objets d’art. Photo by Jane Beiles
The project began, literally, from the ground up, with a custom wool rug that pulled in the colors of the artwork. A pelmet window treatment was designed in the style of an Asian pagoda, complementd by natural woven shades to add texture and privacy when lowered. As a finishing touch to the primary living room wall and a nod to the homeowners’ love of butterflies, Phillips commissioned porcelain butterflies from France, each hand molded in various stages of flight and then hand painted.
“The home is kid friendly, with durable performance fabrics,” says Phillips. “The fabric we chose for the living room window seat was a bit more precious and, since window seats are kid magnets, we had that material treated to withstand use by an active family.”
The dreamy primary bedroom was reimagined to create five distinct living areas. A bright, vibrant palette and organic textures contribute to the every-day-is-a-vacay vibe. Photo by Jane Beiles
The project also included a retreat-like primary bedroom that optimized the area’s large footprint. The space was divided into distinct zones, including a sleeping area with a fireplace flanked by comfy window seats, and an adjacent lounge area.
The bedroom features a bonus element: a galley kitchenette with its own seating area, a coffee and wine bar, and floating shelves that offer storage for bed linens and towels. The project was an exercise in smart space planning; by designing several functional areas within the very large bedroom, five usable spaces were ultimately created.
The well-appointed kitchenette is a wallpapered bonus nook where coffee, wine and snacks are always on hand. Photo by Jane Beiles
“After 18 months of design,” says the homeowner, “we’re thrilled with the end result and find ourselves entertaining more in what had been a seldom-used area. We are so happy with our new living room, as well as our own private retreat.”
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A large modern painting, a bold grass-cloth wallcovering and an abstract contemporary chandelier are among the steps the designer took to balance the traditional feel of this dining room’s Queen Anne-style mahogany table, chairs and server, all of which the homeowners wanted to keep. Photo by John Ferrentino
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- How to Create a Stress-Free Zone in Your Home The layers of dark molding and brown, heavily patterned wallpaper in the foyer were overwhelming, as was a home office with dark green walls. A warren of small rooms, closed off to one another by French doors, was almost suffocating. Furnishings had luxury brand names, but the styles hearkened back to the conspicuous consumption proclivities of the 1980s, even though the home had been professionally redesigned much more recently.
It was serendipitous, then, that the owner of the Essex County home wandered—Starbucks in hand—into a home design store one day during a foray into downtown Livingston. When the store owner, designer Tracey Butler, explained the concept of the business, the homeowner noted coincidentally that she and her husband were considering redoing their primary bathroom.
She invited Butler to visit the home to talk about the bathroom project, and the moment she arrived the ideas started flowing for other rooms also. The homeowner liked the ideas so well that before all was said and done, Butler had redesigned the entire Livingston home as well as the couple’s vacation home in New York state.
At the Livingston house, the owners appreciate dramatic design. The previous designer responded to that mandate with dark walls, traditional furnishings, faux finishes, many mixed patterns, and layers and layers of details. “I proposed creating drama with a lighter, simpler, more modern look,” Butler says. “We started by getting rid of everything except the architectural details, some of the expensive furniture they purchased for the previous redesign and whatever was sentimental. From there, the owners gave me free reign to create a more open floor plan, simpler textures and a lighter palette.”
Any new furnishings had to stand up to the couple’s three children (two were in college and one in high school when the project began) and their friends. “The owners also do a lot of casual entertaining of their own friends and extended family, so it was important to them that everything be comfortable and durable,” says Butler, who has since relocated her design business, b. home interiors, to New York City and launched Clear Home Design, featuring luxury Lucite® and glass home furnishings.
Butler’s first impression of the home came in the foyer, which she found depressingly overdone. “The homeowners are so stylish, so well put together,” Butler says. “This space didn’t reflect who they are.” The owners wanted to keep the applied molding and ceiling trim, so Butler lightened it with cream-colored paint with subtle iridescence. She replaced the dark wallpaper inside the molding with an iridescent wall covering in the same shade as the paint. A light-wood demilune chest with a metallic finish and colorful paintings on the upper walls add more drama. Dark terra cotta tiles with heavy grout lines were replaced with 18-inch crema marfil marble tiles with tight grout lines. “The iridescent and reflective finishes give the foyer sparkle,” Butler says. “The homeowner got the formality and glamour she wanted, but in a much more modern way.”
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We’re a sucker for free shows.
The Jersey-bred Jonas Brothers are set to kick off the Today show’s free Citi Concert Series on May 12, the same day their hotly anticipated sixth record, The Album, is released. The outdoor series takes place at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
“You don’t want to miss it,” Joe Jonas said on Thursday’s episode of the NBC morning show, announcing the concert while sitting alongside his brother-bandmates Kevin and Nick Jonas.
News of the show comes as Kevin, 35, Joe, 33, and Nick, 30, are wrapping up a five-night Broadway residency at the Marquis Theatre. Each night featured a different album from the Grammy-nominated group’s discography—and tickets were tough to score. The residency concludes Saturday with a debut performance of The Album.
Though the guys—who formed the band in 2005, broke up in 2013 and reunited in 2019—grew up in Wyckoff, Kevin is the only brother who still lives in New Jersey. He and his wife, Danielle Jonas, are raising their two daughters in Denville, near Danielle’s parents and some of her childhood friends.
“We are true Jersey, through and through,” Kevin told New Jersey Monthly in an interview last year.
Kevin is grateful New Jersey can serve as a home base for Danielle and the kids while the band tours, telling us: “It’s been a blessing—really nice for us to have a safe place here and a community around us.”
Although Nick and Joe now live on the West Coast, they do get a taste of Jersey when they’re back visiting their home state—if Kevin and Danielle have anything to do with it. “We still bring the Taylor ham to them,” Danielle told us of the guys’ visits. “Or the meatballs.”
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Zach Braff wrote his new movie, “A Good Person,” during one of the most difficult periods in his life. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
During a pivotal moment in Zach Braff’s new movie, A Good Person, lead actress Florence Pugh stands on the platform at the South Orange train station waiting for her ride into Manhattan. It’s the same place where Braff, who grew up in South Orange and Maplewood, waited countless times as a teen on his way to auditions in New York, yearning to make his showbiz dreams come true.
Braff, who wrote and directed A Good Person, could have filmed that scene—and the entire movie—in any town in the United States. He could have set the story—which revolves around a woman (Pugh) dealing with tragedy, addiction and an unlikely and complicated friendship with her ex-fiancé’s father (played by Morgan Freeman)—anywhere. But for Braff, it’s always been about New Jersey.
“I love my hometown and I want to tell stories about my hometown,” he says.
In recent years, a growing number of productions have opted to shoot in New Jersey, after Governor Phil Murphy reinstated tax incentives for film and television projects in 2018. But what sets Braff apart from many of his colleagues is that, to him, New Jersey isn’t just a backdrop. He not only works here, but builds storylines around the place he grew up because his home state means something to him. “We love him for that,” says Steven Gorelick, executive director of the NJ Motion Picture and TV Commission.
Braff filmed much of “A Good Person” in his hometowns of South Orange and Maplewood, including at his high school, Columbia. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Braff’s Jersey pride could not have been spelled out any more clearly than with the title of his directorial debut, the highly lauded 2004 film Garden State, which he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Natalie Portman. Referring to A Good Person (which his theaters on March 24), he says, “Of course I could have told the story anywhere, but I wouldn’t have related to it.”
Braff spent his formative years in New Jersey; it was where he experienced the joys of being a class clown, the pain of his parents’ divorce, the wonders of catching the acting bug. Five years ago, New Jersey was where he saw his father, Harold Braff, who imbued in him a love of theater and of New Jersey, lose his battle with cancer. “I don’t know what the equivalent of patriotic for your state is, but he was that; he just loved Jersey,” Braff recalls of his father. “And I think he instilled that in me.”
Braff describes himself as a “bit melancholic” during his childhood. After his parents divorced, they shared joint custody of Braff and his siblings. “I think I had OCD and I was dealing with anxiety. I was a bit lost,” Braff says.
Braff had “zero interest in sports” (today he uses exercise, specifically riding on his stationary Peloton bike, as a stress reliever), which was “tough,” as team sports are often an important part of making friends. Instead, Braff made movies with his pals and tried to make other kids laugh.
He remembers a seminal moment in fifth grade, when he was assigned an essay. “I wrote mine using other kids in the class as the characters in this funny essay, and I got up in front of the room and read it,” he says. “I remember the kids cracking up and belly laughing, and I remember seeing the teacher in the back of the room belly laughing. And I was like, This is the greatest feeling ever. I wrote this, and they’re all giving me this affirmation. It was kind of at that moment that I was like, So is this a job that you can do?”
Braff, seen on the set of “A Good Person,” says his father imbued in him a love of theater—and New Jersey. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Braff got his first taste of acting thanks to his dad, an attorney and law professor at Rutgers, who acted in local community theater performances on the side. Starting around age 10, Braff would tag along to his dad’s rehearsals with the Livingston Community Players and Florham Park Players and help out behind the scenes. “I was kind of like their mascot,” Braff says. Despite his age, the stage crew soon started taking him seriously because “they saw what a hard worker I was.”
He truly fell in love with acting while attending Stagedoor Manor, a prestigious theater camp in upstate New York. He soon began auditioning for professional gigs and landed his first at 14, a pilot for CBS produced by the famed Bruce Paltrow, called High. It was a gritty high school drama set and filmed in New Jersey. Interestingly, High was also the first role for Bruce’s daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was cast as the “pretty high school senior, and I was sort of the nerdy high school freshman,” Braff says.
Fast-forward thirty years, and Braff was back at his old high school, Columbia, to shoot A Good Person in the fall of 2021. Locals will appreciate the location-spotting opportunities in the movie. Braff features places that are meaningful to him, including Columbia, from which he graduated in 1993; the South Orange Duck Pond, where as a kid he loved to steer an electric boat and feed the ducks with his mother; and the South Orange train station, which, to a teenage Braff, represented the possibility of pursuing what he loved most.
“One of the special things about being in South Orange and Maplewood was that direct line to Penn Station,” he says. “When other kids would go off to soccer or lacrosse practice, I was going into the city to audition.”
Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman star in “A Good Person.” Braff does not have an on-screen role in the movie. Photo: Jeong Park/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
During one scene in the movie filmed at a soccer game at Columbia, you can even see an apartment building where Braff’s father lived following his divorce from Braff’s mom.
The movie was filmed mostly in South Orange and Maplewood, but also includes scenes shot in Clifton (Colonial Pharmacy), Elizabeth (the now-shuttered Pastime Tavern), Morristown (Loyola Jesuit Center) and other area towns. Braff wanted to shoot at the Livingston Mall, where he hung out as a teen at the arcade (which has long been closed), but the film’s budget wouldn’t allow for an additional location.
The movie’s subject matter is also very personal for Braff. He wrote it during one of the most difficult periods of his life. In a four-year span that included a portion of the pandemic, he lost his father to cancer, his sister to an aneurysm, his manager Chris Huvane to suicide, and his best friend, the Broadway actor Nick Cordero, to Covid-19. Braff says he “needed to write” in order to deal with the grief and to “find some purpose.” “It just felt completely inauthentic to write about anything other than tragedy and the human desire to stand back up after tragedy,” he says.
However, Braff says he wanted to stay true to himself and not make the movie maudlin. As any fan of Braff’s hilarious work in the long-running TV series Scrubs can confirm, Braff has serious comic chops. A Good Person has funny moments, particularly some with Freeman and with Saturday Night Live legend Molly Shannon, who plays the mother of Allison (Pugh).
“It’s how me and my family deal with loss—we find humor and we find ways to laugh and have a release,” Braff says.
As the title suggests, Braff’s directorial debut, “Garden State,” took place in New Jersey.
Braff does not appear in this movie, something unexpected for him; he starred in both Garden State and his 2014 film, Wish I Was Here (which he wrote with his brother Adam Braff). “I wanted to tell, for the first time, a story that was what I was feeling in my heart, but not necessarily about me.”
He wrote the movie for its star, Pugh, whom he was dating at the time. “We were dating, and she is just a phenomenon to me,” he says. The two are no longer together, but speak fondly of each other.
Pugh says that having “someone who knows me so well write a character for my voice only has to be one of the most unique and bonding feelings.” She also says living and filming in New Jersey was “the highlight for me. Especially with Zach’s personal history and ties there, it felt so special to be bringing this story to life there.”
These days, Braff no longer lives in New Jersey. He studied film at Northwestern University in Illinois and has homes in Los Angeles and New York. But he comes to New Jersey to visit family, and, of course, to make movies.
His impact on the state is important. Gorelick, of the film and TV commission, says A Good Person spent $11 million in New Jersey (In comparison, some TV series spend $80 million-$100 million on one season, he says). In addition to economic growth for the state, Gorelick says that a movie like A Good Person gives New Jersey publicity that no amount of advertising can provide.
For Braff, his home state is so much more than a location: “New Jersey’s a character in the movie.”
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Every two years, designers and home décor enthusiasts from New Jersey and New York make their pilgrimage to the Mansion in May Designer Showhouse and Gardens. This year, the big event happens at the Three Fields country residence in the heart of bucolic Mendham.
Set on 36 acres of rolling hills, the 9,000-square-foot, stone, très-chic French manor-style home was designed by New York architect Greville Rickard and completed in 1930. Visitors will notice romantic architectural elements such as a steeply pitched tile roof and French doors that open to the formal gardens, ponds and fields.
The Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center’s elaborate fundraising event, which celebrates architectural history and daring design, will benefit the expansion and modernization of Morristown Medical Center’s Institute of Bioskills Training and Innovation. This year’s mansion involves 29 interior designers, 14 landscape designers and more than 1,000 volunteers contributing 15,000 hours.
