Red Bank with a side of Asbury: A Jersey Shore Weekend

New Jersey – Red Bank and Asbury Park – Jersey Shore

Saturday May 9, 2026 – Sunday May 10, 2026

Approximately a 2-hour drive from Long Island, New York

The Why

For us, New Jersey has been the state we can visit whenever. It’s so close, we drive through parts of it at least once a month, and often enough we drive through it to get to somewhere else. The idea of planning a visit just seemed like something we can do any time. Well, “any time” became May 2026.

I narrowed it down to Red Bank after about a year of jotting down notes about places to visit in New Jersey. The area piqued my interest. Being the setting for some of Kevin Smith’s movies (which my partner and I both enjoy), was the lead reason, but what sealed the deal was the opportunity to stay in a historic hotel, visit the Jersey Shore, and have it all only two hours from home.

The Start of the Day

Expecting that the drive was going to be quick in relation to our other road trips, I took the opportunity to shop at the supermarket in the morning for snacks to have on the car ride and in the hotel room. We also didn’t stress about what time we’d be leaving and leisurely got our overnight gear together and left Long Island a little before noon. The day was overcast with a threat of rain, but the drive still went smoothly. We arrived at the Molly Pitcher Inn an hour before check-in, and they allowed us to check in early. We went up to the room and freshened up.

The entrance and foyer area of the hotel was bustling. People were meandering about without a true destination. Many were dressed up; I suspected that there was a bridal shower. As we hopped into the snug elevator to go up to our room, my partner suggested that maybe it was a wedding.

Our room was on the third floor. As we looked for the door to our room for the night we walked past two open staircases, one leading down, the other leading up. They were on opposite sides of the hallway. From the looks of the staircase going down, you could walk to the main floor. I was curious where the upward staircase went but didn’t want to get in trouble if it was for staff only.

Photo 1: Looking down the stair case

Photo 2: Left side of the room at Molly Pitcher Inn

Photo 3: Right side of the room at Molly Pitcher Inn

The room itself was spacious, enough room in front of the beds to fit a table for poker or a game of twister (idk why either of those came to mind lol). The windows overlooked the parking lot, but beyond it, we could also see the Navesink River. From our quick assessment, the hotel seemed to have private events going on throughout the day, so we opted to leave for lunch and possibly stay out through dinner.

On the Move in Red Bank

Our first stop in town was a pizza place called Gianni’s Pizzeria which was about a mile away from the hotel. This was a small eatery across the street from the railroad tracks. There were only a handful of tables, most of which were filled. The idea to buy a full pie was discussed, but we opted to order slices so that we didn’t overstuff ourselves. There were plenty of options to choose from. Sicilian and regular.

The man at the counter pointed at each of the pies on display and told us what they were. This made our decision easier. I got one regular with sausage, and a Sicilian, my partner got two Sicilian slices, an upside down and a buffalo chicken. We paid at the counter and were told we could grab a table, and they’d bring the slices to us. It had a very cozy vibe. There were sauce cans on display high up on the wall, and a couple of pizza hut chandeliers over the booths. The pizza was great! I’d enjoy going back for that.

Photo 1: Inside Gianni's Pizzeria

Photo 2: Slices from Gianni's Pizzeria

Photo 3: inside Jay and SIlent Bob's Secret Stash

After lunch we headed into downtown Red Bank which is just under a mile from where we were. Our destination was Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. The store is owned by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, to name a few). It’s mostly a comic bookstore but also sells memorabilia related to his movies. It is small, merely 2 rooms, but it is packed with things to look at and there are tons of comic books.  I saw a souvenir that I wanted, a sign that said, “I assure you, we are open” with signatures from Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. Also bought two magnets.

Since we still had time on our metered parking, we walked along Broad Street and window shopped. My partner made a brief stop into Jack’s Music Shoppe, where they sold old CD’s and new CD’s, reasonably priced too!

