There’s No Place Like Home

There are many fun places to go out to breakfast in Avalon but in my opinion, the best breakfast around is the one we cook at the house. There’s nothing like cutting up fresh local Jersey melon, peaches, and plums, adding a some fresh blueberries and raspberries to serve with French Toast made with cinnamon bread from Isabel’s, our favorite bakery/coffee shop.

Add some Taylor pork roll or my buddy Barbecue Bob’s homemade maple bacon, my wife’s incredible home fries and a New Jersey fresh sea breeze coming through the window and you have the perfect start to a day on the beach playing in the surf until lunchtime arrives.

Dining Out For Breakfast in Avalon

Over the years I’ve been to most of the breakfast restaurants down here in Avalon, but there are a few I go back to every year. While most of them have good eggs and pancakes, young locals working as waiters and waitresses, ok service and above fair market value prices, there are a few that go out of their way to make you feel particularly invited.

Our favorite breakfast spot of all is the Fishin’ Pier Grill at the start of the Avalon boardwalk next to the Beach Patrol shack (32nd & Boardwalk). Every year we enjoy at least one breakfast at the grill and every year Sue, owner and greeter, remembers who we are and chats it up with my daughters. With the thousands of visitors that must visit every year, it’s nice when the owners remember who you are.

The interior of the Fishin’ Pier Grill is one room plus a counter for 6 or 7 patrons. The tables are packed in but it doesn’t matter if your neighbors are close, the atmosphere has a “throwback in time beach feel” making breakfast or lunch taste all the better.

The food, prepared by Sue’s husband Rick, is delicious and the portions plentiful. You know what you are getting because the kitchen is open behind the counter and you can watch Rick flip pancakes and prepare his specialty gigantic omelets. The staff is young (Sue and Rick’s kids help out each year), professional, and very helpful.

Get there early, especially on weekends because by 9:00 am there is a crowd but waiting outside on the boardwalk watching morning strollers walk by is no big deal. There are lots of great breakfast places in Avalon but the Fishin’ Pier Grill is the one we always come back to.