The table behind us where a birthday was being celebrated. Children emerged carrying a cake and a sombrero for the birthday hombré. Paul Goldfinger photograph, December 2017. A. Park, NJ. Blogfinger.net. Click once to enlarge including the link photo.
Pablo Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net.
We recently revisited Plaza Tapatia, Mexican restaurant in Asbury Park. It was as good as ever, but someone wrote in that they did not find the food to be authentic. We have been to Mexico on a number of occasions, and in various locations including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Barra de Navidad and others, and we thought that Tapatia was excellent—the whole scene: food, preparation, service, atmosphere and even the music.
Our recent visit a few weeks ago was on Fajita Night (Wednesday) where we got three dinners for half price. We looked around and discovered that we “gringoes” were in the minority. The place was filled with Mexican-Americans. There was a large group of men at a long table having a good old time; as well as several families and couples. They were a cheerful bunch, evidently happy with this restaurant. We could have been in Mexico.
So, it seems to us that Plaza Tapatia is about as authentic as one could hope for in the US, and the clientele seems to agree.
Here is a link to our visit of summer 2024: Plaza Tapatia:
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. There are a few minor revisions in this 2015 and 2018 re-post.
Some of you might wonder about the persistent search for a great coffee shop near OG, since there are several places in the Grove where you can buy coffee. The reason is, for some of us, we seek more than just coffee. In our culture, and in Europe, the coffee shop is a comfortable gathering place where one can appreciate the best coffees from around the world.
Such shops are not general practitioners, they are specialists, and they know how to create a first rate cappuccino or latte. Coffee is of primary interest in such places, not an afterthought. The Barbaric Bean was beginning to be like that, but the Grove’s only true coffee shop has vanished.
A real coffee shop is a welcoming place which has seating and where you can savor the barista’s drinks while reading the paper, having a fascinating conversation, people watching, or enjoying a special snack. It tends to be where the local characters go. Wi-Fi is often available for those who are working on the next great American novel. After all, J.K. Rollings wrote Harry Potter while sipping some brew in a local coffee shop.
In Asbury Park today an Ocean Grove friend introduced me to a real coffee shop; in fact, Café Volan seems like a throwback to old Soho or Greenwich Village in the ’60’s. Café Volan on Bangs Avenue, just off Cookman near the Brick Wall, is so laid back that you can imagine Bob Dylan singing unamplified on a stool, or Lenny Bruce doing shtick.
It is a dumpy place, but that’s fine because it feels like home—–like cafés I visited when my friends and I would wander around Bleeker or Christopher Streets in “The Village.” It is the sort of coffee house where the locals and regulars wander in.
My impression from the moment I walked in was: “I am going to like this place.” It resonated at a very personal level and felt like somewhere you might re-visit again and again.
A visit to Café Volan is like time travel, but there is one thing that doesn’t spell nostalgia—it is the delicious high quality of their coffee. They also serve some unique snacks and toasted exotic breads. They get their coffee from North Carolina, and their breads and pastries are brought in from Brooklyn. I haven’t been to Williamsburg for many years, but this entire place seems to have been shipped intact from there.
If you like places that seem authentic and live up to it, try Café Volan —within walking distance of the Grove.
Note: 2020: There now is a coffee shop in the Grove . Odyssey is on Main Avenue, and Buskerdoo is at the intersection of Sunset and Memorial in Asbury.
And the OG bakery does a nice job with coffee, and they do have a wide selection of baked goods.
CHARLIE PARKER. He got his start in New York, but this jazz great didn’t play in coffee houses. Mostly he was up in Harlem in jazz clubs. The folk singers were in the Village coffee houses in the ’60’s, but there were jazz venues in the Village which my friends and I visited often, growing up in a Jersey bedroom community, 20 minutes from downtown.
This is “All the Things You Are.” It was written by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) We recently posted a Miles Davis version, and the song holds up even without those magnificent poetic lyrics. Below is Charlie Parker on alto sax.
According to our reporter, opening day, last Sunday on March 6, at the Victorian Grill, was really packed,and throughout the week there has been a steady flow of customers. The cook said that their “custom blend short rib and Angus brisket burgers” are really their specialty.