Although we didn’t want to leave the area, we did want to re-park the car closer to our next destination, which was YESTERcades of Red Bank. YESTERcades is an arcade where you can pay to play games by the hour. You don’t need to use change or tokens to play any of the games. There were some decent 80s arcade games, like Q-Bert, Frogger, Ms. Pacman, Joust, and several pinball machines (I think I tried all of them!). There was also a pool table with a few additional arcade games in the back room close to the bathrooms. We didn’t really need to drive here, it’s probably only a 5-minute walk from Jack’s Music Shoppe.

Photo 1: Entrance to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash

Photo 2: Jack's Music Shoppe (from across the street)

Photo 3: A wall of games inside YESTERcades of Red Bank

It started to rain while we were in the arcade, so that put a little bit of a damper on what to do next. We decided to go check out the restaurant I selected as a possible dinner location, Dublin House. It was right down the street from the arcade, but we took the car just in case we didn’t stay. The lot near the restaurant was very filled, while my partner circled the lot seeking a spot, I noticed a full rainbow and insisted he stop so I could take photos! With that little bit of a delay, a car vacated a parking spot, and he zipped right into it.

Once we walked to the back entrance, we knew we wanted to stay. There was even a cute little walkway with shops along one side and the restaurant on the other.  Even though we weren’t overly hungry we planned to take half of our meal as leftovers to have at the hotel. The restaurant had outdoor seating as well as several different rooms of inside seating. We sat in a room that had windows, at a table for two in a semi-filled room. We ordered drinks, and a chicken fingers appetizer of chicken fingers to share. As our entrees I ordered the Reuben sandwich and he ordered the Guinness beef stew and mashed potatoes.  When our appetizer arrived, we realized we ordered too much food. It was a very large portion. Even more so when our entrée’s arrived. I don’t think you could leave the table hungry at this restaurant.

Photo 1: Full rainbow in the parking lot behind Dublin House

Photo 2: Table with a window view inside Dubin House

Photo 3: Entrance to Dublin House

What’s next?

With our bag of leftovers in hand, we exited the restaurant through the front door so that we could take a photo. Then walked down the path with the shops to return to the parking lot. All were closed, but still interesting to see. As it was barely after 6PM, when we arrived at the car, we sat in the car to discuss what we had seen, what we still wanted to see, and what we wanted to do with the rest of our night. It was still daylight, so my partner picked driving over to the Quick Stop in Leonardo, NJ where Clerks was filmed. Leonardo is about a 20-minute ride from Red Bank. The roads were slick from the rain, but we got to drive through some of the neighborhoods. There were lots of tall, thick trees.

The Quick Stop was quiet. We basically walked in and bought sodas. The video store (didn’t look open) seemed pretty much the same as in the movie. The Quickie Mart did too for that matter. It was now approaching dusk, so we headed back to the hotel. I knew I wanted to walk around the hotel to see the river and was hopeful we’d get a nice view.

The hotel was quieter, but the dining area was still active. We went up to the room, dropped off our food, and headed back downstairs to see if we could catch any of the sunset. As we approached the end of the parking lot close to the river, there was a staircase that led down to the docks. It was now dark, and although I bet we could have walked down it, I didn’t want to take any chances of falling. Instead, we walked onto the hotel back patio, where we could see the lights along the river, the hotel pool was below and lit up. A few steps more and we walked past the windows of the dining room, where a larger patio area lead out further towards the water. It’s likely they host weddings and parties here. The view of the river was beautiful, we could hear music from a party along the water “Heeey baby, I wanna know-w, if you’ll be my girl”. Had to have been a wedding, right? We soaked up the night and the music for about 30 minutes and left as “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor wafted across the river. A relaxing end to an active day.

Photo 1: The real Quick Stop sign in Leonardo, NJ

Photo 2: Molly Pitcher Inn pool at night - Navesink River in background

Photo 3: Navesink River at night (party music was from the direction of those lights)

Early Morning Start

My partner was awake before I was and ready to start the day. We decided to shake up our normal routine, and we went out for breakfast before checking out. Seeing as it was Mother’s Day, eating breakfast early to avoid the Sunday brunch crowd was probably a good idea. We drove by the Red Bank Diner, but eager to explore another town drove 15 minutes to the Rise and Shine Diner in Eatontown.  It was a luncheonette type eatery rather than a stand-alone diner like we are accustomed to in NY. There were several patrons, some at the counter, some with their young children, celebrating Mother’s Day.  We both ordered The Jackpot, but I had Taylor ham with French toast, he had sausages with pancakes. We sampled each other’s plates.

