To our readers

Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/16/99

If you want to get a feel for the borough, start your day bright and early at Tony's Freehold Grill.

Sip coffee and read one of the papers tucked behind the booth in the corner. Check out the people who come and go. It seems like they all know each other.

And they all know Tony. Tony Illiadis, that is, the guy who opened the diner a half-century ago. His son, Pete, runs the place now, but Tony still cooks breakfast a few days a week. When he's not waiting tables, or ringing up checks. Or freshening coffee.

Stroll around town. There's shops along both sides of Main Street, many owned for generations by the same families. And the people, they talk to each other. People on the sidewalks wave to passing cars. Drivers honk, but only to say hello.

It's a thriving downtown with a manageable pace. And, there's much more. The history, the mature neighborhoods, the Nestle plant, the old rug mill, the war memorials, and of course, the ghost of Bruce Springsteen.

That's what we found when we sent 17 reporters, eight photographers and four editors to the latest locale for our "Day in the Life" series in which we spend a full day in one of the unique towns in our area.

Thanks to Tony and Pete for their hospitality, as well as to Frank Federici of Federici's, where they bag their pizzas.

As you might suspect, Tony and Pete and Frank are well acquainted.

-- Gary Schoening

managing editor/Sunday

from the Asbury Park Press

Published: December 16, 1999

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