A couple was just finishing their meal when the Blogfinger reporter showed up. She had the chicken quesadillas and he had the Philly cheese steak with seasoned fries and they both told him that their meals including the fries were delicious.
Chicken tenders with seasoned fries to go. BF photo. 3/13/20.
For Blogfinger’s take-out, he had the chicken tenders with seasoned fries (shown in photo). The chicken was perfectly fried, all white meat and very tasty! The seasoned fries, cut into small discs which pop perfectly into your mouth, were also quite delicious with just the right amount of seasoning and fried golden brown.
For those of you who try this new restaurant, please send us your brief review in our comments section.
Editor’s note: Since Blogfinger’s inception, we have been hoping for a superior burger in the Grove. Let us know what you think. You can comment anonymously.
Nobody home at the Osteria. Thursday, 3/8/18. Blogfinger photo. #50 Main Avenue. 7:45 pm.
By Paul and Eileen Goldfinger, food assessment team @Blogfinger.net
We received a mailer a few days ago from the new kid on the block: Osteria Procaccini on Main Avenue. They offered 10% off on any pizza/sandwich/salad from March 7 to March 31. Strangely, their flier did not mention their hours or their days working or anything about their menu. The photograph shows a pizza, but it doesn’t identify what type or what the crumbly toppings are.
So tonight, Thursday, (3/8/) we decided to go over for a pizza. When we got there, the place was closed. It was 7:45 pm.
The hours posted showed that they were to be open on Thursday nights till 9:00 pm
SeaGrass was happily serving dinner a short distance away, as some music drifted our way. But we wanted pizza, so where did we go? We went to our favorite restaurant.
In 5 minutes we arrived at Pagano’s Uva Italian Restaurant at 800 Main Street in Bradley Beach (They have a parking lot) where we were greeted by Chef Tony Pagano. There was a busy and lively bar scene with live music.
Uva Restaurant. Main dining room on a Thursday night when most of the action was at the bar. But this fine Italian restaurant was open.
But being the sedate (d) Grovers that we are, we sat in the quiet restaurant section where two other couples were enjoying dinner. We started with the small Caesar salad which was plenty for two and which was superb. Tony suggested his Margherita pizza ($16.00 one size large) which was thin crusted with mozzarella, red sauce, and basil, and it was magnificent.—so good! I had 3 slices, and Eileen had 2, and we had 3 left over for take-out.
And it all was accompanied by a fine David Bynum California Russian River Valley pinot noir red wine at $11.00 per glass. Finally I had a one shot espresso which was authentic Italian and thus as good as at a piazza in Rome.
The Osteria has a reputation for good food, but it is worthless if it is closed and unreliable. Incidentally the new OG pizza joint does not deliver and it is strictly a pizza, salad, sandwich and dessert place. They have no entrees. You can, however, do take-out, but you would never know that from their mailer.
If any of you get to eat there, please send us your review.
Reenie buzzes around her Back In Time Café at the Bradley Beach Train Station serving wonderful breakfasts and lunches to her lucky customers. She cooks and serves with swiftness, and that accounts for her slight blur above, but the results are always perfect. Paul Goldfinger photo. 2017.
By Eileen and Paul Goldfinger, Editors @Blogfinger.
This past July, we wrote a piece about Reenie Van Buren’s delightful breakfast and lunch café at the Bradley Beach train station, behind the park. But we didn’t have a photo of her then because she had stepped out, no doubt to check on those special hens quickly laying the organic eggs that she serves.
You can click on this link to get the “emmis.” (A word from the Blogfinger “introduction to basic conversational Yiddish” —it means the bare truth and nothing but the truth) BF Back in Time Café link
The café is right next to the train tracks, and you can see the Jersey Coast line whizzing by. There is parking in the train station parking lot or on the street.
Reenie is a Grovarian who lives at the North End with her giant German Shepherd Zeus. Don’t cross Zeus because he can bring down Apollo himself onto your head.
This morning I tried the Special “layered” delicious sandwich—– a breakfast that is marvelous: On a croissant Reenie layers Applewood crisp bacon, an “over easy” egg, Swiss cheese, tomato and avocado. It is really good as is her fresh brewed coffee.
Eileen had bacon and eggs with home made raspberry preserves, which she loved. It is a basic dish, but way above average.
