The essential Jersey Shore restaurants this summer: Ventnor City to Cape May

After sun-splashed days at the beach, I find myself craving variety for dinner, and this year at the Jersey Shore my meals were more diverse than ever. This was especially true across the southern stretch between Ventnor City and Cape May, where I nibbled roasted veggie hoagies, savored a Chiapas-style mega-machete, and spooned through peerless bowls of pho. I also revisited a surging gastropub beside a commercial marina for the world’s best scallops, and then landed at a new destination BYOB in Stone Harbor for a special occasion meal.

Then again, isn’t great pizza always a special occasion? One of the region’s finest pizzaiolos has landed in Ocean City — where, by the way, a fantastic gluten-free bakery has also opened its doors. For dessert? Well, how about some exceptional Indian ice creams? Read on, because I guarantee you’ll want the scoop on that.

Heading north? Follow my dining itinerary from LBI to Atlantic City in Part One of my annual Shore dining series.

VENTNOR CITY

There’s a breezy boardwalk ocean view. The menu has multiple gluten-free options from brunch throukigh dinner. And there’s even a special menu for dogs on the outdoor “paw-tio” at the Queen Bean Bistro, which means this umbrella-fringed cafe at the Vassar Square condominiums in Ventnor City checks more boxes for the LaBan family’s Shore dining needs than most.

“Woof!” said Buttercup, our Great Dane mix, with her vote of approval for the potatoes and ham she devoured beside us.

Most importantly, the bistro’s executive chef and co-owner, Salvatore Giambrone, a former Velo Cafe chef who took over in October with partners Easton Reynolds and Michael Beau Ridge, is cooking Italian-themed dishes with gusto, transforming what might otherwise be a generic condo amenity into a destination. Our first visit was for dinner, and I was impressed not only by the uncommonly large entrees, but the bold flavors. A meaty branzino fillet was topped with a brothy butter sauce of citrus and tomatoes and crunchy oreganata crumbs. A half chicken came with the deliciously retro indulgence of rich cream sauce and crumbled bacon. I can also see why the veal Giambrone — 10 ounces of tender cutlets, dusted and browned in gluten-free flour, then lavished with mortadella, truffled burrata, and spicy cherry peppers — is the chef’s self-proclaimed favorite.

The Queen Bean’s charms are most evident in the light of day, when the boardwalk is bustling and customers are lured by excellent gluten-free pancakes, a Smoky Westerner omelet (with smoked pork butt), and Stella’s Campfire Toast, a s’mores-inspired, Biscoff cookie-encrusted French toast tribute to Giambrone’s 15-year-old daughter. (That’s her in the back, washing dishes.) Lunch is just as appealing: Giambrone makes one of the best cheeseburgers at the Shore, an incredibly juicy double-patty onion smashburger drizzled in King Sauce (a popular ”secret sauce”-style condiment from the former owner of Marsini’s Kitchen). But the best sandwich might also be the healthiest: the Vex’ahlia, a pile-it-on vegetarian fantasia of roasted peppers, onions, mixed mushrooms, and marinated tomatoes inside a seeded Atlantic City roll with mashed avocado and a blend of Cooper Sharp and provolone. The unusual name is a nod to Giambrone’s kids’ passion for Dungeons & Dragons, which, depending upon your family, may check yet another distinctive box in favor of the Queen Bean Bistro.

Queen Bean Bistro, 4800 Boardwalk, Ventnor City, N.J. 08406, 609-428-7116

VENTNOR CITY

Change is part of the ritual of returning annually to the Jersey Shore, and that occasionally means saying farewell to a favorite restaurant. The news that Dim Some and Then Some! had moved from Ventnor City to a larger location in Galloway (much farther from our summer rental) was disappointing to my crew. We valued this take-out spot as a reliable destination for excellent Cantonese cooking and gluten-free dumplings.

