John ‘Walter’ Eggimann emigrated around age 12 from Bern Switzerland. When he arrived in NY around 1870, the young man who had apprenticed as a butcher looked for a job. The Long Depression had set in and New York was teeming with immigrants and returned civil war soldiers. Work was scarce and he walked south and west until he could find someone to hire him. Walter eventually found himself in the Houston Texas area as a hotel worker.
After a three-year stint, the hotel was destroyed by fire. This was fairly common in the 1870s. Gas lanterns. wood framed buildings built close together, and inadequate fire equipment led to huge city fires in Boston, Chicago, and Peshtigo Wisconsin. Out of work again, Eggimann fell ill and his doctors recommended the healthful seaside of New Jersey.
Walter came north again and got a laborer’s job on the new Long Branch coastal railway. He settled in what was Wall Township and is now Spring Lake Heights along the Long Branch to Manasquan Pike. He met and married German immigrant Augusta Sohn and they started a family of 14 children.
Eggimann quit the railroad for a job in a local tavern in Spring Lake. Journees was on 5th and Morris in the 1880s. To supplement his income, Walter began to sell beer. He obtained a license, bought bottles, and kegs of beer from New York. He built a garage on his property to bottle the beer, and sold it to taverns all over the shore from his horse and wagon. The bottles read, “Eggimanns Lake Como.”
He painted a sign on the bottling plant, “Eggimann’s Whines and Lickers”. Curious passengers along the pike from Long Branch on their way to Squan stopped to inquire about a drink. Eggimann, sensing an opportunity, built a small inn between his house and the bottling plant. Augusta cooked.
Original Eggimann Bottles. Below, the left side of the building was the original Lake Como Hotel
Eggimann’s Lake Como Hotel served as a roadhouse for turn-of-the-century customers. His children provided ample labor and the inn provided cheap meals along with the beer. By 1908 Walter fell ill again all of his sons chipped in. It was 18-year-old William, “Bill” who took over the business.
When Walter passed away in 1913, Walter ended the bottling business and focused on the renamed Eggiman’s Tavern. He sold some of the land to the town for a road and utility right of way. He dropped one of the “n”s at the end of their last name. The Eggiman boys served food and drink in a high-quality roadhouse known for its extensive selection of spirits. The well-heeled travelers to the shore resorts and the summer muster of the Guard Camp at Sea Girt provided a steady stream of clients.
He would run the establishment for 50 years, through the First World War, the Great Depression, and World War II. Prohibition was his biggest challenge and his greatest opportunity. New Jersey was divided during the 13 years America outlawed intoxicating alcohol.
From “The Bootlegger Era: Prohibition in New Jersey” Exhibit at the Monmouth County Library 2013
Monmouth County was a microcosm of what would happen in the rest of the state and the country. To support prohibition, in 1917 the Anti-Saloon League wrote a report. “Asbury Park: Why “Prohibition did not Prohibit”, An Exposure of Criminal Liquor Dealers, Gamblers, Commercialized Vice and Grafters.”
Ocean Grove and Asbury Park were both technically “Dry” towns, run by Methodists. While the Grove maintained its temperance, liquor was widely available behind closed doors and in speakeasy’s and pharmacies in Asbury with police paid off to look the other way. The Volstead Act was passed in 1919, and the nation went dry in 1920. As in Asbury, many New Jerseyan’s including Bill Eggiman would flout the law to keep his business.
Ocean Grove stayed dry while Asbury was awash in booze from its founding as a dry town
Local officials had no real interest in arresting local business owners. New Jersey initially had no mechanism for enforcement. The Feds raided places regularly. Bill was arrested in 1920, 1925, 1928, and 1929. Each time he was charged with violations of the Volstead Act, but none of his prominent patrons or bartenders were bothered. They also were not able to raid his personal residence on the property. In 1929, he was likely broadly distributing liquor from Eggimans to other speakeasys. Authorities seized 30 barrels of beer and a large quantity of apple, scotch and rye whiskey.
