Early returns suggest a big summer for Shore businesses

ATLANTIC CITY - After running out of food on July Fourth and having "crazy, nonstop" business every day since then, one pizzeria owner in this tourist town is rethinking his numbers for the rest of the summer.

"I don't want to go through that again," Michael Hauke said of the experience of turning away potential customers who had trekked to his Tony Boloney's, off the beaten path at Oriental and Vermont Avenues in the resort's Inlet section.

It had been an extremely busy holiday weekend, and by 4 p.m. Monday, Hauke and his crew had run out of everything from cold cuts for sandwiches to the flour, cheese, and spices they use to make pizzas. Hauke had to stop food preparation, but he stayed until 11 p.m. to apologize to would-be patrons.

"I couldn't just run out to a big-box store and buy random-brand cheese or dough. We have certain types of cheese we use, and we make everything by hand," said Hauke, who did three times the business he expected over the weekend and four times what he did at the same time last year. And the gangbuster numbers have not stopped.

It's a refrain being heard up and down the Jersey Shore, where tourism officials and business owners consider the July Fourth holiday a fairly reliable gauge of how the season will shape up.

Thanks to Mother Nature, it could be a blockbuster. "Hot and sunny" makes the cash registers jingle at shops, sends lines out the door at restaurants, lights no-vacancy signs at hotels, and creates blanket-to-blanket conditions on beaches.

"Great weather for Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July weekend certainly did us a lot of good," said Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority.

But other factors also are playing a role, he said.

"The fact that people are hearing some great things about Atlantic City, like the fact that we have 16 new restaurants opening this weekend, is getting rid of old perceptions and bringing in new demographics that include young people, families, and others," Vasser said.

After recent music festivals featuring Dave Matthews and a hip-hop lineup at Bader Field and last weekend's huge fireworks display, Atlantic City is becoming known for large-scale events unrelated to gambling, he said.