A bright new tenant like Two Sisters Vietnamese Eatery, however, more than softens the blow. One brisk sip of the strong iced coffee with chicory sweetened with condensed milk and my mood instantly improved. Then came fresh summer rolls so delicately wrapped that the lettuce inside glowed through the rice paper wrapper. And oh, the aromas of star anise, cinnamon, and ginger wafting from the pho pots simmering in the kitchen? Order me two bowls, please, one steeped golden from whole chickens, the other deeply infused with beef, finished with a dose of molten fat shimmering like pearly beads.

Two Sisters is owned by Tara Bloch and her husband, Ian Bloch, and her parents, Andy and Trinh Phan, who cook the family recipes they grew up with in Ho Chi Minh City. The Phans raised Tara in Brigantine while working in the casino industry, then decamped for Pittsburgh, where they launched an earlier version of Two Sisters in East Liberty. Earlier this year, they moved back to open the restaurant in Ventnor City with their daughter, who had stayed in New Jersey.

Two Sisters is primarily a take-out operation, but the little room has also been transformed into an airy, modern cafe with a dozen seats inside and eight more on the sidewalk. The pho should not be missed. The grilled meats, marinated in a honeyed five-spice with lemongrass and sesame, are also outstanding, whether you get the thin-cut beef short ribs over rice or the pork shoulder tucked into a banh mi with pickled veggies and house mayo on a Formica’s Bakery baguette.

Two other side dishes from Trinh should not be bypassed: Goi ga, a shredded cabbage salad, is tossed to order in a lime vinaigrette with pho-poached chicken and Thai basil; it could well become the salad of the summer in Ventnor City. You’ll also want to grab Trinh’s Vietnamese coffee flan from the fridge: It’s every bit as strong as the coffee that started my meal, but the silky richness will stay with you long after the meal is over.

Two Sisters Vietnamese Eatery, 7317 Ventnor Ave., Ventnor City, N.J. 08406, 609-541-6133; twosisterseatery.com

VENTNOR CITY

The idea for the Snackle Box was indeed born on a boat. Vanessa Wong was out fishing and drinking wine with her friends one day and suddenly got the munchies. The solution — a portable charcuterie board — was obvious because Wong and her husband, Ryan Slaven, happen to own a specialty foods market in Ventnor City called Fish & Whistle, which is also attached to their excellent indie bottle shop, the Wahine Wine Co.

Wong took a lidded box with compartments, not unlike a tackle box for fishing, and stuffed its little cubbies generously with artisan cheeses: Shelburne Farms cheddar and Brie-like Noblette from Honesdale’s Calkins Creamery; cured meats from Molinari & Sons; fig jam, cornichons, and all the other accoutrements for a well-tuned cheeseboard feast. At $17, it’s a tremendous deal for such quality nibbles, and with cassava-based Cult Crackers, it’s also entirely gluten-free. The only question is which sustainable, organic wine to pair with it? A $17 prosecco from Casa di Malia? A lightly effervescent $20 Txakolina from woman-owned and operated Basa Lore Getariako? I suggest the light Greek red blend from the Georgas Family called Hoot, which holds the equivalent of two bottles in a sealed “bagnum” pouch for $30. Even if you hit rough surf, the Snackle feast will be smooth sailing.

Fish & Whistle Market & Wahine Wine Co., 101 N. Dorset Ave., Ventnor City, N.J. 08406; on Instagram

OCEAN CITY

Few things can chasten a chef’s ego quite like making pizza. Even a proven star like Mike Fitzick, who’s rightfully won a cult following at the Shore for his Detroit-style pies over the years, can be reminded that the dough is his fickle boss, not the other way around.

When Fitzick revived Bakeria 1010 in Ocean City this past May, the island’s microclimate was so different from what he had recently experienced on the nearby mainland town of Linwood — just five miles away — that the extra humidity wrecked an entire week’s worth of dough. “It had catastrophic results,” he said. “It looked like pancake batter and had to be trashed. I thought my scales were broken. It was very humbling.”

Fitzick has recovered, and is once again making some of the best Detroit-style pizza in the region — not just the Jersey Shore. His puffy, well-developed crusts, crackling with a cheesy crunch around the edges, and simple, but high quality toppings, make every bite a pleasure. I’m partial to the white pies topped with prosciutto and arugula, or Esposito’s sausage with roasted peppers and olives. But I also admire some of the novelty pizzas that began as “joke specials” before taking off in popularity, like the Buffalo chicken. The latest hit is the K-pop, a white pie topped with chicken, sesame seeds, scallions, and a sweet Korean barbecue sauce. I watched one diner across from me eat his entire piece in slow motion with his eyes closed.

Fitzick’s classic red pizzas are just as good as his gimmicks, with a sweet and tangy blend of Italian and Jersey tomatoes that shines on his thin-crusted round pies. Get the Spicy ‘Roni, which blends cup and char pepperoni with fistfuls of shaved jalapeños whose heat has been tempered with a cold bath. (A glaze of Mike’s Hot Honey brings that heat right back up.)

Fitzick has more than pizza going on in this little dining room in downtown Ocean City. The fresh sourdough boules and baguettes are also popular picks, while a flat top grill allows his crew to turn out high-quality cheesesteaks (rib eye or halal chicken). Fitzick concedes he’s still fixated on the pizza side, “splitting atoms” to assure the consistency of his dough. But he plans to focus on boosting the rest of the menu soon, he says.

“I signed a five-year lease,” Fitzick says. “I’ll be chilling here for a while.”

Bakeria 1010, 955 Asbury Ave., Ocean City, N.J. 08226, 609-600-7023; bakeria1010.com

OCEAN CITY

Ocean City is bursting with great bakeries, from the scone destination of Barefoot Market to the Italian specialties of Bennie’s Bread (est. 1957) and the powdered doughnut paradise of the 77-year-old Dot’s Pastry Shop. But the branch of Kizbee’s Kitchen set to open this month in Ocean City is unique: It is one of the absolute best gluten-free bakeries in the region.

How good is Jenna Kisby’s bakery, which was founded in Egg Harbor City in 2015? Take a bite of the blueberry or strawberry pop tarts, whose centers burst with vivid reductions of real fruit, or the decadently creamy blueberry cheesecake bar, or the jumbo salted chocolate chip cookie, which is topped with three kinds of chocolate and crumbles with a satisfying richness. You wouldn’t know any of them are gluten-free unless I told you. That’s because Kisby, 39, who discovered she could no longer eat gluten after being hospitalized with stomach issues in 2008, has spent the past decade honing her own blends of gluten-free flours to build a core menu of 40-plus items that are regularly available at her Egg Harbor City home base.

Kisby, whose bakery is a regular at summer farm markets in Stone Harbor, Margate, and Brigantine, decided to commit to a storefront in Ocean City, which will sell about 20-plus items daily to start. The pastries are built around fresh, whole ingredients that she has personally verified as gluten-free, down to the imported Canadian jimmies. The rustic baguettes are among the crustiest gf loaves I’ve come across; the cinnamon buns, whose puffy spirals are made from the house pastry flour, are the epitome of bakehouse comfort. There are savory items, including a killer mac and cheese and bacon-cheddar scones, and multiple vegan options, too, from banana chip loaves to cupcakes topped with strawberry-lemonade icing.

“We offer something different for people who need it, who shouldn’t feel left out,” Kisby says.

Kizbee’s Kitchen, main bakery: 734 W. White Horse Pike, Egg Harbor City, N.J. 08215, 609-553-3383; Ocean City branch: 611 East Eighth St., Ocean City, kizbeeskitchen.com

OCEAN VIEW

The Jersey Shore’s Mexican dining scene has grown rewardingly deep over the last couple decades. One of my new favorites is Los Machetes in Ocean View, where chef owner Claudia Vazquez-Altone is paying homage to her roots in Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state.

