Pic-A-Lilli Inn

866 US-206
Shamong, NJ 08088
(609) 268-2066
Website

South Jersey has some of the best food around. They make great cheesesteaks and hoagies, and their wings are only rivaled by the Philly 'burbs. The Pic-A-Lilli Inn is sister restaurant to the Pic-A-Lilli Pub in Atlantic City. Cheap beer and great wings can be had at both. The Inn is located smack dab in the middle of the Pine Barrens. So you can go ride bikes/motorcycles or kayaks, and then grab some cold ones and some wings after.

The cheesesteak at the Pic-A-Lilli is no slouch either. Served on a Liscio's roll, the meat is finely chopped, well seasoned, and came with a hearty ratio of American. The onions were fried well, sweet and caramelized without becoming mush.

Curly fries with a side of wiz rounded out this low calorie, low carb lunch. It was basically diet food.

The wings are actually counted in half wing. So an order of ten works out to be about fifteen to twenty wings. An order of six is shown below. The sauce can get hot quick, so if you skip "spicy" and go to "hot" be warned, they have the burn.

The meat is tender, and the skin well rendered. These are not the crispiest wings you will eat, but they just work. A combination of the deep flavor of the sauce, and the little morsels of deliciousness is enough to satisfy anyone from a biker (you will see lots here) to a chubby food writer (likely to find me here as well).

Nixon's General Store

540 Chatsworth Rd.
Tabernacle, NJ 08088
(609) 268-9800
Website

Deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the Pineys know a few things. One is where to catch the Jersey Devil and another is how to make some amazing cheesesteaks. Nixon's is a step back in time, like a gift shop mixed with a local WAWA, and crossed with a high end deli.

You walk in and make your way to the back. The barrels are set up with made-to-order screens that let you pick about any option you can think of. Want your cheesesteak meat in slices? No problem. Finely chopped, there is an option for that too. Add salt and pepper? Copper sharp instead of American (god yes)? They have you covered. You can even get wiz and another cheese. Simply amazing.

I got here at breakfast, so I decided to branch out and go with the bacon cheesesteak hoagie. It had bacon, steak (finely chopped/salt/pepper), lettuce, tomato, fried onions (well done option), and Cooper sharp. You can literally customize these things about any way you can imagine. I have never seen anything to this level of detail off of an ordering screen. Click the link to their sandwiches above and build your own. It's amazing. So one thing, this place is NOT cheap. My cheesesteak as pictured below was $15 and change. But it was worth every penny. The quality was outstanding. Look at these tomatoes.

These ripe beauties (assisted by the seasonality of my visit) we the best looking (and tasting) tomatoes I remember having on a hoagie in quite a while.

As I had just come back from a camping trip in the Pines, I put down the gate on the truck, pulled out the camping cutting board and knife, and sliced up breakfast.

The bread (courtesy of nearby Aversa's Bakery) was outstanding, with perfectly seasoned meat, and the perfect amount of sharp and melty cheese.

Did this sandwich need bacon? No. Was it like a cheesesteak BLT? Yes. Would I do it over again? Without a doubt.

Being the glutton I am, I couldn't JUST get a foot and half long bacon cheesesteak for breakfast, so I gave a nod to the age old Jersey dispute and got a pork roll, egg and cheese. Now one of the best food songs aside, this is a staple of breakfast on the east side of the Delaware. And we love it in Pennsylvania as well. Also - it's pork roll here, not Taylor ham. To quote Jerseyporkroll.com  "In 1910 it was described as 'a food article made of pork, packed in a cylindrical cotton sack or bag in such form that it could be quickly prepared for cooking by slicing without removal from the bag.'"

Nixon's fries the pork roll, tops it with a fried egg and cheese (more Cooper sharp), and then since the sky's the limit here, I added some banana peppers, mayo and hotsauce (the last three due to my computer ordering frenzy).

A simple, perfect breakfast sandwich. This is the food of the working class. And you could do no better.

Gleason's Place

1973 Clayton Williamstown Rd
Franklinville, NJ
(856) 629-7470
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Gleason's Place is one of those bars you might be planning to visit for the first time, but when you near your destination, you continue on out of fear. But in this case, I urge you to not judge the book by its cover. I hadn't been there in a year or so, but like to stop by on my way to the shore (backroads). They have great wings, and good drink specials. Don't let the exterior fool you, this place is staffed by great people, and the regulars are mostly friendly.

They actually have an expansive menu, and they offer little known favorites like hoagie dip, and stuffed long hots.

The wings are the main draw, and I settled into some "Gleason's Sauce" style pretty quickly. The sauce is a buffalo sauce that has oregano and some other spices in it, for a unique and delicious twist on the original.

They were well rendered, and plenty tender. I was licking the sauce off of the plate. It was like they took a dry rub mix and threw it right into the sauce, best of both worlds.

Crispy skin is what good wings are all about, and these did not disappoint.

Even though I was stopping for a light lunch, I also tried the loaded tots. This platter is ridiculous. It's tots for ten, or at least four. The tots were fried hard and smothered in cheese sauce, sour cream, nacho cheese, and bacon. Not for those on a diet.

I could not even get close to eating this whole platter. However, I did my damnedest.

