I first walked through the door at age 18. It was cool, dark, and mysterious. My friend, Joe, was the guide. His dad, Emmett, was the boss. I instantly felt comfortable in Boyle’s Tavern. Beer was allowed at that age back then and Mr. Boyle served me my first “legal” drink in 1978. The Willow Avenue bar — teeming with comfort and characters — has been doing hospitality right for 90 years now.

“Bar Exam” — Boyle’s Tavern, May 2024. A full bar includes 25 seats.

The first “official” drink at the spot — quickly to become the categorical “neighborhood bar” — was served in 1934, shortly after the repeal of the 18th Amendment on alcohol prohibition. That June the borough issued a license to Peter and Nora Sheridan to sell “beer” on Willow Avenue. The location has been known for its “warmth and hospitality” ever since.

Boyle’s Tavern hosts “Happy Hours” —
3 pm to 7 pm, Thursday to Sunday

Son of a Holmdel farmer, Peter Henry Sheridan (schooled in Sea Bright) came to Monmouth Beach in 1908 and bought land on Willow Avenue. In 1913 he purchased an old Monmouth Beach Clubhouse Hotel laundry house on West Street; moved and converted it into the town’s first gas station and auto repair shop (specializing in elite touring cars). Later on it was a moving service and storage facility.

Pete made a remarkable record of public service to the borough. Father of six, his resume included stints as fire company chief and president, councilman, police commissioner, justice of the peace, borough recorder, and clubhouse hotel building’s superintendent.

Bar Beginnings 
The original garage burned in April 1931 and was rebuilt. While under construction, the auto business moved to a barn in back of the Sheridan’s home on Willow Avenue. There, “Pete’s Inn” was informally established to serve drinks to chauffeurs and other workers. A “home brew” was served and beer was 10 cents per glass with every third one was free. (Call it a speakeasy — alcohol in the US was banned from 1919-1933.)

In the mid-1930s, a billiard room (including ornate woodwork) was moved from an old seashore mansion in town and added to the front of the barn to become the barroom. The kiosk (previously the garage business office) was moved to the west side of the now expanding structure and made into a men’s room.

“He was a wise man who invented beer.”
—Plato

In the pre-war years the bar proved to be a popular gathering spot — with “a home-like appeal” — where Pete was considered a “genial and refined host.” Food was served (eg, steamed clams, clam chowder, Virginia ham, Boston baked beans, corned beef & cabbage) and there was music and dancing on weekends (Bob Wilson’s Orchestra and George Woodward on Piano). In Summer 1939, beers served at Pete’s Inn included: Trommer’s, Ruppert’s, Krueger’s and Budweiser!

In 1945 Edward and Mary Holden (Pete’s daughter) took over the business and removed the barn and additions. Upon converting the garage into a bar, the borough formally approved a liquor license transfer and “Pete’s Inn” was officially established. The couple had one of the town’s first TV sets at the bar (with a 9-inch screen; today it’s 5+ feet). Bartenders then included Walter Mihm and James McConville, II.

In August 1950, the Holdens sold the property and business to Harry and Jean Smith for $22,000. Harry, a US Navy vet from WWI, died in 1953. Irish-born Nora Sheridan died in October 1948. Pete — who admitted starting the bar as a “hobby” — died in January 1951. Connecticut-born Ed Holden (a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers) died in 1993; Mary Holden died in 1998.

Look Familiar? — Pete’s Inn on WIllow Avenue, 1950. (Pat Thayer Photo). Today it’s Boyle’s Tavern.

Today’s Tavern
In April 1956, J. Emmett Boyle and his wife Doris acquired the business at 2 Willow Avenue and their son still operates the bar today. Mr. Boyle also owned a bar in Newark’s Roseville section (next door to a police precinct). His parents, Joseph and Anna Boyle (Irish immigrants), opened “Boyle’s Tavern” on Orange Street just after the end of of WWII.

Renowned for his potent opinions and quiet generosity, Mr. Boyle also served the borough with dedication. He was a founding member (in 1958) and former president (in 1959) of the borough first aid squad and also served as borough fire company chief (in 1968). For many years he was the borough’s welfare director and was a devoted Precious Blood churchwarden. Born in Harrison, NY, he served in the US Army during WW II. Mrs. Boyle, a 1948 St. Mary’s School of Nursing grad, died in January 1999. A Duryea, Pa native, she was a 40-year member of the MB Fire Company Ladies Auxiliary.

In those years, Boyle’s was a classic “shot-and-a-beer” joint with a crowd has spanned the spectrum of local society. Early on it was mostly men — some in business suits and some in laborer’s clothes — forcefully discussing politics, sports, business and life in general. Some also recall the bar’s “talking bird” in the early 1960s. Savvy at commerce, Mr. Boyle also acquired much of the land around the bar. He also added the pool and shuffleboard tables in the 1960s.

