EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – When Albert Ulrich Jr. opened the Tilton Inn in 1963, people thought he was crazy because there was almost nothing out there around Tilton Road at the time. “It was all farms,” said his wife, Mildred Ulrich, who runs the business now with their three children. “He bought his liquor license from a little farm market on West Jersey Avenue. Tilton Road had two lanes then and the side street, Kingston Avenue, was a dirt road.” Albert Ulrich got his experience working in restaurants under his father, Albert Ulrich Sr., who owned and operated the Garden Bar and Restaurant in Atlantic City at Pacific and Indiana avenues. He was a chef who came here from Europe and worked at the best hotels in Washington, D.C., New York and Atlantic City and saved enough money to open his own place. His son, Albert Jr., worked at the Garden Bar before and after he spent time in the service during World War II. Ulrich Jr. was
part of an Army Air Corps bomber squadron that
flew 25 missions over Germany. The bombing
raids were so dangerous that many of them didn’t
make it back.
Ulrich could see that the area in Egg Harbor Township was changing when he opened the Tilton Inn. He was able to foresee that civilization would grow out toward him. It was only a matter of time. “My dad was a visionary,” said Michael Ulrich, the couple’s oldest son. “He could see that this whole area would some day be developed.” Initially there was the restaurant and the bar, but eventually the building was expanded to include the banquet area. Now the Tilton caters business and organizational events all through the week. The business grew, and then sometime in the 1980s the children took over. According to daughter Michelle Ulrich, that is when her parents decided to take a vacation and all the children pitched in to help out. “Once you know
how to do things, you get roped in,” said
Michelle, who does the restaurant’s accounting
and other paperwork.
Now her brothers, Michael and Mark, run the restaurant with help from their mother, who got more involved with the business when her husband died a few years back. Chef Paul Windebank, who studied culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu London Culinary Institute, has been with the Ulrich family for more than 15 years. Prior to that, he worked at the casino restaurants in Atlantic City. According to bartender Roy Clark, the chef’s specialties are famous. “You never know what he’s going to make, but it always tastes good,” said Clark, who has worked for the family for more than 38 years. The interior boasts six plasma televisions and the big screen covers all major sports and events. There is also a pool table and a jukebox. Smooth wood booths and tables surround a huge L-shaped bar lit by stained-glass light fixtures, and the result is a cross between a good family restaurant and a neighborhood bar where you can get the lunch special and a cold beer for about $7. “It’s a great place to pass time while your girlfriend’s getting her hair done,” said patron Tom Lawlor. Photos by T.S. EVANS
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