Finally: A Kosher B&B in Ocean Grove

Jul 22, 2026 by Susan Rosenbluth

By Susan L. Rosenbluth – Her novel Blurred Vision is available from Red Adept Publishers and Amazon

Most guests entering The Beachliner, venerable Ocean Grove, N.J.’s first—and only—kosher hotel, don’t know the newly renovated, adorable, four-story, multi-porched structure, located at 7 Main Avenue, has a history. The building, one of Ocean Grove’s oldest surviving Victorian hotels, would have been recognized by tourists to the shore community as early as 1875.

Ocean Grove itself dates back to 1869. Shortly after the Civil War, a group of Methodist ministers, looking for a site along the Jersey Shore where they could develop and operate a Christian camp meeting community, stumbled upon a shaded, well-drained spot. They chose it for a most understandable reason—it was the only place they found that wasn’t infested with mosquitoes.

That summer, they promptly pitched about 20 tents, and the following year, the newly incorporated Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association purchased the land and laid out the town’s structure. Nine wells were dug that year, the first named Beersheba in honor of the ancient one used by the patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible.

A Hit

By the time the structure known today as The Beachliner was built, Ocean Grove was a hit. Summer residents and weekend visitors came by the trainloads from New York and Philadelphia, eager to enjoy sea breezes in a Christian atmosphere that prohibited alcohol, tobacco, cards, dancing, the reading of novels, and chewing gum. There were also no Jews—although very soon, sizable Jewish communities grew up in Bradley Beach, just to Ocean Grove’s south, and Asbury Park, the next town to the north.

Visitors arriving in Ocean Grove needed places to stay, giving rise to a rash of Victorian boarding houses. By the early twentieth century, the one at 7 Main Avenue was known as the Stratford Hotel. A few years later, the name changed to the Bellevue Stratford Inn, an Ocean Grove landmark offering about 20 guest rooms, numerous private baths, and six ocean-view porches.

Until 1981, Ocean Grove was its own municipality with a set of rather unique laws that included a prohibition on Sundays to drive first horses, then wagons, and finally cars on its streets. Now Ocean Grove is part of Neptune Township, and those regulations have disappeared, but it took until 2024 before the court ruled that the community was required to keep its beaches open on Sunday mornings.

Oh, yes, a sizable number of Jews now reside in Ocean Grove, many of them members of synagogues in Bradley Beach.

Kosher Accommodations

In 2025, the roughly 14,000-square-foot building at 7 Main Avenue, just steps from Ocean Grove’s famed beach and boardwalk, was bought by Rabbi Jacob Tikotzky of Lakewood, who renovated and renamed it, and in 2026, The Beachliner Hotel received its kosher certification from the Jersey Shore Orthodox Rabbinate (JSOR).

Today, visitors to this charming establishment are greeted by its innkeeper, Bernadette Roche, who is proud of the 150-year-old building’s several types of accommodations, geared to satisfying as many different kinds of clients’ needs as possible. Open all year round, the hotel offers a hot or cold kosher breakfast in its beautiful dining room every morning, large and varied enough to serve as lunch too. In fact, Miss Roche encourages guests to take food with them to enjoy later, whether in their rooms, on the porches that provide not only comfortable places to sit and relax but stunning views of the beach and boardwalk, or down to the sand itself.

Throughout the day, homemade cookies, delicious pastries, coffee, and refreshing drinks are served in the dining room.

Other amenities include high-end luxurious furnishings with custom mattresses, high-speed WiFi, complimentary bikes, beach badges, beach chairs, and beach towels, a beautiful lobby featuring a fireplace, and many more.

“We want guests to feel transported to a classic Victorian experience—but one with very comfortable, modern amenities,” says Rabbi Tikotzky, adding that unlike so many other nearby shore communities, Ocean Grove permits zero commercial activity on its beaches. “Ocean Grove is extremely calm, quiet, and peaceful, perfect for a frum couple or family looking to savor absolute tranquility without the loud music and noise found elsewhere along the Jersey Shore. Of course, if they choose, they still have easy access to the nightlife available just a few blocks away in Asbury Park, or a short drive to Point Pleasant, Long Branch, and other towns.”

He has succeeded in turning The Beachliner into a quiet, relaxing, therapeutic getaway as opposed to a busy center of activity.

Shabbat Arrangements

While no dinners are served at The Beachliner (yet), during the week, kosher guests can explore the many restaurants, diners, and ice cream parlors under the JSOR in nearby Allenhurst, Deal, Elberon, and Long Branch. Lakewood is just a little further away. Beachliner’s guests are welcome to heat meals in the hotel’s microwave or avail themselves of the hotel’s kosher warmer. Each room comes with a small refrigerator, but Miss Roche says if more space is needed, she’ll find it for guests in her larger one.

Sabbath-observing guests can ask about local home hospitality, usually in Bradley Beach, or, if they choose, they can bring their own meals, which Miss Roche will help them keep warm. Ocean Grove has no eruv, but shuls and minyanim are a short walk away.

Now that the kosher hotel is an established fact, Rabbi Tikotzky has many other plans and ideas he’s happy to discuss. For example, how about a sukkah on the rooftop overlooking the ocean?

For more information, check out https://www.beachlinerhotel.com/, email host@beachlinerhotel.com or info@beachlinerhotel.com, or call 732-775-2424