110 Mathistown Rd
Little Egg Harbor, NJ 08087
(609) 296-4800
I was looking to explore some unknown territory. Luckily, Barfly Jen, whom I met in my review of JD’s in
Smithville, is familiar with all of the classiest places in South Jersey and decided to introduce me to Mystic
Islands Casino. Contrary to the name, it is neither a casino nor an island and there is nothing mystical
about it.
Before I even walked in, I knew this was going to be interesting, and my instincts rarely lie when it comes
to shady bars. The first thing I noticed was how bright it was. The walls and ceiling were white and the
lights were turned up. Let me tell you, light is really the last thing this bar needed. This bar needed to
be dark. Real dark. Even the patrons were too white. I was feeling dark and that is because I’m half
Italian.
The bar was huge. It ran along the wall of the bar and right in the middle was the kitchen. It was difficult
to even see the other end of the bar. Then, right in the middle of nowhere, there was a purple booth
table. It looked like the bride and groom table from a red neck wedding. It was very odd. There were a
lot of tables and several pool tables towards the back. Bar mirrors, neon signs, posters, pinata’s, etc…
covered the walls and ceiling. Much of it was Nascar related.
The beer there was pretty cheap and they had a kitchen serving up all kinds of bar food. The menu was
actually a pretty decent size and the kitchen stayed open late. There wasn’t too much else in this area,
so I am assuming this is the place to go out to eat.
There were a lot of interesting characters in the bar. Sitting across the bar was a middle aged woman
sitting by herself. Standing a few seats down from her was a Mexican man with a large fake diamond
stud in his ear. (Note: I am just assuming it was fake. No formal tests were performed.) From the looks
of things, his English was poor, at best. The language barrier couldn’t stop these two love birds. The
conversation went something like this:
“Uh, you live near here?”
“Yeah. You live round here?”
“Yeah. Cool, we both like, live around each other”
It went on like this for a while. I decided not to stick around long enough to find out what happened
between the two of them.
Good point about the bar: The people watching in this bar was amazing.
Bad point about the bar: Besides the lights being far too bright, the kitchen was really close to the bar.
There are some things we would rather not see.
White trash factor (1-10): 9 – There was flannel, mullets, bleached high hair and facial hair as far as the
eye could see.
Ratio of girls to guys: 4:1
Crowd density: medium
Age of the crowd: thirties to sixties
Overall rating: 7 – This bar had a high entertainment value. There were pool tables and a juke box
amongst other things. This is the type of bar that I’m sure you can go to every night and always come
home with a story.
Here is a pick up truck in the parking lot. There were lots of these.