Boyle’s Tavern, 2019. Good spirits — in all the right ways — is what the place is all about.

In August 1967, a story about Monmouth Beach appeared in the New York Times. The piece was written by James F. Clarity, a prominent Times journalist and Boyle buddy, who bought his River Avenue home from Mr. Boyle (the deal was signed on the pool table). The large feature article with several photos was entitled, Monmouth Beach, NJ, Once Playground of the Rich, Fears Becoming Playground au Go Go of the Young. The story, somewhat controversial for its time, also referred to Boyle’s Tavern and the owner’s practice of not serving “phonies.”

When his father died in June 1979, Joseph E. Boyle, Jr. took charge of the bar — becoming a third generation tavern owner. Then only a week out of high school when he started full-time bar management, Joe has made many modern improvements over the years (but “No Bud” as in Budweiser since 1969) and today runs a successful business.

Enduring longer than his dad — 45 years of hard work on Willow Avenue — a third generation of patrons now enjoy the good cheer there. One can consider Joe among the last of the smart, steady, and serious tavern owners on the Jersey Shore. Today, Boyle’s Tavern continues to be the embodiment of “Monmouth Beach hospitality.”

Much of the bar’s success and admiration must come from the family’s legacy of hard work and dedication. In an amazing feat of commerce, from 1956 to 2020, the bar was open 7 days a week — mostly from 12 noon to 2 pm. Can another local tavern (or any business) match that 64-year record? After the Covid pandemic, in Fall 2021, the bar reopened to with hours — 3 pm to 7 pm, Thursday to Sunday.

Tavern Notes:

• The business has never had an outdoor “Boyle’s Tavern” sign.

• NJ was the last state legislature to approve the Prohibition amendment in March 1922.

• In 1959, after complaints from neighbors (a trio of Bryce sisters) about the bar, Mayor Sidney Johnson said Mr. Boyle “runs a very respectable premises.”

• The bar’s nine-foot Brunswick pool table is top rated. The Asbury Park Press called it “best place to play pool” in Monmouth County for 2021-22.

• The Boyle’s Tavern shuffleboard table is about 22-feet long. Officially called “Table Shuffleboard,” its origins are from US east coast bars and taverns.

Closing Time: Super Bowl Coach Sent “Packing”

A noted Monmouth Beach quipster, once remarking about the characters who’ve passed through our town, said “they all stop by here on their way to Hollywood.” Perhaps.

Coach Lombardi

Among the famous to visit the Willow Avenue watering hole through the years were: actor Franchot Tone (1935 Oscar nominee for Mutiny on the Bounty and one of Joan Crawford’s four husbands) who was “bounced” from the bar. Pop singer Tony Martin, who had family in the area. NFL All-Pro linebacker Phil Villapiano stopped in to watch his Raiders. Roger King, the billionaire TV executive who launched Oprah Winfrey’s career, loved the large pool table. Tennis great Bjorn Borg held court one evening. TV impresario Ed Sullivan stopped in after attending a party in town and was recalled as a stingy tipper. And one pro football great, whose visit itself is stuff of legend.

When Vince Lombardi entered Boyle’s Tavern one late night in January 1967, he was Head Coach of the reigning Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. He had just attended a “Quarterback Club” dinner party at The Colony Restaurant in Rumson (later known as the Fromagerie) owned by Nick Egidio, a popular shore restaurateur (who owned the Rum Runner too). Lombardi knew the area well. He and his wife Marie (Planitz) lived on Lockwood Place in Fair Haven when he coached for the New York Giants from 1956-59. Lombardi also had been a lifeguard in Sea Bright in the 1930s. Marie, a RBC High School graduate, died in April 1982.

The story goes that Francis X. Crahay — a Monmouth Beach resident, attorney and Lombardi friend — had just dined with the great coach and invited him back to Boyle’s for a nightcap and some shuffleboard, whereupon Crahay (also one of the state’s keenest legal minds) dispatched the Hall-of-Fame coach in three quick games. The highly-competitive Lombardi, seeking to beat “that hot-shot young lawyer,” wanted another game as closing time neared. To which, an adamant owner and bartender, Emmett Boyle, replied “Not here, Coach. I’m closing.” That was it. Good night, Vince, I’m shutting up. As the locals say, “only in Boyle’s.” (After his stop in Rumson and Monmouth Beach, according to the Abury Park Press, Lombardo went on the appear that week on the CBS-TV show What’s My Line? in January 1967.)

