10 Main Streets Where New Jersey Comes Alive
Many of New Jersey's best small-town main streets sit within a short drive of the Delaware River, the Navesink, or the Atlantic beaches. They span college towns and coastal retreats, and their character reflects the communities they serve. Cape May closed three blocks of Washington Street to cars in 1970 and turned the result into the city's town square. Bloomfield Avenue carries Montclair's restaurants, theaters, and studios along a single commercial spine. Haddon Avenue in Collingswood fills with craft tents and musicians when the weather turns. To catch a glimpse of how and where New Jersey truly lives, start here.
Princeton
Nassau Street is the dividing line between town and campus, with shops on one side and Princeton University on the other. A good place to start the morning is PJ's Pancake House, near the eastern end of the street, which serves Silver Dollar and Tiramisu pancakes alongside savory breakfast plates and pizzas. Next door is Art@Bainbridge, a gallery of the Princeton University Art Museum that shows emerging contemporary artists inside the 1766 Bainbridge House. The gallery programs tours, pop-up talks, and film screenings throughout the year.
A four-minute walk from Art@Bainbridge is Nassau Hall, the oldest building on campus and the largest stone building in the colonies when it was completed in 1756. British troops holding the building surrendered to George Washington at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, and in 1783, it housed the Continental Congress for roughly five months, making Princeton the national capital for that stretch. It serves as the university's administrative headquarters today. Five minutes west, toward Palmer Square, Jammin' Crepes turns out sweet crepes such as the toasty cinnamon and the brownies in a blanket, among other fan favorites for breakfast and lunch.
Montclair
Bloomfield Avenue is the commercial spine of Montclair, continuing northwest through Verona and the Caldwells and southeast toward Newark. Cuban Pete's, toward the upper end of the downtown stretch, has been a fixture for years, serving ropa vieja and pollo a la plancha in a courtyard setting where diners bring their own bottles. A two-minute walk along the avenue, the Montclair Indoor Golf Club gives members round-the-clock access to three bays fitted with Trackman technology.
Toward the Glen Ridge end of the avenue, the Vanguard Theater Company stages musicals and plays on a second floor and offers dance classes and workshops between productions. Pinot's Palette, back up near the golf club, is a painting studio where guests bring wine and snacks to an instructor-led class, and the space takes bookings for birthdays, bachelorette parties, and corporate groups.
Red Bank
Broad Street is the commercial spine of Red Bank and of Monmouth County generally, sitting a few blocks back from the Navesink River. Catezza Italian Kitchen + Bar, at the northern end of Broad Street, serves broccoli rabe rigatoni and a bone-in veal chop across two floors, with the upper level given over to large parties and private events. A few doors along, Yumi Sushi Red Bank serves signature and classic rolls, and operates BYOB with outdoor tables in season.
Further south on Broad Street is YESTERcades of Red Bank, an arcade stocked with cabinets, pinball machines, air hockey, and a wall of consoles available on a rotation so everyone gets a turn. It stays open past midnight most nights and hosts two-hour parties. Back toward the north end, Jack's Music Shoppe has been selling vinyl, CDs, cassettes, sheet music, and used instruments for decades, with a separate used-metal section worth digging through.
Collingswood
Haddon Avenue carries most of what happens in Collingswood, including the crafts and fine art festival that fills the street with tents and live music. June BYOB is the avenue's French room, serving canard, branzino, and beef Wellington in a small dining room that seats a few dozen. Directly across the avenue, Clutter Vintage stocks brooches, books, furniture, and oddments at prices that stay in the double digits.
A couple of doors along, The Candy Jar by 1892 sells locally made chocolate, chocolate-covered pretzels, and old-fashioned sodas, along with gelato that most first-time visitors miss entirely. A short walk further down the avenue, Kismet Bagels started at the Collingswood farmers market before opening a storefront, and serves breakfast sandwiches on everything bagels, including gluten-free rounds.
Morristown
Park Place wraps the Morristown Green, and one Sunday every September, the whole downtown around it turns into the Morristown Festival on the Green. The event has drawn thousands since 1994 and now fields more than 170 exhibitors across five entertainment areas, plus carnival games, children's amusements, and a beer tent at Schuyler Place. For the rest of the year, the Green remains what it has always been for Morristown, which is a park where people eat lunch and meet before dinner.
The Committed Pig on West Park Place builds the Baked Brie Burger and the Steer Herder Burger and serves brunch until mid-afternoon on weekends. Along the same block, Agrícola Eatery sources from regional farms for dishes like New Jersey corn ravioli and glazed prime short rib, and its cinnamon rolls have their own following at Saturday brunch.
