New Jersey

A plate of fried calamari lands on the table, the lake catches the afternoon light, and suddenly Hightstown…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

On a spring night along the Delaware Bay, a horseshoe crab can get flipped by a wave, stuck…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

The first spoonful does not behave like regular restaurant soup. It is darker, deeper, and a little mysterious…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

There’s a version of New Jersey most people never get around to seeing. It’s not sitting in Parkway…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

There is an altar arch at the back of Critchley’s Candies, which is not the sort of thing…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

Some New Jersey picnics come with a skyline. Others come with waterfalls, pine trees, Revolutionary War history, or…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

You can smell the smoke before the sign fully registers. On North Broadway in Pennsville, where South Jersey…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

There is a very specific New Jersey joy in realizing your drink comes with a breeze. Maybe it…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 15

A boat tied up behind the house changes the whole math of a summer day. In Forked River,…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

You can be standing beside traffic, old mill buildings, or a quiet dirt road one minute, then hearing…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

The first thing that hits you is the smoke. Not a whisper of it, not some polite background…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

A castle rises off the highway in Lyndhurst, a French country cottage hides beside giant sculptures in Hamilton,…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

The coffee bar is the surprise. You walk into VINE Garden & Gift on Fischer Boulevard expecting plants,…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

There are meals in New Jersey that announce themselves with neon, waterfront views, and a full parking lot…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

A lobster roll lands on the table looking almost suspiciously simple: toasted bun, pale chunks of lobster, maybe…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

Somewhere between a cliffside view of Manhattan, a cranberry bog in the Pines, and a bayside road where…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 14

The drink lands on the table, the Atlantic is rumbling a few yards away, and nobody around you…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

The beach bag is packed, the sunscreen is somewhere under the towels, and the Parkway is already glowing…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

Step off the trail on a sticky July afternoon, duck toward a dark opening in the rock, and…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

A sailboat gliding across a quiet glacial lake. A rocky overlook where Washington once watched troop movements. A…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

The best thing you can bring to Phillips Farms is not a cooler, a floppy hat, or a…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

There is a very particular New Jersey magic in watching a kid go completely silent because a room…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

The water is the giveaway. Tucked deep in South Jersey, where sandy roads cut through pitch pines and…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

A wolf howl bouncing through the mountains. A fluorescent mine tunnel glowing like a secret nightclub for rocks.…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 13

The first clue that Mueller’s Bakery is not messing around is the line. Not a flashy, velvet-rope kind…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 12

The strangest thing about New Jersey is how often it hides its best surprises in plain sight. One…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 12

The first clue is the smell. Before a fork hits a plate at The Juke Joint Soul House…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 12

A six-story elephant is staring down the Atlantic Ocean like she owns the place, and honestly, after more…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 12

The first thing you notice is how close the tables sit to the water. Not “waterfront” in the…

By Duncan Edwards · Jun 12