Wonderful light in the new Odyssey coffee house in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The mood down the corridor is inspirational. Paul Goldfinger photo 6/24/ 2025. All photos in Odyssey Coffee.
Paul Goldfinger. Editor. Blogfinger.net
I’m trying to get a handle on those who enjoy the Odyssey coffee shop in Ocean Grove.
The bare essentials are a necessary given: fine barrister-driven coffees; good foods; an owner, Joey, who is a professor of classics at Monmouth University; and a unique setting to complement the idea of an epic poem. Who can forget Homer hanging in Joey’s place?
There is no doubting those elements, but what will be the mood at Odyssey–who will be visiting this new coffee emporium on Main Avenue in a former bank?
Will there be girls in their summer clothes, or erudite scholars, or friends to meet and greet, businesses to be promoted, poems or novels to write on laptops, or romances to grow? Or will it be just a setting for coffee aficionados?
And finally, will there be music?
We’re not sure yet, but Joey is on the right track as he continues to re- imagine what his Ocean Grove coffee world will be like.
Waiting to order. What is she about?
The Hamptons reincarnated in Jersey?
Suit and tie? A rare sight in OG. What is this shtick about? All photos by Paul Goldfinger.
Odyssey center fold? After all, she has an ancient Greek sailor on her shirt. Internet photo.
FRANKIE RANDALL: Will it be a New York vibe at Joey’s place?
I remember the space when it was a bank. Beautiful space. Beautiful light. Glad to see you are photographing there. When a bank they wouldn’t let me.