WINING AND DINING BY THE SEA - Mother Nature does some of her prettiest work in the Garden State, but you need to know where to look for it. In a seaside town called Spring Lake, there’s a stunning spot called The Breakers, which offers elegance in a lush garden environment facing the Atlantic. The Breakers is one of the few hotels in town with its own private heated swimming pool and an elevator. In a glass enclosed bar complete with its own white baby grand, the menu includes a French Kiss Martini (vodka, Chambord and pineapple juice), a Spark Plug Martini and other delectables. It is the bar sui generis.

Luncheon is served in the Seashell Dining Room in an unhurried atmosphere with eggplant Rollatini as a starter. The thinly sliced eggplant is pan-fried in extra virgin olive oil with a combination of ricotta cheese and prosciutto, topped with a mozzarella and filetto pomidoro sauce. The chef is a wizard with a Cajun grilled salmon topped with a dijon hollandaise sauce as well as a robust razor thin veal scallopini, which he sautees with shallots, mushrooms, white wine and more of the filetto pomidoro sauce. The day's dessert is destined to out dazzle any other. It is a house made puff pastry - a profiterol filled with vanilla ice cream and a rich chocolate sauce topping.

At Spring Lake's Memorial Community House, there is an intimate theater, where most recently, a musical drama, William's Dark Lady, was staged. It was produced by Pat Barry, who, in guiding some members of the press through the center, has the expression of someone who just opened a pleasant Christmas present. Discussing the children's theater workshop and dance school and some of the well-known actors who have appeared there -- Helen Hayes and Paul Newman, among others -- she exudes such generous joy in her craft that her smile becomes yours.

Just outside Spring Lake, at Sea Girt, almost 100 ships foundered in local waters in the 1890s; that's before the current Sea Girt Lighthouse was built, complete with a large kerosene lamp that produced a constant light. Decommissioned at the end of World War II, the historic lighthouse is open to visitors who enjoy the period furniture. There are also historic photos, including newspaper coverage of the cruise ship Morro Castle, which caught fire at sea in 1934 and drifted to the shore in the vicinity of nearby Asbury Park. Death toll was in the hundreds.

A few feet from the ocean, the Sandpiper Inn has two dining rooms, one for breakfast and the other, the Black Trumpet, for a pleasurable and invigorating dinner. At breakfast, the morning chef prepares the perfect omelette filled with spinach and bacon and an additional quartet of bacon strips on the side. There is fresh fruit, and in the background, you hear soft Beethoven piano sonatas. A splendid touch for starting a new day at the shore.

At the Sandpiper's Black Trumpet Restaurant, named after Owner/Chef Mark Mikolajczak's favorite mushroom, the dining room is blissfully quiet. The chef begins his presentation with a lobster guacamole seaweed sauce. In conversations with him, you learn that all of his seafood comes from the neighboring Manasquan Inlet, a couple of miles from the restaurant. He chooses his seafood from the decks of fishing vessels. The fluke, skillet seared, is just off the docks, served on fingerling spuds, corn and beans, topped with hush puppies. Jumbo lump crab cakes are served with Yukon Gold smashed potatoes with green beans in a red pepper remoulade.

Dinner at Vivere Ristorante at the Grand Victorian begins with a miraculously pure and intensely flavored roasted garlic and tomato soup with parmesan crostini. The menu dances to seasonal and regional rhythms, including a rigatoni with broccoli rabe and Lugania sausage in an oil and roasted garlic sauce. Impeccably cooked is the stuffed pork tenderloin with a Madeira semi glaze that Chef Claudette Herring pairs with sauteed pearl onions, pancetta and fresh peas. We skipped the poached pear and homemade biscotti due to the late hour.

Spring Lake, N.J. is a hard town to squeeze into a phrase. It is an island of prosperity little blemished by the current recession rumors, a tourist town with hotels and B&Bs beloved of vacationing families with a vibrant roster of restaurants. It is a mecca for sportsmen, with swimming, surfing, tennis and golf. But it is the sea, not high culture, that brings people to Spring Lake, and there is no better way to savor the area than to wander along the town's commercial-free boardwalk, an unspoiled seaside tract that lurks menacingly in the rare occasional fogs.

For more information on Spring Lake, N.J., please visit www.historicinnsofspringlake.com and www.springlake.org.