Hey, Bon Appetit, that’s not a Delaware beach
Since when have you been able to see mountain ranges while planting yourself on the patch of sand in Delaware?
Um, since, well, never. But, apparently, Bon Appetit magazine seems to think you can.
In a July 20 “Letter From the Editor” column, Adam Rapoport waxes poetic about a week in Rehoboth Beach he spent with high school friends in 1987. You can find the column on the website and published in the magazine’s August issue.
Rapoport, Bon Appetit’s editor in chief, captures the scene of one of our favorite Sussex County summer sandboxes with many misty-colored memories. He remembers chipping in to rent a house, lugging a cooler, umbrella and chairs to the beach and visiting the Rehoboth boardwalk for its Funland carnival rides and bumper cars, as well as the various french fry stands. (No mentions of the seagulls that usually dive bomb for those fries.)
It’s a fun, nostalgic read, especially since Rapoport gets all the foods right. He talks about the famed “Nic-O-Boli (basically a giant calzone) from Nicola Pizza, the buckets of vinegar-doused fresh-cut fries from Thrasher’s, and funnel cakes, taunting us with the scent of fried dough and powdered sugar.”
What great national exposure for one of our resort towns. Except there’s just one not-so-small-problem: The stock photo illustrating the column from Magnum Photos, a company that provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries and museums across the world, is no place in Delaware that I’ve ever seen.
While the kids in bathing suits in the photo do seem to be from another era (judging by the hairstyles), the background certainly doesn’t seem to be Rehoboth.
And the body of water doesn’t look like the Atlantic Ocean. And it doesn’t even seem to be a photo taken on the East Coast.
And, as it turns out, the photo wasn’t taken in Delaware at all. A quick check of the Magnum Photos website shows the 1982 photo is from Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States.
It’s on the Colorado River. In Nevada. More than 2,500 miles away. Not even close to Rehoboth Beach.
The mountain ranges in the photo are likely the River Mountains or the Muddy Mountains. The nearest thing we have to mountains at Delaware beaches, on a good year, when there’s no erosion, is sand dunes.
Bon Appetit website readers and various Facebook friends also pointed out the something seemed amiss.
“This isn’t a pic of Rehoboth,” wrote Patti Weiss on the magazine’s website.
“I love our Delaware mountain range,” reader John Cooper noted, with, possibly, just a hint of sarcasm, after I posted the Bon Appetit column, and strange photo, on my Facebook page.
In case you think he was serious, Cooper added a smiley face emoji.
In all fairness, in the print magazine, Bon Appetit did note on the photo: “No, this is not Rehoboth (it’s Lake Mead, N.V.), but you get the picture.”
Not really.
New Chipotle opens Thursday
Chipotle Mexican Grill is opening its first Wilmington area location on Thursday at 3700 Kirkwood Highway.
The eatery, an old 7-Eleven convenience store, sits across from Panera Bread off Kirkwood Highway and Duncan Road. There are at least five other Chipotle Mexican Grills in the state.
Chipotle has been trying to win back customers after a series of food scares, including an E. coli outbreak and norovirus cases last fall. According to the Associated Press, for the quarter which ended June 30, Chipotle’s profit sank to $25.6 million, or 87 cents per share. Wall Street expected a profit of 91 cents per share, according to FactSet. A year ago, the company earned $140.2 million, or $4.45 per share.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Chipotle's initially gave an incorrect address for its new restaurant. The correct address has been changed from an earlier version of this article.
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico