Inkanto: New Peruvian Restaurant Opening Soon in Hazlet

A new Peruvian restaurant is supposed to have its grand opening soon on Route 35 in Hazlet. I saw workers outside the front of the place today, so maybe it will be soon. The answering machine message sounds optimistic but isn't offering a date.

Check out the article in The Patch from back in June. I'm not sure what the delays are, but probably a few hangups with permits.

It won't be the easiest place to get to from Cliffwood Beach. If you take Route 35 South, you'll have to make the jug handle at Bethany Road and come back Route 35 North. The restaurant stands alone across from TGI Fridays in the place where Spirits used to be. Pass Hazlet Plaza then the place that used to be Dino's Fishery. It's on your right just after that. If you get to Yesterday's, you've gone too far.

Watch Chowhound and Yelp for clues to its actual opening.

History: Ye Cottage Inn, Keyport (1906 - 2012)

Ye Cottage Inn was a restaurant located at the mouth of Luppatatong Creek, aka Oyster Creek, at 149 West Front Street in Keyport. The restaurant was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy in late October 2012 and the building razed.

In later years, the restaurant boasted that it was established in 1906, and a local history dated the restaurant's origin at about 1915, but the earliest reference I could find in local newspapers was 1926. To be sure, the issues of The Matawan Journal for the second half of 1906 are not available and I haven't viewed issues of The Keyport Weekly from the time period, but why there are no references to Ye Cottage Inn in the twenty years between 1906 and 1926 is a big question.

Some locals have told me the last iteration of Ye Cottage Inn was actually a composite of several restaurants that used to be in separate, neighboring buildings. One of the buildings was said to have been the former Burlew's Restaurant.

William E Burlew (July 1904 - August 1989) was proprietor of Ye Cottage Inn in the mid-1920s, between a short stint running the Keyport Fishery (1918 - 192X) and nearly 40 years (1928 - 1966) operating Burlew's Restaurant, according to his obituary in the 23 Aug 1989 edition of The Middletown Independent. The photo (right) is of the Original Burlew's on West Front Street in Keyport.

The 24 Nov 1926 edition of The Red Bank Register announced that Emanual Einzinger, of the Keyport Dry Goods Company, treated his staff out to dinner at Ye Cottage Inn.

The 21 Dec 1928 edition of The Matawan Journal contained an advertisement (image, left) in which Burlew's Restaurant invited people to celebrate New Year's Eve at their establishment - music, dancing, fun for all, and a turkey dinner, all for $3.50.


The 19 Aug 1932 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 1 col 2) reported that Jacob Rippen, proprietor of the Original Burlew's Restaurant on Front Street in Keyport, was appealing charges that he had punctured the tire of a patron of Ye Cottage Inn because the patron's car was parked on his lawn. A fine of $25 was in the offing.

The 19 Jun 1936 edition of The Matawan Journal said Jacob Rippen had applied to Matawan Township for a liquor license as Original Burlew's Inc.

By 1940, Arthur C Schultze and his wife, Virginia (Griffin) Schultze, co-owned Ye Cottage Inn.

Virginia D Griffin, age 6 NJ, lived at 109 Broadway in Keyport in the 1920 Federal Census and was enumerated in the household of her father, William L Griffin, 47 New York, a steam fitter at a chemical plant. Also in the household were her mother, Allie, 44 NY; her widowed grandmother, Isabella W Chipman, age 80 NY; and Virginia's older sister, Mabel D Griffin, age 17 NJ.

Virginia was born 29 August 1913 in Keyport, the daughter of Mr and Mrs William L Griffin of Broadway in Keyport. Virginia died on 27 June 1944 at Allenwood Hospital in Allentown after a six-month illness. (Source: Virginia's obituary in the 29 Jun 1944 edition of The Matawan Journal, pg 2 col 1)

The 1940 Federal Census showed Arthur C Schultze, age 35 Germany, living on Front Street in Keyport with his wife Virginia, age 26 New Jersey, and their daughter Virginia, age 4 NJ. Arthur and his wife were both listed as proprietors of a restaurant. Daughter Virginia attended Penn Hall Preparatory School in Chambersburg, PA, and the University of Miami in Miami, FL. She married Rex Crawford, according to the 10 Mar 1955 edition of The Matawan Journal.

