1. No More Thirsty Thursdays
Jack-N-Bill's Bar in Seaside Heights somehow managed to survive Sandy's devastation, but was destroyed by a 10-alarm fire last September. Jack-N-Bill's actually has the dubious distinction, along with Kohr's Kustard, of being one of only two businesses to go up in flames in both the 1955 and 2013 Seaside Heights fires.
Kohr's has a few other outlets that are still in business, but Jack-N-Bill's owners have decided to open a new place called Jax Garage instead of rebuilding. No word on whether they'll retain the $1 Miller Lite drafts.
2. It Had Its Ups And Downs, But The Jet Star's Roller Coaster Ride Is Finally Over
Yet another Seaside Heights casualty, the Jet Star Roller Coaster had graced the Casino Pier for a decade (replacing an earlier coaster of the same name), but was was quite literally swept away by Hurricane Sandy. It was last seen rocking and rolling in the ocean before finally being dismantled into scrap, but Casino Pier is rumored to be planning to build a memorial out of some of the recovered bits and pieces.
3. Crazy Eddie's Finally Got Beat
What discussion of Jersey retailers could possibly complete without a shoutout to Crazy Eddie? We all watched the commercials, and I guess enough people bought his discount electronics to keep him in business for a couple of decades. Unfortunately, Eddie got a little too crazy, and all his stores went out of business in 1989, while he was soon after sentenced to a feW years in the big house for some shady dealings. Crazy Eddie later came back as an online retailer, but it just wasn't the same, and they soon went under again.
4. Tom's Diner
New Jersey is the undisputed diner capital of the world, and it still has a number of original rail car diners in operation—no need for those phony retro ones here! Unfortunately Tom's in Ledgewood, a classic 1937 Silk City that achieved its moment of fame as the setting for Cyndi Lauper's 1984 “Time After Time” video, closed down some 20 years later.
Currently, it's no more than a dilapidated eyesore. The original owner's son has expressed a desire to reopen it someday, but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.
5. The Sun Goes Down On The Sea Gulls' Nest
The Sea Gull's Nest, best known for its patriotic sunset ceremony, was pretty much wiped out in Hurricane Sandy. Ed Segall, the 86-year-old WWII vet who led restaurant patrons in singing “God Bless America” every evening for over a quarter century, was hoping to rebuild his restaurant.
As red tape and bills mount up, though, that hope is fading, and Sandy Hook continues to be deprived of its nightly salutes to the setting sun.
6. The Creepiest Abandoned Asylum
The Essex Mountain Sanatorium, or, as it was known when it opened back in the extremely un-PC 1890s, the Essex County Asylum for the Insane, had just about everything you'd expect in your worst nightmare: metal gurneys, surgical instruments, leather restraints and padded cells. Also, after it was abandoned in the early ‘70s, satanic graffiti and even a dead body or two.
Teens would dare each other to explore its spooky old tunnels (constructed to conceal who knows what monstrous deeds?), but that rite of passage is no more, as the main building was knocked down in 1993 and the outbuildings received the same treatment a decade later.
7. You Know It's (Not) Palisades Park
Palisades Park is perhaps the best-known of lost Jersey amusement parks. Not only was it one of the nation's top parks from the time it opened in 1898, but it even spawned a Top 40 song which used to be in heavy rotation on all the oldies stations before they decided that “oldies” now consists of stuff like Nirvana and Green Day. (Oh Lord, I'm feeling pretty ancient all of a sudden.)
Anyway, there's no more falling in love at the top of a Ferris wheel now—the park closed in 1971, and they promptly knocked it down and built a bunch of boring condos on the site.
8. Beyond The Palace
Asbury Park's indoor amusement arcade owes its fame to The Boss—no surprise, he pretty much put the whole town on the map. While the iconic face of “Tillie” no longer grins down from its walls (since the whole place was knocked down in 2004), there's a replica Tillie painted on the side of Asbury Park's Wonder Bar.
9. The Circuit's Been Broken
Asbury Park's Circuit, which was made up of Kingsley Avenue, Ocean Avenue, a section of Lake Avenue and Deal Lake Drive, used to be a cruiser's mecca, jammed with hot rods and Harleys.
It, too, featured in Springsteen lyrics a few times (yes, I've got kind of a theme going on here), but sadly, the streets no longer join up due to the construction of a sewage treatment plant. Ewww, bet the Boss wouldn't sing about that.
10. The Cops Finally Busted Madam Marie
At least, according to Springsteen's 1973 song, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).” Actually, Marie Castello was never arrested. She just quit telling fortunes on the Asbury Park boardwalk because she died in 2008. At the age of 93. Bet she didn't see that in her crystal ball.
11. Alas, Poor Elsinore
Once upon a time, the town of Watchung had its very own castle. Its proper name was Castle Elsinore, but it was usually called Moldenke Castle after the man who built it. The castle had more than 30 rooms filled with arms and armor, and even a mad scientist's laboratory in the basement—as well as a mausoleum whose crypts, perhaps, held the results of failed experiments. Mwaaaa haaaa haaaaa!
Alas, the castle mysteriously burnt to the ground in 1969. Hmmmm, I suspect pitchfork wielding peasants were probably involved.
12. A Grocery Chain That Proudly Proclaimed Its Allegiance
Although by its demise in 2001 the Grand Union grocery chain had gone nationwide, it started up in the NJ/NY/PA area in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Of course its name—as well as its adoption of Abraham Lincoln as a mascot—was meant as an “in your face” of sorts to those unreconstructed Johnny Rebs who were still around at the time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chain didn't do so well anywhere outside of Yankeeland, but it seems the war is over at last since what remains of the Grand Old Union has now been absorbed into the Tops Friendly brand.
13. Laneco's Checked Out, Too
Source Wikimedia user Stilfehler
Back in the day, Laneco supermarkets were pretty big in North Jersey. So much so that Sam Walton even traveled north from Arkansas to work with Laneco founder Raymond Bartolacci to learn the tricks of the trade that would eventually lead to Wal-Mart Supercenters' quest for world domination. (Well, Sam was a good ol' southern boy, it's not like he was going to take his lead from Grand Union.)
Laneco went under in 2001, but many of its locations are now, guess what? Walmarts.
14. Yet Another Walmart Predecessor, Deceased
Back before there was WallyWorld, there was Korvette's. They didn't sell groceries, but they were the go-to place for low-budget clothes, electronics, household goods and just random stuff (a novelty radio cap!) imported from whatever third world sweatshops the U.S. was doing business with at the time.
They even had a membership card system kind of like Sam's Club, only without the hefty fee.
Well, who wants to buy cheap crap for free when you can pay for the privilege? Evidently not enough people, since the chain closed in 1980.
15. Home Grown Home Depots
Channel Home Centers was a home improvement chain that got its start in 198 in Whippany, while Rickel opened in 1953 in South Plainfield. They were fierce regional competitors for many years, but in 1994 they merged to fight the growing Orange Menace. The merger didn't work, though, since Home Depot hammered the last nail in their combined coffin in 1997.
16. Bye, Bye Bamberger's
Louis Bamberger was one of Newark's leading lights for decades, so much so that the city flew all its flags at half-mast for three days after he died back in 1944.
While much of his legacy remains—his generous donations helped to found the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Historical Society and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton—the department stores that bore his name for 93 years were all re-branded as Macy's in 1986.
17. Et Tu, Hahne's?
Hahne and Company was another Newark department store with even deeper roots—the flagship store was established in 1858, and the chain expanded slowly through the Jersey 'burbs up through the 1980s. A bit too slowly, as it turns out, and 1988 saw their conversion to the Lord & Taylor brand.
18. The Capitol Theatre Rang Down The Curtain
The Capitol Theatre, located at the corner of Monroe Street and Central Avenue in Passaic, began life as a vaudeville house in 1926, then turned into a live music venue which hosted everybody from Glen Miller to the Grateful Dead. The Marshall Tucker Band even recorded their “Carolina Dreams Tour '77” live album there.
When the theater didn't have any concerts booked, they kept the seats warm by showing adult films. The Capitol's last show seems to have been in 1984, a New Year's Eve show featuring Bryan Adams. Talk about going out on a low note! Anyway, the building, memories and all, fell to the wrecking ball in 1991, and the site is now occupied by the Capitol Plaza.
19. Awful Awful Good, Awful Awful Gone
Bond’s Ice Cream in Montclair were so proud of the special drink they came up with that they patented it in 1948 under the name “Awful Awful”. This not-quite-milkshake, a concoction of flavored syrup, milk and a “secret” frozen ice milk, was given its double-barreled name because it was both “awful big” and “awful good.”
Bond's went bust in the early 70's, and they sold the rights to the name and recipe to Rhode Island's Newport Creamery. It cost the latter a mere $1000, the best deal since Manhattan was acquired for a handful of trade beads. Ever since then, Rhode Island has had the nerve to claim the Awful Awful as one of their signature foods...now that's pretty awful, alright. (Kind of surprised they never changed it to the Wicked Wicked, though.)