Westfield
East Broad Street is Westfield's commercial core, and the Town Book Store has been part of it since September 1934, which makes it one of the last independent bookstores in Union County. It moved across the street in 2007 into the building that housed Westfield's first library, a Carnegie donation, and the names of authors are still chiseled into the window lintels on the Elmer Street side. The shop is small, gives a generous share of its floor to children's titles, hosts author signings, and will special-order almost anything within a day. Closer to the middle of the street, 787 Coffee draws a steady line seven days a week for coquito and dulce de leche lattes.
Vicki's Diner opens at seven for eggs Benedict, omelets, and the Vicki breakfast wrap, and stays open for dinner most nights. A few blocks west, 2nd Street Westfield resells designer and everyday clothing at a fraction of retail across a large, well-sorted floor. Back at the upper end of the street, near the bookshop, the Roig Collection shows Ricardo Roig's hand-cut screen prints alongside drawings and paintings.
Lambertville
Lambertville has a street called Main Street, but Bridge Street is the real one, carrying traffic and pedestrians across the Delaware River to New Hope. The Lambertville Station Restaurant and Inn sits at the river end of the street in the restored Lambertville train station, with tables out by the water, a long wine list, and rooms upstairs. Further up the street, Hadaka Lambertville serves omakase in 12-, 15-, and 18-course portions, dessert included, at a counter that seats a handful of guests at a time.
The Artists' Gallery, back down toward the bridge, is a cooperative that shows paintings by local and regional members, with the roster rotating throughout the year. Up the street is the James Wilson Marshall House, the 19th-century home where the man who spotted gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 spent his boyhood. It opens for tours on weekend afternoons between May and October, with 19th-century furniture, photographs, and exhibits on the city's history inside.
Cape May
The Washington Street Mall is Cape May's Main Street, three blocks of Washington Street that the city closed to traffic in 1970 and dedicated as a pedestrian mall on June 24, 1971. More than 75 businesses now operate along it, nearly all of them independent. At the western end, Gallery D'May Fine Art shows glass, sculpture, and painting across two Washington Street storefronts. Directly across the mall is Uncle Charley's Ice Cream with seating inside and out.
Delaney's Irish Pub and Grill, midway along the mall, serves everything from shepherd's pie and pizza to steamed lobster, with outdoor tables and doors that stay open until midnight. At the eastern end, down an alleyway off the mall, the Museum of Fine Arts and Popular Culture boasts more than 190 works spanning surrealism, Victorian art, and social-statement pieces. Admission is by donation, and the director walks visitors through the collection himself, though the doors are open only one day a week, so check before going.
Millburn
Millburn Avenue is the street that carries this town. At the western end sits the Millburn Indoor Golf Club, open around the clock to members with Trackman simulators and a golf-specific gym attached. Down the street, Casa Das Natas is a Portuguese coffee shop turning out pasteis de nata, bolas de Berlim, and bolo de arroz. Across the West Branch of the Rahway River, which crosses Millburn Avenue between the two, Millburn Deli sells the "Godfadda" and the "Cobbler" out of a narrow storefront papered in decades of wall decor. A few doors on, Sushi Zero is a relatively new spot on the strip, serving fresh, authentic Japanese cuisine.
South Orange
South Orange Avenue is the Village's commercial center, and it fills up when Seton Hall is in session. Bunny's Sports Bar, just west of the train station, draws crowds for game days and is known locally for its thin-crust bar pies. A block east, Gaslight Brewery and Restaurant brews its own ales and lagers and bottles its own hot sauce, with the fermentation tanks visible from the dining room.
Spiotta Park sits in the middle of downtown, a small square with a fountain, benches, and shade trees where the Downtown After Sundown concert series brings local and regional acts from June through September. Restaurants and shops surround it on all sides. Grove Park, at the eastern end of the Village, is the larger option, with a loop path that walkers circle for exercise and a playground at the north end.
New Jersey's Main Streets Earn Their Place
The Main Streets that work hardest in New Jersey tend to be the ones that know their audience. Bridge Street in Lambertville still functions as the approach to a Delaware River crossing first bridged in 1814, and its restaurants and galleries grew up along that traffic. Park Place in Morristown revolves around a Green, making community gatherings a priority. Broad Street in Red Bank concentrates a county's worth of restaurants, record shops, and arcades into a few walkable blocks. What each one shares is that people go there on purpose, which is the only test a Main Street has to pass.
