The C-View

Cape May, New Jersey

The C-View Inn from the air at sunset: a three-storey yellow clapboard building on the corner, with a black awning lettered C-VIEW INN, red white and blue bunting along the porch, and benches and a bike rack on the sidewalk

C-View Inn

Great food, cold beer, and — in the tavern’s own words — Cape May’s oldest and friendliest local bar. On the corner of Washington Street and Texas Avenue, on your way out of town.

1380 Washington St
Cape May, NJ 08204

The week at the C-View

Monday
Rib night: half a rack, fries, cole slaw
$8.95
Tuesday
Pizza and taco night
Tacos from $1
Wednesday
Wing night, eat in only
75 cents, from 3 PM
Thursday
Slider night, minimum two
$2 each
Friday and Saturday
Sports on eight screens
Games on nightly
Sunday
Prime rib night
Ask at the bar
Tonight’s board
Call the tavern
609-884-4712

Daily specials come with the purchase of a beverage, and there are blackboard specials on top of them. Wing night and slider night are eat in only.

Through the year

  • March 17St. Patrick’s Day with the local Irish Pipe BrigadeAnnual
  • SummerC-View’s Bike & Brew, in the tavern’s own shirtsAnnual
  • OctoberCrabapalooza, when the crabs are runningAnnual
  • HalloweenCostume party, DJ and prizes, til close10 PM
  • Dec 31Two dinners for $30, a midnight champagne toast, and reverse happy hourFrom 9 PM

The oldest tavern in Cape May, by every account but its own founding date.

A corner bar on the way out of town that has been pouring under two names and at least two start dates, and has been Gregg Coffey’s since 2007.

Late 1800s
The building opens as the Harbor House, a block off the harbour end of Washington Street.
1917
The Harbor House becomes the C-View. A Cape May community post in 2023 counted the tavern at 106 years, which lands on the same year.
1948
The other date in circulation. Cape May Magazine dates the run on this corner from here, and the bar directories repeat it. Neither date has been reconciled in print.
2007
Gregg Coffey, a regular since his twenties, buys the C-View and keeps the menu where it is.
2022
Cape May Magazine finds every one of the twenty-odd tables full and a fifteen to thirty minute wait on the sidewalk, and calls the wings what coffee is to Wawa.
2026
Gold for wings at Best of South Jersey, by the tavern’s own announcement, and a Bike & Brew ride in shirts that read Cape May’s Oldest Tavern.
Inside the C-View: dark wood panelled walls, an Eagles Overtime neon and a Surf neon, a schoolhouse clock, framed prints and a No Smoking sign, and the front door standing open onto the sunlit street
The room, from the tavern’s own reel
The red neon TAKE-OUT sign in the window of the C-View Inn
Take-out: call 609-884-4912

Behind the bar

A long wooden bar, eight screens, and a beer list the tavern prints in full. Package goods to go.

On draft
  • Guinness
  • Cape May IPA
  • Victory Hop Devil
  • Blue Moon Belgian White
  • Sierra Nevada seasonal draft
  • Glasstown 60s
  • Pabst
Domestic bottles
  • Budweiser · Bud Light · Bud Light Lime
  • Coors Original · Coors Light
  • Miller Lite · Miller High Life · Miller 64 · Miller pounder
  • Michelob · Michelob Light · Michelob Ultra
  • MGD · Rolling Rock · Pabst can
  • Sam Adams · Sierra Nevada · Land Shark Lager
  • Yuengling · Yuengling Light
  • Mike’s Hard Cider · Smirnoff · Twisted Tea
Imported bottles
  • Amstel Light · Beck’s · Beck’s Light
  • Corona · Corona Light · Modelo · Dos Equis
  • Heineken · Heineken Light · Stella Artois
  • Smithwick’s · Killian’s · Labatt · Molson Golden
  • Red Stripe · Foster’s oil can · UFO
  • Angry Orchard · Strongbow
Seltzers
  • Too many for the menu — ask your server
Alcohol free
  • Coors Edge · Kaliber · O’Doul’s · Heineken 0.0

When the room fills up

There are about twenty tables and the bar, no reservations, and on a Wednesday the wing crowd comes from near and far — Coast Guard included — and lines up on the sidewalk for fifteen or thirty minutes. St. Patrick’s Day brings the local Irish Pipe Brigade, October brings Crabapalooza if the crabs are running, and the summer brings the tavern’s own Bike & Brew. For a big group, call the tavern first.

Call the tavern
Three riders in navy C-View’s Bike & Brew 2026 shirts, printed with a penny-farthing and the line Cape May’s Oldest Tavern, holding drinks at a bar
C-View’s Bike & Brew, 2026

Practical details for the visit.

The corner of Washington Street and Texas Avenue, on the way out of town, with parking on site and nearby. The bar takes the call; take-out has its own line.

Take-out
609-884-4912
Hours
Mon 11 AM–11:30 PM
Tue–Sat 11 AM–1 AM
Sun 12 PM–1 AM
Season
Open year round
as printed on the menu
Reservations
Not taken
Big groups
Call the tavern to ask
about a private group
Payment
Visa, Mastercard and Amex
Package goods to go
Parking
On site and very nearby
Screens
Eight flat screens
Games on nightly
Address
1380 Washington St
Cape May, NJ 08204