Spread out: Beach restaurants go big, and bigger

Go big and they won't go home.

That seems to be the mantra this summer from Delaware restaurateurs who are opening or have opened beach eateries. 

Cozy, beach cottage-style restaurants still abound, of course. But a growing number of super-sized buildings in Sussex County's sand towns now have room to accommodate the larger numbers of sun-baked tourists expected to flood in for day trips and vacations over the next few months.

There were a record 9 million visitors to Delaware in 2016, according to the state tourism office. That's a whopping number of house guests considering the state's population is now estimated at a little more than 971,000.

Dining out is second only to going to the beach when it comes to the Top 10 visitor activities, a 2017 visitor survey report found. 

Spreading out is no longer limited to unfolding a blanket on the 25 miles of oceanfront that stretches from Lewes to Fenwick Island. 

Big Oyster Brewery, The Station on Kings and The Wheelhouse are three new, extra roomy restaurants that have recently opened in Lewes.

A not-yet-named Indian restaurant, which could hold up to 100 seats including 20 on the porch, is coming soon to an old Victorian home on Savannah Road in Lewes.

Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant's brand new, 9,000-square-foot Del. 1 location in Rehoboth Beach also has plenty of elbow room.

With a banquet room, patio and indoor dining area and a full view of the kitchen and brewing operation, the Sussex County Iron Hill can seat up to 425 people. That's twice as many as its flagship Newark location.

The newish Dogfish Head Brewery owned eateries, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats (180-seats) and Chesapeake & Maine (160 seats), in downtown Rehoboth are anything but cramped.

Coming soon to the Dogfish restaurant complex on Rehoboth Avenue is an outdoor courtyard for even more people.

The Pines, a modern coastal tavern on Rehoboth's Baltimore Avenue expected to open in July, is a complete redo of the old Hobos restaurant. It will have seating on both floors as well as an outdoor area with 750 square feet of seating.

Bigger isn't just better in Lewes and Rehoboth. The Big Chill Beach Club at the Delaware Seashore State Park in North Bethany is a mega, multi-deck outdoor hospitality center. 

The restaurant, which marks its second year in business but first full summer season, doesn't just have sweeping 360-degree views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian River Inlet, and the Indian River Bay, it also can host outdoor concerts. And it seats 200 people on the rooftop deck. 

The restaurant is run by La Vida Hospitality Group, which also operates The Crooked Hammock, a Lewes eatery that has a summertime barbecue atmosphere. Opened since 2015, the 7,000-square-foot brewpub can host about 270 people both indoors and outdoors. 

Scott Kammerer, president of SoDel Concepts, which owns 10 coastal restaurants, a catering company, a food truck and other food-related businesses and nonprofits, says the trend toward bigger restaurants is cyclical.

Kammerer remembers 20 years ago many beach restaurants "were huge."

"The thought was they were only busy for a couple of months and they had to fill as many seats as possible in a short amount of time to make money," he says. 

But Kammerer says as the so-called shoulder seasons, the time period between peak and off-peak seasons, started becoming more popular, smaller, more refined beach restaurants became the norm.

"They didn't need to fill their seats more than one or two times," he says, because diners were coming to the restaurants more frequently.

In recent years, the pendulum has swung back to bigger buildings due to an increase in year-round visitors and more full-time residents.

"It used to be people came on weekends. Then, those people would buy second homes down here. Then, those people moved here. Now, we see them year-round," says Kammerer.

Rolling out the red carpet for Delaware guests is important to the economy. Beaches, dining and tax-free shopping continue to be popular activities for visitors. They spent an average of $384 per trip to the state in 2016, according to state tourism figures.

Kammerer estimates he now feeds 50,000 people a week at the company's 10 restaurants located in Fenwick Island, Bethany Beach, Ocean View, South Bethany, Rehoboth and Lewes.  

Last summer, Kammerer opened one of SoDel's biggest restaurants to date, Bluecoast Seafood Grill on Del. 1 in Rehoboth. The restaurant – 4,500-square-feet inside and 2,500-square-feet outside – can accommodate 260 guests. It's located in the Rehoboth Gateway shopping center.

The idea behind the bigger building was to create different experiences on one property so guests will stay longer. Kammerer says at Bluecoast there are two bars, a large outdoor gathering area, fire pits and an acoustic stage.

"You can go in the library area and have one experience, or go sit at the raw bar and have a different feeling. As guests' tastes evolve, they like to have multiple experiences in one place in one evening," he says.

The bigger space has another advantage – lots of free parking. "The parking is really important. We have 600 parking spots," Kammerer says. 

According to a 2017 Southern Delaware Tourism survey, visitors said that more parking is needed in the beach resort towns. 

Rehoboth, which in early Hebrew meant “broad places," does have a limit on super-sized buildings.

The 6,300-square-foot new Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, which opened to great fanfare in 2017, will likely be the last restaurant of its scale in the downtown area.

 Ironically the original brewpub, founded in 1995 and razed this past fall to make room for the new courtyard, was considered the smallest commercial brewery in America.

In November 2016, Rehoboth Beach commissioners voted on restaurant size limits. Eateries that serve alcohol within the city will now be allowed 2,500 square feet of seated dining area and 500 square feet of bar area, with no limits on storage or kitchen space.

This is a change from the previously allowed 5,000-square-foot total, an area regulation that had been in effect for two decades. The ordinance also regulates brewpubs, dining establishments which make, bottle and sell alcohol on site. Such establishments will only be allowed to produce up to 4,000 barrels of beer per year.

Big Oyster Brewery, a new restaurant located in a 6,000-square-foot barn-like structure off Kings Highway in Lewes, can seat about 100 people inside and outside. Nearby, the sprawling Wheelhouse at Fisherman's Wharf on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, which opened in mid-April, can serve around 400 customers.

The Wheelhouse has more than 9,000 square feet, with tables on two floors of the structure along with raw bars, a fire pit and an area where patrons can sit with their pet dogs.

At The Station on Kings, a new cafe/market/bakery on Kings Highway, soaring, lofty ceilings and bright, white decor help create its spacious atmosphere.

The openness is further enhanced by the sunny and generously-sized glass-enclosed greenhouse dining area where customers can sit and enjoy coffee and eat made-in-house French macarons or duck pastrami sandwiches.

Mike Anderson, director of sales and distribution for Fins Hospitality Group, which runs Big Oyster Brewery, says the spaciousness of its new brewpub was intentional. 

He says the Kings Highway site was initially a floral/garden center and home. Fins built the barn structure from the ground up and designed it as a homage to Lewes' and Sussex County's agricultural history.

The building was supposed to be primarily a beer production facility, showcasing its 15-barrel system with 30-barrel fermenters. Large windows throughout the building allow customers can see the brewing process.

But Anderson says half of the space now is devoted to dining.  

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Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico