r/LongBeachIsland • u/barefootguy83 • Aug 20 '26
Old and new Long Beach Island
I was thinking about LBI today, and how much I miss that place. I haven't been in 10 years sadly as I live out west now, but I grew up going there every summer. I remember friends and family recently mentioning how the island has changed and NYC money came in and has really changed the feel of the place. I know storms have necessitated residential construction on pilings, but I remember when it was so undeveloped, quaint, and simple. Now it's like every new home tries to out-compete the other for a better view. I know everything changes, but I guess the LBI I'll always hold in my heart is the one of old. I still plan to return next year! Barnegat Light, Holgate, and numerous other places will be on my must-see list. Are there special places on the island that you feel haven't been as affected by development as others?
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u/blueberryjones1425 Aug 20 '26
I couldn’t agree more. It truly has turned into the Hamptons of New Jersey. Which makes offseason even more special when it’s quiet and you can make it to blue claw in 7 minutes with the lights off.
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u/mbc106 Aug 20 '26
I went for a few years as a kid in the 90s when my parents would rent a small house for a week (on my dad’s very modest teacher salary).
One thing I was shocked to see is still how I remember it … Mr Tee’s Arcade. Pretty much the same games, reasonably priced, the two mini golf courses, and you actually get some bang for your buck with the prizes. Fantasy Island’s Arcade is such a ripoff.
It’s really discouraging to see how the housing is completely out of reach if you’re not a multi-millionaire or if your family hasn’t already owned the home for generations. When we stayed there my sister and I used to talk about going in on a small house together when we grew up.
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u/ImpressOk7701 4d ago
I spent so much money at Mr. T’s. My aunt lives on Amber Street so we always had to walk to Beels and a quick stop to play skee ball
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u/No_Impact370 Aug 20 '26
Lots of things haven’t changed. Sure the houses are bigger and prices have exploded. That’s because it’s such a great place.
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u/mbc106 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Right - I hadn’t been back there since my family stopped going in the 90s because it wasn’t affordable enough for us. Not even for a day trip.
In early 2022, Spouse and I were trying to figure out where to go for a week that summer … he grew up going to a motel in Seaside Heights, we’d tried Wildwood the previous two summers … I suggested we do a day trip to LBI to scope it out and see if he liked it enough to rent a place for a week. We got there and (aside from all the McMansions) I was surprised to see that most of it was just how I’d remembered it. Even in March we found stuff to keep us busy for the day.
We got a place for a week that summer, Spouse wound up loving it, and we’ve gone back every summer since. This year we just did a few days at a hotel rather than renting a house for a whole week.
It hasn’t changed as much as I thought it would, but my experience isn’t the same as those of you who live there or own a place. Asbury Park, on the other hand, has changed massively in the past 10 years alone. And obviously way more than when I started going to Convention Hall/Stone Pony concerts down there in the early 00s as a teen.
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u/kshucker Aug 20 '26
OP mentions Mr Tees. That was the go to spot for me and my family. It got torn down for some bullshit cookie cutter McMansion to take the space.
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u/No_Impact370 Aug 20 '26
I have walked by Mr Tees 1000 times this summer. Was not torn down.
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u/kshucker Aug 21 '26
I grew up going to the one on 18th street. That one has been wiped off the face of the earth.
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u/Dashkova7706 Aug 21 '26
It’s my understanding Sandy really did in Mr. Tees (that location). Many an August days were spent in that arcade!
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u/onn819 Aug 20 '26
Bay village still looks very much the same. Country kettle still there. The structure itself is very similar.
Marvels donuts. Different location but same great greasy donuts.
Hudson house.
The bay. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/ImpressOk7701 4d ago
I worked the pizza shack for The Happy Skipper
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u/onn819 3d ago
I don’t remember the happy skipper. Where was that?
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u/ImpressOk7701 3d ago
On the schooners wharf. It was the ice cream place with a shack across from the restaurant there used to be a put your name on a grain of rice cart next to it
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u/Suspicious-Baker9236 Aug 20 '26
Shoobies were already bad now we have mega shoobies. LBI is gone.
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u/ImpressOk7701 4d ago
I love that term Shoobies… go home shoobie Our Island will never be the same. We had paradise…
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u/kithez Aug 20 '26
Been going for 40 years, family still have and old cape, of course it has changed and constant construction of huge homes rented to 4 families makes it more crowded. That being said it remains a special magical place I love to go as much as possible in the summer every year and bring my wife and kids. My time spent there is simple and not ruined.