Three Fields is open to the public daily from May 1 to May 31.
Mansion in May typically attracts more than 20,000 visitors, so head to mansioninmay.org now to order your tickets ($50 for general admission) or to book a private tour.
On-site parking is not available, but free off-site parking and shuttle service are included in the ticket price.
“Mansion in May always attracts prestigious designers, and this year is no exception,” says Alexandra Elliott, Mansion in May design co-chair. Adds Lisa Overley, design co-chair: “We received an impressive number of proposals from a multitude of well-known design firms in the New Jersey/New York area and their creativity, vision and inventiveness was outstanding.”
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Jessica and Jeff Gurtman fell in love with their 100-year-old house years before they owned it. “Our family used to live right next door,” Jeff says. “We had always admired the home that belonged to our good friends. When they sold it to us in 2019, it was an easy move—we just carried our stuff across the backyard.”
The Gurtmans are passionate about mid-century, industrial, and eclectic vintage and antique furniture and artwork. Their Maplewood home embraces a masterful mix of paintings, sculpture and objets d’art with pedigreed provenance, as well as quirky curiosities, all thoughtfully picked, researched and displayed.
Jessica and Jeff Gurtman hunt for treasures throughout New Jersey and the tristate area together. Photo by Laura Moss
“What started as a hobby with my husband evolved into our little family business, Essex Co. Vintage, in 2017,” Jessica says. They sell through essexcovintage.com, Instagram (@essexcovintage), and occasionally at pop-up shops and holiday boutiques. “We love our side gig, but it doesn’t pay the mortgage,” Jeff says.
Somewhat surprisingly, these two creative spirits maintain non-artistic day jobs. Jessica is a manager for a global tech company, overseeing strategic partnerships. Jeff, an executive with a consulting firm, creates and measures customer loyalty in the hospitality, retail and heath care industries. A decade ago, he gained a level of celebrity as one of the hosts of the Travel Channel’s Travel Spies, visiting and rating global hospitality destinations undercover.
Today, the Gurtmans orchestrate most of their treasure hunting in New Jersey and the tristate area, pursuing their collecting passion as a team. “Some couples golf or bowl together. We buy and sell art, décor and furniture,” Jeff says.
A tour of their comfortable, unfussy home is peppered with comments like, “We found this art at an estate sale, and that vase at a flea market, and this lamp was my mom’s—and this chair some guy just gave us because he didn’t have room for it.”
In the family room, an Alex Katz textile steals the show, flanked by an Eames lounge chair and woven wicker coyote by Mario Torres. Photo by Laura Moss
Among their most desired collectibles are carved tramp art frames, folk-art heads and busts, old oil portraits, vintage lucite, and animal figures in wood, leather and brass. “We like things that other people don’t have,” Jessica says. A self-taught artist, she also paints and sells her framed artwork in their online shop.
Almost everything displayed in the playfully patterned, circa-1920 home has been previously loved. “Jess and I coalesce around the intriging details of each piece. We edit each other and both have veto power,” Jeff admits. “To us, buying vintage is as much about a love of the past as it is protection for our planet,” Jessica adds.
Jessica and Jeff Gurtman’s dining room décor pops with Morris & Co. Brer Rabbit wallpaper, a nod to the family of bunnies that resides in the backyard; a huge, round table teamed with eight ghost chairs; a buffet created by designer Vladimir Kagan’s father; and a trove of funky paintings and objets d’art. Photo by Laura Moss
“People see our home and are surprised that kids live here. But we think it’s possible for children to enjoy vintage art and décor in a lived-in space. We realize that homes are meant to be lived in, so we buy high-quality, but not-too-precious, pieces that last. Worst case, if something breaks, it’s an excuse to replace it with a new find,” Jeff says. “It’s not uncommon to drag our kids, ages 7 and 5, out of the house at 6 am to arrive at the Golden Nugget flea market in Lambertville before daybreak. We hope to instill in them an appreciation for old things.”
The family’s renovated kitchen offers a neutral backdrop pumped up with a collection of copper teapots and folk art. Photo by Laura Moss
Jessica adds, “The part we enjoy most is finding and sharing art that brings our customers joy. The moment this business becomes work, we’ll hang it up. But for now, we’re having a blast.”
When will the Gurtmans stop collecting cool old stuff? “Never,” assures Jeff.
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It’s the simple things, like a Taylor ham, egg and cheese on an everything bagel, that Rachel Zegler missed most about New Jersey while she was away for nearly all of 2022 filming two movies. Oh, and the diners. Can’t forget the diners.
“Anywhere else in the world, if the menu is longer than three pages, you shouldn’t go there,” the 21-year-old Clifton native jokes.
After celebrating the holidays with her family in her childhood home, Zegler is slowly settling into Eastern Standard Time in her new apartment in New York City. This March, her second film, DC Comics’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods, premieres. In her superhero movie debut, Zegler plays Anthea, sister of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu’s characters. The auditions were entirely over Zoom. Zegler didn’t even know what role she had read for until the director, David Sandberg, called to tell her she landed it.
“I fell in love with the idea [that]… you don’t really know if she’s good or bad,” Zegler says of the character. “Everybody already assumed she’s a villain. But you don’t know, and that’s what’s really fun about playing Anthea.”
[RELATED: How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend]
Zegler was filming the Shazam! sequel in Atlanta right before her big-screen debut, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, came out in December 2021. That was just the beginning for Zegler, as she won a Golden Globe for her star turn as María in West Side Story. Then 2022 called for six months in London filming Disney’s live-action Snow White—in which she plays the title character—and a few more months in Poland for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in which Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird. In between takes, she learned to play guitar for the part.
There have also been high-profile appearances at the Oscars and Grammys.
Zegler’s rise to stardom began in her home state. Just 16 years old at the time, she tried out for the iconic character of María in West Side Story through an open casting call. It took a year of callbacks before she landed the breakout role, which had her film scenes in Paterson.
Zegler played María in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios
When Spielberg rang, Zegler was a senior at Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi and about to play Fiona in the school’s musical production of Shrek. She had never had a professional performing job before.
When the casting news broke, tickets sold out quickly for the musical. Fans clamored for Zegler’s autograph, and the school added extra security due to heightened interest in its leading lady.
“The whole world knew what was happening. It really changed everything to suddenly have the world watching you in this tiny little school,” says Gregory Liosi, the school’s theater director and the artistic director of the Hackensack Performing Arts Center. He directed Zegler in Shrek and three other leading roles in high school musicals.
During those four years, people close to Zegler assumed she was Broadway bound. No one imagined Hollywood would come first. “We were all aware that she obviously had a future. After high school, she’d audition, get something on Broadway, and that would be her path,” Liosi says.
Even from an early age, Zegler had it, explains Kathleen Kellaigh, Zegler’s former director and the artistic director of ACT Studios in Clifton. “She naturally has that presence,” Kellaigh says. “She gets it innately. She’s born to that greatness. When you are in her presence, there is this energy that is palpable.”
Zegler was 12 years old when Kellaigh met her at an audition for the Theater League of Clifton’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. Zegler’s mom, Gina, had seen an ad for auditions in the Clifton Journal and “thought it would be good for me because I had just started to sing out,” Zegler recalls. “I just started to use my voice in a powerful way, and my mom was really instrumental in making sure that I explored that aspect of my life.”
Zegler was influenced by stage and screen legends Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera and Sutton Foster. Photo courtesy of Nathan Johnson
The production marked Zegler’s first foray into musical theater.
For the next few months during rehearsals, if anyone in the cast was missing, Zegler could step in, Kellaigh says. “She was not only holding her own against the adults, but leading the adults. Not deliberately; it wasn’t like she would take over. It was just by being who she was and taking the chances that she was willing to take.”
Growing up, Zegler was influenced by stage and screen legends Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera and Sutton Foster. It’s not lost on Zegler that she played two roles Foster originated: Fiona in Shrek and Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She even got an Instagram message from Foster raving about her West Side Story performance. “It was life changing to read that from somebody that you admire so much,” Zegler says. “My soul left my body.”
Singin’ in the Rain was Zegler’s favorite movie as a kid, and she loved 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac. But watching movie after movie was all for fun at the time—or so Zegler thought. “It wasn’t until after I started working in film that I realized how influenced I was,” she says.
Zegler’s favorite New Jersey celebrity is none other than Bruce Springsteen, who came to visit the set of West Side Story. When asked what her dream New Jersey performance venue would be, she immediately recites a Boss-centric family tale. “My dad stumbled in on Bruce Springsteen performing at the Columns down at Avon-by-the-Sea,” Zegler recalls. “Everybody’s just eating their Thursday prime rib special. I would do that. I think that’s fun.”
When college was approaching, some of Zegler’s theater directors felt she didn’t need to go. Kellaigh remembers telling Zegler’s mom, “Don’t worry about the college thing. This is something you need to understand about her. Her time is now.” Zegler was accepted into Montclair State University’s musical theater program for the fall of 2019. She deferred to shoot West Side Story.
Zegler felt filming Shazam! was like freshman year of college. “Being on your own is such an interesting thing when you’re coming out of a pandemic,” she says. “It was like my real college experience…because I was living in the same space as so many people that I was working with and seeing at work every day.”
Zegler doesn’t feel college will ever be off the table, but she is adamant that she will pick a different major if she ever attends. “Probably something that would service the world rather than myself,” she says.
Zegler’s passion for other people helps her stand out as much as her acting chops.
One year, for the school musical Beauty and the Beast, Zegler posed for pictures as part of a fundraiser. “The way she interacted with the children who came up to take a picture, without any training whatsoever, was spot on,” Liosi remembers. “She was so good at it, effervescent, and so kind to every single person that took a picture. I used to jokingly say that Disney made her in a lab because she was so perfect in that sort of Disney persona when she was Belle [in Beauty and the Beast] and [Ariel] in The Little Mermaid. Next year, she’s going to be on the big screen in Snow White. So I guess I was right. My joke came true.”
After filming four consecutive movies and an upcoming animated musical, Zegler is ready to check off her biggest dream: Broadway.
It’s “closer than everyone thinks,” she teased. “I’m bursting at the seams about it. So very soon.”
Leigh Scheps is an entertainment reporter from the Jersey Shore who has never met Bruce Springsteen.
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The open-plan kitchen/dining area/living room is ideal for entertaining. Photo by Christian Harder
- More on city living via Design NJ:
- Mixing & Matching in a Jersey City Brownstone
- A Hoboken Kitchen Comes Back Strong
- It’s All About This View in Bergen County Joan Enger faced several challenges when she designed a Hoboken condominium for a young family, not least of which was its relatively small size. The 1,700-square-foot space needed to accommodate the varied requirements of the couple and their two children. Fortunately, the designer was brought into the project during its earliest stages. “We were hired alongside the architect months before demolition would begin—the ideal scenario,” she says.
The early involvement allowed Enger, owner of Hoboken-based J. Patryce Design, to work closely with the homeowners throughout the construction and design process. The space had good bones, a fact that helped inform the new layout. “The 17-foot industrial ceilings were incredible to work with,” Enger notes, “and enabled us to centrally locate the kitchen by running the water and power underneath the raised children’s wing, thereby creating a unique split-level design.”
In the children’s wing, the clients requested separate bedrooms and bathrooms for each child. “At first,” Enger says, “I thought this would result in spaces that were too tight and cut up.” However, after reallocating square footage, “we were able to make this work perfectly. Although the bathrooms are compact, they don’t feel cramped due to the 9-foot ceiling height, floating vanities and fully tiled walls.”
The teamwork between the homeowners and the design professionals continued with the rest of the space. “We were able to collaborate on the floor plan and kitchen design, as well as the abundance of custom millwork throughout. Through thoughtful planning, we were able to incorporate the majority of wish-list items into a relatively compact space.”
Though the process was thoughtful and careful, it was not slowly paced. “The timeline was probably our biggest challenge,” Enger says. “The owners originally wanted the entire project done by Christmas (we started demolition in August). Although we did not finish by Christmas, they were able to move in by March—about six months in total for a full gut renovation—not bad!”
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When a Westfield couple craved a first-floor refresh that offered more livable space, a dramatic renovation fit the bill.
The home, built in the 1990s and nestled on a quiet street, had great bones. It offered original, 6-inch-thick, locally mined stone walls and an attractive layout and style. But it needed a 21st-century makeover to accommodate the homeowners, their three children, four grandchildren and two beloved English springer spaniels.
The sleek kitchen wows in white marble, natural white-oak finishes and custom cabinetry. Photo by Laura Moss
A move was out of the question because of the family’s strong ties to Westfield, where they’ve resided for three decades. Although their daughters maintain homes nearby and their son lives just across the river in New York City, the parents’ property remains party central.
After a six-month facelift, the homeowners now spend time in their spacious, sleek kitchen, enlarged to fit a huge see-through pantry with a custom steel-and-glass wall. Favorite features include a generously proportioned white marble island, natural finishes such as white-oak shelves, a pop-out bottom drawer that holds two dog bowls, and floor lights that dramatically illuminate the interior stone walls.
The corner bar area features hands-free, motorized cabinetry and a wine fridge. Photo by Laura Moss
A just-right-sized coffee bar is thoughtfully designed with a convenient wall spigot for filling the pot each morning, along with cabinetry to corral all the mugs. An adjacent family room includes a second counter area with a peninsula bar, as well as a wine fridge.
