Planetary Verbosity

So what’s it like to take a vacation to the southern Jersey Shore in late September? Nicer than you may think, actually. The weather is usually really nice (t-shirt and shorts weather most days), and the water temperature is still in the 70s – it’s sometimes even warmer than the air temperature during this time of year.

There are other benefits as well. It’s not nearly as crowded, many retailers have big end-of-season sales, you don’t need beach tags after Labor Day, and there are still plenty of things to see and do.

The hardest part for us, oddly enough, was finding places to eat during the week. We usually eat out or have takeout delivered to the motel room, but in the off-season, many of the usual summer favorites are closed during the week.

We went to our usual place for breakfast, the Surfside West in Wildwood. We had to dodge crowds from buses a few days, but the food was great, as was the service. Since the last time we were down, they changed their “hash browns” from sliced potatoes (kind of like fried potatoes) to shredded…love the change. Keep the shredded ones, please!

Lunch/dinner was another matter. We scoured all of the menus we’d picked up in the motel lobby and finally decided on a place we hadn’t tried before, only to find that it was closed until Friday. We ended up at the Five Guys in Rio Grande – good burgers, but they really skimped on the fries…almost no extras in the bag. What’s up with that? One of the best parts of going to Five Guys is knowing that the bag will be heavy with those extra fries!

The following day, we had the same dilemma but decided to try something different. I remembered seeing a place called the Star Diner as we passed it several times over the years, but we’d never tried it. After checking some reviews, we decided to go with that.

We certainly weren’t disappointed! First of all, this place keeps great off-season hours. We ended up going there four days in a row, from Tuesday through Friday! It was fairly quiet all four days, which meant for quick turnaround time and good service. We got early bird specials on Wednesday and Thursday – great value, although it would have been nice to be able to choose a beverage other than coffee or hot tea. (I got the hot tea, of course.) The food – everything from regular diner fare to specialty seafood meals – was excellent, and the portions were larger than we expected. We’ll definitely be heading back to Star Diner next year.

On Saturday, we ordered from Mr. D’s Pizzeria, Steaks, and Subs in Wildwood. They, too, keep regular off-season hours. We’d ordered from there before and knew they had good food, but we tried something different this time – steak in a pouch. It’s basically a pizza dough pouch stuffed with steak, mozzarella cheese, and pizza sauce. (We also added mushrooms for a small fee.) This was absolutely delicious! We’ll be sure to get it at least once next year.

Some of the eateries that were not open during the week were: Rusty Rudder, Red Oak Restaurant, Alumni Grill, Schellenger’s, Urie’s, and many of the places on the Wildwood boardwalk.

Ok, I think that’s all for now. For those of you who vacation in this area, what are some of your favorite places to eat?