A historic Asbury Park music venue keeps its kick-ass bona fides while blazing new trails

By Brendan Fitzgibbons

On Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park, is a place that is as much bustling late night hot spot as iconic institution, where echoes of New Jersey rock legends are as ubiquitous as the bright lights of the boardwalk, and where music feels as though it blows dreamily in on the ocean breeze.

For years, the concert venue/night life mainstay Wonder Bar has been able to toe the tricky line of honoring the past while militantly propelling itself and the New Jersey music scene towards the future. The carnival style décor of the building (including the infamous grinning “Tillie”) reveals a full-throttle 2,000-person capacity rock bar that hosts several shows a week featuring the brightest stars in the local scene.

Established New Jersey musicians as well as promising up and coming talents typically perform Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, while Sundays from 3:30-8:30 p.m. is Wonder Jam, an energetic rock session led by musician Sandy Mack and his closest friends. The majority of Wonder Bar tickets remain under $25.

The roster isn’t limited to New Jersey musicians, either, as regionally and nationally accomplished bands make appearances. On a good day, the bar even might get a drop in from the one of the greatest performers of all time. In 2011, Bruce Springsteen played a legendary high-octane and horn-infused 45-minute concert with the Soul Cruisers at Wonder Bar in a memorial concert for legendary E-Street saxophonist Clarence Clemons (who had previously graced the stage at Wonder Bar), as well as New Jersey’s other cherished rock and roll son, Jon Bon Jovi.

Musician Lance Larson and his girlfriend and now manager Debbie DeLisa purchased the business in 2002. The couple, along with a few investors and developers, renovating the interior of the bar and equipped it with a modern sound system, a sizable dance floor, and a customer-favorite roof deck.

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Every Monday is happy hour, with free admission for 21 and over, as well as reduced food and drink specials. And, despite its reputation as a music venue, the vittles at Wonder Bar are nothing to scoff at. The bar serves standard bar staples burgers, Philly cheesesteaks, and chicken with regional taste and flare.

One of the most celebrated and well-attended events has nothing to do with music, however, but everything to do with dogs. “Yappy Hour” is a weekly celebration that runs from April through
November, wherein Fido gets to frolic around in the six pools that line the bar’s deck, while owners relish daytime cocktails. Proceeds from the happy hour go to the Monmouth County SPCA, and its mission of providing a safe haven for homeless, abused and abandoned pets while they await adoption, and being a leader in all things related to animals in Monmouth County.

Wonder Bar
1213 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park
732.502.8886 / wonderbarasburypark.com