A view of the Asbury Park boardwalk and ocean from the Boss Suite at the Asbury Hotel. Photo: David Appel
A few weeks before the October 24 release of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere—the new biopic about the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska, starring Jeremy Allen White—the Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park opened the doors of its brand-new Boss Suite.
“It’s something we’d been wanting to do for a while,” Simon Little, the Asbury Hotel’s area director of sales and marketing, tells New Jersey Monthly—but the “impetus” came when the film’s cast and crew descended on the Jersey Shore town last winter. The Asbury Hotel “housed a lot of the production team,” Little explains, while White and writer/director Scott Cooper stayed one block over at the hotel’s sister property, The Asbury Ocean Club.
“We didn’t realize at the time how big the movie was going to be….But we knew, given Springsteen’s impact in the area, that this could be something special to celebrate,” Little says. The release would also closely follow the Born to Run album’s 50th anniversary in August, nearly one year after the E Street Band’s historic Sea Hear Now show in Asbury Park in 2024. “We just thought it was perfect timing.”
Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Photo: Macall Polay/20th Century Studios
Springsteen was “very involved” on the Asbury Park sets for Deliver Me from Nowhere, Little recalls. “He was on location every single day. For the fans to see him down on the boardwalk, and in the Convention Hall, and just around the town—they were very excited. At times there were quite a few crowds gathering.”
The Asbury Hotel soon reached out to its neighbor, the Transparent Clinch Gallery—owned by longtime Springsteen photographer Danny Clinch—to gauge interest in a partnership for a branded suite.
“I said, ‘Love the idea; let’s talk about it—but I’m gonna have to clear it with Bruce, because I wouldn’t feel comfortable without that,’” Clinch tells New Jersey Monthly. “So I sent him a text….And I gotta admit, I was a little nervous about asking him. He immediately hit me back, and he was like, ‘That sounds fantastic!’ I was like, ‘Really?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah!’ I was like, ‘Oh, cool!’ And then I even asked him if he minded that they called it ‘the Boss Suite,’ and he just sent me back, like, a laughing emoji.”
So Clinch, a Toms River native who has photographed Springsteen for more than two decades, began culling images that would adorn the room.
The Boss Suite’s centerpiece is a giant photo of Springsteen’s 2024 Sea Hear Now concert in Asbury Park. Photo: David Appel
The suite’s “biggest moment” is a full-wall photo mural of Springsteen rocking out with ecstatic fans on Asbury Park’s beach at the 2024 Sea Hear Now festival—“which he himself has admitted was one of the top five Bruce Springsteen shows of all time,” says Clinch, who co-founded the festival in 2018. (While video-calling into this interview from a sunny park bench in Manhattan, he was delighted to spot a young passerby wearing a Sea Hear Now hoodie.)
One of Clinch’s favorite photos “actually doesn’t have Bruce in it,” he says: a stark shot of Springsteen’s guitar beside E Street bandmate Clarence Clemons’s saxophone, taken in the back of Asbury Park’s Convention Hall about a decade before Clemons’s death. “It’s just a nice portrait of the two of them, without them being in the photo,” Clinch says. “It means a lot to me.”
Photo: David Appel
Above the bed hangs a large black-and-white image from 2007, showing Springsteen in front of Clinch’s 1948 Pontiac. Clinch had brought the car to a rehearsal at Convention Hall, where Springsteen suggested they take some photos with it. “‘Maybe you should just drive it up on the boardwalk,’ Clinch remembers Springsteen saying. “I was like, ‘Can I do that?’ And he kind of looked at me like, ‘Eh, you’re with Bruce Springsteen. We can pretty much do anything around here.’”
When they’re not engaging in spontaneous boardwalk shoots, Clinch and Springsteen’s on-set playlists often feature a lively blend of vintage rock ‘n’ roll and R&B—from Chuck Berry and Darlene Love to Sam & Dave and James Brown. “He’s somebody that is willing to go the extra mile to get a great photo, and he participates,” Clinch says. “He’s not just standing there.”
Bruce Springsteen and Danny Clinch at a 2024 Sea Hear Now after-party at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Photo: Michael Ryan Kravetsky
Other suite amenities include a record player, a vinyl collection of Springsteen albums, and an itinerary of “Bruce’s favorite spots” nearby, says Little. At turndown—or whenever they prefer—guests can have Springsteen’s favorite late-night snack delivered: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a cold glass of milk. The sandwich comes cut in guitar shapes. A complimentary Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out cocktail (rum, Curaçao, lime and orange juices, cinnamon, orgeat and coconut cream) is also available at the hotel’s Soundbooth bar and live music venue.
“So you can come into the room, drop your bags, put a Bruce Springsteen album on the turntable,” Little says. “And then you can go out and explore Bruce’s favorite spots, and finish off with a nice cocktail and your PB&J and milk.”
Photos: David Appel
The first 20 guests to reserve can take home a signed copy of Clinch’s book Still Moving, a monograph of his career photographing Springsteen and other musicians.
“It’s been really cool to see people reaching out that were married in Asbury Park 30 years ago on the boardwalk; they’re Bruce Springsteen fans; they want to come back and stay in the suite for their anniversary,” Little says. “We’ve had people from literally all over the country, as far as the West Coast, that have reached out.”
The Boss Suite is open through the end of the year and is expected to extend into 2026. Rates start at $295. Visit the Asbury Hotel’s website or email sales@stayasburypark.com for availability and more information.