It was dead while I was there, but it WAS a holiday weekend on an early Friday. Still – shuffleboard, pool, lots of tvs and large portions of great fried food. If you go, don't sleep on the cheesesteak. Also, they have some ridiculous lunch specials like $3 sandwiches, just depends what day you are there.

Larry's Bar and Restaurant

1115 South 2nd St
Millville, NJ
(856) 327-1144
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I was looking for a quick bite on the way to the shore this summer, and wanted a cold beer to go with it. Larry's seemed to fit the bill. A word of caution, Millville is not the best town, so I advise caution if you actually end up at Larry's depending on the time of day.

Luckily there was almost no one there when I stopped.

The buffalo chicken cheesesteak came on a soft roll that was grilled prior to loading. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but certainly not a bad sandwich.

The meat was finely chopped, and the buffalo sauce mixed in. I did like how the onions were finely chopped and caramelized to the extent that they blended into the meat.

The crab bisque was surprisingly good. It had a sprinkle of Old Bay to zest it up, and though it wasn't earth shattering, it was solid.

Not overly heavy (though loaded with cream), it had some herbs and claw meat to add flavor and texture.

Finally, I had to give the fried pickles a go. These we unique in that they were very thin slices, and it made for an interesting textural experience. I liked the slightly sweet taste, and the crunchy shell. Overall - food was fine, beers were cheap and cold, and I didn't get shot (though the bartender told us there was a shooting there a couple days earlier). So it was a win-win.

Okie's Butcher Shop

2107 Long Beach Blvd
Surf City, NJ 08008
(609) 494-5577
Website

Okie's is a staple of the Long Beach Island scene. I don't make it to the shore very often, but when I do, I love to check out the "beach version" of my favorite thing to eat, sandwiches. Okie's is a very good butcher shop, with a huge prepared food section. And a made-to-order deli, in which I partook.

This place gets packed on the weekends, so just grab a number and hang out for a bit.

The counter people work very fast, and are quite courteous for their speed. The hoagies come wrapped in saran wrap, which makes them perfect for a beach lunch. They are also huge. A "half" (shown below) is more than enough for one person.

They are like a hybrid "sub" and "hoagie" (soagie?), with a hard seeded roll, but cut all the way through.

The meat was freshly sliced, with the cheese nestled between layers. I would have loved some sharp provolone on this, but the overall package was a pretty damn good sandwich. The veggies were fresh, the roll had a perfect chew, and the meat was quality.

The setting certainly didn't hurt my enjoyment of this sandwich either. I would have to say, if I am getting a hoagie in LBI, there is only one choice.

Bombay Local Pizza

1120 White Horse Rd #132
Voorhees Township, NJ 08043
(856) 375-2246

I recently got an invite to check out an Indian pizza place in Voorhees, and since I LOVE Indian pizza, and free food, I could not possibly turn it down.

Located in a typical NJ shopping center, Bombay Local has been open for about a year. The interior is sparse, but what this place lacks in ambiance, it crushes with fresh ingredients and the best damn marinara I can remember tasting.

Below are owners-brothers: Parig & Sam from Chatanooga, TN. The duo worked in finance for a few years in New York and then decided to open a restaurant closer to Philadelphia, in New Jersey. They base their creative menu on some family recipes mixed with new ideas, focusing on the freshest ingredients.

They recommend I start with the Desi bread served with a side of original tomato sauce. My god this was incredible garlic bread. It was simple, buttery, and packed with fresh flavors. The side of aforementioned marinara was just unreal. They take a traditional tomato sauce and add in a few extra Indian flavors. It's subtle, smoky sweet and positively addicting.

The bread itself had chopped peppers, garlic, and onions on it. It would make a fantastic sandwich wrapper.

They were kind enough to bring out two pizzas, each quarter boasting a different pizza style. So basically it was like getting to taste eight pizzas in one. Perfect.

Baingan bharta below. Probably one of my favorite Indian specialties off of a pizza, it was definitely also a winner on the pizza. "Bharta" refers to dishes in which the ingredients are roughly mashed either before or after the dish is prepared, so here we have a smoky, roasted eggplant mash that's full of garlicy garam masala flavor.

Bombay masala below, my second favorite of the day. The Indian BBQ sauce was sweet and spicy – so robust!

Chili potato below. Nothing too exciting there, but still pretty good.

Four alarm below, with habanero, jalapeno and small Indian chile peppers littering the melted cheese. This one was hot. With a really slow, creeper kind of kick that is also slow to dissipate.

After my mouth recovered from the four alarm, the next pie came out.

Spicy paneer below - it was bit like the bombay masala, but with less sauce and double the cheese.

Chutney paneer was probably the best of the 'paneer' selections. I mean, cheese chunks on top of melted cheese is certainly a no brainer for me, but this one had the fresh tang of mint-coriander chutney to cut the dairy. It's always nice to finish with some acidity...

Paneer tikka below, another take on the Indian-style BBQ sauce, a bit milder than the masala version.

Samosa below. It was like unwrapping a samosa and eating it flat. The flavors were spot on and the potatoes and curry seasoning took me right to the best Indian buffets of my memories.

If you are familiar with Indian food, you will know what each of these variations consist of. Each had their own unique flavors, and I have to say, the quality and freshness of the ingredients was evident in every slice. If I was in Jersey, this would undoubtedly be on my regular rotation. I didn't get a chance to try the Indian hoagies, but I certainly will next time.