Epicure

Sunday Serial: Fiery Feeds for RSS, Somers Point Brewing Company, and Somers Point

I’m back from vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey. We’ve been going since 2009 for a week or more each summer. It’s a great Disney-esque shore town. I checked email lightly and did some more yesterday and today so that I don’t walk into Monday without a plan. Here are some things to check out.

Fiery Feeds

Andy Baio linked to this post by Molly White a while back, where she extolled the benefits of RSS:

Perhaps you’ve heard of RSS. It stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it allows websites like blogs, newsletters, and news sites to make their content available in “feeds” for outside services called “RSS readers” or “feed readers”. Far from being the new hotness attracting glitzy feature stories in tech media or billions in venture funding, RSS has been around for 25 years.

I was swimming this week in Ocean City and thought for a sec about how I’ve been using RSS to curate my news for nearly 20 years, and I’m glad the spec has stuck around all that time. I know a lot of people who would never bother with RSS, and that’s disappointing to think about. It’s one of those things I could bother a normal person about with great enthusiasm.

I was doing some reading on vacation last week and I remembered farting around with Fiery Feeds not long ago; I loved the high level of customization available in the app, but didn’t see why I might need to add another to my stable of RSS readers. As it stands, I use, frequently, and appreciate each of these for different reasons:

  • Unread
  • Reeder (Classic)
  • NetNewsWire
  • ReadKit

I’ve been working on an RSS reader article for Uncorrected, kind of rounding up the ones I use and cataloging their features and why I like/prefer different apps. Trying Fiery again after hearing Matt or Chris talk about it on The Comfort Zone, I realized how much I like it. And the yearly sub is cheap. It runs great on the Mac, too. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to just stick with one of these apps, and I’m glad to have the variety (even if it’s a bit of cognitive overhead to think about which one I’ll use at any given time). I like the Hot Like and Low Frequency filters in addition to the wild array of UI customizations.

Fiery Feeds
Fiery Feeds

Somers Point Brewing Company

Rhonda and I found this brewery on vacation last year and stopped in for one pint each this summer, we managed to get there twice: once after our date in Atlantic City, and once again while picking up dinner for everyone.

One intriguing sensation that I’ve started to notice is the flavor profile that tends to tied the varied offerings of each winery or brewery we try. I don’t know how to describe or quantify it, but for example, having tried many pints over the years at the excellent Tonewood brewery, I detect a flavor that unifies the brews. I notice this with Bellview Winery’s offerings, too; there’s something that unites their Astraea and rosé on my palette.

Somers Point’s brews certainly share this property, too. I would not say that their beers have roundly been my favorites compared to Tonewood or Bonesaw. I think I’ve settled on their NEIPA as my favorite of their styles, but I can’t wait for a chance to stop in again.

Somers Point Brewing Company

Somers Point

Speaking of Somers Point, I would recommend it to shoregoers looking for a break from the food in Ocean City. If you don’t mind heading off of the island for takeout, I can recommend that you try these spots:

Shen’s was Jing’s, and it was better when it was Jing’s, but this is still good if you need a sushi fix. The sashimi portions are huge. Cazadores seems new but the staff were super-sweet and the food was really good.

Carne Asada at Cazadores
Carne Asada at Cazadores

I’ll see your OCNJ and Raise You a Wildwood

We’ve been making jaunts to Wildwood during our annual Ocean City vacation for years. Wildwood is the closest approximation of the canonical Jersey Shore in parts southerly. It’s a baudy, ribald place compared to more Disney-esque Ocean City or Stone Harbor. For a 14-yer-old, it’s a revelation; to young parents, a hive of scum and villainy.

Crane Games
Crane Games

Pizza

There are a few things to say about Wildwood. First: pizza. Pizza is a big deal down here. The king in Ocean City in Manco & Manco, which fumbles off the tongue of local pizza cognoscenti. It was, and perhaps always shall be, Mack and Manco. Due to a family squabble, there’s Mack’s in Wildwood, and Manco in ocean city.

Sam’s Mushroom
Sam’s Mushroom

There’s a famous/infamous pizza reviewer who I won’t comment on other than to say that he weighed in. And he really liked Sam’s in Wildwood. We’ve tried it both before and after Dave’s seal of approval and I will say I considered it fine but quotidian before the big review, but enjoy it more now. It’s got a more crusty, firm undercarriage. I did have Manco earlier this week and I liked it more, though.

Fries

Wildwood and of Ocean City both have great French fry spots. We always hit the curlys in wildwood on the boardwalk near Morey’s because there’s a bar there and we can always get a Tonewood on draft. They serially have the Parkway to Paradise which we really like every time we have it. Back to Curly’s-They’re a thicker-cut fry than I prefer, but they’re good and have a sheen of historicity. (For the record, I like the hand-cut fries at the Promenade.)

Curly’s and a Beer
Curly’s and a Beer

The Local Flavor

Wildwood is a bawdier affair than Ocean City. I naturally gravitated towards it from the ages of 13-20ish, but the ideal of the boardwalk as a cozy family place always took root. Think vape shops, lousy pizza, and barkers.

Oh, Wildwood
Oh, Wildwood

Somers Point

We did manage to squeeze in another pint at the Somers Point Brewing Company. It has nothing to do with Wildwood but there it is.

Somers Point Brewing
Somers Point Brewing

OCNJ Date Nite

The date itself did not occur in OCNJ; the vacation prompted us to alight for Atlantic City, which is a town with a vibrant dining scene. (I’ve never been one for casinos.) We did our own surf n’ turf at the Knife and Fork, ordering a ribeye and the lobster thermidor, and split them. The waitress caught onto our design and the kitchen helpfully divided the steak into two serving dishes. It’s a small thing, but not to have to ask for it was classy.

OCNJ Knife and Fork1 2025 08 14.

OCNJ Knife and Fork2 2025 08 14.

We skipped dessert but ended up at a local brewery for a quick pint. Great night.

OCNJ Somers Point Brewing 2025 08 14.

Freshman Orientation is for Parents, Too

Aaron had an overnight orientation last night; retrieved him and a friend this afternoon from Rutgers. He had a nice time it seems! I think these toe dips are helpful to anxious parents too. It’s really dawning on both of us that he’ll be away so very soon.

I did a little research and found John and Molly’s as a possible stop on the way home. It was a good mid-journey break. They have really good mussels.

On Shaken, not Stirred

Richard Goodwin:

Only shake cocktails with fruit juice in them. It’s a simple but more or less binding rule. Certain international super spies occasionally break it cough James Bond with his ‘special Martini’ cough tosser. However, it will serve the rest of us well. When you break them down, there are essentially two kinds of cocktail. Aromatic cocktails contain only alcoholic ingredients. Sour cocktails that contain citrus fruit (or occasionally other fruits, cream, egg, coffee, etc).

The former kind (which are often dry, aromatic and occasionally bitter) should be stirred with ice, which results in even dilution and a smoother texture. The latter kind (which are often tangy, fruity and occasionally creamy) require shaking, which results in more amalgamation, more dilution and a slightly altered texture.

I am increasingly likely to ask for my cocktail made in a specific way because, despite the parsimony of the fundamentals, many bartenders don’t know them.

Manhattan at Home
Manhattan at Home

The Spirits