For nearly a century, the Baronet Theater in Asbury Park, N.J., was a popular venue for vaudeville theater and blockbuster films. Then it, like the city that was its home, fell into disrepair. Eventually its roof collapsed and it was demolished.
This summer, the salvaged marquee of the former theater is lit anew with the opening of the Asbury, a boutique hotel with a rooftop movie theater, complete with lawn chairs, a popcorn machine and a small bar, framed by a white picket fence and stunning Atlantic Ocean views.
The hotel offers the retro-meets-modern sensibility that now defines Asbury Park, which has once again become one of the mid-Atlantic’s top beach destinations.