Best of the Shore
Stone Harbor
A genteel family area with a full-on real estate craze (and lots of new, sometimes cookie-cutter construction), Stone Harbor still offers pure relaxation among the dunes. High points include the very brows-able, boutiquey 96th Street shopping area (spruced up with lights and landscaping last year), and a 21-acre bird sanctuary with a viewing area at 114th Street and 3rd Avenue.
Best of Stone Harbor
Date restaurant: Back Yard Restaurant. Head straight through the French doors to the outdoor garden, with its strings of lights, gurgling fountains and latticework gazebo. This BYOB is charming and romantic, and serves the best seafood soup around (220 81st Street; 609-368-2627).
Gift shop for your mom: Christina’s. Need a cute frame for the grandkid’s photo? A planter for the patio? They’ve got that—and plenty of other sweet and feminine curios (300 96th Street; 609-368-1771).
Surf Shop: Suncatcher. This huge outfitter — one of the best in the area — has scuba suits, boards and more (95 2nd Avenue; 609-368-3488).
Fudge: Fudge Kitchen. One of several Shore locations, with giant batches of temptation being whipped up before your eyes (254 96th Street; 609-368-3003).
Worth-the-line ice cream: Springer’s. The wait can be hyperbolic, but the 50 or so flavors of hard ice cream make it worth the time — and calories. Those rainbow specks are jimmies, not sprinkles (9420 3rd Avenue; 609-368-4631).
Meat for your grill: Bud’s Market. Between the hours of 4 and 7 p.m., the market hums as a loyal clientele stocks up on choice filets, sirloins, porterhouses and veal cutlets for dinner. Amidst the chaos, Bud (now 84) roams the store with the frenetic energy of a stock boy hoping for a raise (8302 3rd Avenue; 609-368-4551).
Pizza: Mack’s. Run by a guy whose uniform of t-shirt, sweatpants and wrist bands hasn’t changed in ages. No matter; his pie earns superlatives (8301 3rd Avenue; 609-368-6224).
Rainy-day girls activity: Just Bead It. They have bins upon bins of beads and stones. You have all that latent creativity (9631 3rd Avenue; 609-368-0400).
Art gallery: Peter McPhee Fine Arts. Decor-friendly mix of modern and traditional paintings (95th Street and 2nd Avenue; 609-368-8288).
Bed & Beach
Average 2004 home price: $955,314
AVERAGE 1999 HOME PRICE: $330,240
Recent listing: A four-bedroom, two-bath Cape Cod-style cottage with ocean views and large deck, $1,549,000.
Cost to rent a three-bedroom beach- block house: $2,400 a week.
Where to stay: The Concord Suites, where you can swim in one of two pools, or jump in the ocean only a block away (7800 Dune Drive, 609-368-7800; concordsuites.com).
On the beach: Very clean, but also fighting erosion, which means varying widths. Lots of snack bars for the kids. Surf or boogie-board on the stretch between 82nd and 100th. Beach tags ($10 weekly; $5 daily) are required, and are interchangeable with Avalon’s. Get them at the Borough of Stone Harbor building, 9508 2nd Avenue.
