Whats New

A New Moon

Moonstruck is moving to 517 Lake Avenue in Asbury Park in the spring. Lake Avenue is the first street on the south end of Asbury Park. It borders Ocean Grove, with Wesley Lake separating the two towns. It is an easy walk from our former location on Main Avenue, from the boardwalk, and The Auditorium. There are two footbridges that cross the Lake from Ocean Grove and they lead directly to our new location.

We are very excited about our new home. It is a four story building with lots of windows and wrap around porches. There are wonderful views of the water and the Victorian Homes of Ocean Grove as well as the Great Auditorium. Three floors will be used for the public. The first floor will be the main bar and cocktail lounge with candlelight, light jazz, or piano music. The second floor will be the main dining room, with another bar, which will seat up to around 90 people. (Our old place seats 55.) The third floor will be for private parties, it has it’s own bar and can accommodate up to 60 guests. We have installed an elevator and two dumbwaiters to service all three floors making all public areas ADA accessible. The outdoor porches will be used for dining and cocktails in season, providing additional seating and charm.

Currently Asbury Park is undergoing a major redevelopment. The downtown area along Cookman Avenue, which is the block right behind our new address, is ablaze with activity. Nearly every building is under renovation, with plans for shops, art galleries, bars, clubs, and more restaurants to come. The waterfront redevelopment plan is finally underway and calls for a new boardwalk, townhouses, hotels, clubs and restaurants as well as the restoration of some classic Asbury Park landmarks like The Stone Pony, The Casino, The Palace, and The Convention Center. We are thrilled with the recent progress and proud to be a part of the renaissance.

Of course, moving and change come with mixed emotions and we will certainly miss Main Avenue in Ocean Grove, which has been our home for over thirteen years; We opened The Raspberry Café in 1989 and Moonstruck in 1995.. We have a lot of good memories and have made many friends and acquaintances over the years. We wish to thank everyone for their patronage, encouragement and support, which has enabled us to realize our dream. Please know that we are very aware of the classic pitfalls of getting “too big” and are determined to keep our focus on what we have always strived to do: To be real; to provide good food, with good service, in a nice atmosphere. It is our proven recipe for success. Simple but true.

But, as we say, we are not going to the moon! We will only be six blocks away, so our customer base and clientele should remain the same. And the new place will have the same cozy atmosphere, and the same familiar staff. Our goal is to keep things as much the same as possible. It looks as though our last day that we will be open for business in Ocean Grove will be Easter Sunday. After that we will close for a few weeks and hope to open in our new location early in May. We hope you will join us once again, or for your first time, in the old place and we hope to see you at our new home very soon!

Thanks again, Luke, Howard and The Moonstruck family.