The homeowners turned to Michael Robert Construction and Ellie Mroz Design of Westfield to turn their wish list into a more hospitable, sprawling compound. “Because the couple loves to entertain, it was important to give them a more functional kitchen and family-room space, roomy enough for catered parties, but cozy enough to read a book or watch the morning news from the peninsula television,” interior designer Ellie Mroz says. So she focused on family-friendly fabrics and carpet, plenty of cabinetry to hold (and hide) everyday kitchenware, and a year-round backyard retreat space.
From left: A TV vanishes into the kitchen counter when not in use. The see-through pantry, with a black steel-and-glass wall, is visible behind the counter. Photos by Laura Moss
Contractor Michael Mroz says, “Besides making the home visually appealing, we considered storage needs and how each space would be used by an active three-generation family.” The husband-and-wife design-build team, who often collaborate under the moniker MRCxEMD, has appeared on NBC’s George to the Rescue home-renovation series alongside fellow New Jerseyan George Oliphant.
The exterior phase of the project transformed the traditional backyard into a cool, Zen-style resort with swimming, barbecuing and dining areas. Even in frigid months, the homeowners and their guests use the area to roast marshmallows and enjoy the glow of gas-lit firebowls.
Beloved canines enjoy the Zen-inspired backyard. Photo by Laura Moss
After six months of complicated renovations, the luxe but highly livable property exudes a fresh aesthetic punctuated with comfortable furnishings and authentic, touchable surfaces. It might be cold outside, but it’s always warm and welcoming inside those 30-year-old stone walls.
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White paint and vivid trim add curb appeal to the formerly brown-brick façade. A dated multipaned front window was replaced with a cleaner, modern version. Asymmetrical, vertically stacked windows in the new garage “are a direct reference to a popular style of the 1950s and ’60s,” says designer Andrew Suvalsky, pictured (right) with husband Michael Doan and twins Lucy and Joey. Photo by dluxcreative
- Related posts from Design NJ:
- 9 Midcentury-Style Pieces for Your Home
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- Tempting Terrazzo Seeking more space for their growing family in 2020, designer Andrew Suvalsky and husband Michael Doan looked at various suburbs around New York City to raise their now 3½-year-old twins, Lucy and Joey. The search quickly ended in Essex County.
“Montclair has a special vibe” with its all-American feeling, mature tree-lined streets, walkability factor, beautiful architecture and more, says Suvalsky, principal of Andrew Suvalsky Designs. Moreover, “its reputation of being a progressive and welcoming community”—and its proximity to his Manhattan-based design studio—“all made sense.”
The 3,300 square-foot ranch-style home with a total of five bedrooms and three bathrooms “is big enough for us to feel comfortable, but not overwhelmed,” Suvalsky says. A finished basement has additional space for the kids to play, along with a second kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
“I really related to the Midcentury traditional style” and the fact the home was well maintained by the previous owners of 50 years. Still, he and Doan sought to put their personal stamp on the house. “I saw so much potential unrealized,” Suvalsky says. “From my perspective, it deserved—if not required—a significant overhaul.”
A five-month renovation transformed the 1952 home, including the exterior’s formerly brown-brick façade. “I wanted it much sharper and brighter but still classic,” hence the choice to repaint the brick white, Suvalsky says. Vivid blue trim adds depth, and the new yellow front door “is a literal and metaphorical gateway” to the yellow accents you see inside. So are hues of blue. “It was very important that the outside reference the interior and vice versa,” he says.
His vision for the interior? “I love a playful, updated twist on Midcentury Modern design,” Suvalsky says. His affinity for the style was formed in part from his childhood days watching great television sitcoms. “I remember loving the way the interiors looked” in shows like I Love Lucy, Bewitched and The Brady Bunch. “While I wanted to bring in an element of that, I also appreciate an eclectic mix of more modern touches and occasionally some much older ones.” Overall, “I wanted the house to feel warm, fun, inviting and balanced room to room, while not being too minimalist or repeating the same feeling or color scheme.”
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While location is always paramount in real estate, when the owners of this modern Haddonfield home were house shopping, they had more than a nice neighborhood in mind. “Their goal was to be near their grandchildren,” says architect Jay Reinert, who designed the 2,800-square-foot home.
When Reinert first showed the property to the eventual homeowners, a pair of doctors (one medical, the other a psychologist) on the verge of retirement, the existing house was a mid-century modern with a leaking oil tank. Despite this, Reinert was sure that the property could deliver what his clients were looking for.
The living room boasts generous light and a view of the yard. Photo courtesy of European Home/Matt Wargo
The location, near family, was ideal in more ways than one. The home stood adjacent to a National Historic Landmark where, in the mid-1800s, a chance recognition of dinosaur bones eventually led to the discovery of the most complete skeletal dinosaur—also a new breed—that had been found anywhere in the world at that time.
The element of the paleontological findings at the landmark, now dubbed the Hadrosaurus foulkii Leidy site, fascinated Reinert and spurred his creativity as he considered how bones fit together to serve the whole, and how a home, too, should be united by a central theme that integrates its parts.
Wood finishes add warmth to the kitchen. Photo courtesy of European Home/Matt Wargo
“It’s a traditional neighborhood, and I wanted the house to be an exciting find,” he says, explaining that he wanted to capture the enthusiasm generated by the discovery of dinosaur bones in the former farmland.
Reinert’s design ultimately took its cue from the concept of interlocking parts. He designed the home as “separate masses. Each mass has a function—a sleeping mass, a living/dining mass—with ligaments that hold them together,” he says, explaining the ligaments are the home’s circulation, connecting the masses.
Front-facing windows offer privacy. Photo courtesy of European Home/Matt Wargo
The masses are placed at right angles to each other, positioned to maximize the property’s small footprint. Reinert positioned the structure for a front-facing aesthetic with the other homes on the street, taking special advantage of the natural forest setting and the stream that runs behind the land.
The exterior of Hadrohouse, as it’s known, is clad in fully recyclable textured-steel siding tiles—a nod to dinosaur scales. Inside is sleek and modern, with an open floor plan that incoporates the living and dining spaces.
The main living area’s ceiling is another link to the past. Reinert recycled the Philippine mahogany siding from the original house into handsome planks that are affixed to create the ceiling. A three-sided, modern, glass fireplace from European Home, a manufacturer of unique luxury fireplaces, acts as a visual separation in the room. “It is not a focal point, but a subtle divider that gives warmth and character,” says Reinert.
A multi-sided fireplace area is a visual divider in this open space. Photo courtesy of European Home/Matt Wargo
Hadrohouse is also adaptable, offering single-floor living, so the owners can age in place. Upstairs, there are a guest room and bunks for the grandchildren, and one flight down, an office that walks out to the shady yard. “Architecture helps us understand the time period,” says Reinert. “Today’s houses with open spaces that connect to the environment tell us something about our value system, how we connect, and our culture.”
RESOURCES: Jay Reinert Architect, 41 S. Haddon Avenue, Suite 3, Haddonfield, 856-383-9003; European Home.
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When Danielle Zinn decided to open a home-goods store in Montclair after years of working in the design world, she wanted to model it on the kinds of concept shops one might find in Europe or Scandinavia.
“It’s always been a passion of mine to have a shop and put together a curated collection that represents a lifestyle for people,” says Zinn, who lives in Montclair with her family.
“Customers appreciate design and products that last and can be passed down to the generations in their families. And they like things that are made from natural materials.”
“Everything I have here has some kind of story about how it was made or the design,” Zinn says. Photo by John Bessler
Curated Home & Living, which has been open since May 2021, is a beautiful store full of lovely things. It features ceramics by Dina Sati/Nur Ceramics and Jessie Lazar; wooden bowls, boards and utensils by Daniel Gugnoni/Troy Brook Visions; and jewelry by Sarah Macfadden and Margaret Solow. The store also sells scents by Coqui Coqui and Trudon.
Zinn likes to mix modern design with mid-century modern, and new items with vintage products. They all have in common clean, simple forms and interesting textures.
“I try to live in a world of fewer but better. In my own home, I feel like less is more. It helps when people edit their things, and I try to do that in my shop,” says Zinn. “I also like to put things together that are meaningful to me and that will resonate with others.”
Zinn collaborates with designers and makers from around the world. Photo by John Bessler
Zinn studied interior design and worked for eight years as a product librarian for a large architectural firm, where she learned about how products are used to decorate interiors. She went on to work for Maharam, a textile business in New York, for 20 years. During her stint there, she frequently travelled, becoming passionate about where products were sourced and how they were made. The experience made her want to share her love for interiors and furnishings with her community, and to collaborate with designers and makers from around the world.
“I like to have something for everyone,” she says. “Everything I have here has some kind of story about how it was made or the design. I want people to feel good about what they’re buying and to feel good about what’s in their home.”
Curated Home & Living, 102 Walnut Street, Montclair, 646-574-3598.
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Valerie Braverman, owner of Brave Floral in Maplewood, says that houseplants can breathe life and bring a sense of nature into a space.
“A lot of people have plants that were in their homes for generations—they become part of the family. They just make you happy,” she says.
Here are a few of Braverman’s favorites.
FERNWOOD MIKADOThese snake plants are a low-maintenance option. Photo by Andy Foster
Sansevieria varieties are best sellers because of their sleek, modern look and perky fountain-like shape. These are compact, hybrid snake plants that have dark-green leaves with striking, light green, tiger-print striping. They don’t need to be watered a lot and are tolerant of different light levels, making this a super-easy choice for plant lovers of all levels, says Braverman.
FICUS TINEKEThese plants can last for generations—but they need bright light and consistent watering. Photo by Andy Foster
Also known as a rubber plant, this is a popular and easy-to-grow species. Its variageted, colorful leaves make it an interesting-looking plant. These are the types of plants that stay with families for generations. Braverman says one customer told her that her grandmother had passed along one that was over 35 years old. Centuries ago, these plants were used to make rubber products. These are great, low-maintenance houseplants for beginners looking for a splash of color, Braverman says. But they need bright light and consistent watering. Keep them away from cats and dogs—they are toxic to pets.
BLACK RAVEN ZZ PLANTThese varieties make ideal housewarming gifts, Braverman says. Photo by Andy Foster
This is one of the more unusual varieties of ZZ plants, aka Zamioculcas zamiifolia. It’s a tropical succulent that sprouts lime-green leaves, which then turn a deep purple-black as they mature. Braverman says her customers love these plants for their ease and versatility. They are low maintenance and hardy, and the leaves stay shiny, even without a lot of care. They make beautiful housewarming gifts, says Braverman, especially when you don’t know the lighting conditions of a new home. These plants are relatively slow growing.
FICUS LYRATA (AKA FIDDLE-LEAF FIG)These plants are high maintenance, but beautiful. Photo by Andy Foster
A beautiful plant, the fiddle-leaf fig is also one of the more fickle specimens because it has very specific watering and light requirements. Braverman says many customers inquire about this plant, but these large-leafed beauties don’t thrive easily because they don’t like change. She doesn’t recommend these for someone who can’t provide a lot of care, adding that, when moved to a new spot in someone’s home, it will frequently show signs of stress by dropping leaves.
Brave Floral, 87 Baker Street, Maplewood, 973-761-0026
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To enhance the 52 weeks in your year, we at New Jersey Monthly are giving you 52 thrilling, quirky, only-in-New Jersey experiences to try (or revisit) this year. Ever been to Cowtown, Jersey’s secret rodeo? Seen the dazzling art at Luna Parc? Sat at Tony Soprano’s table at Holsten’s?
The question “What should we do this weekend?” just became more fun to answer.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT1. DELIGHT ON THE GROUNDSNever been to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton? Place it at the top of your list. The 42-acre sculpture park blends peaceful pathways with installations of large-scale works by contemporary sculptors and the eye-popping sculpted tableaux by Seward Johnson, the park’s founder. A dozen resident peacocks add to the enchantment. Start (or end) your visit with a taste of French home cooking at Rat’s Restaurant. The park is open Thursday-Monday year-round and is a treat in any season. —Ken Schlager
2. WALK IN A WACKY ART WONDERLANDIf the devil is in the details, Ricky Boscarino is one devil of an artist. Luna Parc, his home, workshop and ever-changing magnum opus in Montague, is crammed with details that dazzle, delight and sometimes confound. The house and environs give new meaning to the term adaptive reuse, as in a hut ablaze with bottles and a pathway dotted with bowling balls. Luna Parc is open to the public several weekends a year. —Leslie Garisto Pfaff
3. TAP YOUR TOES IN THE PINELANDSEvery Saturday night, the Pinelands Cultural Society in Waretown presents a lineup of live country and bluegrass artists, many from the Pine Barrens area. The all-acoustic shows take place at Albert Music Hall, an air-conditioned, indoor pavilion built in 1997 to replace a venue that burned down in 1992. Most shows feature five different acts from 6:30-9 pm. At $5 per ticket, it’s an old-fashioned bargain. —KS
4. SADDLE UP FOR FUNCowtown Rodeo is one of New Jersey’s must-attend spots. Photo by Bill Streicher/billstreicher.com
Here’s a secret: New Jersey has a rodeo. Said to be the longest-running weekly event of its kind in the country, the 90-year-old Cowtown Rodeo in Pilesgrove presents classic cowboy kicks and tricks on Saturday nights from Memorial Day weekend through September. See bull riding, steer wrestling, saddle-bronc riding, bareback riding, team roping and barrel racing—and be sure to grab piping-hot roasted peanuts before taking your seat. —Olivia Beach
5. HIT THE JACKPOT IN ATLANTIC CITYNot much about the Jersey Shore is a gamble, but in the state’s gaming mecca, the beaches are often a side bet. Look to Atlantic City for a vibrant array of entertainment, from slots and Blackjack to top-notch restaurants and rocking music venues, upscale hotels to the bustling Boardwalk. Want more? Check out the arcades, hit a plush spa, or take the kids to the IMAX Theatre. —Deborah P. Carter
6. BASK IN THE BARDSee Shakespeare as he was meant to be seen at the Outdoor Stage of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Nestled in a hillside on the campus of Saint Elizabeth University in Florham Park, the grass-and-stone amphitheater seats 400 and offers views through towering evergreens. But come summer evenings, all eyes turn to the stage, where actors serve up the best of the Bard. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. —Monica Cardoza
7. DRINK FROM A GLASS THAT’S ALWAYS FULLGlassmaking has been a South Jersey tradition for more than 300 years, and the Museum of American Glass in Millville explores that creative, colorful history. Artifacts range from a mid-1700s food jar made in Alloway to the world’s largest glass bottle, which stands at 7 feet, 8 inches tall. The complex, part of WheatonArts and Cultural Center, belatedly celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special exhibit last year. —Tom Wilk