According to the 18 Oct 1945 edition of The Matawan Journal, a former busboy and two of his associates, ages 14, 17 and 18, all of Keyport, allegedly attempted to hold up Ye Cottage Inn on 23 July 1945. Arthur's sister, Mrs Ella Kurica, of 727 Charles Street, Perth Amboy, was shot twice -- once in the neck and once in the back -- after she recognized one of the young men in a rear passageway of the restaurant. Arthur, proprietor of the restaurant, was shot in the head when he came to her aid. A cashier was severely beaten.

While all survived the ordeal, Ella was in the hospital for months recuperating and suffered paralysis in one leg due to her spinal injury. Doctors assessed she would remain crippled the rest of her life. The shooter was brought up on additional charges when he reached age of majority and was due to leave Rahway Reformatory, according to the 20 Feb 1947 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 4 col 5).

Arthur's sister Ella Kurica, 34 Germany, lived in Perth Amboy in the 1940 Federal Census along with her husband, George Kurica, 36 NJ, a machinist in ship repair, and their children Charles, 15 Germany, and Julia, 11/12 NJ. Ella lived in Keyport in 1935 while George lived in Perth Amboy.

Ye Cottage Inn ran a Christmas advertisement in the 22 Dec 1949 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 4 second section, or pg 10 of 12). Arthur C Schultze was listed as proprietor.

Ye Cottage Inn, under proprietor Arthur Schultze, was open to the public only two days after the devastation of Hurricane Donna, according to the 22 Sep 1960 edition of The Matawan Journal.

Tom Lucas was the proprietor of Ye Cottage Inn, according to the 16 Sep 1965 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 9 first section, col 6).

The 20 Sep 1997 edition of The South Amboy-Sayreville Times (pg 3) featured Ye Cottage Inn as the Business of the Month.The article said the owners for the past eight years (c 1989) have been George Hilas, Mihal Hilas and George Vouloumanos. The manager was Denise Wolf.

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I will continue to research Ye Cottage Inn's origins and will update this article as appropriate, but there is enough information at this point to warrant publishing my results to date. I welcome comments or emails with additional information, corrections, leads, references and/or photographs that could clarify the YCI story.

Up The Creek Under Construction, Keyport

They've made considerable progress this weekend on the new Up the Creek in Keyport.

Texas Roadhouse Steak Restaurant Coming to Holmdel in October 2014

UPDATE: Texas Roadhouse Steak Restaurant comes to Holmdel in October 2014, according to the chain's New Locations web page as of August 2014. It will be located next to Chili's, in the place where Macaroni Grill used to be.

Below is my original article, researching what would be built.

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The old Romano's Macaroni Grill building at 2105 Route 35 in Holmdel has been torn down, leaving Chili's standing alone with a large fenced construction area next door.

You may recall that Macaroni Grill closed a while ago and a hibachi place was supposed to open in the space. There were unexplained delays, signs in the window, and then Superstorm Sandy put a serious dent in the empty restaurant's infrastructure and that was that. No hibachi place ever materialized.

The new construction has been marked out on the ground and something is apparently to be erected in the next couple of months. The Holmdel-Hazlet Patch published a 2 December 2013 article saying that a Texas Roadhouse steak restaurant would be opening in this spot in July 2014. (Texas Roadhouse has a new locations web page, and I didn't see a listing for a new Holmdel location as pending.)

Holmdel Mayor Patrick Impreveduto bragged in a 16 January 2014 article in The Independent that the new Texas Roadhouse restaurant opening would help the Route 35 corridor revitalization project. He attributed the new restaurant to a reworking of local commercial development standards in 2013, including changes to zoning classifications and height restrictions, that have attracted commercial developers.

Texas Roadhouse obtained its alcohol license in 2013 from a holding company that had sold the license in 2011 - likely to the hibachi restaurant - but got it back due to the buyer's bankruptcy. Holmdel Township renewed the inactive license in June 2014 while construction of the restaurant was still underway, according to local online paperwork.

Mediterranean Chateau Opens in Matawan

Mediterranean Chateau finally opened on 16 Nov 2012 in the old Charlie Brown's Restaurant location on Route 79 in Matawan. I plan to drop by in coming weeks.

UPDATE 2 Dec 2012: The restaurant's Facebook page includes a series of images of their menu. The main dish categories are Fish ($17-21), Shellfish ($16-28, with a $14 vegetarian paella), and Meats ($14-34).

Restaurant Inspections, Monmouth County Health Department

The Monmouth County Health Department attended Aberdeen Day yesterday. I hope you had a chance to visit their booth. The Health Department conducts routine inspections of restaurants in the county (except where a municipality has its own health department - Colts Neck, Freehold Township, Manalapan, Long Branch and Middletown) and posts derogatory results at their website until the violations are fixed and the place is fully inspected (without prior notice) at a later date.

Only the most egregious conditions earn an UNSATISFACTORY rating, according to the county's definition:

“Unsatisfactory”: Whenever a retail food establishment is operating in violation of this chapter, with one or more violations that constitute gross insanitary or unsafe conditions, which pose an imminent health hazard, the health authority shall issue an unsatisfactory evaluation. The health authority shall immediately request the person in charge to voluntarily cease operation until it is shown on reinspection that conditions which warrant an unsatisfactory evaluation no longer exists. The health authority shall institute necessary measures provided by law to assure that the establishment does not prepare or serve food until the establishment is reevaluated. These measures may include embargo, condemnation and injunctive relief.

Most violations earn the CONDITIONAL SATISFACTORY rating, which is also derogatory, just not to the degree of UNSATISFACTORY.

“Conditionally Satisfactory”: At the time of the inspection the establishment was found not to be operating in substantial compliance with this chapter and was in violation of one or more provisions of this chapter. Due to the nature of these violations, a reinspection shall be scheduled. The reinspection shall be conducted at an unannounced time. A full inspection shall be conducted. Opportunity for reinspection shall be offered within a reasonable time and shall be determined by the nature of the violation.

I encourage you to check from time to time to see if restaurants you frequent have come to the county's attention.

McDonald's Restaurant Middletown (1963)

The 19 Sep 1963 edition of The Matawan Journal (pg 12) included this ad for McDonald's restaurant on Route 35 just north of Five Corners in Middletown. The ad promoted french fries. "You never had 'em so good."

Off the Beaten Path

The Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library has the ninth edition of "Off The Beaten Path - New Jersey: A Guide to Unique Places," by Kay and Bill Scheller. They've been publishing this work for seventeen years. Bill was born in Paterson but the couple currently live in Vermont.

The Schellers divide the state into five regions and provide over 30 pages to each, identifying and describing their favorite spots for touring, dining, and lodging. Perhaps the book will give you some unique ideas of places to visit in the state before summer ends? Or maybe you want to begin to plan some fall day trips?

Our area fell under the Central Lowlands portion of Central New Jersey. Local spots featured in the book include the Freneau Gravesite (pg 94), Big Ed's Barbeque (pg 95), the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial (pg 93), Nicholas restaurant (pg 94), and the Monmouth Museum (pg 93) at Brookdale College. Longstreet Farm at Holmdel Park gets an Other Attractions mention (pg 100) but no description. We have no worthy lodgings in our entire area (pp 97-98) -- take note, local chambers.

If I were picking local eateries, I might have mentioned Drew's Bistro and/or Nemo's in Keyport as worth exploring. I would have put Nicholas restaurant in the Shore section of the book, if I included it at all. It seems a bit too exclusive for a book like this, IMHO.  I might have included the Cliffwood Beach seawall, which is certainly off the beaten path yet provides a nice view of Raritan Bay and Keyport harbor.

As for local historical sites, Matawan and Keyport have some work to do. Matawan needs to put some serious flesh on plans for the shark attacks anniversary in 2016. And Keyport has the makings of a fine mariners and seaplane museum. If either municipality or chamber makes progress before the next edition of this book, maybe we'd get more than a paragraph?

