Blogfinger

2/22/26 Paul Goldfinger.  Mt. Hermon Way. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA.      9 pm.  M 10

Johnny Mathis:

Paul Goldfinger photo. 2/22/26. 9:45  pm. Delaware Ave.   M10

“Snowstorm”.  James Newton Howard.     From Snow Falling on Cedars.

Hero’s Park. aka Firemen’s Park. Ocean Grove 2/23/26.  8:57.   am.  Paul Goldfinger . From Mt. Hermon Way.   M10

THE FLEETWOODS:

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Asbury Park Casino. Paul Goldfinger photo. 8/26/21  The Casino was abruptly closed in 2023 due to structural issues.   Click to enlarge.  Blogfinger.net

Casino by Paul Goldfinger

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS    “Handle Me With Care.”

Paul Goldfinger photo. June, 2025. Odyssey Coffee on Main Avenue, OG.

From the Broadway show.   The Little Mermaid…

Bagel Talk is in the West Grove Mall, Neptune,  outside the “gates” of Ocean Grove.   All photos by Paul Goldfinger. Click once to enlarge and to request cream cheese.   Blogfinger.net. 7/18/25

By Paul Goldfinger MD.  Editor Blogfinger.net.

I am a regular most mornings at “Bagel Talk.”   It has been my “go-to” bagel place for some time.   Their bagels are  baked daily in the back.   Jack, the baker, a Russian -Jewish  immigrant, comes in at 3 am.  He says he was in the military in Russia.

We talked bagels one morning when I arrived early enough.  He came to America during the “open border” policy in which the Soviets permitted Jews to leave in the 1970’s.   That emigration has been a miracle for America, Israel and other countries.    My Dad was one American who “adopted a family.”  Jacob was taught bagel baking by the owner of the business here.

Blogfinger has posted many articles about bagel baking and shops, and there is considerable competition around here. “Bagel Talk” bagels are excellent. My favorites  are their  “everything” variety.  I also like onion and garlic.  Eileen prefers plain.   The shop is clean, and their other items including a variety of salads are delicious and fresh. The coffee is hot and very good.

And the location convenient to the Grove is wonderful, especially when we need to come and go in a hurry to find parking.

Will (right) works here in the summer along with his brother.    He leaves for Arizona State soon to study architecture. Elmer is from Peru and he is a world class bagel scooper and toaster. I call him a “master super-dooper scooper,” and we like to discuss his technique which he refers to as his “recipe.”.

“Z” is Mexican. He deals with the phone orders. The technology is of interest. The “pick up” phone doesn’t actually ring, but the orders are efficiently prepared.  When you arrive and go to the register, the workers are very precise. There are few errors because  they hand you a receipt which details every element of your order…eg “extra scallion cream cheese.”   Each receipt has a number, and they will call out your number when it is ready. The phone orders are ready  on time.

The diversity here is a beautiful thing. These girls have “everything” on theirs..   The customers are polite and friendly. Many speak Spanish as well as perfect English. Click to enlarge.

“Bagel Talk” is a “heimish” *  place.    In the morning there are many customers who are often workers who arrive with their trucks. Rarely does a customer wear a jacket and tie.

Police show up mainly from Neptune and Asbury Park. The customers are friendly and polite,  and a variety of languages are spoken.  I heard two men speaking a language which I did not recognize, so I asked them, and they said it was Georgian—an ancient  country on the Black Sea.

Others who come in are young people who arrive with their friends, all abuzz. There is seating and take out. Even though bagels have their roots among Polish Jews, I can’t identify that fact  among the customers and workers here.

The “ethnic thing” here  reminds me of pizza “parlors.”

“When I was a kid, I never had bagels, and there were no such shops.  Mostly we had “Russian rye” with big black seeds.  (Wegmans has that.).  I recall visiting my Mom’s family in Bayonne where there was a Jewish bakery and restaurant, and we called that “Bayonne Bread.”

Now you don’t have to be Jewish to be in the bagel business or Italian to make pizzas.

The menus in today’s bagel shops are quite  varied—the choices have evolved.

I think that Blogfinger has covered more bagel topics than most media in America.

Heimish (היימיש: pronounced by HAY-mish or HY-mish): Based on the Yiddish word heim, which means “home,” it describes things that are homey or familiar.   From Chabad.org.

BILLY JOEL with “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. ”    I don’t have any bagel music. But Billy Joel is Jewish.

1903 Ocean Grove (source: Blogfinger)

Hitching post on  Delaware Avenue. It came with our  1880 house, and it is still there. Tie up here.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net

It was a Sunday night in the Grove, August 19, 1894,  when a raging fire broke out in the large Sexton and Tilton  livery and boarding stables located to the west of Main Street, near the entrance to Ocean Grove.

The NY Times reported the event as “an extensive conflagration.”

The Camp Meeting Association, usually quite rigid about its Sunday gate closures, made an exception to allow the firetrucks from West Grove and West Asbury Park to enter.

That night, there were balls going on in Asbury, and a huge crowd of A. Parkers watched the fire, including “hundreds” of women in their “ball costumes.”  The crowd could hear the cries of horses within, and it was so horrible that some women “swooned.”

Sixty six horses were inside along with 6 “hostlers” when the blaze began.  Thirty five horses were lost including one expensive race horse.  John Sullivan, the head stableman, was credited for heroism as he and his men tried to free the horses.

Sullivan was burned and “disfigured for life” as a result.

Fires were much more of a threat in 1894 than they are today in the Grove, but the huge fires in recent years have shown us that the risk continues due the construction and positioning of the historic homes in town.

You can do Blogfinger searches to read about such events as the Manchester Inn, the Warrington, and the Surf Avenue Hotel blazes.

I can recall hearing a talk by Scott Rasmussen of Ocean Grove whose home was among 5 totally lost during the March 13, 2010 Manchester Inn fire.  He spoke at an event honoring policemen and he told of an officer who saved his family’s life by racing into the home  to arouse the family.  That fire moved incredibly fast.  (see below.)

Manchester Inn fire captured by citizen photographer Ed Wyzykowski. Special to Blogfinger. March 13, 2010. ©

Today the Ocean Grove Fire Department is known for its incredibly efficient responses to fires in town.  They do the best they possibly can, and there has been no loss of life during any of the fires here in recent years.

–Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.

Jersey Shore U. Hospital. Paul Goldfinger photo. April,16 2018

Baby Noah gets to take his first ride with Dad as they cruise down the hall from the delivery suite and head to Mom’s room on Maternity.

Today they can ride together with 3 year old Noah on his new bike—with training wheels.  Some of us could use training wheels as adults.

LESLIE ODOM, JR AND LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA  from the original Broadway cast of Hamilton.  “Dear Theodosia”

Still photo by Paul Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net

Marilyn Monroe with Barry Manilow

GONE WITH THE WIND:    Tony  Bennett