🍳 Growing pains in Beach Haven | Down the Shore

Is there a restaurant shortage on Long Beach Island?

I tuned in to a Land Use Board hearing from Beach Haven this week, and listened for four hours! It was mostly about the Holiday Snack Bar, and its continuing dispute with the borough and with some neighbors over how much outdoor seating the 75-year-old institution can have, and during which hours.

Some were close to tears as they spoke about letting Holiday Snack Bar operate fully. Resident Jill Denker tried to describe why places like these are so intertwined with their experience of the Shore, and why it’s so important to help businesses prosper on an island where commercial properties are being scooped up and turned into summer residences.

“We have an attachment,” she said. “It’s in your heart. When you remove something so important to the community of Beach Haven, it ruins the visit. It ruins living there. I need the pea soup!”

A motel owner from Holgate said his customers complain they can’t get a seat anywhere to take their families to dinner.

So, nobody is starving on LBI, but is everyone choking from all the development?

On social media, the Instagram account LBI rumors noted the Buccaneer motel was sold and being turned into homes and said, “Pretty soon this island will be nothing but houses and pavers.”

Earlier in the meeting, new owners of a historic cedar-shingled home at 203 Berkeley Ave. were seeking a variance to expand to six bedrooms by taking over an outdoor porch.

“The absence of a fourth floor does not create a hardship,” noted one of the neighbors, whose home already is within about 1.5 feet of the other property.

The new owners noted that at least they weren’t tearing the house down, a fair point these days.

But their proposal includes a parking area out front for the cars they’ll need, a swimming pool, and pool house. The tight buffer between their neighbors’ homes will shrink further.

The board punted the Holiday Snack Bar decision until July 17. Owner Eileen Bowker quoted JFK about change, noting the irony of allowing “homes to get bigger, and more people coming to the island,” but trying to limit the number of seats she can have. “People on vacation need places to eat,” she said (not a JFK quote).

📮 Is the character of Beach Haven forever changed? Are the familiar rhythms of a Jersey Shore vacation at risk? Let me know what you think, and I’ll include your most interesting responses by replying to this email.

☁️ Smoky conditions: Between the Pinelands fires and the Canadian wildfires, the air has been intermittently smoky down the Shore (and elsewhere).

— Amy S. Rosenberg (🐦 Tweet me at @amysrosenberg. 📷 Follow me on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me at downtheshore@inquirer.com)

If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

🌊 Far from the beach, these incarcerated men at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, N.J. were thinking about their own beach memories as they built a lifeguard stand headed for tony Lavallette.

💻 Sand in your laptop: Lizzy McLellan Ravitch reports that hybrid workers are still packing up their cars on Thursdays and heading to the Shore to work remotely.

💰What does $1,000 get you? More in Atlantic City than Stone Harbor. Consumer reporter Erin McCarthy games out what different Shore destinations cost.

🛝 Sliding scale? At $99 a day per person, the grumbling has already started about the $100 million Island Water Park slated to open in Atlantic City in late July.

💔 Water Dog breakup: Master smoker Dan Greenberg and Ventnor’s popular Water Dog Smoke House have parted ways. Greenberg’s got his own gig, South Jersey Smoke House, and you can find his smoked cheeses, salmon, meats, and horseradish pickle spread at Reed’s Farm this Sunday and soon, at Shore farmer’s markets.

🚳 Pedal power: Ocean City, fresh from enacting its backpack ban and early beach closures, now wants to ban e-bikes on the boardwalk.

🩴 Take an opinionated walk: Cape May’s new series of arches over its promenade, meant to evoke the genteel Victorian days of this lovely town, have been a bit controversial. Here’s what they look like.

🍺 No one likes us: The anticipation is building for the Kelce brothers’ return to Sea Isle for a $50,000 Beer Bowl contest at the OD. Matt Mullin has all the Beer Bowl info.

🎹 Do N2S: The North to Shore arts festival is in A.C. this weekend, with Colbie Caillat and Gavin DeGraw at Boardwalk Hall, a story slam, the Back Sov Bullies Concert, the Blue Notes at Rhythm & Spirits, Joe McGinty & the Losers Lounge at Anchor Rock Club on Thursday, and Low Cut Connie back at Anchor on Saturday. Get Dan DeLuca’s recs here.

👟 Take a run (and wave) past Frank Dinoto Way: Ventnor is dedicating its Portland Avenue beach ramp in memory of Frank, a lovely man with a big white beard who everyone knew. Frank was either on the beach, waving at you while running by on the boardwalk or, back in the day, behind the grill at Sack-o-Subs.

🤔 Where’s Laban? Our mysterious restaurant critic Craig Laban is down the Shore, according to his Instagram. He’s hit Smitty’s Clam Bar, Turtle Gut in Wildwood Crest for Cioppino Night, and the Seed Beer brewery for a flight of Atlantic City’s best craft beer.

Road diet (noun). In which Shore towns shrink their roads, usually from four lanes to two, add better bike lanes, designated turning lanes, slow traffic, make things safer, and everyone complains.

Can a busy town like Atlantic City really handle a road diet?

🚍 So, congrats to everyone who remembered it was Avalon which used the white “magic bus” to round up underaged drinkers in the 1990s. Avalon ultimately settled a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the juveniles for $1.8 million.

Alas, no shout-out this week (other than my friend Bob, who knew the answer) because, as some of you no doubt found out, all the replies were misdirected into a nonexistent Gmail void (my mistake, apologies!).

But a new question!

❓This classic watering hole on the water in North Wildwood operated from 1912 until a sad last call in 2005, when the property was sold to become condos. A North Wildwood institution, it was like a South Philly bar at the Shore, where you went to “bump into the people you knew before you became who you are.”

Was this bar:

A. Moore’s Inlet

B. Memories

C. Kubel’s Too

D. Ron’s West End Pub

📮 If you think you know the answer, get a shout-out by being the first to reply to this email, downtheshore@inquirer.com. And send along any memories of your favorite Shore bar.

A reader asks: “We’ll be going to Ventnor with 2 toddlers and prefer outdoor dining. Any suggestions?”

I have two. One, in Ventnor, is the North Beach Cafe and Creamery, with its kid-friendly menu, easy sidewalk seating, and the side where you can finish up with water ice (the old Mento’s recipes) or ice cream.

The second, a bit more ambitious: Chef Michael Brennan’s new Cardinal restaurant in the old Bourré on New York Avenue in Atlantic City has turned its beautiful outdoor space into a family friendly area called the Garden at the Cardinal, where between noon and 8 on the weekends, the kids can play and eat, and the parents can drink and eat.

We are here to answer your Shore questions. Ask us anything: recs, etiquette, the big topics. Here’s a link to last week’s newsletter that answered questions about native plants down the Shore.

Send all your questions to this email.

With all the talk about crowds of unruly teenagers, and closing beaches earlier, and earlier curfews, I was struck by this memory submitted by Mary Singer, who remembers Ocean City back in the day as “a mecca for teenagers.”

My memories are of Ocean City NJ in the 50′s and 60′s. There was a dance hall at 6th and the boardwalk, a mecca for all the teenagers. A roller skating rink also on the boardwalk about 5th or 6th St. At 4th St. there was Johnson’s ice cream parlor where a bowl of pretzels came to every table before you even placed your order. The Surf Theatre at 12th and the boardwalk had a midnight show every night.

Midnight movies!

Send us your Shore memory, fresh or fading. In 200 words, tell us how the Shore taps into something deep for you, and we will publish them in this space during the summer.

📮 Send me your Shore memory or moment for a chance to be featured here.

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👋 See you next week. Hopefully the skies will have cleared.

— Amy