Vazquez-Altone’s signature is the mega-machete, a three-foot-long variation on a quesadilla named for its resemblance to the slender agricultural blade, whose fresh masa tortilla is tricky to make without being either too dry or too soggy. When done right, its pliant folds and vivid corn flavor make the perfect wrapper for stuffings of meat and quesillo cheese. The juicy shredded beef of carne desmenuzada is the traditional choice, but carne asada and a mixed veggie filling are also popular. (The machetes also come in a smaller individual size.) Vazquez-Altone, who cooked for several years at Pleasantville’s Fiesta Oaxaqueña, first honed the machete craft at her own restaurants in Chiapas and later at the Jersey Shore, where she sold them as lunches to landscaping crews while saving money to open this restaurant in 2022.

Vazquez-Altone and son Gadiel Ferrera have turned a former sandwich shop’s narrow dining room into a festive and colorful space, with seating for 26 inside and 24 outside on the gravel patio facing US-9. Her menu goes well beyond machetes to include a wide range of homestyle specialties that capture the nuances passed down by her mother, Alicia Altone, who still sends fresh-blended mole from Mexico. The Chiapas-style mole tends to be slightly sweeter than the spicier Oaxacan-style, which Los Machetes also offers for its enchiladas.

The fresh-pressed sopes, topped with a chorizo she makes in-house from beef — instead of the usual pork — were fantastic, while the bistec a la Mexicana is a distinctive twist on a ubiquitous dish, the shredded beef sautéed with vinegar-tanged tomatoes, fresh jalapeños, and lots of thyme (a Chiapas touch, she says). I may return to Los Machetes solely for Vazquez-Altone’s pozole rojo, however. This soulful bowl of hominy stew with chicken has a deep red broth rife with cumin and an earthy blend of well-toasted guajillo, ancho, and puya chiles. “It tastes just like my grandmother makes it,” Ferrera says.

Los Machetes, 1222 US-9, Ocean View, N.J. 08230, 609-814-2942; on Facebook

CAPE MAY COURTHOUSE

There are dozens of ice cream stands at the Jersey Shore that look just like the Ice Cream Station in Cape May Courthouse — at least at first glance. The two Middle Township softball teams who’d arrived just before me were going for scoops of mint chocolate chip, warm brownie sundaes, and ice cream nachos.

But if you order some of the more distinctive flavors here, including several not noted on the chalk board menu, the Ice Cream Station is not like any local dessert stand I’ve visited. That’s because the Patel family, who took over ownership in 2021 after arriving from Gujarat in Western India, has begun churning several fresh ice creams that remind them of home. The saffron-pistachio, created by patriarch Jignesh “Jack” Patel, is one of the most magnetic ice cream flavors I’ve spooned into this year. Then there are the refreshing tropical scoops of guava and mango, orange-pineapple, a cashew-raisin shaded with rose, the creamy floral sweetness of an Indian fruit known as custard apple, and a mixed nut-blasted vanilla called “American dried fruits.” That’s so popular one customer had a shake made from it three days running, according to son Jay Patel, who helps run the business with his sister, Keya, mother, Sonal Patel, and grandma, Nita.

Order them by the flight so you can taste and share them all at once — seven for now, until flavors under development (chocolate almond and saffron-almond) graduate to the official roster. I can’t wait.

Ice Cream Station, 809 US-9, Cape May Court House, N.J. 08210, 609-465-5090; icecreamstation.dine.online

STONE HARBOR

Jeremy Palumbo’s first restaurant has been more than 20 years in the making. And back in 2002, when he was slinging 900 cheesesteaks a night with his younger brother, Joshua, at Owen’s Pub in North Wildwood, he never envisioned himself behind the line of a fine dining room like Chanterelle’s. “I never really knew then if I was good enough,” Palumbo says.

After a long and steady climb through local kitchens at the Jersey Shore, from nearly a decade as sous-chef at the Peter Shields Inn followed by head chef gigs at Swine Bar and Provence, Palumbo and his wife, Danielle, finally took the plunge on ownership this spring. They took over a 38-seat bi-level BYOB in Stone Harbor, decorated it with mushroom-themed wallpaper to go along with the white linens, fine crystal, and candles, and opened their doors in March.

