Holiday Express Plays Red Bank Twice This Season, and Monmouth Street Holds Everything in Between

Red Bank's 2026 holiday season starts on Broad Street the night after Thanksgiving. It spends one night there. From December 6 through December 20, the Count Basie Center at 99 Monmouth Street has nine holiday performances on the calendar. This fall the blocks on both sides of that theater added a coffee shop, a smoothie café, a jewelry bar, a cocktail lounge and a 14-seat omakase counter. If you're planning December around downtown, plan it around Monmouth Street.

Holiday Express shows up at both ends of the stretch. On November 27 it plays a free show outdoors on Broad Street. On December 15 it plays a ticketed show indoors at the Basie. Most of the season happens in the 18 days between those two nights, and most of it is within a few blocks of the theater.

One Night on Broad Street, Then a Weekend That Moves You Along

Red Bank RiverCenter's Town Lighting is Friday, November 27, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Broad Street. Students from the Count Basie Center Conservatory of Music play the opening set. Holiday Express goes on around 7:00 p.m. with Santa and Mrs. Claus, the Grinch, Frosty, Rudolph and Tim McLoone. Around 8:00 p.m., the Red Bank Borough Council arrives to light downtown. The event is free.

Holiday Express has been delivering music, food, gifts, financial support and friendship to people in need since 1993, and you can donate through holidayexpress.org.

The next morning, RiverCenter keeps people downtown. On Small Business Saturday, November 28, Toast City Diner hosts a giveaway from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. with complimentary breakfast bites and a $25 Red Bank Bucks digital gift card. It's one card per household while supplies last.

RiverCenter's Elf Scavenge Hunt also starts November 27. The guide comes out that day, and you return it to RiverCenter by December 18 for a chance to win a gift card. So the lighting gets you downtown, the Saturday giveaway brings you back the next morning, and the scavenger hunt gives you three weeks of reasons to walk the shops.

Then the Calendar Moves to 99 Monmouth

Once the lights are on, the Basie campus carries the season. These are the holiday dates on the Count Basie Center calendar:

That's nine performances in 15 days, all at one address. The busiest stretch is Friday, December 11 through Sunday, December 13. Four Nutcracker performances run that weekend, and on Sunday LaBamba starts at The Vogel three hours after the Nutcracker matinee begins.

The Holiday Express show on December 15 closes the loop on November 27. The same band that lit up Broad Street for free plays a ticketed night inside the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre. Going to both is the simplest way to mark the season's start and its peak in Red Bank.

The Blocks Between Broad Street and the Basie

The low numbers on Monmouth Street sit at the Broad Street end, so you can walk from the lighting toward the Basie past four newer storefronts. Going west from Broad:

1. Julia's Coffee Co., 19 Monmouth Street. Identical twin sisters Julia and Sydney Boel opened this coffee shop in mid-October, as Red Bank Green reported. It's a good place to warm up before an afternoon Nutcracker.
2. Linked By Mint, 29 Monmouth Street. This permanent jewelry and charm bar already has a location in Long Branch. According to Red Bank Green, it's one of a growing number of downtown shops that run their own events, and its first workshop sold out. A permanent bracelet makes an easy gift you can pick up in person on a show night.
3. Reves Smooth & Acaí Cafe, 42 Monmouth Street. It's next to Crazy Story Books. Husband-and-wife owners Sebastian Balk and Cynthia Noack run this as their second location, serving soft-serve acai with no refined sugars, pitaya bowls, smoothies and coffee.
4. Pollara, 57 Monmouth Street. This pizza spot opened in August, so it has had a full fall to get established before the holiday crowds.

All four sit between the Broad Street lighting and the Basie's front doors. In practice, that makes this one stretch of sidewalk the route for both of the season's biggest nights.

West of the Theater, a Century-Old Warehouse After Dark

Keep walking past the Basie and you reach the Anderson Building at 200 Monmouth Street. It's a former warehouse about a century old. Culture Collective Hospitality Group, headed by Chris Viola, has turned its ground floor into Anderson Market, a food hall that replaced the Sickles grocery.

The last piece of that remake, The Lobby Bar, opened in September. During the day it's a juice and made-to-order smoothie counter with records playing. In the evening it serves cocktails, aperitivo and low or no ABV drinks, according to the press release Red Bank Green quoted. The Lobby's own page lists aperitivo hour from 3 to 6 p.m. daily and vinyl DJs Thursday through Sunday.

Studio Omakase is in the room next door. It's a 14-seat chef's counter run by Chef Steven Wong, who was most recently head sushi chef at Moko Omakase in New York. Red Bank Green reported that he has worked behind sushi counters in New York and Miami for more than forty years. "I'm excited to open the first omakase in Red Bank," Wong said in the release Red Bank Green published. The booking page lists Wednesday through Sunday service with four seatings a night and a 12-course menu at $108 per person, plus gratuity, a processing fee and tax. Reservations are paid in advance. With four seatings of 14, the counter holds 56 diners a night. Book Studio Omakase before you buy your show tickets.

Little Andy's Burgers also appears on Anderson Market's vendor roster, in the stall where Namkeen Hot Chicken used to be.

Matching the Calendar to the Counter

• Friday, November 27. Lighting on Broad Street at 6:30 p.m. Friday is one of The Lobby's vinyl DJ nights, which run Thursday through Sunday.
• Sunday, December 6. Cirque Musica at 5 p.m. falls inside The Lobby's 3-to-6 aperitivo window, so that drink has to come before the show. Studio Omakase is open Sundays.
• December 11 through 13. Five of the season's nine Basie performances happen in these three days, and Studio Omakase serves all three nights.
• Tuesday, December 15. Holiday Express at 7:30 p.m. Studio Omakase serves Wednesday through Sunday, so plan dinner somewhere else that night.
• Friday, December 18. Last day to return your Elf Scavenge Hunt guide to RiverCenter.
• Sunday, December 20. Chris Pinnella's Christmas in Red Bank at The Vogel, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday is also a DJ night at The Lobby.

From November 27 to December 20, Red Bank's holiday season runs from Broad Street to the Anderson Building, all of it on foot. If you own a home within walking distance of 99 Monmouth Street and want to know what that walkability adds to its price this season, Alexis Fraistat can put a straight number on it. Get Your Free Home Valuation, then go grab your Nutcracker seats.