8. EXPERIENCE JERSEY CITY’S ART SCENEEduardo Kobra’s David Bowie mural in Jersey City.
Jersey City’s burgeoning art scene can’t be contained in its studios, though places like 150 Bay Street in the Powerhouse Arts District and Mana Contemporary—which offers studio tours you can book online—are great places to start. You can also spend a whole day walking (or driving the 21 square miles) around Jersey City and taking in the murals and street art (including Eduardo Kobra’s well-known David Bowie piece) for which the area is famous. Visit jcmap.org/our-murals for a virtual map. —Falyn Stempler
9. GET A NOSTALGIC FIX AT THE DRIVE-INOnce an American cultural staple, drive-in theaters abounded nationwide, reaching their peak during the 1950s with more than 4,000 sites. Today, a handful remain, with several in the Garden State. Built in 1949 and reopened in 2004, the Delsea Drive-In, located in Vineland, offers single and double features on weekend nights from spring into fall for $11–$22. Newer to the scene is Newark Moonlight Cinema, which opened in 2020 and aims to promote the work of Black actors and filmmakers. Most locations are seasonal, including Demarest Farms in Hillsdale, Barnegat Summer Drive-In Movies and Cranford Theater Drive-In.
—FS
FOOD & DRINK10. INDULGE IN MIND-BLOWING BREAD AND BUTTERCarb central at Jersey City’s Razza. Bryan Anselm
Razza in Jersey City is famed for its pizza, but chef/owner Dan Richer puts the same care into bread and butter ($8). He bakes the loaves from a mix of three different flours from a sourdough starter he has fed daily since creating it in 2008 from wild yeasts gathered in Hunterdon County. He churns the butter from organic cream. “I liken butter to cheese,” he says. “I think butter can have that same appeal.” Next project? Aged butters. —Eric Levin
11. DRINK YOUR APPLE A DAYAt Ironbound Farm, the 108-acre regenerative farm and cidery in the rural heart of Hunterdon County, the tasting room and market are open year-round. Warm up with hard apple ciders and seltzers, fortified ciders (enhanced with brandy, herbs and botanicals), and cocktails, some of which feature local ingredients like Pine Barrens cranberries or farm-grown ginger. —Shelby Vittek
12. HEAD TO THE IRONBOUNDCome for the twinkly lights festooning Newark’s Ferry Street and stay for the tapas, custard cups and port. Newark’s Ironbound section is four square miles of multiethnic feasting. Classic stops include the tapas institution Mompou, the beloved bakery Teixeira’s, and Lopes Sausage, a butcher shop with an old-school salt table, for those who prefer meat preserved in salt. For Portuguese port, Lisbon Wines & Liquors is a must-visit. And don’t overlook the latest dining additions to the neighborhood scene. Dutch’s, in the Hotel Tryp, is one of longtime Newark tour guide Liz Del Tufo’s go-tos. —Tammy La Gorce
13. RECREATE TONY SOPRANO’S LAST SUPPERThis famed booth at Holsten’s in Bloomfield was featured in the last episode of The Sopranos. Photo by Eric Levin
An old-fashioned ice cream parlor (making its own ice cream) in Bloomfield, Holsten’s traces its history to 1939, but its place in pop culture was cemented in 2007 by the final moment of HBO’s The Sopranos, in which the camera zooms in on Tony in a booth then cuts to black. The moment is commemorated with a plaque that reads, “This booth reserved for the Soprano family.” —EL
14. GET A FOOD LOVER’S FRONT-ROW SEATStep inside Hearthside BYOB in Collingswood (which is one of NJM’s 30 Best Restaurants), and your nostrils relay the news: The wood-burning grill and oven propel the New American menu. Reserve a literal front-row seat among the four chairs at the counter facing the open kitchen. You’re close enough to shake hands with the chefs, and you won’t be the first to do so. —EL
DOWN THE SHORE15. BIKE ON A BOARDWALKCycling on a boardwalk is a unique thrill. It’s easy (they’re all flat), scenic (the ocean is always in view) and exhilarating (thanks to the briny breezes). During the summer months, New Jersey’s oceanfront boardwalks typically limit cyclists to early morning, but in the off-season, longer hours prevail (check ahead). The Atlantic City Boardwalk—the nation’s first—provides the longest ride. You can bring your own bike or rent a beach cruiser from a local shop. —KS
16. EAT THE FRESHEST SEAFOODBill Bright’s fishing vessels, Retriever and Defiance, cast off from Wildwood from spring to fall and return laden with reminders that the Garden State’s bounty doesn’t end at the shoreline. At Hooked Up Seafood’s dockside tables, people feast on the likes of mahi, tuna and swordfish, blackened or seared, in generous portions with a vegetable side. Bright’s family also farms littleneck clams. —EL
17. VISIT THE TENT COLONYPicture a tightly knit neighborhood of 114 canvas tents attached to small wooden cottages, with tiny porches and colorful striped awnings. This summer colony in Ocean Grove, founded in 1870 as part of a Methodist retreat, offers an unexpected shot of charm near the Great Auditorium and the vibrant nightlife of Asbury Park. A perfect day trip to the area includes strolling along the streets, getting a scoop at Day’s Ice Cream, and hanging at Ocean Grove’s low-key beach. —Sharon M. Goldman
18. GO BACK IN TIMEEven if you’ve never been to Island Beach State Park, you may recognize the Judge’s Shack, so ubiquitous are images of this last of the oceanfront fishing shacks that once dotted the dunes along the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the state. You can’t go into the shack, but you can walk along the beach and try to capture its regal and rustic countenance with your own camera. Park at lot 13, follow the trail up the dune, walk down to the beach, and head north, marveling at what all of the Jersey Shore once looked like. —Kevin Coyne
19. SEE THE WINDMILL AT WINDMILLYou know you’ve arrived at the original WindMill restaurant in West End, Long Branch, because a replica windmill with blades about 20 feet long stands on its roof. Decades ago, the blades actually turned, says owner Rena Levine Levy. (In 2015, when the blades were stationary, a winter storm sheared them right off.) At nine inches, the WindMill dog, a pork-beef blend, is lengthy itself and is sold nationally. —EL
20. PLAY A MEAN PINBALLSilverball Museum Arcade is a family-friendly stop in Asbury Park. Courtesy of Charles Acosta/pinballphotos.com
Enter Asbury Park’s Silverball Museum Arcade, and the blinking lights and clanging bells make it immediately clear that this is no fussy, quiet showplace. Instead, armed with an entry pass that replaces quarters and tokens, kids of all ages can play nonstop classic pinball games and other arcade games—from Skee-Ball to Pac-Man. —SMG
21. VISIT THE SANDY HOOK LIGHTHOUSEAt the tip of Sandy Hook’s thin peninsula in Highlands, which juts into the southern end of New York Harbor, the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States, the Sandy Hook Lighthouse—which was first lit in 1964 and is still in use today—stands tall. In fact, the beacon atop the octagon-shaped tower, which sits on the grounds of the decommissioned Fort Hancock, has only been darkened during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and two World Wars. The lighthouse has been closed for repairs, but is set to reopen for tours this spring—making a visit even more special. —SMG
22. CHECK OUT THE CHICKENSTucked away at the end of a sandy road in West Cape May is Beach Plum Farm, a working farm that supplies various items to prominent restaurants in the area and also serves breakfast and lunch from an Amish barn to guests at indoor and outdoor tables. The bar loft is home to a tiny shop of housewares and local products, while fresh-from the-chicken eggs, produce, meats, wine, herbs and honey are also for sale. Guests are welcome to sit around and relax at the firepit, take a tour of the farm, or stroll along the grounds, where chickens also roam freely. For a more immersive experience, Beach Plum Farm offers cottages for overnight stays. —Amanda Staab
SHOPPING & WELLNESS23. CULTURE SHOPDevoted to all things Japanese, Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater is like your first taste of wasabi: exciting and a bit overwhelming. In its gleaming supermarket aisles, you’ll find massive daikon radishes and squat kabocha pumpkins, gemlike salmon roe and culinary exotica like eggs poached in the shell. Specialty shops proffer elegant crockery and kawaii (“cute”) everything (otter-shaped pencil cases, Pikachu surgical masks). And then there’s the food court, with its dizzying selection of Japanese fast(ish) food, from ramen and katsu to bean-filled pancakes and mochi donuts. —LGP
24. TREASURE HUNTCharming and walkable, Lambertville is a great town for antiquing—from stores with high-end furnishings to multi-vendor spots with statuary, art, jewelry and more. Weekends and Wednesdays, the huge, year-round, outdoor Golden Nugget Flea Market is also worth a visit. —DPC
25. STRETCH IN THE SANDIf the thought of exercising outdoors, with the sun on your face and the soothing sound of waves in the distance, is appealing, yoga on the beach is for you. Bring a towel, water and sunscreen, and get ready for downward dogs in the sand. Classes typically run about $10. A list of offerings is at myareayoga.com.