I’m here to tell you that Palumbo is absolutely good enough. He’s assembled a career’s worth of favorite dishes for his menu, ranging from nods to his Italian family roots to the Asian fusion accents that helped shape much of modern American cooking over the last couple decades. A hamachi crudo, for example, comes with a lemongrass emulsion, crunchy rice crisps, and mango-flavored “caviar.” A court bouillon scented with star anise lends the oishii shrimp cocktail an Asian profile, while a roasted tomato bisque topped generously with sweet crab and an orechiette — also with crab and roasted cherry tomatoes — in lemony beurre blanc evoke a totally different but equally delicious mood.

These may sound a bit unfocused, but it’s coherent in that these are dishes Palumbo cares about, and the flavors shine though with solid technique and his affinity for good ingredients, like the pristine scallops he serves with sea beans, grilled corn, and chorizo. My meal at Chanterelle nonetheless proved to be one of the Shore’s most reliable new bets for a special occasion meal. A gorgeous hunk of halibut impressed with chanterelles, melted leeks, and English pea puree, while the roast duck was crisp and juicy over parsnip puree and a red wine reduction.

A perfectly roasted pork tenderloin over polenta with broccolini and chipotle aioli was another winning dish on a menu that is almost entirely gluten-free. That includes the ice creams he churns, from the blackberry-vanilla scoop that accompanies the goat cheese panna cotta (“my play on a cheese plate,” he said) to an espresso-chocolate chip that kept me buzzing all the way back home, dreaming of our next visit to Chanterelle.

Chanterelle. 330 96th St., Stone Harbor, N.J. 08247, 640-207-3004; chanterellebyob.com

CAPE MAY

Growing up in Cape May as the daughter of the owner of iconic Lobster House, Alex Laudeman did not have many rules. “The one rule my dad did give me was: ‘You do not go to Mayer’s!’”

The tavern on Schellenger Landing in Cape May’s commercial marina had a rough reputation in the 1980s and ‘90s as a fisherman’s bar where there were frequently fights, drugs, and even a shooting. Laudeman, now 39, returned home in 2018 from New York, where she’d cooked at Esca, to spruce up the once forbidden place, which had been closed for years. She succeeded in turning it into a gastropub-style haunt for craft cocktails, farro risotto, and some of the best fried scallops on the planet.

Six years later, there are live musicians strumming on Mayer’s splendid new outdoor patio for diners drinking glasses of natural wine alongside smoked bluefish spread, crab fritters, and oysters broiled beneath dabs of pimento cheese. The 35-seat patio, which adds significantly more al fresco space to the 50 first-come seats in the dining room and bar, is only part of the fresh draw to Mayer’s.

Laudeman stepped back from the kitchen to run the dining room after giving birth to her second child in September, handing over the stove to Rob Marzinsky, a longtime Philly chef (Fitler Dining Room, Buckminster’s, Sally) who moved to the Shore in 2021 to cook at Beach Plum Farms. The fact that so much of the menu is unchanged is a tribute to Laudeman’s vision: The simply fried scallops, plucked from the Lobster House’s own fishing fleet, are as delicious as ever, with some of the best house-made french fries you’ll ever experience.

“I’m just sort of a steward of what was already here,” says Marzinsky, whose steady touch has also been evident in specials featuring whole fish and seasonal vegetables from local farms like Terra Chimera. The dish I can’t stop thinking about is the most perfect roast chicken, a breast that gets marinated in seasoned yogurt before it’s cooked to a tawny crisp and served over arbol chile-braised collard greens and polenta.

With a seasonal fruit crumble for dessert, or a rich and classic chocolate mousse to go with one of the refreshing cocktails (the coconut creamed tequila Cold Front is my choice), I’d like to coin a new rule about this wonderfully revived tavern: Definitely go to Mayer’s.

894 Third Ave., Cape May, N.J. 08204, 609-435-5078; mayerstavern.com