THE BLUEJAYS with “So Long Lover’s Island” (Soundtrack Green Book)
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Presents, tagged Sunset Lake footbridge. on April 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Presents, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photography: The Other Side of Asbury, tagged Esperanza in Asbury Park, Unfinished building in Asbury Park on April 22, 2024| 8 Comments »
2007: The first iteration of “Esperanza”. 1101 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park failed and was imploded. Not shown.
2015: : Above photo is the 1101 Ocean Avenue incomplete project also #2 called “Esperanza” Asbury Park. Two failed projects called “Esperanza” had occurred there, and #2 had stood as a marker of lost hope in A. Park.
2017, A third project is announced at that site, and the 16 story 1101 Ocean Club was eventually built. which would provide 128 condominiums, 22,000 ft2 of retail space and a 3 story parking garage. The project changed the skyline of A.Park.
A Charles Layton 2017 Blogfinger editorial back then suggested that the Ocean Grove North End project be developed slowly to avoid train wrecks like the “Esperanza.”
2024: You can get a 1 bed room apartment there for about $900,000.00.
B.J. THOMAS “Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song.”
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Blogfinger Presents, Food and Restaurant, Photography: The Other Side of Asbury, tagged Frank's Deli in Asbury Park on March 8, 2024| 1 Comment »
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor. Blogfinger.net. Re-post.
In 2015/2017 we featured Frank’s Deli and Restaurant in a BF post, and now we re-post it for 2024, with some updates. Not much has changed. Here is a quote from that piece:
“You might also be tempted to turn into Frank’s Restaurant where everybody goes for breakfast and lunch including cops, contractors, politicians, businessmen, bloggers, artists, realtors, homeboys, celebrities, wayward Grovers, and stylish types from across the border on Cookman Avenue.”
I’m sure most of you are familiar with Frank’s, a local family-owned place where they have been cooking breakfast and lunch since 1960. It has a very down-home feel. You can sit at a table or at the counter where you can watch the chefs work—poetry in motion. “Those fries are getting cold; dump them and serve some hot ones,” says the cook; he is at the grill and he is a perfectionist.
He watches his little assembly line, with his back to the counter and he doesn’t miss a detail. He turns around and asks us if everything is OK. They make more eggs, toast and bacon than any other place in the area. Frank’s is a destination with a pedigree–more so than any of the newly arrived eateries on Cookman-by-the-Grove.
The waitresses are attentive. They seem to know everybody and they are friendly and accommodating—-not like the diner waitress who waited on Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces. If there are any waiters, we haven’t seen one. Besides, gender is out these days—–they are all “servers” However, at Frank’s you feel like political correctness is not on the menu. It is a place to relax and speak freely.
Joe Maggio is the owner and the main-man at the grill. His father started the business. We go there often, but he was on vacation this time. However, his staff wasn’t missing a beat. One of the cooks noticed an elderly man near the end of the counter near where we were sitting. He called him by name and said, “How about a grilled cheese; I’ll make you one now.” The man grinned and said, “Thanks.”
You can walk up to the deli counter and order a superb sub. made to order. Even Bruce Springsteen visits Frank’s, and he included Frank’s in a 2012 music video. Bruce likes the turkey club.
In 2015, Anthony Bourdain and Southside Johnny visited Frank’s while CNN filmed the episode for Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” show.
We get a kick out of the diverse clientele who are going in and out of Frank’s which reminds me of some places my friends and I frequented when we were in high school in Rutherford. We would go to towns like Lyndhurst or Passaic to get soul food: pizza and burgers.
At night, after walking up and down Park Avenue in Rutherford, we would visit Stio’s, a family luncheonette, fountain, and ice cream place near the tracks that was so old, everyone and everything there seemed to be in slow motion. But all sorts of characters would show up, and we would laugh and joke and kid the owners. Frank’s takes me back to that sort of Jersey place.
If you are from Jersey, you need a dose of that every once in a while.
BILLIE HOLIDAY
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Photo: The Asbury Connection on March 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photography by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Casino Asbury Park, Lenka on Blogfinger on February 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, tagged The Rainbow Connection on January 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Two of Us: “The Rainbow Connection”
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Girls in summer clothes Jersey shore, Jersey Shore gallery, Photography by Paul Goldfinger, Photography Girls in their summer clothes, tagged Asbur Park boards on January 7, 2024| 1 Comment »
Keyboardist Paul Eichlin of Ocean Grove loves to perform in and around the Asbury Park Casino on the boardwalk. Paul may seem to be in St. Louis at the fair, but he is right here in A. Park near the Ocean Grove border. We missed him in 2023, but perhaps he will resurface this summer.
This video below is by Blogfinger.net of OG.
MARQUIS:
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, tagged Jaimie Penrose, Unicorn Princess on January 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Around town with Jean, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photographs by Jean Bredin on January 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
THE HARPTONES: Wolfman Jack sends this out to Blogfinger fan Perry Young up in the New Hampshire North Country.
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photography New Jersey, Photography: Jersey Shore Gallery, Photography: The Other Side of Asbury, tagged Nocturnal Asbury Par on December 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Music from the stage, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Palace Amusements ASbury Park on December 15, 2023| 9 Comments »
JANIS KELLY AND JASON HOWARD. “Make Believe” 1993 Studio Cast Recording of Showboat. Music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Posted in Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, tagged Asbury Park The Rising, Springsteen, The Rising, Win a prize and guess the year of this photo on December 10, 2023| 1 Comment »
On July 30, 2002, Bruce Springsteen launched his new album called The Rising. The AP boardwalk was the place, and the beachfront, which usually was empty, became full of people.
This photograph was taken that morning when the Today show broadcast from the beach. You can see the bright television lights. Katie Couric was there holding a microphone standing in the surf. Danny DeVito was there also, schmoozing with the crowd.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Posted in Asbury Connection, Asbury Park Connection Photo Gallery, Photograph by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Tattoos in Asbury Park on December 4, 2023| 2 Comments »