—Jacqueline Mroz
26. BROWSE AND BUYBrand names abound at the shops at American Dream, the massive East Rutherford mall that is also home to attractions including a water park and an aquarium. Fashionistas will delight in Hermes, Tiffany and Louis Vuitton—and the list goes on! —DPC
27. GET READY TO RENOVATEOld-house lovers, DIY buffs and designers will love perusing the finds at Salvage Angel in Asbury Park, where 20,000 square feet of vintage architectural items like doorknobs, railings, plumbing fixtures and windows await new homes. —DPC
28. SAY AHH* AT THE SPAIndulge in some self-care at Edgewater’s SoJo Spa.* Photo by Ella Ross
SoJo Spa in Edgewater is an eight-level oasis of relaxation with seven saunas and multiple indoor and outdoor whirlpools. Open daily until midnight, the outdoor baths and rooftop infinity pool offer stellar views of Manhattan. Along with the saunas and whirlpools, you can partake in body treatments for an extra fee. SoJo also offers great midweek specials. —DPC
SPORTS & GAMES29. ARRIVE AND DRIVETake a spin around the track at Millville’s Motorsports Park. Mike Woeller/Wind Shadow Studios
If fast and furious is your M.O., visit New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville for a 15-minute Arrive & Drive Go-Kart session on 1.1-mile Tempest Raceway. You’ll be given a brief overview of the kart, plus a helmet, neck brace, fireproof suit and gloves, before being let loose for 15–20 laps around the track. “The karts can hit 55 or 60 miles per hour, but top speed depends on how well you negotiate the turns,” says the park’s Brandon Schulhof. Drivers must be at least 13 years of age and 5 feet tall, and while walk-ins are accepted, reservations take precedence. —Lindsay Berra
30. SEE A DEVILS HOCKEY GAMENamed for the creature that—as legend has it—roams the Pine Barrens, these hockey-playing Devils call Newark’s Prudential Center home. The team has been playing in the Garden State since 1982 and is the only major professional sports team that proudly features New Jersey in its name (the Jets and Giants go with New York, despite playing at the Meadowlands). Rivalry matchups with the New York Rangers, New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers are always a treat, as are the many Jersey Shore–inspired concessions available at The Boardwalk in Section 126. —Gary Phillips
31. PUTTER AROUNDModeled after the famed Himalayas putting course at St. Andrews in Scotland, the Pynes Putting Course at the USGA Museum in Far Hills has just enough slopes and troughs to make it a challenge—even for the most-capable putters. Choose from one of two historic golf-ball replicas (the bramble or the square mesh) and one of four historic putters, and start reading the greens. The holes range in length from about 25 to 50 feet; each is a par 2. All of the holes are challenging, although some more than others. The greens fee is $5. The course is closed in winter, but typically reopens in March, depending on the weather. When you go, plan to check out the museum, too. —KS
32. GO OFF TO THE RACESIt’s a sure bet that tens of thousands of steeplechase fans will descend on Somerset County for the 101st Annual Far Hills Races each October, rain or shine. Revelers flock to this equestrian-themed affair, a nationally televised event, to enjoy tailgating, people watching and pari-mutuel horse-race wagering. Since the tradition began in 1870, the National Steeplechase Association event has raised more than $18 million to support local health care organizations. Individual tailgating spots and private tents are available. Avoid traffic by taking the train to Far Hills and walking to the nearby event. —Susan Brierly Bush
HISTORY & SCIENCE33. CHANNEL EINSTEIN AT PRINCETONWith its Collegiate Gothic architecture, lush landscaping and crisscrossing footpaths perfect for pondering, Princeton University gets obvious props as the Garden State’s only Ivy League university campus. But the charming town surrounding the school is also chock-full of historic attractions (be sure to check out Albert Einstein’s house at 112 Mercer Street, where Einstein lived from 1935 until his death in 1955) and delicious food choices (the Bent Spoon has been serving up award-winning farm-to-spoon ice cream since 2004). Then there is the (unfortunately) currently closed Princeton University Art Museum, which is expected to reopen in 2024 with a bold new building designed by architect David Adjaye. We can’t wait to start exploring. —SMG
34. BRIDGE THE HISTORY GAPThe last privately owned toll bridge across the Delaware River, Dingmans Bridge is a throwback to the days before E-ZPass. The two-lane span links Sussex County with Pike County, Pennsylvania. A toll taker collects the toll by hand ($1 each way, cash only) on the Pennsylvania side. The 530-foot wrought-iron truss bridge dates to August 1900. For the thrill of the crossing, take Route 15 North to Route 206 North toward Layton, and follow the signs to the bridge. —KS
35. RELIVE THAT FAMED DUELExperience the Hamilton-Burr saga in two acts. Up along the cliff that rises north of the Lincoln Tunnel helix, along a quiet, shady street in Weehawken with a postcard view of Manhattan, is a vest-pocket memorial park with a bust of Alexander Hamilton. It was below this spot in 1804, on the dueling grounds down near the Hudson River, that Aaron Burr fired the shot that still rings so loudly on Broadway, and that killed Hamilton. Drive a little more than an hour south, and you can see where Burr eventually ended up 32 ignominious years later—buried in Princeton Cemetery. —KC
36. LET YOUR SPIRIT SOARWhen Pope John Paul II visited New Jersey in 1995—the only time a pope has ever visited the state, whose population is proportionally among the most Catholic in the nation—he made two public stops: Giants Stadium for a Springsteen-scale Mass, and the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, a soaring, granite, French Gothic edifice with twin bell towers that New Jerseyans are often surprised to learn is the fifth largest cathedral in North America. —KC
37. EXPERIMENT AND EXPLOREThe Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium is the biggest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Courtesy of Liberty Science Center
The massive, 300,000-square-foot Liberty Science Center makes learning about science fun for both kids and adults. Almost everything in the space is interactive, from the beloved Touch Tunnel to a live-animal display with 110 species. Liberty Science Center is also home to the biggest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, an 88-million-pixel dome. —OB
38. LIGHT UP WITH EDISONDiscover the place where modern America was molded at the corner of Main Street and Lakeside Avenue in West Orange. Take a tour of the Edison Laboratory Complex, which preserves original phonographs, motion picture cameras, electrical fixtures and other trappings used by Edison and his workers from 1887 to 1931. Also, walk through Glenmont, Edison’s 29-room, red-brick Victorian estate filled with mostly original interiors and family keepsakes. —OB
39. MEET A WAR HEROThe Battleship New Jersey in Camden is the most decorated in Navy history and saw action in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Middle East. The ship has an overall length of 887 feet, 7 inches—and the Fire Power self-guided tour route covers 1.5 miles, so history buffs should plan on at least 90 minutes for a visit. —LB
OUTDOORS & NATURE40. FIND POWER IN FLOWERSHillsborough’s Duke Farms boasts a breathtaking Orchid Range. Photo by Laura Moss
Tropical flowers abloom in New Jersey? It happens all year long at the Orchid Range, a stunning glass-and-steel conservatory at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, the 2,740-acre estate that was once home to tobacco heiress Doris Duke. Some 1,300 brilliantly colorful orchid varieties thrive in the Orchid Range’s two LEED Platinum-certified buildings. Thanks to the large variety, plenty of orchids are always in bloom, whatever the season. When visiting, you can also stroll or cycle the miles of paved trails that weave around the park-like estate’s naturalized landscape. The Orchid Range is open daily, but winter weather can cause occasional closings. —KS
41. CHEER THE CHERRY BLOSSOMSSee the beauty of the cherry blossoms at Branch Brook Park. Photo by Shutterstock
For about two weeks every April, the nation’s largest concentration of cherry trees bursts into magnificent pink-and-white bloom in Branch Brook Park, a 360-acre urban oasis straddling Newark and Belleville. Essex County celebrates this arboreal pageant with its annual Cherry Blossom Festival, scheduled this year for April 1-16. You can join in a bike race (April 1), a 10K fun run (April 2), family day (April 15), or BloomFest, a parkwide celebration that includes entertainment, vendors and food trucks (April 16). Or just stroll at your own pace among the blossoming beauties. —KS
42. FLOAT OVER THE MEADOWLANDSTowering phragmites waving in the breeze welcome visitors as they step onto the half-mile floating boardwalk beneath the Marsh Discovery Trail sign at Richard W. DeKorte Park, a former landfill and today a thriving nature reserve in the Meadowlands. If the tide is high, you may feel a gentle rocking motion on the walkway as it advances through the tidal marsh, where long-legged white egrets fish for their dinner and diamondback terrapins sun themselves. Benches provide the perfect perch to scan for birds, all against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline. Stay for the sunset, and investigate the other three miles of easy walking paths. —MC
43. WALK WITH DINOSAURSA colony of prehistoric beasts—built not from fossils but from from branches, animal bones and leaves by New Jersey artist Robin Ruggiero—can be found off the pink-blazed, 1.3-mile Boy Scout Trail at the east end of the group campsite at Allaire State Park in Farmingdale. After visiting the dinosaur trail’s unique and visually stunning Tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, pterodactyl and stegosaurus, be sure to check out Allaire Village, a 19th-century iron-making town, and take a ride on the narrow-gauge Pine Creek Railroad. The park also features miles of other marked, multi-use trails, fishing on the Manasquan River, and a visitor’s center and museum. —LB
44. GO TO GREAT HEIGHTSThe highest point in New Jersey? At 1,803 feet above sea level, that would be the appropriately named High Point State Park. It’s also the Garden State’s northwesternmost point—and it’s a thrill to visit. Drive into Wantage’s 16,000-acre state park and head straight to the top. It’s a short uphill walk from the upper parking lot to the 220-foot-tall New Jersey Veterans’ Memorial monument. Walk around the monument’s base for a spectacular 360-degree view across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. The interior of the monument is open on weekends from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. The intrepid can climb the 291 steps to the top for an even more breathtaking view. —KS
45. BE ONE WITH THE RIVERTubing on the Delaware River is the ultimate summertime water play for those aged six and over. The adventure begins at the Cooley Tract of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park on Route 29 in Kingwood, where outfitters from outdoors retailer Big Bear Gear in Lambertville rent gear and launch you and your tube into the river. Look for eagles, fish, turtles, and a short stretch of Class 1 rapids as you spend your day on the water. The 5-mile trip lasts between 90 minutes and three hours, depending on the current, and a shuttle returns you to your car. Take the time to register early to ensure your choice of tube (closed or open bottom) and accessories such as a cooler carrier. —MC
46. WITNESS A WONDERSince the Great Falls in Paterson became part of the National Park System a decade ago, more people have found their way to this hidden natural wonder, a sight that should be mandatory viewing for every New Jerseyan. The vertiginous footbridge across it, familiar as a body-disposal site to fans of The Sopranos, is closed now, as is Libby’s Lunch, the legendary neighboring hot dog spot whose famed Texas wieners were a highlight of Great Fallls visits for decades. But open nearby is the Paterson Museum, a sprawling, colorful repository of the history of the industrial city that arose around the Passaic River. —KC
47. FLOCK TO THE BIRDSA prothonotary warbler is just one of many feathered creatures you might spot at the Cape May Bird Observatory. Photo by JasonYoder/Shutterstock
Some birds live in New Jersey. Others think it’s a great place to visit. Most seem to gravitate toward Cape May. You don’t have to be an accomplished bird-watcher to enjoy the show they stage at the Cape May Bird Observatory. Birding is always in season, but the spring and fall migrations offer the most jaw-dropping sightings, as thousands of high-flying birds check in at the Cape May peninsula for a little rest and relaxation. Take a self-guided tour, or book a guided walk or boat tour on the observatory website. —KS
48. DANCE WITH THE WOLVESAs visitors arrive like clockwork for a morning tour at Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, several powerful but serene-looking wolves prowl inside their enclosures. Jim Stein, who owns the preserve and cares for the animals with his wife, Becky Mace, leads the tour. Here, Stein delivers his entertaining and informative talk while tossing snacks over the 9-foot fences to keep the wolves engaged. At a visit last fall, 15 gray wolves (of various subspecies and colors) were in residence. The preserve provides tours and guided photo sessions year-round, weather permitting. —KS
49. GO UNDER THE SEADelight in underwater creatures at Camden’s Adventure Aquarium. © Adam Monacelli/USA TODAY NETWORK
Urchins, stingrays and sharks—not only can you gaze at them in their watery habitats, but at Camden’s Adventure Aquarium, you can pet all three. In fact, everything at this 8,000-square-foot facility was designed to bring visitors closer to its 15,000-plus aquatic and semiaquatic animals. Diminutive critters like salamanders and clownfish shimmy just out of reach behind glass portholes, and larger water-dwellers, like hammerheads, are never far from the glass walls enclosing them (including the apex predators swimming above and alongside you in the Shark Tunnel). Feeling adventurous? Walk the rope bridge over shark-infested waters or swim with them. Or just pull up a rocking chair and gaze out at the Delaware—a reminder that water—and its denizens—really are all around us. —LGP
50. EXPLORE BY BOATThe Delaware and Raritan Canal is a watery old shipping corridor that has been transformed into a long, narrow, snaking state park popular with runners, walkers and bikers. But a kayak or canoe lets you travel the canal itself the way it was meant to be traveled. The canal looks like a river, but it moves so slowly that you can paddle it like a lake, so you can make a round trip from a single launch spot. An easy, pleasant, shady journey starts at Princeton or Griggstown; rentals are available at both places. —KC
51. REFLECT AND REMEMBERA swath of greenery and cobblestone surrounded on three sides by the Hudson River in the northeast portion of Jersey City’s Liberty State Park is a tranquil, out-of-the-way spot to watch the setting sun beautifully illuminate Lower Manhattan. The area is also a place to quietly reflect and remember, as it is the home of the powerful Empty Sky memorial honoring the 749 New Jersey residents who lost their lives on 9/11. —MC
52. CHECK OUT A CRANBERRY BOGJust a short drive down a dirt-and-gravel road delivers you back in time to a restored cranberry farm from the 1870s. At the 90-acre Cloverdale Farm County Park in Barnegat, a replica of the original farmhouse that today serves as the visitor center (open Friday–Sunday) introduces visitors to the farm’s history. Then it’s off on a 1.4-mile, level, sandy, self-guided trail past the cranberry sorting house and around several cranberry bogs. Be sure to print out the self-guided nature-trail map before you go (you never know about cell phone reception in a bog). —MC
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Zain Asher is the anchor and host of CNN International’s One World with Zain Asher. She recently moved to Montclair with her husband and two children, and last year released Where the Children Take Us, a memoir centered on her mother’s profound influence throughout her often challenging London childhood. Asher’s brother is the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.
Asher recently spoke with NJM about what inspired her story—and what she hopes readers take away from it.
What made you want to write your new book, Where the Children Take Us?I had just turned 36, which is how old my mother was when she got that phone call about a car crash in which my father died [in Nigeria]. The second reason was becoming a mother myself—that’s when I fully understood the gravity of what my mother went through and the extent of the sacrifices that she made. I believed that if I collated all of these lessons that I learned into a book, someone out there could benefit from it. It’s not meant to be prescriptive, but to inspire.
“It’s not meant to be prescriptive, but to inspire,” Asher says of her memoir.
How did your father’s death change you, your mom and your family?Initially, it was an emotional earthquake. It was the greatest shock to our system that you could imagine. My mother was pregnant and wasn’t able to function and be a parent. It was difficult for my older brother, too. The turning point was when he got kicked out of school. That’s when my mother rolled up her sleeves and began to fight for us.
Your mother saved your family from falling apart. Where do you think she found that strength?I’ve been deeply inspired and strengthened by how much our mother fought for us. She tried to be both a mother and a father to us. I can’t even imagine where she got the energy to do that—especially as a single mom with a newborn baby. Every time my willpower is running on low, I remember my mom and I’m filled with gratitude for her.
Can you talk about the ways that your mother inspired you to succeed, such as encouraging you to attend Oxford University?Sometimes in our society, there can be a tendency to not appreciate and not welcome ambition in women. My mother was the total opposite of that because of what she experienced as a young woman [during the Nigerian Civil War]; she ate termites and crickets to survive. For her, ambition was all about survival. We lived in a neighborhood with poverty and crime. She had to fight for her children no matter what.
My mother would say: ‘You’re just as smart as the people who [attend Oxford].’ She tore down those walls in my mind.
How did your family and your upbringing lead you to become an anchor at CNN?My mother was good at finding the work-around for anything. When my teachers said I wasn’t good enough to attend Oxford, she said, ‘What can I do to change that?’ Her solution was, if it’s about hard work, then I can make it easier [for my daughter to succeed] by eliminating distractions. I didn’t get into Oxford because I was the smartest person in the room; my mother created an environment where I had nothing to do but study. She took away our TV and our phone.
What would you like people to take away from your book?The book is a memoir, but there’s so much more to it than that. I wanted to showcase the beauty of my culture and my country. It’s not meant to make anyone pro-immigration, but I do feel like I can showcase through my family that immigrants have a lot to offer. Our culture is vibrant and rich. I was given a gift by being born in the UK and what I was given. I haven’t taken it for granted. You can’t put a price tag on being a British or U.S. citizen.
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The post CNN Anchor Zain Asher Honors Mother in Memoir: ‘She Had to Fight for Her Children’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
A rock ‘n’ roll icon selling natural, holistic remedies?
It may sound implausible, but when you talk to Stevie Van Zandt—Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band—about why he wanted to create a line of healthy products, it starts to make sense.
