Gattling's Restaurant
Known Name(s)
Gottling's Restaurant
Address
118 Bradley Ave. Neptune, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Restaurant
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
Gattling’s (misspelled as Gottlings in The Green Book), on Bradley Avenue in Neptune, was located west of Route 35, and thus away from the center of West Side activity on Springwood Avenue and also from the beach. A photo in The New York Age shows a large, rectilinear one-story building of indeterminate material, the covered entryway topped by what appears to be a neon sign bearing the establishment’s name. This building no longer exists, and the location today is commercial. The location of Gattling’s on the map is approximate, as the lots on Bradley Avenue have been renumbered.
Sources: “Asbury Park Ideal Vacation Spot Now,” The New York Age, 30 July 1949.
Detailed History
Gattling’s Bar and Grill was listed in The Green Book (misspelled as Gottlings) from 1950 through 1967. The long-time establishment, also known, according to Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory, as Gattling’s Tea Room, had a prominent ad, with photo, in a 1949 article in The New York Age, the famed newspaper aimed at African-American readers. The article heralded Asbury Park as an “ideal” vacation spot for African Americans because of changing civil rights legislation in the state and the advocacy of citizens. The text touted the food as “truly home cooked because it is family prepared.”
James E. and Jessie J. Gattling, an African American couple, owned and operated the restaurant from about 1945; they retired in 1961. Both were born in Ahoskie, North Carolina, where they were married in 1910. They moved north to Neptune around 1915, where they both were active in community organizations. Mr. Gattling died in 1966, at the age of 79, and Mrs. Gattling, died in 1979 at the age of 86.
Sources: Polk’s Asbury Park City Directory, 1954; “Asbury Park Ideal Vacation Spot Now,” The New York Age, 30 July 1949; “Fete Couple on Golden Anniversary,” Asbury Park Press, 28 April 1960; “James E. Gattling,” Asbury Park Press, 30 January 1966; “Mrs. James Gattling, Retired Owner of Bar,” Asbury Park Press, 24 August 1979.
J. Shaffer