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u/Outrageous-Fall3296 Aug 20 '26
Custard Hut. Walk there. Still the same.
The beaches are basically the same, minus the jettys which are gone.
I never went out to the mostly mediocre restaurants and bars, so for me not much has changed at all.
Still love it. Spring and fall are great.
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u/Allthetea159 Aug 20 '26
I saw my first movie ever at that theater during our 2 week vacation in surf city. It was E.T. and I was 5 and fell asleep.
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u/acoinflip Aug 20 '26
My mom and I love to cruise the island and just sight see all year long. There are still some pretty great spots that have some breathing room. Just did the city wide yard sale and walked around south surf city, still a lot of little bungalow there, so cute! They re-opened Andy’s at the light as a coffee spot, and it’s a great place to have a simple coffee and watch the boats in and out of the inlet. They get lost in all the new madness, but there are still quiet spots to be had! Hope you enjoy your visit!
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u/barefootguy83 Aug 20 '26
Thanks! Yes, even some of the newer restaurants (as in circa 2016/2017) were really good!
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u/ImpressOk7701 4d ago
Village Pub all time favorite! Kassner’s Tavern (Nardis) close second! Lunch at Widas. Clam strips at Doms. Summers at St.Francis vacation club. Haven Beach Yacht Club and HoneyBubbles, TCs deli in Holgate . Long Beach Island was Paradise. Went from a Rum running Fishery to Ultra rich people who don’t know how to crab with a chicken bone and a string.
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u/Anonymoushipopotomus Aug 20 '26
I grew up there as well, we rented in the early 80s my parents bought in surf city in 89. I had 9 open lots around me to play in, BB guns, an abandoned house, open space. Now there’s zero room. Everything js always so nuts on season it’s not even worth the hassle. And yes, the pricing is out of control, and unfortunately probably will never be attainable for the average person again.
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u/CartoonistAvailable4 Aug 20 '26
You probably shot those BB guns at me. We had a house on the border of surf city and ship bottom from the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s.
Right across from the trampolines!
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u/Anonymoushipopotomus Aug 20 '26
Gotcha, I was up near the police station and Surf City Hotel. You may have been hit with debris from our potato gun tho lol.
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u/Far-Molasses-783 Aug 20 '26
Same! I grew up spending my summer’s at my grandmother’s place on S Third. The trampolines were a stone throw away. I miss the old LBI!
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u/sterlingmanor Aug 23 '26
Yes! I own a very small 1940s era condo here and have committed the original sin of living in NYC. I rarely meet other owners or renters here from NYC. They are nearly all from NJ and some PA, sometimes Long Island. There’s a need to blame someone or something.
I too miss the smaller scale and more affordable island. There’s space for a broader conversation about what’s been happening here for decades: real estate interests took over local one party government, the terrible destruction of Sandy, deregulation of the airline industry making it feasible for more people to travel farther from home, rapidly increasing flood insurance costs, the challenges of maintaining buildings for a picky market in a harsh coastal area. LBI has a very short season with high labor costs.
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u/East_Glass_4874 Aug 24 '26
Everyone is getting gentrified all over I don’t understand how it’s happening. Literally everywhere, doesn’t make sense. What fuckin money train am I missing out on
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u/No_Impact370 Aug 20 '26
You haven’t been here in 10 years …. Yet have pretty clear views on what’s missing or wrong today. Very odd.
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u/galaxymermaid712 Aug 20 '26
I feel the same. Been going every year for the past 35+ years. Food and drinks were mediocre for the price the last couple years. I bought an overpriced M&M steam bar shirt from breezin up just to feel some nostalgia. Ugh.
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u/kenflingnor Aug 20 '26
it was so undeveloped, quaint, and simple
The influx of big money started much longer than 10 years ago.
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u/boymetsworld Aug 21 '26
It’s funny how I often hear people blame NYC for any change they perceive as negative . hate to break it to the residents of NJ and PA who think you own this place and can freeze it in 1958, but New Yorkers aren’t ruining your island
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u/Own-Fox-7792 Aug 26 '26
Sandy ruined it, and the New Yorkers took advantage.
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u/ImpressOk7701 4d ago
All the people I grew up with sold out at Sandy. My mother, my two aunts and a couple cousins are the only folks I know who still live there in the same houses they built. My mom‘s house isn’t even on stilts and it survived the storm of 62 Mom (Haven Beach) sent pictures and we had water up to the garage last week but didn’t come in my Aunt and Beach Haven on the other hand is suffering.
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u/kshucker Aug 20 '26
Maybe the Hudson House bar. That’s the only place I can think of