“For me, the message from the pandemic was that we all need to strengthen our immune systems,” says Van Zandt, who grew up in Middletown. “My wife (actress Maureen Van Zandt) is a vegan, so I’ve been conscious of developing good habits for years.”
Little Steven’s Underground Apothecary line of natural, holistic remedies was created to help improve physical and mental health while boosting the immune system.
Little Steven’s Apothecary includes coffees (seen here), teas and more holistic products. Photo courtesy of Astrida Valigorsky
Van Zandt, who starred as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, as well as in the TV show Lilyhammer, says he noticed a big difference in his health when he cut out sugar. “You’re fighting a war all the time. I’m always taking ginger and blue pepper onstage—I find it really helps my voice,” says Van Zandt, 72.
That’ll come in handy when the E Street Band heads out this year on tour, which includes a special “homecoming” show on April 14 at the Prudential Center in Newark.
The products are now sold in select stores and online at wickedcoolwellness.com and littlesteven.com. They include boutique teas, coffees and lollipops, and use products such as Wakaya’s ginger, turmeric, kava, maca and Manuka honey.
Ten percent of the profits are being donated to Teach Rock, Van Zandt’s music-education initiative.
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New Jersey lost many bright stars in 2022.
We remember the famous faces who were born here, made their home here, or represented the Garden State in another, memorable way. Although they are gone, their legacies live on.
Ron GalellaJanuary 10, 1931-April 30, 2022
Ron Galella, a legendary celebrity photographer considered to be the “Godfather of U.S. paparazzi,” died of congestive heart failure in his Montville home on April 30. He was 91 years old. Galella made waves as trailblazer capturing candid shots of celebrities, who had previously maintained highly-curated public images. Galella was dubbed a creep, a stalker and worse when he was making a name for himself in the 1960s. Marlon Brando even once punched him in the face, breaking Galella’s jaw. His hunt for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s pictures led her to sue him, and a judge barred him from photographing her anymore. Luckily for Galella, this happened after he captured his most famous photograph of her, wandering the New York City streets in 1971, where she is seen with a half-smile and her hair blown across her face from the wind. He told New Jersey Monthly that he considers it “his Mona Lisa.” The walls of the photographer’s Montville home were covered with his iconic work, when we visited about a decade ago. There was even a room dedicated to and inspired by the legendary Andy Warhol, who was rumored to be a Galella fan.
Ray LiottaDecember 18, 1954-May 26, 2022
Ray Liotta is seen on NBC’s “Shades of Blue” in 2016. Photo: NBC/Photofest
Ray Liotta, whose unforgettable role as Henry Hill in the 1990 mob classic Goodfellas made him a household name, died on May 26 at the age of 67. The star, who grew up in Union after being adopted as a baby, passed away in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he’d been shooting the film Dangerous Waters. Liotta, an alum of Union High School, was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2016 and said on stage of his home state, “To me, New Jersey is about family. And Taylor ham,” which garnered laughs from the crowd. “Which you can’t find anywhere but here.” He also recalled that in Union, there was a saying that “Union has loads of good kids.” “But what I have to say is, New Jersey has loads of great people,” he added. In 2021, he gave another nod to his Jersey roots with a role in the Sopranos prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, as “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti.
Tony Sirico1942-July 8, 2022
Tony Sirico is seen on “The Sopranos.” Photo: HBO/Photofest
Tony Sirico—a Brooklyn native who played one of the most memorable New Jersey television characters of all time, mobster “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri on The Sopranos—died on July 8 at 79 years old. “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. But mostly good,” actor Michael Imperioli wrote on Instagram upon announcing Sirico’s passing (He played Christopher Moltisanti and shared many a scene with Sirico). “And we had a lot of laughs. We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony.” Sirico died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Taurean Blacque1940-July 21, 2022
Taurean Blacque starred on “Hill Street Blues” in the ’80s. Photo: NBC/Photofest
Taurean Blacque, an actor best known for his role as Detective Neal Washington on NBC’s acclaimed drama “Hill Street Blues,” died on July 16 at the age of 82. He passed away in Atlanta following a brief illness, according to Deadline. Blacque was born in Newark and graduated from its Arts High School; however, he did not pursue acting until he was almost 30. He takes credit for making Neal Washington a quiet character, aiming to move away from the “hip, jive Black man” stereotype, he once told TV Guide (via the New York Times). His name at birth was Herbert Middleton Jr., but he took on the stage name Taurean Blacque to capture casting directors’ attention. The name is an homage to his astrological sign, Taurus, which is a Venus-ruled Earth sign represented by the Bull. As the Times reports, he had two biological sons and 11 adopted children. This led him to become an adoption advocate, serving as a spokesperson for Los Angeles County adoption services and later becoming the national spokesman for adoption under the Bush Administration in 1989.
Paul Sorvino1939-July 25, 2022
Paul Sorvino is seen in 2017 in “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.” Photo: CBS/Photofest
Paul Sorvino—best known for roles like “Big Paulie” Cicero in the 1990 mob classic Goodfellas and Sergeant Phil Cerreta on Law & Order, but also a gifted opera singer, sculptor and chef—died on July 25 at the age of 83. The New York-born, former Tenafly resident, whose Oscar-winning daughter, Mira Sorvino, spent much of her childhood in the Bergen County suburb, is also survived by his children Amanda Sorvino and Michael Sorvino and his beloved wife of nearly eight years, Dee Dee Sorvino. Although he left the Garden State years ago, he once told New Jersey Monthly, “I still have a lot of fondness for New Jersey. If there was a New Jersey song, I’d sing it.”
Anne HecheMay 25, 1969-August 12, 2022
Anne Heche is seen circa 2007/2008 promoting “Men in Trees.” Photo: ABC/Photofest
Actress Anne Heche died on August 12 following a horrific car crash in Los Angeles, which was ruled an accident. A Hollywood star, Heche spent some of her difficult youth at the Jersey Shore, including Atlantic City and Ocean City. “That’s where I first became an actress,” she told Suburban Life magazine in 2017 (via nj.com). “I literally started singing for my supper, right on the Boardwalk. I would flip burgers and sing show tunes to get people to come to our stand.” Her first job was at a local dinner theater in Swainton, which she said helped support her family. “So, you could definitely say that New Jersey changed my life,” Heche said. “I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Jersey.”
Frank Vallelonga Jr.Green Book actor and former Bergen County pizzeria owner Frank Vallelonga Jr. died on November 28 at 60 years old. He formerly served up pies as the owner of Tony Lip’s Italian Restaurant & Pizza in Franklin Lakes, which was a nod to his father, who was nicknamed Tony Lip (and was known for playing crime boss Carmine Lupertazzi on The Sopranos). Vallelonga’s body was found dumped in the Bronx, according to the New York Times, and Bronx man Steven Smith, 35, was charged with concealing the corpse. Smith has claimed Vallelonga was “dead already,” per the Times.
Bob McGrath1932-December 4, 2022
Bob McGrath (bottom right) appears with the cast of “Sesame Street” in 2004. Photo: PBS/Photofeset
Bob McGrath, who for decades put smiles on the faces of children and parents alike as Bob Johnson on Sesame Street, died at his Norwood home on December 4. He was 90 years old. McGrath, an original cast member who worked on the children’s program until 2016, was born in Illinois but lived in New Jersey for the last 60 years, the bulk in Teaneck. He was as beloved off-screen as he was on TV, according to northjersey.com. “He was a person we’d see in our neighborhood,” former Teaneck Mayor Jackie Kates told the website, referencing a famed Sesame Street tune. “But he was also part of our family. The loss feels very personal.”
Helen Slayton-Hughes1930-December 7, 2022
Photo: ABC/Photofest
Helen Slayton-Hughes, best known for her role as Ethel Beavers on the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation, died on December 7 at the age of 92. She was born in Glen Ridge. In addition to Parks and Rec, she made appearances on numerous other popular shows over the years, including The West Wing, The Middle, Arrested Development and Pretty Little Liars. She reportedly had four children and six grandchildren, and was related to another Jersey celeb, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage (who grew up in Mendham), her first cousin once removed, according to nj.com.
Dino Danelli1944-December 15, 2022
Dino Danelli, the Jersey City-born, original drummer of the rock group the Rascals (first known as the Young Rascals), died on December 15 at age 78. He had been in declining health for years, Joe Russo, the group’s historian and a close friend, told the New York Times. The band, formed in Garfield in 1965, is considered among the first American bands to form following the British Invasion the year prior. The band made their debut at the Choo Choo Club in Garfield. The group dissolved in the early 1970s, but Danelli’s music career carried on. In 1980, he collaborated with fellow Jersey boy Steven Van Zandt, guitarist of the E Street Band, on a side project called the Disciples of Soul. Van Zandt, a longtime Rascals fan, delivered the group’s 1997 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech, where he called Danelli “the greatest rock drummer of all time,” according to the Times.
The post New Jersey Celebrities Who Died in 2022 appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Lynn Meisler, owner of Duet Curated Consignment in Livingston, opened her doors in 1995. Her take on selling fine and estate jewelry is unique.
“We have a Gemological Institute of America diamond-grader gemologist in the shop every Friday, so consignors can bring in vintage or new jewelry, and we will appraise it in writing and can consign it on the spot,” she says. (Find more on NJ’s best consignment and thrift stores here.)
Duet carries more than 300 pieces of jewelry, including new items and also estate jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Bvlgari, Tiffany and others, all for less than retail prices.
Jennifer Ward, owner of Ward Vintage in Bernardsville, sells decades-old bangles, necklaces, rings and earrings from the 1940s to the 1990s, created by older American designers like Kenneth Jay Lane and Trifari, as well as Chanel, Dior and Givenchy. “Vintage jewelry has the quality and workmanship you find with fine jewelry, but at a more approachable price point,” she says.
“Hunting for vintage jewelry is a thrill. Some of the best costume-jewelry brands were founded by people who had worked for Cartier, Harry Winston and other great designers. A piece doesn’t have to be signed for it to be of quality. If you find something that speaks to you, get it,” says Ward.
Dreaming of a bigger diamond for less? Bob Diffin, owner of Mendham Jewelers for 38 years, says, “Buy from a reputable jeweler and be honest about your budget so they can best advise you. For example, if you want one carat in total diamond weight, you will often save money by choosing earrings at a half-carat each rather than a diamond pendant with a one-carat stone.”
Whether you buy new or vintage jewelry at a retail store or from a reseller, doing your homework can pay off in sparkly savings.
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
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Check out local galleries to see the work of emerging artists, such as this one by Nadia Liz Estela. Photo courtesy of Nadia Liz Estela
To outsiders, art collecting can seem mystifying, an unfamiliar terrain inhabited exclusively by the uber-wealthy and those to the manor born.
But being an art collector need not require deep pockets. Here are some strategies to get started.
Visit galleries, museums and auction houses. Train your eye, and learn about different media and what you like about them. Discover your tastes and be guided by your instincts and your passion. (A good place to start? New Jersey Monthly’s ultimate guide to under-the-radar museums.)
Be selective. In the vetting process, each work should fit within specific guidelines and fulfill particular needs like genre (abstract or representational), medium (painting, photography, sculpture, etc.), even size.
Know that research is essential when building a collection. Without it, you are operating in the dark. When a work catches your eye, make a note. Then do your homework. Auction houses are great resources for research—and for art that can be snapped up for nominal sums. Rago Auctions in Lambertville holds a yearly auction of unreserved (meaning that no minimum dollar amount must be met) decorative and fine art. This means the items must sell if someone bids on them. Frequently, items sell for a few hundred dollars. With estimates from $100 to $10,000, the auction is a lollapalooza for art enthusiasts.
Be fiscally minded. Everyone has a budget; work within yours. Consider emerging artists. Universities like Rowan, Rutgers and Montclair State have master of fine arts programs and are a great place to discover new art talent in which to invest.
Be aware of—but not beholden to—trends. Although digital art has been in existence since the 1980s, crypto art, NFTs, web3 art, and digital art created on block-chain technology are among the newer trends in collecting. When considering crypto-art, be mindful that desirability, resale and demand are directly linked to the platform where the works are minted (published/sold). Edition number, smart contract, (terms of sale, reassignments of any resale), and the artists and digital creators also inform the value and price.
Since 2016, great attention has been focused on artists of color, female artists, and artists under 35 years old.
When building your collection, don’t limit yourself to what’s trendy. Seek out quality, which is defined by how a work is made and how it looks. Quality is the only true barometer of fine art.
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
Ron Shipmon is an art collector, curator, art advisor, arts contributor and certified art appraiser, with more than three decades of expertise in the contemporary, emerging and digital art markets amassed from working with both corporate and private clients across the United States and around the globe.
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The post How to Build a Great Art Collection on a Budget appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Indulge in a luxurious New Jersey spa day for less at one of these spots in New Jersey.
Crystal SpringsIn New Jersey, Crystal Springs is a category of one. The sprawling resort in the state’s northwest corner offers luxury accommodations at two separate properties, each with its own spa, plus six golf courses, indoor and outdoor pools, expansive fitness facilities, seasonal outdoor activities, and multiple dining options, including one of the state’s top-rated dining experiences at Restaurant Latour. For the breadth of its facilities, there’s no place in the Garden State quite like it.
Take advantage of a midweek package at Reflections Spa in Sussex County. Photo courtesy of Reflections Spa
A Spa-and-Stay Package at the resort’s Grand Cascades Lodge includes overnight accommodations; a 50-minute massage at the hotel’s Reflections Spa; a $30 breakfast credit for each night of stay; access to the unique, indoor Biosphere pool (palm trees in Sussex County!) and fitness center; plus seasonal activities. You can also tour the resort’s famed wine cellar. Prices start at $559 midweek, $619 weekends. A similar package at the resort’s Minerals Hotel and Elements Spa runs $319 midweek, $419 weekends.
