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Jay Cosgrove

A century of stories at Bahrs

Title card for the film — "Sinatra ate at Bahrs?" set over a colour photograph of Bahrs Landing in the 1960s, the lobster sign above the roof, the lot full of cars, Sandy Hook across the water.

13 min Recorded 13 March 2026 Bahrs Landing, Highlands, New Jersey

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Fourth-generation owner of Bahrs Landing, the restaurant his family has run on Bay Avenue in Highlands since 1917 — a building that began as a beached house barge and never left. He tells the story the family still tells: Frank Sinatra's yacht at their dock in 1969, under subpoena, refusing to come ashore and having his lobster sent out to him. Also the winter the bay froze solid, and what it is to carry a century of this coast on one corner.

Recorded
2026-03-13
Interviewer
Eric Kane
Where
Bahrs Landing, Highlands, New Jersey
Related chapters
A Town of Its Own

Explore this history

Aerial view of the Highlands harbor and marinas at the foot of the bluff, boats at the docks, the Sandy Hook spit stretching across the bay beyond, 2026A Town of Its OwnA working man's town at the foot of the resort hills.

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