Ocean Ice Palace (a/k/a Brick Ice Rink), Brick, NJ

The large red plastic sign on top of the building -- a reminder of bowling alley design from the 60's -- says it all: Ice Rink.

And that's pretty much the whole deal here at the Ocean Ice Palace in Brick, NJ. 

A simple old-style rink dropped next to a divided highway along side a bunch of strip malls. Inside is a beat up old hockey hut (this isn't any palace) with a real snack bar (lousy coffee served by a snarling rink rat) and a more than decent pro shop (Ocean Hockey Shop).  Most importantly, the stuff that  matters is perfect. A nice, hard smooth sheet of ice. Excellent lighting. Decent elevated concrete bleachers that hang over the ice -- actually, it is flush with the top of the the plexiglass  -- and walls that drip with home town nostalgia and a sense of hockey lore. There are retired numbers, championship banners, a Hans Brinker Award and ancient newspaper clippings.  Plus, the rink manager's office is decked out with old leather skates and other memorabilia that seems to date from the 1970s and before.

Inside the Brick Ice Arena (note bleachers on left)

 When I asked the guy who runs the place when it was built, he said sometime in the 1960s. He then gratuitously added with a degree of pride, "think it's cold now (in September), come back in the winter."

The Ocean Ice Palace is the real deal. A sanctuary of quiet contemplation and renewal as well as a home for a loud, robust game of hockey. There may be hope left.