By now, the whole world knows about the haunting, ruined pathos of the Asbury Park boardwalk depicted in the youthful songs of Bruce Springsteen. Frank's Deli is a few blocks in from the shore, and it remains more or less just as it was when it opened in 1960: a little pocket of pre-1960s America, that unbearably innocent place you see unspooling in washy old super-8 footage and hear apostrophized in "My Hometown." You could say this looks like a set from the "Wonder Years", but you'd be committing the common mistake of forgetting which came first. This is the real thing. Frank Maggio's son Joseph Maggio is running the grill these days, and there are some new kids behind the counter, but those are the biggest changes since the '60s. Even the prices seem to date from the Ford administration. You're likely to encounter a handful of gnarled, ruddy-skinned veterans in red satin jackets plowing through platefuls of steak and eggs in the middle of the afternoon, but the good, hearty grub comes through at all hours.

Categories: Restaurants-Deli, Delicatessens, Restaurants

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