It can be hard to sustain from year to year, as even some of my favorite Shore spots can attest. Ocean City's charmingly funky Fourth Street Cafe, for example, plans to pack up its butterscotch scones and Hawaiian short ribs for good at the end of this, its 12th vibrant summer. The lease is up. The owners' California roots are calling.
Still, valuable lessons have obviously been learned from the hermit crab for some survivors who still want to cook down the Shore, even if their big, splashy castles from last season are no more. There's always another shell to make their happy home. And sometimes smaller is better.
Just look at this year's most lively restaurant zone, from Somers Point north to Ventnor, where I found a whole range of seaside dining ambitions: from elaborate new palaces of varying success, to the humble but satisfying new venues for two veteran chefs, and one simple little bistro that served up my best Shore meal this year so far.
If restaurants were judged on size and speed of creation alone, the barely one-month-old Inlet would already be vying for Best on Beach. The massive marina restaurant space in Somers Point, previously occupied by Sails, fell into restaurateur Marty Grims' lap in April (thanks to a hot tip at his wife's hair salon!). But Grims, who owns the Moshulu, the Plantation and Daddy O (the latter two on Long Beach Island), within weeks had totally revamped the rooms, menu and staff, and had executive chef Adam DeLosso cranking out high-concept meals - for 5,300 guests on Memorial Day weekend alone.
