The dining scene is off to a quiet start

It's still a bit early to know for certain what dining treasures the late-breaking summer waves will wash onto the Jersey Shore this season. But given the economic slowdown, it's not surprising that the early tide of big new openings is noticeably lower this year than usual.

"It's been an awful winter, and a lot of people are hurting," says Ed Hitzel, a longtime radio commentator on the South Jersey dining scene who also publishes an eponymous restaurant magazine.

The usually bustling Atlantic City scene, in particular, is eerily quiet, with none of the splashy openings that have marked the casino town's emergence in recent years as a restaurant destination. Instead, the late-August openings from last year will get some extra attention. For example, Stephen Starr's two spots in the nongaming Chelsea hotel - the luxury steak house Chelsea Prime, and the updated Jewish diner Teplitzky's - will get considerably wider exposure this year in their first full summer.

Likewise, in Ocean City, early-season Shorebirds will get their first taste of the Caribbean-Med flavors being served at 701 mosaic, which Jamaican-born chef Herb Allwood opened last August with his wife, Pamela Womble, in a renovated corner space at Fourth Street and Ocean Avenue.

Throughout the rest of the Shore, meanwhile, the big buzz surrounds the shifting of familiar names to new addresses. Chief among them is talented Chip Roman, who has moved the hit Shore branch of his popular Conshohocken BYO, Blackfish, from Avalon to Stone Harbor.

Old-timers might wince to learn that Blackfish has replaced Henny's, the decades-old fish-house institution. But don't cry too hard. Roman served me one of the best Shore meals I've ever eaten last summer, with Cape May Salts topped with carbonated Meyer lemon foam and swordfish in chorizo vinaigrette that I can still taste. This is also a major step for the ever-ambitious Roman, who now has a liquor license and more than 200 seats, with hopes for more if plans for a boutique hotel here materialize in the future.

Roman's arrival will likely soften the blow from the closing of nearby Sea Salt, Lucas Manteca's creative New American BYOB. But Stone Harbor's loss is Cape May's gain as the Argentine-born Manteca brings his contemporary South American flair to the posh Victorian Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel, which this summer celebrates its 20th season under the current ownership.