Boathouse Bar and Grill
Located at:
1309 Main Street
Belmar, NJ 07719
P. (732) 681-5221
Check out The Boathouse Bar and Grill Website at:
http://www.boathousebarandgrill.com
The Boathouse is a clean-cut sort of bar, shiny and spotless, with good ventilation, salubrious air, dark, heavy woods and a whimsical nautical-themed decor. The cleanliness alone tends to repel the malignant, the loutish, the shirtless -- and thus the Boathouse draws a nice, respectable crowd. Rowboats and surfboards hang from the ceiling, and fishing nets drape some of the walls. Its wide windows open out onto a lovely outdoor terrace with shrubbery and little trees. You can watch every game being played on a given night with the help of more than a dozen big-screen televisions distributed throughout the bar. The surprisingly extensive menu is filled with heavy half-pound burgers, char-broiled New York strip steaks, barbecued ribs, etc. The bartenders and management set the tone: loose, friendly, fun-loving. Simply by being real people, they prevent the bar from resembling one of those odious suburban chains its shiny newness might otherwise evoke.
-- Wesley Yang