Page 44 - 2023 Southern NJ Vacationer

42 SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY VACATIONER
DINING
Where fresh local meets casual cool
HEADED TO Sea Isle City for a great seafood dinner? Just hang a right when you get into town and look for the city’s famous Fish Alley sign at the base of Park Road – then take your pick or flip a coin. Maybe Oar House Pub, a great place with live music, or Mike’s Seafood and Dock Restaurant offering a wide selection of fresh, locally caught seafood prepared to tasty perfection for lunch or dinner.
New Jersey is the Garden State and that
means from farm to table with the freshest fruits and vegetables in season used daily. Farm markets are planted all over New Jersey’s Southern Shore. Here’s a “did you know?” factoid. National Farmers Market Week is Aug. 6 to 12 this year!
If you want a close look at fresh, tour Beach Plum Farm in West Cape May and enjoy breakfast or lunch outside as farm workers hoe, weed and harvest around you. The hundred or more varieties of fruits,
vegetables, flowers and herbs grown on the 62-acre farm eventually end up on the tables of local restaurants where chefs develop menus around the wide variety of fresh farm produce. Pick just about anything from eggs to corn, tomatoes to some courgettes – that’s a rather French-sounding term for what most of us call zucchini.
Curious how those plump, succulent scallops end up on your plate? Tour Fisherman’s Wharf at the Lobster House and gain a greater understanding – and appreciation – for those people who head hundreds of miles out to sea to make a living – and provide us and cities near and far, with a variety of fresh fish. Cape May/Wildwood is one of the largest ports on the East Coast – and many of the seafood choices are delivered to restaurants within hours of being caught.
The Delaware Bay is home to a thriving oyster industry, producing one of the world’s most highly favored shellfish delicacies – just miles from the restaurants where they are served. The origins of Cape May Salts date to the late 1800s – and beyond.
Oysters as a seafood delicacy have been a favorite for over 125 years at Dock’s Oyster House in Atlantic City. In 1897, Harry “call me Dock” Dougherty believed there was a great opportunity in Atlantic City to open a