20. So Long, Old Pals
New Jersey's got some epic eateries. Pals Cabin, however, is no longer among them, as this tiny West Orange restaurant, known for helping to launch the career of the future Liberace and feeding the voracious appetite of the Great Bambino, closed down last year to make way for the Garden State's umpty-zillionth CVS.
21. Lost In The Jungle
Jungle Habitat was a short-lived safari theme park that lasted from 1972 to 1976. The park lay abandoned for years before being purchased by the state for $1.5 mil (overgrown ruins don't come cheap, you know) and converted into hiking trails and bicycle paths and other not-terribly-exciting things.
Rumors have persisted throughout the years of escaped animals (now pretty elderly, one presumes) still roaming the woods, but according to Wikipedia, anyone who says they've seen one of these animals is lion. Wikipedia can be such a spoilsport.
22. The Forgotten Island
OK, Bertrand Island itself (which is actually a peninsula) is still floating in Lake Hopatcong, but it's not really of much interest to anyone anymore now that the Bertrand Island Amusement Park shut down.
For over 70 years this was quite the happening place, what with the wooden Wildcat coaster, the Whip, the Lost River water ride and the ever-popular Nickel Night when all rides cost just 5 cents. After Six Flags Great Adventure opened in 1974, the days of New Jersey's many smaller parks were numbered. This proved to be the case for Bertrand's, as they closed down in 1983.
23. Miltyville Meltdown
Uncle Milty's Playland, or as it was officially known, Bergen Point Amusement Park, was yet another small park known for 5-cent rides, which were offered most every weekday. Uncle Milty's was so popular during its ‘50s and 60’s heyday that people would make the trek into deepest, darkest Bayonne from far-off Staten Island.
As they seem to have shut down in the early ‘70s, its unknown if they were another Six Flags casualty, or they just closed because they closed. The land on which Uncle Milty's stood is now the Dennis Collins Park, which has tennis, basketball and bocce courts (yawn), but no roller coasters.
24. Life(less) In The Fast Lane
The Fast Lane was an iconic Asbury Park venue where U2, Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper, Sly Stone, Hall and Oates, Joe Jackson, David Johansen, George Thorogood, Squeeze, Edgar Winter, Iggy Pop and even Tiny Tim once played. Also (of course) Bruce Springsteen. (Is there anywhere in Asbury Park that he didn't?) It's greatest claim to fame is, perhaps, as the venue where he once sat in with a band called Atlantic City Expressway, whose lead singer was a teenage Jon Bon Jovi.
The club closed, re-opened, and closed again several times throughout the ‘90s and early ‘00s, but was finally torn down in 2013.
25. Where the Boss Met The Big Man
The Student Prince was yet another Asbury Park venue that owes its place in history to Springsteen. The Student Prince is best known as the place where he met saxman Clarence Clemons.
As legend has it, it was a dark and stormy night, and when Clemons walked in, he literally blew the doors off the place. Actually, the door fell off its hinges, an event which later inspired the song “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.”
Anyway, the Prince has been closed down for who knows how long, but it's since re-opened as a gay nightclub called Swell.
26. Clarence, You're Sorely Missed
While Clarence Clemons may not have been a native Jerseyite, his 40 year tenure with the E Street Band made him one of the state's most beloved adopted sons. He passed away in 2011, and two years later Governor Christie declared that January 11 (the Big Man's birthday) would henceforth be known as Clarence Clemons Day.
27. And So Are You, Whitney
Whitney Houston, on the other hand, was a Jersey Girl by birth, born in Newark and raised in East Orange. She died in L.A., but is resting peacefully in Westfield's Fairview Cemetery.
28. Tony Soprano's Sleeping With The Fishes
And James Gandolfini's left us, too. The Jersey-based HBO series “The Sopranos” wrapped up in 2007, and Westwood native Gandolfini died of a heart attack in 2013. He may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten—in fact, the Borough of Park Ridge renamed its main thoroughfare James Gandolfini Way in his honor just three months after his death.
29. Ol' Blue Eyes Had A Mess Of Good Years
Frank Sinatra did things his way, all right. He came out of Hoboken, and went on to pretty much conquer the musical world before turning to movies, TV, politics, and more. Whatever he turned his hand to, everything came up wine and roses for the Chairman of the Board.
Turns out the one thing he couldn't conquer was death itself, as he finally succumbed to ill health and old age in 1998.
30. No Kidd-ing
OK, calm down, don't get your chonies in a bunch. Jason Kidd isn't dead. He just left the New Jersey Nets in 2008, and returned to coach what were by then the Brooklyn Nets last year. As far as I know, he's still alive and dribbling, so don't anybody go misreading this and starting some big online celebrity death rumor thing. 
