Spring Lake Kitchen Tour

The Spring Lake Kitchen Tour is an annual tradition for many people. They come from across the country for the event and I met guests that came from as far as California and Florida. The Spring Lake Kitchen Tour is a self guided tour through some of the most beautiful homes in our seaside community of Spring Lake, NJ.

The SLKT is a fundraising event for our local  Blue Ribbon school, HW Mountz . This year's event was the 20th anniversary of the tour, so all the volunteers worked really hard to make it extra special. There were nine beautiful homes this year that were included in our event.

Part of the fun of the SLKT, is that the kids from the Middle School do the descriptions and editorial on the homes which is printed in the spiral bound Tour Program Guide. Their descriptions of each home is always entertaining. My son named our house "The Blue Castle" , which is a bit of an exaggeration. His referred to our home as King Neptune's Palace because it reminds him of the ocean, which is a wonderful way to describe the feeling of our home. My dear friend since the 8th grade, also lives at the beach. Her mantra is, "Bring the outside in!" and clearly in my son's eyes, we managed to accomplish this. The kids have such great imaginations. They did a fantastic job with the write ups on every home in the tour.

I felt it was time to do my part after being asked for many years to have my home on the Tour. Although I was always flattered to be asked, I am a private person with young children so I was hesitant. My house was the VIP home on the tour, which means those who purchased VIP tickets can come early and pick up their VIP bags which contain the tour book and some nice swag and giveaways. 

I was privileged to have wonderful sponsors for my home including  The Gallery Residential Brokerage NJ, Marie Reed Homes, which is where I work, and Taylor Custom Woodwork, owned by Sean Taylor, who did all of the amazing custom cabinetry in my home. We featured many local artists from (my personal collection) like Elizabeth Sabine and Teresa Losa, Spring Matthews, Kate Mancini and photography of my family from Patti Schmitd. Some of my favorite collections include beautiful hand-made dishes by the VERY talented Alexandra Vaga of Source and Tradition. 

The check in for the SLKT begins at the Spring Lake Train Station, which is a beautiful building. Guests of the tour enjoyed coffee by Driftwood, donuts by Dune Donuts, and Scones by the Scone Pony. 

Everyone always has their favorite house on the tour and it is fun to hear who likes which home and what inspired their choice. Each home had sponsors, designers, florists and restaurants (all local) who work really hard to make it beautiful. I would like to thank my dear friends for handling all of that. It is a big effort. My home featured tablescapes by my Aunt from Kate and Company, Katydid Florist . Terra Earth & Surf , and Belflora.

We celebrate all the volunteers at the close of the event with an afterparty, which was hosted in my home.  Much of the success of this event is due to our incredible volunteers which include many of the kids from the school. The kids had much deserved fun and listened to music from Beach Music Studios.  The herculean efforts of all the volunteers  couldn't happen without the leadership of my dear friend who organized  all of the volunteers. As she says "It takes a Village" and our "village" delivered an outstanding event!

At the end of the day, as parents, we have to remember that we do all of this work for the benefit of our children and the school. 

I want to also thank our local restaurants including Bareli's (our featured restaurant who served their fantastic meatballs) amongst many other things.  Mossuto's Market  provided the delicious food for the after party which was SO generous.

Egan's you are the best, always setting up for the adults.

Honestly at the end of the day, I'm thankful for so many great friends who helped me get through "the bite off more than I can chew" day. Especially taking care of my kiddos that I needed to kick out of their home at 9am.

It was a big success for the school which will benefit all the kids at HW Mountz for years to come. If you didn't make the tour this year, I invite you to join us next year! 

Thank you to all for a wonderful day!

Marie