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Lauren Due

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Well, fall back into News 12 as we explore downtown Tom's River News 12, New Jersey's Lauren do is joining us live this morning with more on the business is there and a downtown Lauren getting ready for some fun events. Exactly. There's a big event happening tomorrow, Marion. You're here. Ok. So this is the 85th annual Halloween parade. It gets packed, get this Book of World Records. How do you get the best seat? Best seat. Come early. A lot of people, they actually set up their chairs the night before, but my advice is come early, go shopping, come down here for dinner. So you'll have it all situated. By the time the parade starts amazing, we're gonna take everyone. We're going to take everyone on a tour around downtown Tom's River. So tell us what kind of shops are down here. Well, we have the ice cream shop, one of our favorites and we have a candy shop. We have um, Tommy Boys, we have coffee, we have multiple restaurants in 40 main street. We have a bunch of shops that are in there, boutiques. So there's a lot of variety and a little bit of something for everyone down here. Amazing. And you have a lot of events going on too. What type of events do you have going on? Um So we just finished our harvest arts festival. That was LA last two weekends ago and last weekend we did a prep for Halloween party down in our downtown night out uh streets. So we're always doing something all throughout the year. Um That's why we encourage people to check out downtown Tom's River on Facebook and we're always doing stuff to bring people down here. You have the scarecrows because I took my kids to see the scarecrows. It's always always there with that. Amazing. All right, again, what else is going on? I mean, I would always say we have the brewery distillery down here. We have an incredible nightlife. So if you're just coming out here, you want dinner, there's definitely a variety. We have smokey. It's gonna be open as a new barbecue place. We have Foe's a Vietnamese restaurant. Um So there's a little bit of everything so you can come down here almost every single night and have a different experience and it's pretty easy to get to right off the parkway here and we're gonna take everyone around. So let's go into some of those, some of those shops this morning. We'll go into them. Absolutely. All right. Sounds good. Fall back into do 12. We're in Tom's River today. Getting ready for the Halloween parade. Lauren De in East New Jersey. Love that parade. Best parade in New Jersey. Best, hometown Toms River. I'm very biased. That's good. No, that's good. I mean, that parade totally, like, takes over any other parade, so, for sure.

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We fall back into News 12 as we explore downtown Tom's River. New of New Jersey's law do is showcasing some small businesses. There are, let's get out to Lauren who is trying some deconstructed sushi at Tommy Boys Cafe. Tell us about it. I am shocked how you guys knew that you must have been listening to us all morning to uh Tommy Boys Cafe. We have Chris, thanks for having us this morning. I mean coffee to pokey bowls. What a wide range of food that you offer here. Yeah. Yeah. It's quite the excitement. Lauren, thanks for having us. Amazing and talk about how you brought this to Tom's River because I think that's pretty incredible too. Yeah. Yes, it was uh a long work in progress, long vision, a couple years back. Um I was actually living in Hawaii where I spent a lot of time remote, working in cafes. Uh in the morning, I had coffee afternoon poke. So when it was time to come back, see my family and my girlfriend Jenna, um I knew that I had to bring some of that to the east coast which we were missing. So nothing better than Tom's River on the way from Philly, New York. Anyone could stop by down the shore. Uh, and it's been a great hit with our lattes and, and our pokes. Maddie Bella and Chef Franci have been great success and people love them from the food to the vibe that's here too. I love it. You really do feel like you're kind of in Hawaii a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, that's the golf. Very bad. Ok, so what did you make for us this morning? Yes. So our baristas Matty Bella, they made quite the mix. So we'll start out with the pumpkin spice latte which is very popular for the Halloween theme. If you haven't caught on, we have the white Lotus also latte. They are a tattoo parlor down the street that they constantly come in every day. So we made it a regular and then lastly we have our peppermint chai which I mentioned the chai. The match has been a great success here as well. I would not think to put chai and peppermint together, but it works. Yeah. Yeah, you got to mix it up sometimes. And so how many flavors do you have? Yeah. So I think when we first opened, we started with about eight and now just constantly getting a request. I think we're at like 25 Plus um which goes to say people are very creative and like their uh flavored sweets. So, so you have really nice customers What's your favorite part about being in Tom's River, uh the community? I mean, from day one, everyone has kind of chipped in, helped in been a customer seeing how we can help. Um I'm from North Jersey so they keep an eye on the shop when I'm not in the area, which is great. And um well, Tao, the whole community has been great. The bid Chris, thanks for having us this morning. I'm gonna go into this one. Ok. I'm gonna get this whipped cream. I'm gonna get that all over guys. We're having fun this morning. We're in Thomas River as we fall back into News. 12. You can have that one. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers Lauren do News. 12. New Jersey. Cheers.