This winter and spring, Reflections is offering Spa & Pool Daycations ($195) that include $175 in spa credits; $50 in lunch, drinks or retail credit; a day pass to the Biosphere pool; and a self-guided wine-cellar tour. The Elements Daycation package is $175, available Monday-Thursday through June 29.
Exhale Spa and BathhouseExhale Spa and Bathhouse at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City offers special pricing every Tuesday and Thursday on its 50-minute Fusion Massage and True Facial treatment (each $140); Hot Towel Exfoliation treatment ($25); and CBD oil add-on ($40).
Spa ToccareSpa Toccare at the Borgata in Atlantic City offers seasonal specials on facials and massages. January’s special is an LED facial and seasonal body wrap.
Sojo Spa ClubSojo Spa Club in Edgewater is a destination spa where you can idle away a winter’s day enjoying heated outdoor pools and baths; saunas and therapy rooms; a Korean body scrub; and other treatments. Midweek admission starts at $70 a day; check online for monthly midweek specials on all-day admissions and specific treatments.
Each week of January offers a special deal, such as 10 percent off foot massages and shiatsu massages. Visit the website for details.
Want more ways to live the luxe life for less in New Jersey? Check out more tips and tricks for saving on everything from entertainment to your taxes in the Garden State.
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The post Spas in NJ With Great Deals and Specials appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Stan Lee is known for his unique Marvel career, but he also sometimes contributed to competitor DC Comics, most notably in his Just Imagine… series from 2001–2002. The series puts Lee’s spin on DC characters, and in the first issue, Just Imagine: Stan Lee’s Batman, Batman is Wayne Williams, an African American man who takes revenge on those who framed him for robbery.
The issue featured Lee’s writing and the art of another comics legend, Joe Kubert. Kubert is best known for work on DC characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman, as well as for founding the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, New Jersey’s own accredited cartooning college. Emma Kubert, Joe Kubert’s granddaughter, a graduate of and teacher at the school, recalls Lee as “being a really big fan of my grandpa’s.”
Lee makes a cameo in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, something he did in most Marvel films prior to his 2018 death. Photo: Columbia Pictures/Photofest
Just Imagine: Stan Lee’s Batman features the work of comic book artist Joe Kubert in addition to Marvel legend Stan Lee’s writing.
The Kubert School currently teaches 90 undergraduates across three years in a semester system. It is a hybrid experience post Covid. Joe, who lived in Dover for over 40 years, founded the school in 1976 because he wanted it “close to home,” says Emma.
It was first run by Kubert with his wife, Muriel; after his death in 2012, sons and school graduates Adam and Andy, Emma’s father, took over. Anthony Marques bought the school in 2019; Emma says he “runs the school like Joe did.”
Kubert’s influence remains in some key policies. Student classes are a year long with the same peers and teacher, and drawing for up to 10 hours a day is required. “The school is run [the way] a freelance artist would live everyday life,” says Emma. What her grandparents didn’t foresee, she says, is the community that that experience creates, which “really is kind of the staple of the school.”
Kubert School teachers are required to be working industry professionals, and the curriculum is designed to support job placement. On top of drawing fundamentals, which Emma teaches, students learn topics from storyboarding to digital production to graphic design, as well as how to use computer programs like Illustrator.
Of the school’s impact, Emma says that “usually for an artist, it takes 10-plus years to develop their skills, but by having the kind of curriculum that we have at the school, you can really fast-track that [kind of] learning.”
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Illustration by Yiran Jia
Long before he was the center of the Marvel Comics Universe (MCU), Stan Lee was just another 19-year-old at Fort Monmouth for basic training—as Lee quipped, “Guarding New Jersey from an impending enemy invasion”—shortly after enlisting in November 1942.
Lee was initially “put on sentinel duty overlooking the Atlantic,” according to Abraham Riesman’s 2021 book, True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, “freezing his tuchus off in what he assumed was a kind of official hazing ritual.”
But this soon became an important moment in Lee’s early career. “This was an eye-opening experience,” another Lee biographer, Bob Batchelor, tells New Jersey Monthly. “His time at Fort Monmouth exposed [Lee] to recruits and draftees from all over the country….It broadened his ideas about storytelling.”
At the time, of course, there was “no way Stan could have known his military service would have any direct impact on his writing,” Riesman notes in True Believer.
Ultimately, though, Lee (who died in 2018) learned valuable lessons during his time at the Jersey Shore, on his way to creating icons such as Spider-Man, Iron Man and Black Panther, who have since come to dominate American popular culture—thanks in no small part to another show business titan with Garden State ties.
Kevin Feige—a graduate of Westfield High School—has served as a top producer on three dozen MCU blockbusters in the last two decades, including the latest entry, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which hit theaters in November.
Ultimately, by one estimate, the collective labor of Stan Lee, Kevin Feige, and MCU’s army of musclebound heroes and evil villains has generated worldwide revenues of nearly $30 billion, “making it the biggest movie franchise ever,” according to Business Insider.
Stan Lee entered the U.S. Army in early 1942 and served as a member of the Signal Corps after basic training in Fort Monmouth.
MCU fans have even glimpsed the Garden State in several recent blockbusters. A fictional Jersey military base plays a pivotal role in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger as well as Avengers: Endgame, the 2019 flick that is now the highest-grossing film of all time. Meanwhile, the Disney+ TV show WandaVision is set in the (real) North Jersey town of Westview.
Marvel also returned to Jersey this past summer with a new take on Ms. Marvel—Kamala Khan, a character first introduced in the 1960s as an Air Force officer and female counterpart to (then male) Captain Marvel.
In 2013, the Ms. Marvel comics character was reimagined by a creative team including Jersey natives Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson as a Muslim American teen, who now stars in her own Disney + TV series.
“Ms. Marvel is a new kind of superhero,” head writer and executive producer Bisha K. Ali says. “I never saw a young teenager of color—specifically a Pakistani—in a comic book. Are you kidding?”
As Kamala Khan herself put it in one episode: “It’s not usually the brown girls from Jersey City who save the world.”
Marvel’s setting was a homecoming, of sorts, for Stan Lee, who would have turned 100 years old this December. He was born Stanley Martin Lieber, a short stroll from the New York-New Jersey waterfront, in December 1922.
His parents, Jack and Celia, were working-class Jewish immigrants who raised Lee, as well as his younger brother, Larry, on Manhattan’s West End Avenue, and later, in the Bronx.
Though he would eventually earn fame and fortune in the visual world of comic book art, Lee was actually more of a word nerd growing up—a “nut for reading,” as Riesman writes. Young Stan devoured everything from Shakespeare and Mark Twain to Leo Edwards’s once-popular Poppy Ott children’s series.
Lee had an uncle on his mother’s side who worked in the up-and-coming comic book industry. After graduating high school at the age of 16, Lee took his facility with narrative structure to the offices of what was then known as Timely Comics (later morphing into Marvel Comics).
By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler was rattling sabers across Europe. This was reflected in a new Timely character—Captain America—introduced in March 1941.
“Lee had already been heavily influenced by working on the early Captain America comics. Many had Nazis on the cover as villains,” notes Batchelor, whose updated Lee biography, Stan Lee: A Life, was rereleased in October.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941, Lee did not wait to be drafted.
“I felt I had to go in the army,” Lee wrote in his 2002 autobiography, Excelsior. “I used to go to penny arcades…and shoot those little guns and win prizes all the time—I figured I was a shoo-in to handle real guns.”
But frostbite, not firearms, was a bigger concern once Lee was posted in Jersey.
“My first assignment at Fort Monmouth was to stand guard duty at night, there in sight of the Atlantic Ocean,” Lee recalled. “Once the sun went down and the frigid wind came up, I turned into one human ice cube of a sentry.”
When he was finally able to leave his icy post, Lee raced back to the barracks “so fast I almost caused a sonic boom.”
Lee was eventually selected to serve in the Army’s communications wing—the Signal Corps. And while he was only at Fort Monmouth long enough to endure the rigors of basic training, the experience left a deep impression on Lee, according to biographers.
“Fort Monmouth was a big, austere base, and well-known as a research facility,” says Batchelor. “Think about it—radar, the most innovative communications equipment—all from this base in New Jersey!”
Lee’s subsequent military postings would keep him far from the front lines. But his storytelling instincts were stirred up nonetheless.
Lee was, as Excelsior puts it, “fired up with excitement, anticipating the adventure of climbing telephone polls and splicing wire under fire.”
Lee was starting to “see things in comic book form,” he wrote.
Army higher-ups later tapped Lee as “one of only nine men assigned to the [Signal Corps’] so called playwright division,” charged with educating soldiers about everything from equipment to morale.
“When he wrote training manuals or used cartoon images to educate users on a piece of delicate equipment,” Batchelor notes, “Lee thought about all those different men and how he could best reach them.”
Also part of Lee’s job was building morale—propaganda.
“Stan Lee was a hype man!” says Riesman with a laugh. “His job was about salesmanship. Salesmanship. Mission purpose. Camaraderie.”
[RELATED: Stan Lee Was ‘A Big Fan’ of DC Comics Competitor Joe Kubert]
This instinct for hype—mixed in with heaping doses of creativity, exaggeration and occasional outright lies—served Lee well after the war as he rose through the comic book industry, cultivating a madcap persona, at once eccentric and approachable.
And prolific.
Lee makes a cameo in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, something he did in most Marvel films prior to his 2018 death. Photo: Columbia Pictures/Photofest
In the early 1960s, Lee and frequent collaborator Jack Kirby unveiled the Fantastic Four, followed by the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, Daredevil, Iron Man and more. Thus began a thrilling run of creativity—and financial success—that was interrupted at times by shifts in cultural taste, but has dominated the 21st century.
Alongside all of the acclaim, however, were never-ending emotional and legal disputes about who actually deserved most of the credit—and cash—for these comic creations. Right up until Lee’s 2018 death, having earned and also lost hundreds of millions of dollars, Lee was entangled in legal and financial disputes, amid charges that a onetime business associate was essentially imprisoning the 95-year-old Lee in an elaborate effort to steal his money.
Such sensational heights of fame seemed unlikely right after Stan Lee left Fort Monmouth and joined artists such as Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington director Frank Capra in the Signal Corps. Another Signal Corps member was a talented illustrator from Westfield, New Jersey, named Charles Addams, whose ghoulish cartoons for the New Yorker evolved into a television and movie franchise still with us today.
In a movie landscape decimated by Covid-19, 2021’s Addams Family 2 raked in $125 million. Not bad at all. But not in the same (if you will) universe as the Marvel/Stan Lee flick SpiderMan: No Way Home, which has thus far earned nearly $2 billion across the globe.
Lee popped up as Willie Lumpkin in the 2005 flick Fantastic Four. Photo: 20th Century Fox/Photofest
In the not-too-distant future, when you watch an Addams Family reboot or a new superhero streaming series, it might have its own Fort Monmouth connection.
Stan Lee’s onetime basic training site was shut down in 2011. Since then, local officials have tried to sell developers on potential uses for the 300-acre site. Earlier this year, Governor Phil Murphy pronounced himself “thrilled” that Netflix was planning to turn the old Army base into a state-of-the-art film-production facility.
[RELATED: Inside New Jersey’s Thriving Film and TV Industries]
Which could be seen as yet another homecoming, of sorts, for Stan Lee. Whatever his actual role in the big bang that created the Marvel Universe, it was substantial and important. Another bookish kid with deep connections to Jersey, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz, once wrote: “If Western popular culture has a common idiom, a force that binds us all, the stories contained in Marvel Comics are probably it. In a few short decades…[they have] rewired how millions, perhaps even billions, of people imagine what is possible, what is heroic, what is good.”
All of which suggests that Stan Lee used a lot more than his tuchus during his chilly stint at the Jersey Shore.
Tom Deignan is a Woodbridge resident and regular contributor to New Jersey Monthly. He has written for the Washington Post and New York Times and is researching a book about Ellis Island.
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The post How New Jersey Shaped Stan Lee Into a Marvel Legend appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
Zach Braff’s newest film features a pair of Hollywood heavyweights—and two New Jersey towns.
A Good Person, written and directed by Braff, filmed in South Orange and Maplewood in 2021. Braff, 47, grew up in South Orange, and his movie’s new trailer spotlights locales such as the South Orange train station and Columbia High School, the Scrubs star’s alma mater.
The trailer, released by MGM, highlights performances from Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. Pugh, Braff’s real-life former girlfriend, plays Allison, whose life veers off-course when a fatal accident claims her soon-to-be sister-in-law. Freeman plays Daniel, a model train enthusiast and Allison’s would-be father-in-law. The two develop an unlikely and healing connection in the aftermath of their shared tragedy.
[RELATED: Inside New Jersey’s Thriving Film and TV Industries]
Pugh, 26, produced the movie with Braff. Freeman, 85, previously starred in Braff’s 2017 remake of Going in Style.
“This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege of watching how the art is made from the very beginning to the very end,” Pugh wrote in an Instagram post accompanied by the trailer. “I am so proud of this creation, I’m so grateful to all those who jumped on board this crazy journey with us.”
A Good Person also stars Molly Shannon, Celeste O’Connor, Chinaza Uche and Zoe Lister-Jones.
Zach Braff (left) and Morgan Freeman on the set of Braff’s 2017 film Going in Style. Photo: Warner Bros./Photofest
Braff first made a name for himself as an actor by playing J.D. on Scrubs, the medical comedy TV series that debuted in 2001.