Back at the hotel, we took photos of the front of the hotel before returning to our room. Then showered and packed up our things. We still had a couple of places we wanted to see before leaving Red Bank, but our destination before leaving New Jersey was Asbury Park. In the car, we drove into downtown Red Bank and drove by the Count Basie Theatre. I thought about how cool it might be to see a concert there one day. Then we drove to a mural that I’d seen on our drive through the streets the day before. We were able to drive right up to it, park and take photos.

Photo 1: Inside Rise and Shine Diner

Photo 2: Across the street from Count Basie Theatre

Photo 3: Mural seen in Red Bank

Asbury Park

Our main goal here was to see The Stone Pony  and take photos. We also hoped to pick up souvenirs. Anything else would-be gravy.  It was about 11AM, but parking was already packed. I’m afraid to think of what it’s like in the summer.  We finally found street parking near the Asbury Park bowling alley and walked a few blocks to the boardwalk to check out Asbury Park Fun House . There weren’t too many T-shirts to choose from, but we were able to find two that suited us. Also picked up magnets. Happy with our purchases, we walked a little way on the boardwalk. The buildings nearby seemed beat up in areas, but it felt nostalgic. The water seemed a bit angry, probably from the storms the night before. The waves were fast and fierce.

A short while afterwards, we walked back to the car and drove past Stone Pony where I got a ton of photos from the car window. It’s a legendary venue for concerts, with general admission and standing-room-only entertainment. I can only imagine what it must’ve been like to see headlining musical acts here.

One More Thing

We left Asbury Park and decided to add one more Kevin Smith movie related site, Smodcastle Cinemas (Chasing Amy) in Atlantic Highlands. This was approximately a 30-minute ride from Asbury Park, along a coastal road back towards New York. When we arrived at Smodcastle, I was excited to see that it was a small, local movie theatre. Very nostalgic to remember how common those were back in the day. I’d love to go back to see a movie there. While in town, we stopped for a late lunch at On The Deck. It was busy, but surprisingly so crowded that we couldn’t be seated right away.

Photo 1: One side of the boardwalk at Asbury Park

Photo 2: The Stone Pony stage from a distance

Photo 3: The Stone Pony building

We sat outside on the deck, it was breezy, but very scenic. We both got fried flounder sandwiches, and started our meals off with soup (New England clam chowder for me, lobster bisque for him). The soups were full of clams and lobster bits. Our cod fillets were huge! Bigger than the bun, like big enough that you could cut it in half and stack it and it “might” fit on the bun. Unfortunately, neither of us thought to take a photo of this beast of a sandwich, so you’ll have to take my word for it :-) As we awaited the check, I did get dampened by a little rain, but it was only briefly.

This was such a relaxing weekend, I was sad to see it end. Luckily, it’s not far that we couldn’t do it again without much prep.

Photo 1: Smodcastle Cinemas in Atlantic Highlands

Photo 2: marina behind On The Deck in Atlantic Highlands

Things I learned from planning this trip: Red Bank is considered part of the “Jersey Shore” not because it is a shore town, but because it connects shore towns.

Things I learned from attending this trip: Such an amazing adventure only 2 hours away. It was a slower pace (not summertime) and we were able to get around without crowds. I’d go back to both places again in a heartbeat.

Things I keep in mind whe

n organizing a trip for myself: Go back for more! Spend more time on the boardwalk, we only spent a short time. We probably took more time to park and walk back and forth to the car than we did at the boardwalk itself. See a movie at Smodcastle Cinemas. See a concert at Count Basie theatre.

Some information, such as baseball game information and directions were sought by using ChatGPT or Perplexity. Brainstorming blog title ideas too!