A few days after Christmas, my family and I needed a day out of the house after all the hosting of the holiday season. Saturday afternoon we packed the car and headed to one of our favorite places: Cape May, New Jersey.

Thankfully, the rain held off for our festivities of window shopping, visiting Congress Hall and, of course, spending some quality time on the beach.

My favorite part of the day, however, included our dinner reservations at Viggiano’s on Sunset. This family-owned, B.Y.O.B. restaurant serves the best Italian food around, leaving us no choice but to order more food than people at the table.

The four of us started with the complimentary basket of bread and the app sampler, including calamari, bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms and stuffed cheese wedges. Not lasting long on the table, my family enjoyed every last crumb and even asked for more bread.

Shortly after, our meals arrived and we cracked open a bottle of white from one of our favorite wineries, Mount Nittany. We all ordered different things — dishes like chicken piccata, eggplant parm, gnocchi tossed in a rosa sauce and ricotta cheese, Mediterranean salmon, and a side of zucchini for the table.

Tasting a bit of everyone’s dishes, each meal was absolutely delicious and full of flavor. We can’t wait to go back and try more of the menu … it was really hard deciding what to get!

For dessert, we stopped by my favorite ice cream shop, King’s. I am mesmerized by its ability to turn hard ice cream to soft, so I did just that with my flavor of choice: honey lavender.

It was so yummy and satisfied my sweet tooth!

The town of Cape May has so much to offer and is filled with many hidden gems like Viggiano’s and King’s. Make sure to check out these places next time you’re down the shore!

— Emily Gladu, administrative coordinator