This paperback resides in the New Books section of the library, inside the door and along the wall. It bears Dewey code 917.49 Sc.

History: Lisbon Manor, Cliffwood Beach (1989)

The 20 Dec 1989 edition of The Independent had this advertisement for the Lisbon Manor Bar and Restaurant at 160 Route 35 North in the Cliffwood Beach section of Old Bridge.. The restaurant specialized in Portuguese, Spanish and American cuisine.

The 1 Jun 1995 edition of The Independent provided a review of Don Sancho's Portuguese Restaurant at the same address.

Subway Comes to Cliffwood!

Subway Store #54945 will be opening soon at 315 Highway 35 in the A&P Shopping Center in Cliffwood.

UPDATE (29 Jun 2012): The storefront has a Subway banner hanging across the window but the place is still completely empty. No doubt one day the corporate folks will arrive and set it up. These things tend to take a while.

UPDATE: (19 Aug 2012): The construction crew has been busy the past week or so at the new Subway location in Cliffwood. There is a dumpster in the parking lot and I noticed lights on inside today. The Subway website says the store will be opening soon. I'll bet it will be really soon. Take a note Subway: your zip code there is 07721, not 07747, as it says on your website. The Cliffwood Post Office (07721) is in the same parking lot with you.

Seabreeze Fishery, Hazlet

I just noticed this evening that the Seabreeze Fishery has replaced Dino's Fishery on Route 35 in Hazlet. It's apparently been open a few weeks. There's been a bit of discussion on Yelp, but my favorite Chowhound hasn't noticed the new place as of this writing, only the closing of Dino's so far.

If you visit and have some constructive observations, feel free to add a comment here.

Bagelicious Is Now Open in Cliffwood.

Bagelicious is open and busy in Cliffwood.

Mediterranean Chateau to Replace Charlie Brown's in Matawan

The Asbury Park Press for 22 Feb 2012, page B3, includes an article that says that Charlie Brown's will soon become a Portuguese restaurant called Mediterranean Chateau. It is slated to open in a few weeks. The transfer of Charlie Brown's liquor license and plenary retail consumption license was approved at the Tuesday evening meeting of Matawan Borough Council.

The corporation is owned by Jose Barreiro of Sayreville.  Barreiro co-founded the successful Ria Bar Restaurant and Bar in South River in 1987. Check out the many awards and favorable reviews at the Ria Bar's news and events page.

UPDATE (23 July 2012): Mediterranean Chateau is tentatively set to open in mid-August or early September.

UPDATE (1 August 2012): I drove by yesterday and saw a stucco contractor working on the facade of the place. Definitely moving along but it looks like a few more weeks to go.

UPDATE (7 August 2012): Photo - Still under construction but nearly done.

UPDATE (24 November 2012) The restaurant finally opened on 16 November. There is a Facebook page but no webpage that I can find. See my recent article for link.

History: Buttonwood Manor Opens in Matawan (1933)

The Buttonwood Manor was to open for business on 1 July 1933, according to this advertisement appearing in the 30 June 1933 edition of The Matawan Journal.

There are two things I can point out in this ad that you might find surprising:

1) In July 1933, the Buttonwood was not on State Highway Route 34, which ended at Main Street in Matawan  until 1953. No, the restaurant was on State Highway Route 4, which was established by the NJ State Assembly in 1927 as a north-south route running through the state from Cape May all the way to Fort Lee, where the George Washington Bridge was still under construction. (Some consideration was actually given to calling the Garden State Parkway the Route 4 Parkway because it was going to be a bypass of Route 4.)

2) Five years before the Buttonwood was established in 1933, the "banks of Lake Lefferts" didn't exist. Matawan Creek was only dammed to form this man-made lake in 1928.

History: Poet's Inn, Matawan (1961)

The 21 Dec 1961 edition of The Matawan Journal contained an advertisement for The Poet's Inn, which was announcing the opening of their bar and cocktail lounge on Thursday 28 Dec 1961 at 5 pm. They were accepting New Year's Eve reservations for a buffet, favors and dancing.

Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine Has Opened in Matawan

Someone was kind enough to let me know that Loving Hut's restaurant at 952 Route 34 in Matawan had a soft opening on 11 November 2011. I'll be checking it out this weekend if at all possible. Here's a link to their online menu. I'm adding a map below. The restaurant is located on Route 34 in Matawan in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot between Broad Street and the Hudson Trail. I'll add an update  when I get a chance to visit. (I have oodles of turkey in my fridge!)

UPDATE: We dropped in this afternoon (Saturday) to give Loving Hut a try. The place is quite bright and clean. Plenty of tables for dining in comfortably. The place settings were quite fancy, with stemware, white plates, silverware, a tall courtesy bottle of filtered water. Service was prompt and pleasant, and the food was fresh and well prepared. I had the Loving Hut Burger and my wife had the Golden Charm rice plate. We shared the crispy rolls and the veggie tempura. We finished with a slice of faux chocolate cheesecake and coffees.

As for the few negatives, the kitchen has some issues with getting the food courses out in the right order. They promised me they are working on it. And I cannot recommend the Loving Hut Burger. While the burger and sweet potato fries were certainly tasty, the burger toppings make it an impractical conception. I found the ingredients constantly slipping from the bun. I went through three napkins and eventually had to put it down.

Loving Hut is planning its grand opening in early December. They're still getting things in order. I wish them well.


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Monticello at Red Bank

My wife and I had a wonderful dinner experience at Monticello at Red Bank last night. The restaurant is at 69 Broad Street near Monmouth Street.

We indulged in two of their specials: I had sole stuffed with lobster and my wife had a New York strip steak with Portobello mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese. Each meal came with mashed potatoes with julienne carrots. My yummy half house salad had grapes, cranberries, nuts and other stuff on it. My wife had a half Caesar salad.

We brought our own bottle of red wine, a Domaine Fabrice Gasnier Cuvee Vielles Vignes 2009, which we sampled and bought from the Wine Academy in Hazlet and has become our favorite.

The dining room is about a dozen tables deep with plenty of room for comfortable conversation. The walls are decorated with large classic paintings of the Raphael genre. The soft lighting made dinner cozy. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and service was excellent -- prompt and friendly.

History: Don Quixote Inn, Matawan

The Don Quixote Inn, a restaurant on Route 34 South in Matawan, was established in February 1964. Its distinctive windmill edifice was a local landmark for about forty years. Civic meetings, parties, and other affairs were routinely hosted at the inn, according to local newspapers.

A photograph of the opening ceremony (above) appears on the cover of the 20 February 1964 edition of The Matawan Journal. The caption reads: Mayor Edward F Hyres, Matawan Borough, cut the ribbon to open officially the Don Quixote Inn on Route 34, while Christopher Heuser, left, and Patrick --, two of the owners, watch. Other businessmen in the operation of the new restaurant are Michael Dominick, Mrs Grace Reeves, Ralph S Heuser, Sr, C Randolph Heuser, and Ralph N Heuser, Jr.

An advertisement for Easter dinner can be found on pg 14 of the 26 March 1964 edition of the same paper.

Easter dinner at the Don Quixote Inn in Matawan, 1964.

The inn appeared as a venue for public meetings through at least 2000-01. It was used to host a science fair in January 2004, but it is unclear whether the restaurant was still open then as all publicity for building use disappeared from local media circa 2001. It was certainly closed by 2006, when the Matawan Fire Company practiced fighting fires there, per the 11 Oct 2006 edition of The Independent. Six months later the building had been torn down and public hearings were discussing the pros and cons of erecting a daycare center in the vacant lot, according to the 13 June 2007 edition of the same paper.

Jake-a-Bob's Restaurant Doing Fine After Irene

We needn't have worried about Jake-a-bob's Restaurant in Union Beach. The place seems to have done just fine during Hurricane Irene. A quick check today showed the place crowded and lively.

Don't Mess With Shanghai Bun

A Houston Chronicle restaurant critic visited Shanghai Bun in Matawan and sang its praises in a recent blog article.