A Good Person is not Braff’s first movie to include his home turf. His directorial debut, Garden State, took place, naturally, in New Jersey. The 2004 flick earned a Grammy for best soundtrack.
“I love New Jersey and I’ll keep setting my films in New Jersey as long as they let me,” Braff told New Jersey Monthly in an interview a few years back.
A Good Person, which will be rated R, hits theaters March 24.
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The post Zach Braff’s New Film Stars Florence Pugh, Morgan Freeman and New Jersey appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
As Kelly Elko’s 47,000 Instagram fans rely on her for holiday decorating inspiration, they might not realize her residence didn’t always look so cheery.
“When my husband and I first laid eyes on our home in 2007, he said it looked like a knockdown,” Elko admits. But 15 years later, after a total gut job and countless visits to estate sales, flea markets and thrift shops, the charming Summit property is a winter wonderland bursting with treasures from the past.
Inside the 1913 colonial-style home, the fireplace mantel is set with an ice-skating themed scene. In front of the antique chalkboard (snagged for free at a garage sale) is a whimsical calendar page that Elko had enlarged to 24 square inches at her local Staples store. Also gracing the mantel are Home Goods deer figurines and vintage-looking feather trees with miniature, mid-century Shiny Brite ornaments. “I like to use what I have around the house. Sometimes it might not be holiday-themed, but it can easily be made festive by adding a bow or a sprig of holly,” Elko says.
Sushi, Elko’s trusty sidekick and a social media darling, hangs out in front of the family’s decked-out fireplace mantel. Elko swaps out her holiday decor each year. Photo by Kelly Elko
Sushi, the family’s beloved Boston terrier, is Elko’s elfin sidekick, appearing in hundreds of images since the homeowner wrote her first blog post in 2011. “Those who follow my kellyelko.com blog know that I like to mix old and new, high end and low priced, for a one-of-a-kind look. If I like something and the price is right, I add it to my collection,” Elko says.
What exactly does Elko collect? A better question might be, what doesn’t Elko collect?
Festive baubles abound on nearly every surface. Photo by Kelly Elko
“I especially have a thing for vintage ornaments, Santa mugs, ceramic light-up Christmas trees, holiday trays and ice buckets,” she says. “Decorating doesn’t have to be complicated or pricey. It can be fast and easy—like filling up an old ice bucket with a tiny rosemary Christmas tree from Trader Joe’s,” Elko suggests.
Each season, the self-taught decorator styles her home in a different way. “I move everything around so it always looks fresh and festive. For example, an old brass figurine takes on new life when wrapped in a little scarf or garland,” she says. Other tips include using antique throws or quilts as tree skirts and filling oversized glass jars with strings of tiny, white lights.
Mid-century furniture enjoys a new life surrounded by seasonal decor. Photo by Kelly Elko
Although her husband and twin daughters don’t share her zeal for collecting vintage baubles from secondhand stores, Elko is a thrifting queen, as evidenced by her eye-popping collection of 750 mid-century Shiny Brite tree ornaments, scrounged from tag sales and junk shops. At what point will her Shiny Brite collection be complete? “Probably never. I can’t stop buying them, especially if the price is right. But at least I can admit I have a problem,” she says with a sly grin.
During the holidays, the family congregates in their sleek white kitchen while Elko prepares Christmas dinner on her gourmet BlueStar stove, which sports a custom red finish. Above the stove stand giant numbers 2 and 5, found at an estate sale, a reminder that December 25 is fast approaching.
Elko’s renovated kitchen is decked out with a red stove and a reminder that Christmas is fast approaching. Photo by Kelly Elko
But Elko’s collections aren’t limited to Christmas treasures. In fact, she zhuzhes up the house all year long.
“Since I need to keep up the thrill of the hunt, I might be willing to part with some of my hoard over the coming months. I’ll need to empty a couple of closets to make room for more seasonal decorations and more Shiny Brites!”
For more inspiration, visit kellyelko.com or follow her on Instagram (@kelly.elko).
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The post A Summit Home Decked Out for the Holidays appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
All photos courtesy of the manufacturers
IN THE PINK: The Sunday in Brooklyn bow top elevates even the most basic skirt or pant. Available in four colors; $88 at Anthropologie stores or anthropologie.com.SIMPLY CHIC: Classic black leather can take you from day to night. Dress it up, dress it down. Nevis jacket, $1,298, and Izera pant, $998, at veronicabeard.com.PUMP IT UP: Level up your holiday wardrobe with an unexpected hot-pink lucite pump; $118 from Bloomingdale’s and bloomingdales.com.MAD FOR PLAID: Don’t go party hopping without the Billie bag, designed in an unexpected whimsical plaid; $295 at carabenevenia.com.DANGLING DARLINGS: Tassel earrings are flirty and fun, especially when they’re hand beaded. Available in four party-worthy colors; $48 at J.Crew stores and jcrew.com.Follow our style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).The post Festive Finds to Wear This Holiday Season appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
David Krumholtz played Bernard the Elf in the Santa Clause film franchise and now stars in Tom Stoppard’s Broadway play Leopoldstadt. Photo by Chris Buck
Bergen County’s David Krumholtz returned to his well-loved role as Bernard the Elf in the Santa Clause movie franchise this holiday season. But lately a weightier, wisecrack-free character is landing him in the spotlight: Krumholtz plays Hermann, the patriarch of a well-to-do Jewish family, in Tony Award winner Tom Stoppard’s latest Broadway hit, Leopoldstadt.
It’s the turn of the 20th century in Vienna, and Hermann converts to Christianity to better his chances at social and professional mobility. But he’s derailed by what Krumholtz describes as “an unwelcome comeuppance.”
“Ultimately, he cannot escape his destiny,” says Krumholtz, 44, who moved to Wyckoff with his wife, Vanessa, and their young son and daughter from Los Angeles five years ago. “It’s a deeply devastating play with some very hard truths to tell.”
For Krumholtz, those truths often feel personal. His father grew up in Manhanttan, surrounded by Holocaust survivors. In 2017, he died of multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disorder.
“I’m doing the play in tribute to him,” he says. “It’s been a chance for me to reconnect with my own Judaism, which would have been my father’s dream come true.”
David Krumholtz on stage in Leopoldstadt with actress Faye Castelow, who plays Gretl to his Hermann. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Making the leap to live theater after a 30-year career on screens—Krumholtz starred in the CBS series NUMB3RS and in movies including Harold & Kumar—hasn’t been easy.
“I’ve been spoiled by film and television, where you shoot one scene on one day, and then it’s over, and where it’s rare to work every single day,” he says. But living in New Jersey, where he has fallen in love with what he calls “the keenness and smartness of New Jerseyans,” and has become part of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, has been a balm. Every day, he drives to the Longacre Theater in Midtown Manhattan.
On the way, “I’ll call a friend to tell them how intimidated I am by the play, how frightened I am,” he says. “It settles me down.”
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The post David Krumholtz: ‘Leopoldstadt’ Role Allowed Me to ‘Reconnect With My Own Judaism’ appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
It all started with a side hustle, admits Jaclyn Isaac. Deep into a career in pharma branding and advertising, Isaac yearned to do something a bit more creative. So she began dabbling in decorating, starting with the condo she shared with husband Anthony in Jersey City. She outfitted it, head to toe, in her favorite modern-meets-vintage style, and in the process, it dawned on her that she had missed her calling. “I suddenly realized this was something that I loved to do,” she says now.
Next up, she started a blog, called it Dog Lady Designs, and began interviewing local interior designers to get content. One thing led to the next, and she was offered a summer internship at a local design firm. “That was my first job experience,” she admits. “But I realized this was something I could do.” She stepped out on faith creating her firm, Downtown Decorators, and started doing small projects in and around Jersey City. “It was just a little side hustle,” she says. “I didn’t want to call myself a designer, but I wanted to see where it led.” Fast-forward three years, and it was a full-time gig.
The living room of Jaclyn Isaac’s beach bungalow is a blend of old and new, high and low. Many pieces, including the leopard-print club chairs, are vintage. Art is collected from salvage shops, estate sales and travel. Photo by Mike Van Tassall
Isaac started slowly, taking on small projects. “I had to prove that, one, I knew what I was doing, and two, I could support myself,” she says. “There was trepidation that I wasn’t formally trained,” she adds. But she brought in an assistant and got to work. “We needed a handful of really great projects under our belt to prove that we were a serious business,” Isaac explains. Gradually, her projects increased in number and in scope. So did her connections. “Over time, we developed an extended network of creative people that we can rely on heavily,” Isaac says. “We now have a trusted network to help us pull off major, major projects.”
In the midst of expansion and adding full-time team members, Jaclyn and Anthony, along with their dogs, moved to a 174-year-old farmhouse in Shrewsbury. Simultaneously, she decided to rebrand her business. “A client told me he hated the company name, that it was doing me a disservice,” she says. Isaac renamed her firm Doni Douglas Designs in honor of her beloved dogs, each representing a contrasting personality trait, an ode to her own eclectic style. “Douglas was our American bulldog. A classic breed,” Isaac says. “Doni is silly fun. He’s the funky part of the brand.”
Isaac reconfigured the bungalow’s existing kitchen and upgraded countertops to quartz. Vintage finds include the counter stools, breakfast table and chair. Window treatments are custom. Photo by Mike Van Tassall
Now, Isaac’s business is booming; she’s noted for her creative mix of traditional elegance combined with modern, vintage, funky and fun accents. She loves high/low price points and regularly mixes traditional and contemporary elements. “I’m involved in everything,” Isaac says. “I oversee all creative. I have a team that helps with the execution. They like the nitty-gritty.”
It was Anthony who found the bungalow in Belmar, a two-family home just a few blocks from the beach. “He FaceTimed me in the middle of winter,” Isaac says, admitting she didn’t love the way it looked. “But he was adamant that it was a great location on a great street,” Isaac says. When she finally had time to see the home in person, she immediately saw its potential. “It has the bones of something special,” she says. So the couple purchased it, rented out the top floor, and set about making the first floor—two bedrooms and one bath—a gathering place for friends and family.
This side of the sunroom is a favorite hangout spot for friends and family. The sofa is vintage, recovered in a mix of fabrics. Photo by Mike Van Tassall
Setting a “very limited” budget, Isaac got to work. “I didn’t have a client, so I could do what I wanted. It was fun and challenging, an opportunity to use materials that most clients wouldn’t let me use,” she says, like bamboo, rattan and touches of Italian Art Deco. Isaac took a dramatic leap with color, embracing saturated hues like coral and sage green. “The default of a lot of beach homes is white,” she says. “I’m glad we did the opposite.” The furnishings are a mix of high and low. “It’s vintage and second-hand furniture. Plus I splurged on a few pieces my husband doesn’t know about,” she says.
The bar was once a display counter at a retail shop; the standing lamp and bar stools are vintage. Photo by Mike Van Tassall
Now, it’s a favorite gathering spot, regularly crammed with friends and family. “We’ve had 12 people overnight in this tiny bungalow, everyone sleeping on top of each other, with one single bathroom,” says Isaac. “It’s a true weekend getaway.”
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The post Peek Inside an NJ Designer’s Belmar Bungalow appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
When Michelle Lease of New Vernon decided to take her online business to a new level, she quickly filled up the Ginger Jar in Harding Township with a curated collection of classic home décor. “I felt the need for a Morris County retailer offering well-priced gifts and decorative items, and I especially have a thing for blue and white,” she says.
The shop, a circa-1745 farmhouse located on the Country Mile between Bernardsville and Morristown, opened in March 2022 and quickly became a go-to for hostess gifts, serveware, Chinoiserie vases, tote bags, jewelry and equestrian-themed items.
The Ginger Jar, decorated in preppy navy blue, white and Kelly green, also sells an abundance of notepads personalized with zip codes of surrounding towns, as well as stationery customized with names of local schools. Needlepoint throw pillows coax a smile with clever comments like, “I don’t repeat gossip, so listen carefully,” and, “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
Lease’s new and vintage merchandise fills most of the store, with sister business Le Petite Monogram Shop, owned by Elke Spoor, occupying an adjacent space. The newest member of the staff is mascot Rose, a yellow Labrador puppy who greets shoppers. As an added attraction, the popular Candy Store of Harding maintains its longtime spot toward the back of the building. Lease says, “A bonus to our customers is visiting the candy shop for favorites like sea-salt caramels.”
No stranger to the business world, Lease began her retail career at the tender age of 15 selling party dresses. Later, she worked as a marketing and PR consultant before opening her own online business, the Paper Cottage, which captured national attention when it was featured in a Chase Card television commercial in 2013. More recently, she operated the Nantucket Collection, an online venture that sold coastal-style décor and gifts.
Although some entrepreneurs might shy away from opening a new location these days, Lease welcomed the opportunity. “I live just around the corner, found this charming space, and had existing relationships with fabulous vendors, so it seemed like the right time to pull the trigger and open my first shop,” she says. “My head was full of fun ideas—I just needed to download them.”
“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m thrilled to finally have my own brick-and-mortar location. The Ginger Jar is a happy gathering place that embodies all the things I love.”
The Ginger Jar, 1007 Mt. Kemble Road, Harding Township; 917-640-1484.
Follow our style editor on Instagram (@susanbrierlybush).
No one knows New Jersey like we do.* Sign up for one (or more!) of our newsletters to get the best of where we live sent to your inbox every week. Want a print magazine mailed to your home? Purchase an issue from our online store*.
The post The Ginger Jar Offers Curated Collection of Classic Décor appeared first on New Jersey Monthly.
The Boss is promoting his new covers album, “Only The Strong Survive,” for four nights on Jimmy Fallon's show.
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