Blogfinger

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

Obtain a delicious rib eye steak at Antonios on Sunset Avenue, Ocean.    Their butchers will have a gorgeous steak for you, cut to order.

Another option is a dry aged rib eye at Wegmans.  They usually have some available in the butcher department, and although they are expensive, they are  always tender, tasty  and marbled.

Use a stove top cast iron pan and preheat the pan.

On  both sides of the the steak  put a small amount of salt, and then a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper  and then rub a small amount of olive oil and then sear both sides of the steak.  This step is done on  medium or medium high heat.

Use a stove with an exhaust fan, and don’t walk away from the stove.

Antonio’s rib-eye. (choice)

Lower the temperature to medium low.   Use a meat thermometer to obtain temperatures as the meat gradually achieves the target.  Turn the steaks often. Avoid cutting into the meat as it cooks.   The goal will depend on how you like your meat, but we like it to be medium rare:  to 135 degrees.

After you achieve your  target temperature, remove the steak onto a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Done at 135 degrees. (medium rare). Antonio’s rib eye.

OPTIONS:

French fries:  Use Wegmans Super Crispy shoe string fries. Do not deep fry.   Use a small  air fryer for a surprisingly delicious result.  Place a large handful of fries into the basket and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Crimini mushrooms:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.    Place the mushrooms  on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Drizzle extra virgin olive oil  and sprinkle garlic powder over the mushrooms and toss.   Bake  for 30 minutes.  For the final 10 minutes, sprinkle grated parmigiano reggian0 cheese.

Spinach.  Use a fry pan and place a tablespoon of butter  plus  a quarter teaspoon of salt and garlic powder to taste.  Cook a 16 oz box of  fresh baby spinach until it wilts.

Ready to eat. Add extras.

Onions:  Fry up some sweet  onions to have with the steak.

Home-made cranberry sauce—Eileen got fresh picked cranberries at Russo’s in the Pine barrens.  She froze portions and then took them out as needed.

Salad--mixed.

Drink:  Dos Equis Mexican beer or a red wine.  We like pinot noirs from Oregon’s  Willamette Valley.

THE PENGUINS:

John Albok stayed in his neighborhood to photograph street life.    2023.

By Paul Goldfinger, MD,  Editor @Blogfinger.net

When I was working in Manhattan at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, that part of town, at around 100th St and 5th/Madison Avenue was still an old fashioned neighborhood.   I would walk up Madison Avenue to get there, and on the way I passed  diner style restaurants, a bakery, a flower shop, a newsstand and other similar mom and pop businesses.

One shop that always captured my attention was a tailor shop at 96th St. and Madison Ave.    I could see the tailor working in the back, but mostly my gaze went to his front window where he displayed, one at a time, a changing exhibit of black and white photographs shown mounted on a board and sitting on an easel.

These images were mostly about his neighborhood.   They had warmth, emotion, and beauty.  He signed his name “John Albok.”  His photographs had an effect on me and stimulated me to buy a Pentax Spotmatic camera and to begin my love of traditional photography.  Strangely enough, I never went into the shop to speak to him because I lacked the vocabulary then to say much more than how much I liked his work.   I wish I had.

Albok immigrated from Hungary. There he apprenticed as a tailor from age 13-18  and he began photographing there.   He served time in the Hungarian army.

John Albok emigrated in 1921 to America at age 26 and immediately opened his own tailor shop at that same location on the Upper East Side. He lived upstairs with his wife and daughter, and he photographed in that neighborhood for over 60 years beginning during the depression.

John Albok in his tailor shop. Photographer unknown.

He was mainly a street photographer and is best known for his  down-home scenes near his shop.  His work was noticed by important people in photography, and in 1938 he had a show at the Museum of the City of New York where his archives now live.  There was a book published about his work.  His papers are in the Guggenheim Museum collection.  And his images are also kept at the NY Historical Society

John Albok. (1894-1982) never gave up his tailor shop, but he did become known in the world of fine art photography.

John Albok c. 1930-1940.

For some reason, many famous early 20th century photographers were immigrants from Hungary including Pulitzer Prize war photographer Robert Capa. And also his brother Cornell Capa who founded the International Center for Photography in New York.  Others included André Kertesz, Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, Brassai and others from that same era. (late 1800’s into the 1900’s).    Robert Capa said that to be a talented photographer you had to be Hungarian.

The Royal Academy had an exhibit in 2011 of famous immigrant photographers from the early 20th century.  They said, “The show is a revelation from beginning to end. It presents nothing less than the dark and convulsive story of Hungary during the 20th century as experienced by its citizens, and viewed by its artists, who happen to include five of the world’s greatest photographers – Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi.

They said,   “Nobody could fail to be struck by that fact, in room after room of famous images that they were all Hungarians; that may even come as news. Each was Jewish and each changed his name at some stage, either at home or in exile.”

John Albok managed to be himself, to pursue his love of photography without any vanity; and yet he did achieve some measure of fame.

JOHN BARRY.  Theme from  the soundtrack of the film  “Somewhere in Time.”