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We fall back into News 12 as we explore downtown Toms River. News of New Jersey's Lauren do is joining us live this morning while it is fall. Lauren, there really is a time for all seasons. Exactly. That's where we are this morning. We have Mike. Thank you so much for having us here. The one thing I will say about every single Tom's River business, you walk into the door and you just feel welcomed and accepted what a spread you have for us this morning. Thank you. Amazing. What did you make for us this morning? Some of our featured items on our menu is our Shuka. Shuka is made a little different than most. It's not a vegetarian shuka. But then we also have a, our duck fries, which is comfort duck with a, a honey time dressing on them and uh made daily is our uh fresh muffins with pistachio cranberries. And you're saying it's still pretty hot too. They still are really warm and I love the toppings on it. Thank you. Thank you. And then we have our quinoa hummus plate, vegetarian plates that we have uh homemade brownies. Yes. Yes, they are. And our Jumping Jack burger. It's like a tex Mex twist on. It has a little bit of jalapenos, a little chipotle mayo. So we make everything fresh, fresh burgers, fresh everything that we make. Ok. You're making a lot of people hungry at home. When are you open? We are open from 10 to 38 to 3 Monday through Thursday and 8 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays for dinner. Amazing. And how long have you been in the Toms River community? We've been in Tom's River now for nine years. Born and raised in New Jersey. But we, we love Tom's River. We open a few places here now doing a lot of different things. Loving downtown. The business district down here takes care of us really well, helping with all the businesses, you know, and making sure everything's moving and grooving all the time down here. So much fun. Anything else you want to add for us this morning? I think, I think everybody should know about downtown. Come and see us. We have the parade on Thursday which is world-famous parade. Um It's a great spot down here. Everybody loves it. We have a lot of good fresh stuff, good, good restaurants, Distillery Brewery. Everybody loves it down here, Mike. I'm so thank you so much. Thank you. Amazing. Wearing it out of times over today. Fall back into New 12 Lauren de East 12, New Jer

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We fall back into News 12 as we explore downtown Tom's River, New South. New Jersey's Lauren de is showcasing some small businesses there. All right, let's get out to Lauren. Why not take in the views on a boat this morning? Exactly. That's what we're doing here is Captain Dog. We're on board River lady and you're closed out for the season, but you're letting me fall on. Thank you. Of course. Yeah. What do you do? We just finished our 36th season sailing on the Toms River in the Barnegat Bay. I did not know to river was an actual river. That's so most people don't. We have people that come from New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware. We have all sorts of bus trips that come and that's one of the first things that everybody said. Excuse me, what body of water is this? It's the Toms River. Toms River. We are Toms River. So, yeah, so you offer dinner cruises and you let people go out. Yeah, we also have historical sightseeing cruises, lunch cruises. There's all sorts of different points of interest. There's a deep history to Tom's River that most people don't know. A little bit hundreds of years. Well, it was the early settlers in the late 16 hundreds. That's actually how Tom River got its name. It was a man by the name of Thomas Luker came around the year 1700. He operated a barge ferry system right around where we are now, actually a little bit upriver. So if you wanted to take your cattle or horses across the river, you would contract with Thomas Luker. And that's why the local historians believe that they named it after him. That is very interesting. Thank you for that. And also you can learn a little bit about that too when you come on some of the cruise this year. Yes, you can. It's not only historical in learning though. We have djs that come on board. We do dinner dance on Saturday nights. A lot of time we offer private charters if you have a big enough group, a lot of times people might rent out a deck. We have the lower deck, which is a little bit bigger. It's more enclosed, kind of like you're at a waterfront restaurant, a bigger dance floor down there up here. It's more open. You get more of the atmosphere being on a boat, but it's really a good experience for birth parties. Anniversaries. We do corporate events. Anything you can think of? You got me hooked. When is season? When can people take you out? We're going to start our public season. It's the last week of May when it gets pretty nice. But if you have a large enough group, if you have about 50 people or so, you could talk to us before then. All right. Well, I think I have a big enough group that wants to stick around everyone that's watching this morning. So, what do you say? We give them one more chance to see River lady. We're hanging out in Toms River today. Lauren de of New Jersey.

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Well, let's fall back into News 12 as we explore downtown Tom's River News 12, New Jersey's Lauren de is joining us live this morning from the streets to the actual Tom's River. It is a beautiful start to the day here, Lauren. It is. And don't worry, I'm not really the captain of the river lady. Do you are actually the captain? Yes, I am amazing. And you actually worked your way up. You have an incredible story. I did. My mom started working here 20 years ago as a waitress. She's now transitioned more into the office work for the past five or six years. But when I was 15 years old, I started as a dishwasher and ever since I've just worked my way up and I actually bought it in January. That's incredible. What an amazing story. Thank you. I know you, you learned how to steer a boat. No experience at all. This thing is huge. No, I didn't grow up around boats other than this one really. Uh And then the previous owner, he sponsored me to get my captain's license when I was 19. Uh Just because he appreciated how I walk how I worked and uh saw some potential doug really impressive downstairs is also beautiful too. The dining room or the Victorian level. That's amazing. So you can eat there and enjoy. Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, certainly. There's about tables of eight, up to even 12 people. When we really have a larger party down there. It's people enjoy. There's a nice mahogany all around and it just really sets the ambience for being on an old school river boat. Yeah. How old is this boat? Because these are the propellers that make it go right. The paddles. I knew I was going to do that. The paddles, the boat was built in 1989. The paddles here. This is really all we have. There are no propellers, no bath thrust, there's nothing underneath. So it makes it a little tricky sometimes depending on the weather, but we always get it done freezing right now. We are in maintenance mode. So you might see some patchwork and whatnot because it's a steel boat. So steel around water and salt is rust. So there's a lot of painting that needs to happen. All right, Doug, we'll let you get to work and when do you officially open for the season? The last week of May. There you go, guys. We're falling back into News. 12 here. We're in Tom's River Lauren De in East 12, New Jersey. Ok.

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Don't miss the 85th annual Halloween parade, which is recognized in The Guinness Book of World Records for the country’s second-largest Halloween parade. 

Fall Back into News 12: A tour around Toms River

Don't miss the 85th annual Halloween parade, which is recognized in The Guinness Book of World Records for the country’s second-largest Halloween parade.

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