Jan. 18, 2018 By Tara Law
The owners of Astoria bar Judy & Punch have opened a Jersey Shore themed bar.
Madam Marie’s bar opened at 35-15 Broadway in December and is owned by Mike Higgins and Barry Spellman. The pair own Judy & Punch which they opened two blocks away in 2014.
Higgins and Spellman have two other partners with the Madam Marie venture. They are Ted Gayler, owner of the bar/restaurant Union Grounds in Brooklyn, and first-time bar owner Paul Raferty.
Higgins grew up in a beach town in New Jersey. He said that he wanted a bar that reminded him of his childhood down by the shore.
“It’s garish and it’s in your face, but it always made me feel good,” Higgins, who now lives on the Upper East Side, said referring to the Jersey Shore.
Madam Marie’s has many touches inspired by trips to the boardwalk. Customers are invited to play an arcade game or pick a song from the jukebox.
Madam Marie’s serves cocktails named for Jersey Shore music.
Southside Johnny, named after a Jersey Shore based band, is made with cucumber, mint, syrup, lime and Hendrick’s Gin. “Spirit of the Night” is named for a Bruce Springsteen song, contains bourbon, maple syrup, bitters, and is served with a cinnamon stick in a highball glass.
The bar also features 14 draft lines and 23 beers in cans in bottles.
The bar takes its name from Marie Costello, a psychic who worked at a booth for many years on Asbury Park’s boardwalk. She was immortalized in the Bruce Springsteen song “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”
The bar features a mural depicting a fortune teller like Costello, which was painted by artist Danielle Mastrion.
Mastrion has painted on several walls by the Coney Island boardwalk.
