New Jersey

Palm fronds at the entrance, plates of garlicky shrimp sailing past the tables, and a courtyard that somehow…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

Some breakfasts arrive with a tiny parsley garnish and a lecture about house-made preserves. New Jersey, thankfully, has…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

Before the beach chairs come out and before Bay Head has fully stretched awake, there’s already a good…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

A morning in New Jersey can start with coffee beside a Victorian storefront, turn into a boardwalk stroll…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

The first thing you notice is the roof. Kelly’s Tavern doesn’t look like another highway-side bar on Route…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

The best New Jersey pizza places rarely announce themselves with polished dining rooms or dramatic menu language. More…

By Duncan Edwards · May 4

A red roadside building pops up on Route 539 after long stretches of pines, and that is usually…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

A waterfall taller than you expect is roaring behind a row of old brick mill buildings in Paterson,…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

A tiny post office is hiding in the woods of Tenafly, and it is not the kind with…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

There’s a moment on a sandy Pine Barrens road when New Jersey suddenly stops acting like New Jersey.…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

A giraffe looks down from above the dining room, antler chandeliers glow overhead, and a bear appears to…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

The best New Jersey sandwich orders rarely begin with a quiet browse of the menu. They start with…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

There’s a little swagger in ordering octopus at a place where the pizza ovens are doing most of…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

A white tower rising out of dune grass. A red-roofed beacon tucked beside the Delaware Bay. A pair…

By Duncan Edwards · May 3

A giant painted snake waits near a ladder, and for one ridiculous second, your brain believes the whole…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

The best New Jersey towns are rarely shy. One minute you are walking past a Revolutionary-era building, the…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

The first thing you notice is not the menu. It is Manhattan, sitting right there across the Hudson…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

A kid in a hard hat is steering a construction vehicle in South Jersey while, two hours north,…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

Blink and you might miss Pearl Street in Newfield. Blink twice and you might miss the little building…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

A six-story elephant stands a block from the Atlantic, a glassy former science temple stretches across Holmdel like…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

The building looks almost too small to be this famous. Sitting at 470 Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City,…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

A bronze Martian crouches in a quiet Mercer County park, not far from tidy lawns, shade trees, and…

By Duncan Edwards · May 2

Rancocas Creek doesn’t announce itself with drama. It slips through the woods in Burlington County, brown and quiet,…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

A waterfall hiding behind an old mill, a 77-foot monster roaring in the middle of Paterson, a thin…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

The first clue that Supreme Discount Warehouse is not playing by normal retail rules is the building itself.…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

A six-story elephant stands by the sand in Margate, an old prison keeps watch over Mount Holly, and…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

Step through the doors at American Dream in East Rutherford, and New Jersey does something delightfully ridiculous: it…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

The best New Jersey trail days do not always start with a steep climb or muddy boots. Sometimes…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1

Just off Route 10 in Morris County, behind the kind of everyday New Jersey traffic that makes nobody…

By Duncan Edwards · May 1