New Jersey’s primary source of spirits came from the Rum Runners, a flotilla of boats that brought liquor up from the Caribbean, and stayed 3.5 miles off the coast outside the enforcement limits. The Rum Runners sold and transferred their contraband liquor to small fishing boat captains who would smuggle it back to port.
Wanted Poster from the early 1920s
Bill McCoy was the best of the Rum Runners. He sold undiluted high-quality liquor and was a fair pirate. He repopularized an old Scottish term, as he called his liquor “The Real McCoy.” Eggiman likely acquired some spirits through the sea trade until McCoy’s ship was attacked by the Coast Guard. After a short chase and dodging some shells McCoy was forced to surrender. Organized crime syndicates kept the liquor flowing, but their turf wars and violence would raise cries to repeal Prohibition.
A 1930 court case showed how Prohibition Eggiman’s operated. A young lady accused a man with assault. He had taken her to Eggimans, and she testified they each were served a Ginger Ale High Ball. He took out a flask he had quietly purchased at Eggimans without her knowledge, and he tried to force her to drink it. She testified she did not swallow the liquor.
The quiet availability of alcohol during those years allowed Eggiman’s to attract a large contingent of loyal locals, and the arrests never hurt Bill’s reputation. He was honored as an original business when Spring Lake Heights became a municipality in 1927.
They became infamous for men’s only “stag” parties between Christmas and New Year’s for prominent locals. Metropolitan Opera star Richard Crooks of Sea Girt was one of those who happily spoke about the parties which were never advertised in the newspapers.
When the Volstead Act was repealed in 1934, Eggiman’s was immediately reissued a liquor licence and advertised “Real Beer”. They struggled through the rest of the Depression as a roadhouse tavern. They became famous for Clam pies, fried clams, fresh fish, Lobster Newburgh, and steak sandwiches. After World War II ended, Bill expanded the restaurant to its present size with seating for 100 a larger bar, and a long covered porch.
When Bill Eggiman was ready to retire in 1958 he sold the tavern to his eight-year veteran bartender Fred Ferrett. His boys. Ron and Norman and Fred Jr. kept the place running in the same way until 1980.
Dr. Albert Kolarsick of Shrewsbury, one of the leading surgeons in New Jersey had friends who summered in Spring Lake. He and his sons Karl who lived in Sea Girt and Albert Jr. of Spring Lake purchased Eggiman’s from Fred’s sons. The two boys ran the business full- time and regulars would keep the place humming. They entertained with acts like “Frankie Fingers” Staknys, who played the Crabs Claw in Lavallette until he passed away at 90 in 2021. Fingers played old standards while singer Nanette Mason belted out tunes. They relied on the regulars. Eggiman’s was like the big hotels in Spring Lake. Certain patrons expected “their table” both in the dining room and at the bar.
The back room, a cozy spot in the old original inn was used when important guests needed privacy, like NY Giants coach Bill Parcells who held meetings with staff in Eggimans.
1980s menu with prices.
In 1984 they celebrated the 100th anniversary of the establishment. A poem written by Elaine Erbe was published which recounted its history and concluded:
“The Bennies, locals, and the bunch,
Who show up at the bar for lunch
And those at Friday night club meetings
Offer Karl and Albert, Greetings
Happy Birthday Eggiman’s
From all your hungry, thirsty friends
So raise a glass and toast with cheers
To Eggiman’s next hundred years!”
The menu front played on the long history of Eggiman’s. Albert Kolarsick Jr. (Courtesy of Barbara Kolarsick-Harrigan)
When Albert Jr. passed away in 1998 at age 54, Karl continued to run the business until 2006 when after 122 years, Eggiman’s would be replaced by an Irish Pub. John Meade, the new proprietor opened Saint Stephen’s Green Publik House, followed a trend of Irish pubs at the shore and retired the longstanding clam pies and clam strips for fish and chips and shepherd’s pie.
Saint Stephen’s has been going strong for 18 years.
Thank you to Barbara Kolarsick Harrigan long-time President of the Spring Lake Historical Society and for her recollections about her husband Albert Jr, and some of the lore of Eggimans.