Blogfinger

New Jersey Avenue bridge across Wesley Lake  to Asbury Park restaurant scene  on Cookman Avenue. . June, 2015. By Paul Goldfinger  Blogfinger.net.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger.net.  2015.

Asbury Park once experienced “Glory Days,”  but in the 1980’s  it went into a downhill spiral and it turned into “Nowhere.”

Then  in recent years, perhaps ten, a slow and difficult rebirth has been occurring, and now it’s clear that Asbury Park has turned a definite corner in its  renaissance and is becoming “Somewhere.”

Of course there are still problems in governance, crime, poverty and schools.  In some ways it is a tale of two cities—roughly east and west.

In December 2013, we posted a piece on Blogfinger that wondered if the acclaimed Asbury Park restaurant scene downtown  had become a true  “destination” for visitors from around here and elsewhere.  We were interested in this subject because of the relationship that Ocean Grove has to AP.  That includes the fact that many Grovers go there for dinner on a regular basis, and oftentimes we walk over there at night.

In 2013, half of our Blogfinger readers who took our poll said that AP had not yet become the “go to” place for fine dining.

But now, in 2015, we have reason to believe that the tide has turned  regarding the dining situation.   We  wrote a recent glowing review about Taka’s new location, and today we will be reporting on a new name in town:  “Cross & Orange.”

Now that A. Park is a true destination, girls named Marie might show up.  It’s Kermit Ruffins from New Orleans:

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