OCNJ is a town built on repetitive nostalgic traditions. Most people come year after year for decades if not a lifetime and seemingly everyone has "their place" for everything be it pizza, ice cream, mini golf, etc.
In terms of ice cream or it's offshoots OCNJ has plenty of middle of the road places that charge steep island prices for what they're doing. Hobby Horse, Shriver's, Kohr Brothers, Aloha, Polish Water Ice, and Annie's.
We came on a weekday in mid-June and about a block away I could already tell this was a mistake. It was still about an hour until they closed at 10pm but the line wrapped around the corner off of Atlantic Avenue on to 4th Street in front of Coastal Court Condos.
Somewhere around 9:35 one of the owners popped out and starts yelling that there would be no more milkshakes as they intended to close on time and this would help move the line along. Well...it did, I guess, but only because a few people were ticked and left to go to Hobby Horse which was open until 11.
We finally got inside and ordered at 9:55 still with 20+ plus people behind us. If it's busy and you're one of those people who need to see what the product looks like, Fuggedaboutit. You're in there with eight others wedged into a corner and you need to be ready. At least there are boards outside showing the products they carry that seem to run the gambit from Breyer's to Island Ice Cream from Wildwood.
Pro Tip: If you're ordering Peanut Butter Ripple, make sure you specify Vanilla or Chocolate as they might have both and if they're busy and you forget to specify (personally I've only ever seen a vanilla base to PB Ripple) you may or may not get asked or receive which one you want.
Know before you go that it's cash only here and if need be there is an ATM out front. As one other reviewer mentioned, if extreme cleanliness matters to you, the same hands that are taking your money are also scooping the ice cream and applying what toppings they offer.
Our stuff came to something around $8 each and while it was good enough, like most things in town, if you're thinking about it from a realistic dollars and cents perspective it's not that good but when you factor in the nostalgia factor of it being somewhere you've visited for ice cream since you were a kid many years ago, whatever, like a shmuck you overpay and enjoy. read more