Brooklyn-born, son a butcher, Lombardi was a football coach who preached fundamentals and execution. He would win a second Super Bowl title the next season. During his amazing coaching career with the Packers the team won five NFL championships. He died in September 1970 and is buried in nearby Mt. Olivet cemetery in Middletown (later that year, the Super Bowl winner’s trophy was re-named in his honor). Frank Crahay, who served for many years as a respected NJ Superior Court presiding judge, confirmed the events to me shortly before his death in April 2013.

Gridiron Glory — Coach Vince Lombardi (from r to l) with Nick Egidio, Peter Brown and Frank Crahay at the Colony Restaurant in Rumson, Red Bank Daily Register, February 1968.

Pete’s Inn Photos:

The Man — Peter Sheridan (1876-1951). The namesake of “Pete’s Inn” —  who started it all as a “hobby.”

Art — “Sheridan’s Garage” painting by borough artist Gail Gannon, 1975.

Life — Sheridan’s Garage on Willow Avenue, 1920s.

Belly Up — Peter Sheridan behind the original bar he built, 1930s.

The Family — “Pete’s Inn” bar (in the family’s Willow Ave house), 1943. In front: Grandma Nora Sheridan, Ed and Pat Holden. Behind the bar: Peter Sheridan and Mary Holden.

All Together — Pete’s Inn on Willow Avenue, 1930s.

Full Bar — Pete’s Inn, 1930s. Note the kiosk (previously the garage business office) — it was converted into a bar men’s room.

Peter Sheridan with his granddaughter Patricia Holden Thayer, early 1940s.

Big Change — Sheridan Garage after fire, April 1931. Pete’s Inn sits in the background.

Here: Pete’s Inn outhouse, Before: MB police kiosk on Ocean Avenue, Now: Situated on Well Fargo bank property, 1940s.

Pete’s Inn (later Boyle’s Tavern) interior under construction, early 1940s. Note the ceiling design which endures today.

Ed and Mary Holden at Pete’s Inn Grand Opening, 1945.

Pete’s Inn bar with owners Mary Holden and Ed Holden, 1945.

Pete’s Inn ad. Long Branch Daily Record, June 1950.

Last Hurrah — The final St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Pete’s Inn in Monmouth Beach, Long Branch Daily Record, March 1956. By April, the Boyle family owned the Willow Ave business.

Boyle’s Tavern:

Boyle’s Tavern sketch, 2022. By Carton Brewing Company in Atlantic Highlands — MORE INFO.

What’ll You Have? — Boyle’s Tavern inside, 2005.

Boyle’s Tavern inside, Fall 2021. Owner Joe Boyle — in his familiar spot behind the bar — has run the business since 1979.

Long Green — Boyle’s Tavern pool table, December 2014.

Light Weight — Boyle’s Tavern shuffleboard table, 2012.

Open Table — Boyle’s Tavern shuffleboard table, 2024.

Long Shot — Boyle’s Tavern shuffleboard table, 2020.

Boyle’s Tavern inside, 2010s. Hospitable to horse-players, lawyers, town gossips, football fanatics, politicians, and PTA moms over the years.

Boyle’s’ Tavern, 2017. Robbins Street was named for George Robbins, who first came to Monmouth Beach in the 1840s. He went on to serve as borough assessor, school board member and fireman. He died in 1914.

Boyle’s Tavern, 2018.

Night Out — Boyle’s Tavern inside, 2016. Note the ceiling design.

Night Life — Boyle’s Tavern inside, 2010s. William “Bill” Flaherty was a bartender-manager during the 1960s. A Brooklyn native and WWII US Army Air Corps vet (flying 130 bombing missions over Europe), he moved to Monmouth Beach in 1948. There he raised a family and was a model for civic commitment — as a founding member of the borough’s first aid squad, former fire chief and president and local sewerage authority commissioner. Bill died in January 2011.

Another Round — Shot & Beer at Boyle’s Tavern, 2019.

On Cue — Greg Kelly playing in a pool tournament at Boyle’s Tavern, February 1986 (Mike Booth Photo).

Super Bartender — Chris Bogner at Boyle’s Tavern on Willow Avenue, 2015. Chris tended bar in Monmouth Beach for over 35 years — operating with plenty of flair, finesse and fun along the way. A MB School Class of 1972 graduate, Chris called his bar work “the best job that no one knew about.” For Summer 1992, Chris was rated one of the Jersey Shore’s “favorite bartenders” by the Asbury Park Press.

Somers Brothers of Monmouth Beach: Terry, Tim, Cliff and Bob at Boyle’s Tavern, 2018. Tim is now the borough’s mayor.

Boyle’s Tavern Review. Asbury Park Press, 1990.

Boyle’s Tavern: “very respectable premises.” Long Branch Daily Record, July 1959.

Boyle’s Tavern Men’s Room, 2018.