Waiting for a table—rarely the favorite part of anyone’s dining experience—at Chef Mike’s ABG Restaurant in south Seaside Park, N.J., just got a whole lot better thanks to veteran high-performance powerboat photographer Tim Sharkey of Sharkey Images and his friend Mike Jurusz, the restaurant’s owner and creative culinary namesake. Allow me to explain.
Chef Mike Jurusz (left) and photographer Tim Sharkey enjoy the completed exhibit of the veteran photographer’s work.
The entrance to the oceanfront suites of the adjacent Island Beach Motor Lodge pulls double-duty as the waiting/reception area for the restaurant. It’s a good-size space with what was, at least until now, a mostly empty 20-plus-foot-long wall. Jurusz invited Sharkey to fill that space with his images—and fill it he has.
“I’ve been talking about this project I have been working on, but keeping the specifics a secret,” he said. “But then (well-known New Jersey performance-boating community member) Bob Christie approached me last week and said, ‘So, I hear you’re building me a wall.’”
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