FREEHOLD – Beer for 95 cents, a friendly environment and fine food are all available at one of Freehold Borough’s longest running tavern-style restaurants.
Mike Page, owner of the Court Jester, East Main Street, said the restaurant is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a “30 Beers for 30 Years” promotional event.
Page said patrons are invited to try all 30 beers in the tap bar system – one at a time of course. He said patrons will receive a “Tap Dance Card” that lists all 30 beers in the tap bar system, including Brooklyn Lager, Magic Hat, Victory Hop Devil, Stone Pale Ale, Flying Fish, Stella Artois and Guinness Stout.
“Each time someone tries one of the tap beers we’ll check it off on the list,” he said. “When all 30 have been tried and the card is full, the person will get a gift certificate for dinner at the Court Jester and a T-shirt bearing the name of the event, ’30 Beers for 30 Years.’ ”
To honor 30 years of business in Freehold Borough, Page has brought in the only four beers that were sold at the Court Jester when the business opened in 1977 – Budweiser, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schaffer and Heineken.
The Pabst Blue Ribbon will sell for 95 cents, just as it did in 1977, until it runs out, the owner said.
In a recent interview Page spoke about the restaurant and discussed the renovations and improvements that have been made over the years, including the most recent addition of the new bar.
“We redid the bar, but kept the mahogany countertop,” he said.
New LCD televisions have been set into wood shelves.
The new look, however, has not changed the comfortable atmosphere people have been enjoying at the Court Jester for three decades.
The heavy oak wood planked walls of the restaurant were taken from a barn in Vermont that had been torn down. The idea was the brainchild of the bar’s original owner, the late Jeff Jones.
“We were an instant success,” said Page, who began his career at the Court Jester as part-time bartender, although he had previous experience as a cook. After one week the cook quit, according to Page, who said Jones looked at him and said, “Hey, don’t you cook?”
In two weeks Page went from part-time bartender to full-time cook. After nine months, he became the bar’s manager.
“We opened up with a very limited menu” of salads, sandwiches, steaks and baked potatoes, he said. “This place filled a void for the 21-to-40 crowd. When the Court Jester opened, there was Federici’s, the American Hotel, Kelsey’s and the Bite Shop, and not much else in the way of restaurants.”
According to Page, the building, which dates to 1874, may have been a bank for a time. He said it housed Conway’s bar for more than 40 years, then became Bootlegger Limited for a little more than a year before Jones bought the place.
Jones bought the building before borough officials launched a downtown redevelopment plan.
“He took a chance on buying it, but he saw western Monmouth County as a potentially great spot. We were the county seat here and Jeff had a great deal of experience in the restaurant and dinner theater business,” Page said.
Page said the Court Jester became a restaurant that appealed to the attorneys and employees who worked at the nearby Monmouth County Courthouse and to the Freehold Raceway crowd.
“Jeff was a visionary; he could see things as they could be,” Page said, adding that Jones was the first restaurant owner in Freehold Borough to apply for a permit for outdoor café seating. “We were the only ones who had the outdoor café seating for a couple of years.”
Jones eventually bought the Cinnamon Tree on Route 9, Freehold Township, (now Huddy’s), where Page became manager in 1982. They sold the Cinnamon Tree in 1986 and then took over The Great American Saloon and Eatery in Hightstown. Jones renovated the eatery and added banquet facilities and renamed it the Court Jester Hightstown.
The two men opened a Court Jester in the Strathmore shopping center in Aberdeen Township in 1995.
Jones died suddenly in 2000. Since Jones’ untimely death at the age of 52, Page has run the businesses. Page said the Court Jester Hightstown was sold in 2003.
Renovating and expanding the business were part of Jones’ vision, a vision Page has honored, upheld and continues.
The business has now moved into a second generation.
Ryan Jones, 22, who is the son of Jeff Jones, recently graduated from Salve Regina University, Newport, R.I., and is a working partner at the Court Jester in Freehold Borough and Aberdeen.
Page said his oldest son, Rich, is managing the Court Jester in Aberdeen.