Ocean’s 22 A swingin’ hotel puts that many new rooms at
the service of visitors to Long Beach Island.
It’s a rare day when my family’s at the shore with no kids along, but the younger generation was absent in October when the grownups went to Long Beach Island for the annual Chowderfest in Beach Haven. Since you can down just so many cups
of clam chowder, however tiny, and swig so much beer, and sing along to so many Springsteen tunes played by a cover band,
we broke away and drove around Long Beach Island.
Had the kids been present, we would have whiled away an hour in the
videogame arcade at Fantasy Island. Instead, our group ended up at daddy O, a redesigned restaurant that replaced
Wida’s, an old-time shore bar and hotel on Long Beach Boulevard in Brant Beach. Ring-a-ding-ding! The place looked like Frank, Sammy and Dean could be lounging in one of its red circular banquettes, surrounded by starlets in Jean Louis evening gowns and bouffant hairdos. (Leaving aside for the moment that it was lunchtime on a sunny fall day).
Daddy O is designed as a major departure from the typical shore place, according to proprietor Brian Sabarese, a partner in a group of Philadelphia-area restaurateurs associated with Moshulu, the tall-ship eatery on the Delaware River, Passarelle, Du Jour Café and Market, Basil, the Tango Bar and Grill (the latter four on the Main Line.)
The partnership also runs
the Plantation in Harvey Cedars, a tropical-themed restaurant a few miles north on Long Beach Island. Daddy O, on the
other hand, evokes Manhattan, if not of the Rat Pack era, then that of Carrie Bradshaw and her club-hopping friends. Villanova-based decorator Barbara Balongue captured the explosive heart of cool, and we are talking Rat Pack- Summit-at-the-Sands cool, with suave neutral walls and starburst crystal chandeliers. The red banquettes play off chairs upholstered in red and white and tables of polished dark wood, the better to reflect your sapphire-and-diamond cuff links.
This is no place for kids to romp. The ambience is sophisticated romance, miles away from the family-with-children business model that dominates Long Beach Island.Sabarese, a big FrankSinatra fan, calls daddy O “retro-modern.” But the
news isn’t so much the spectacular
mid-century-tinged
interiors as the fact that the
partnership developed a 22-
room boutique hotel on the
premises, which they say is
the island’s first.
Like the operators of
many shore spots these days,
the owners of daddy O promote
off-season weekend
stays. Right now, the hotel is
gearing up for New Year’s
Eve and beyond that,
Valentine’s Day (daddy O is
closed on Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.)
Daddy O’s rooms are certainly
luxurious by shore
standards, and grade high by
general hotel benchmarks.
The woodwork is mahogany
and the bed throws and
shams, faux mink. Flatscreen
TVs are in every
room and rain showers in
every bath. The wallpaper
glitters throughout with tiny
beads of Murano glass.
Inside, there is no trace of
Wida’s, a longtime fixture on
the boulevard. “It was pretty
much stripped down to the
stud. The building was 82
years old,” said Sabarese.
The new owners installed
a small dining room to one
side of the bar, a main dining
room that seats 120 and a private
dining room to the rear
of the building that can hold
100. In summer, dining is
offered in an outdoor garden.
Hotel guests can lounge on a
rooftop sun deck with views
of the ocean and the bay.
The owners consider the
hotel a destination for styleconscious
guests from
Philadelphia, New York,
Connecticut and northern
New Jersey. For those staying
elsewhere on the island,
there’s a liquor store on the
premises.
The menu offers stylish
comfort food such as roast
chicken, pot roast, jumbo
shrimp with linguine and, as
an appetizer, pierogies.
Restaurant critics are aflutter
over the Philly cheesesteak
— red wine-braised
short rib, goat cheese, truffle
oil, frizzled onions and
Cheese Whiz, served as an
appetizer. Entrées range
from $14 to $35.
Winter rates are $125 to
$225 a night; summer rates
are $250-$400. More information: 609-494-1300. |
