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Word is Bruce Springsteen digs the pancakes at Roberto’s Freehold Grill enough to shoot the eight miles or so up Dutch Lane Road from his Colts Neck farm every now and then.
His stomach was obviously healthy enough for him to head there twice in the same weekend.
The Freehold native did the E (Main) Street shuffle on Friday, Nov. 17 and again on Sunday, posing for pics at the former Tony’s Freehold Grill with Chef Roberto Diaz.
Springsteen -- who proclaimed "I have no bellyache!” on his SiriusXM radio show on Monday -- grew up in Freehold, a Monmouth County township criss-crossed by a network of highways, one of which (Route 33) leads straight to the Jersey Shore.
He lived in three different houses before his parents, Doug and Adele, left for California in 1969, two years after he graduated from Freehold High School.
“This town, my town, would never leave me, and I could never completely leave it," the Boss wrote in his 2016 autobiography, "Born to Run."
It was where "the rubber meets the road," he said during a Tony Awards performance two years later, "all crookedly blessed in God’s mercy, in the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, race-rioting, freaking, soul shaking, redneck, love-and-fear making, heartbreaking town of Freehold, New Jersey.”
Locals hope Bruce heals completely so he can resume a tour that begins on the West Coast next March before taking him and the E Street Band to Ireland, England, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and elsewhere across the pond.
At the same time, they're happy to have him home for the holidays.
"Welcome home Bruce," one fan commented on the eatery's photo. "It’s great that you remember your home town and the folks that live there."
"I love that he remembers his roots," another added.
Springsteen is spotted in Freehold often, famously frequenting Jersey Freeze, where he once snapped a selfie with a realtor and another time pulled up with fellow New Jersey resident Jon Bon Jovi.
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