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DINING

In Ocean City, Rare & Rye isn't the average hotel restaurant

Jeff Neiburg
The Daily Times
Inside the new Rare & Rye Restaurant located on 32nd St in the La Quinta Inn & Sweets on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Sal Fasano and his family are hotel veterans, so they should know a thing or two about what makes a good hotel bar and restaurant.

However, as Fasano, 37, said, they’re not restaurant people.

The first thing that strikes you when you walk into Rare & Rye — the restaurant connected to the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Ocean City — is it’s not your average hotel restaurant.

And that was kind of the point.

“The first thing was to separate it from the hotel,” Fasano said. “We didn’t want to make it just a regular hotel bar and restaurant. We wanted it to stand out a little bit so that way it has its own street presence.”

Rare & Rye, which opened the second weekend of May, definitely has street presence. The restaurant, on the north end of the La Quinta property, occupies the corner of 33rd Street and Coastal Highway.

The name is a nod at the menu and gives way to the slogan: “Don’t you deserve a little R and R?”

Rest and relaxation feels invited.

The elevated space with high ceilings features a bar and outdoor seating on the first level and a main dining room upstairs. The bar is made from ambrosia wood from one tree. The main dining room features handmade wood and soft Edison lights that make for a modern industrial feel.

Fasano, along with his father, Sal Sr., mother, Rose, and brother, Peter, are native New Yorkers and formerly owned and operated the Ocean Voyager hotel on the same property.

If Sal Fasano’s name sounds familiar, you may have heard of the former Major League catcher with the same name. Turns out they are distant cousins.

A construction project began in 2013 to turn the property into the La Quinta, which opened in 2014. While the Fasano’s got the hotel up and running, the shell for what would later become Rare & Rye sat empty. Having little to no prior restaurant experience, the Fasanos contracted Matt Ortt and Ralph DeAngelus, Ocean City veterans of Hooters and Party Block, respectively, to take the reigns of the day-to-day operation of the restaurant.

They brought in chef Stuart Diepold, who in the past worked at The Shark, Galaxy 66 and restaurants at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut.

The concept is casual fine dining, with a wide-ranging menu from salads and small plates to sandwiches, flatbreads and larger entrees.

Fasano said through research he found this type of menu, as well as the revival of bourbon and rye drinks, made the choice for the concept easy.

He said early favorites — the restaurant has had rave reviews in its infancy — are the brie baked oysters, lamb lollipops, margherita and paella flatbreads, and rockfish.

Of course, given the name of the place, rare meat is featured.

Regarding the 20-ounce, bone-in ribeye, delivered fresh every morning from a local butcher, they’re “going through those like there’s no tomorrow,” Fasano said.

Almost all the food is sourced local, with Terrapin Farms, Baywater Greens and Chesapeake Bay Farms providing produce and dairy. The fish, Fasano said, is fresh from local docks.

While the food has been popular, the drink menu might be the star of the show. When Rare & Rye opened, there were about 15 different whiskeys. Fasano said there are now 25, and they range from mid-to-high shelf. Whiskey fans can taste them in flights.

The “Rye and Relaxation” section of the menu features six different cocktails featuring five different rye whiskeys, including the R&R Mule, made with Bullet Rye, muddled mint, simple syrup, ginger beer and fresh lime juice.

The restaurant, which seats about 150 people, had its “grand opening” Wednesday, having gone through nearly a month of a “soft open.” Rare & Rye has been opening at 5 p.m. for dinner, but starting June 17, it will begin lunch hours as well.

Joel Blice, Chef Stuart Diepold and Owner Sal Fasano stand behind the bar at the new Rare & Rye Restaurant located on 32nd St in the La Quinta Inn & Sweets on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Though they’ve passed off day-to-day responsibilities, Fasano said someone in the family is there every night. He lives across the street.

“We’re very hands-on people,” Fasano said. “We want to know what’s going on, if something is not right.”

A seasoned hotel professional, Fasano pointed to Ocean City’s rise from small beach town to regional — and sometimes national — destination as a reason for restaurant’s like Rare & Rye to be sprouting up. On his books at the La Quinta — which has an entrance to Rare & Rye inside the hotel — are people from Iowa, Missouri, the Bible Belt and Ohio, among others.

As far as adding restaurateur to his resume?

Fasano said he’s liking it so far.

“When you’re trying to get everything done and open, it’s nerve-wracking,” Fasano said. “The rave reviews have been positive. … All in all it’s been a really good experience. Now, it’s trying to hunker down and see if we can really make this work. Hopefully once we get into the busier weeks we can really see what this place can do.”

He’ll soon find out.