Al fresco dining has been the key to survival for restaurants on Bay Avenue in Somers Point
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — The story of summer 2020 for restaurants on Bay Avenue in Somers Point is about the haves and the have nots.
With indoor dining not allowed as the state works to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the establishments with outside seating are situated to survive, and maybe even thrive, while the restaurants with tables only inside or just a few outside are simply suffering.
The bayfront entertainment district stretches from The Point in the south to Caroline’s by the Bay in the north. Eateries in between include The Clam Bar, the Anchorage Tavern, Buona Vita Restaurant, Tavern on the Bay Resort, Bay Avenue Sushi and The Doc’s Place.
The bookends of the district seem to have fared the best, having plenty of outside options, while it’s been a mixed bag for the others.
“It’s certainly based on who has and who doesn’t,” Chuck Westcott, president of the Somers Point Business Association (SPBA), said of the various levels of success restaurants have had.
The Point could not have been better prepared for a limitation on indoor dining, since it’s seating is 100 percent outside.
“We couldn’t have planned it any better. It just happened that we got lucky. We’re all outdoors, so we’ve been very fortunate. But it’s still challenging,” managing partner Ed Bonsignore said, adding that his costs are up due to having to hire more security and other personnel to deal with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Reminiscent of the stockade built to protect villagers from King Kong on the outside, The Point is more like a tropical paradise inside, with palm trees planted in the sand alongside torches and tiki statues. Tables are spread throughout the grounds and decks, with boardwalks leading through the sand to cozy seating areas.
“Find a palm tree and there’s your 6-foot circumference. That’s your area; you take your mask off and hang out. You leave that area, you gotta put your mask on and do your social distancing,” Bonsignore said.
Patrons can go to one of several bars for a drink or get it from a server when they order food, which can be eaten anywhere there is sitting or standing space.
Bonsignore, 51, of Linwood, said The Point has a relaxing atmosphere where people feel like they are on a tropical vacation.
“We created a beach. It’s literally a beach that you can dig down into. They feel like they can come and do what they want. Some people sunbathe. You can close your eyes and put your toes in the sand and have a drink,” Bonsignore said.
The Point opened June 28, 2019, and had a great summer last year, according to Bonsignore.
“It was beyond anything we imagined,” he said.
This season started out great, too, with the establishment being one of the few that could serve food and drinks in the late spring and early summer.
The Point seats about 300 at full capacity plus standing room, but both have been limited this year due to social distancing rules.
“Now you can dance only around your own table,” Bonsignore said. “Everybody is adapting. But you’re still outdoors and you feel normal when you are here.”
He said the establishment is limiting the number of people inside and enforcing masks and social distancing.
“We’re trying to maintain it around 300 to keep it peaceful. I’m very strict on the COVID guidelines because you get people coming from everywhere,” he said.
Bonsignore said he feels badly for other establishments that are struggling, saying a high tide floats all boats.
“Some did a great job and I’m glad that they are doing well. You want to see the whole town do well. If the town doesn’t work, what good is anything? One falls, they all start falling,” he said.
Like The Point, Caroline’s has plenty of deck seating and added about a dozen picnic tables to its parking lot.
Kyriakos Georgiou, executive chef/owner of The Locals Spot — the food service operator at Caroline’s — said the parking lot seating has helped a lot since the establishment lost all inside tables and its bar seating.
He said they can seat about 100 people now compared with about 150 in normal times.
Georgiou said they are filling the tables on weekends and some weekdays.
“We are fortunate to have all of this space to be able to do it; some people don’t,” he said.
Georgiou said dealing with the restrictions and trying to keep the staff and customers safe is “a lot of added stress and aggravation.”
“Some people don’t want to wear masks and some people don’t want to do this or do that. We just have to make sure that we are consistent and following the procedures that are put in place,” Georgiou said, adding that he hopes the state eases restrictions after summer before it gets too cold for outside dining.
City Council offers a hand
Existing solely on takeout in the initial stages of the pandemic, restaurant owners turned to the city, which passed a resolution allowing them to put 10 percent of their indoor seating capacity on sidewalks and private parking lots. For large restaurants with hundreds of seats, that provided maybe 30 to 40 seats — if there was room — but for other, smaller operations, such as Buona Vita with 84 seats, it was not worth the trouble.
“The city had to make some decisions to help out all of the small businesses in the area. Without this, we would have been in trouble,” Georgiou said,
“I would say overall — I’ve talked to many restaurateurs — it’s been a godsend because the alternatives were pretty much nothing,” Westcott said of outside dining. “The downside is it depends on the space you have and not everybody has space that they can use.”
The Clam Bar, known for its longtime BYOB policy and counter seating, with more seating overlooking the bay, has been serving only takeout to customers eager to eat its casseroles and soups.
Serving upscale dishes from southern Italy, Buona Vita Restaurant doesn’t have much of a takeout business and few tables outside. During a recent visit, dozens of seats sat empty in the dining room.
Owner Raffael Kupa said he has been suffering, having little outside dining. With a small seating capacity, the city’s resolution allowing sidewalk and parking lot seating would have helped him very little if at all, he said.
“It doesn’t pay off for me to have the sidewalk seating,” Kupa said, adding that he has about 35 seats on the front porches and back patio but could have more in ordinary times.
“We have to space them out to follow the guidelines,” Kupa said.
He said he depends mostly on tourists during the three-month summer season and some loyal locals in the offseason to pay his bills.
“This year is a matter of keeping it open for the employees and hoping for the best so next year we can be back up and running,” Kupa said. “We’re not surviving — we are just taking it day by day. It’s hard to survive based on this type of income.”
Kupa said he could easily seat 20 to 30 people inside with tables spread 6 feet apart and that the state needs to ease its restrictions.
He said food prices are higher and he still has to buy a lot to offer his full menu.
“The week they closed us I had over $10,000 worth of food. It was picking up and we had to order the food to get ready for the following week, because it was getting busier and busier, and all of a sudden they just shut us and I had to throw a lot of food away,” he said. “We need to be open, that’s the bottom line. They need to open the country up.”
Across the street, Sam Trocki, manager of Tavern on the Bay Resort, said he is happy to have business at all. The restaurant has seating inside and outside because the back is all open, but they can seat at only a 50 percent capacity.
“We used to have more than 200 seats and now we have about 100 total,” he said. “I’m so blessed that we actually have business because a lot of places went under.”
Trocki said the hotel is doing well but the restaurant is not.
“We are keeping the lights on for now and hoping that next summer we’ll be back in the game,” he said.
Trocki said he has hired fewer people in the kitchen and a smaller wait staff.
“I can’t afford to pay all of these people. I can’t afford to pay a chef that would make high money. I can’t afford it — I’m not doing the volume,” he said. “I’m lucky I can pay my bills and keep the lights on. When this dies down and they figure out a way to deal with this disease, we will start anew and get better.”
The Anchorage Tavern lost all of its inside seating and was working solely with its front porch until the city allowed for additional outside seating along the sidewalk and in part of the parking lot.
Owner Don Mahoney has embraced the idea.
The Anchorage has 19 tables on the porch, 10 in the parking lot on the side and a half-dozen more on the sidewalk out front.
“It’s beautiful, it looks like South Beach,” Mahoney said, pointing to the sidewalk seating. “We are excited because we do have a lot.”
He said the outside seating is helping tremendously.
“You have to do whatever it takes to survive right now. That’s what we are doing. Between the takeout and the tables on the porch and the tables out here, we are almost matching our number from last year,” Mahoney said, noting there are about 40 tables inside that they are not using.
The Doc’s Place was able to add 15 four-tops under a tent in its parking lot. It also has seating on the back porch overlooking the bay, but of course lost all inside seating.
Owner and general manager Dave Hieb said the restaurant is fortunate to have the seating it has — he said he is working at about 70 percent capacity.
“We are really lucky, comparatively speaking. You look around at other restaurants around here, we are extremely lucky right now business-wise,” he said.
But he added that the success of outside seating is greatly dependent on the weather. A storm the previous weekend cost him all of his parking lot seating and seven of the 17 tables on the porch.
The Doc’s Place has been serving lunch and dinner for 33 years but is now offering just dinner.
“Because of the restrictions on us, we don’t think it makes sense for our business right now to be open for lunch,” he said, adding that he hired fewer employees this year. He said his kitchen staff is at about 80 percent and floor staff about 50 percent.
Hieb said he is filling the tables he does have.
“Our business is off significantly revenue-wise but we can’t do any more than what we are doing here,” he said. “We are extremely lucky that we have an unbelievably loyal customer base that has shown up and been extremely generous and understanding for the most part of what we are trying to do.”
Season getting late
Westcott said Labor Day is fast approaching and when temperatures drop and the seasonal traffic drops, “it’s going to be a dark time for businesses.”
“I hope that businesses, especially restaurants, are making enough to get through winter,” he said. “I fear we will lose some.”
Hieb said his costs have increased and the time to make money is quickly coming to an end.
“You have to be more creative now with what we are doing with our menu and specials and stuff like that,” he said, adding that he has not raised his prices. “It’s frustrating to try to run a business, especially now as the summer comes to an end and the cooler weather is going to start coming.”
Many of the restaurateurs have obviously been looking at their calendars, too. They fear for what the fall will bring if inside seating restrictions are not lifted.
“Hopefully before winter we can open up inside, because we will be out of business if we can’t open up,” Mahoney said. “We are just making ends meet and that’s all we want to do. We’re not looking to make money. We just want to come back next summer and kick some ass.”
Kupa agreed.
“Without the indoor seats, we are done. Especially as we run into fall, winter season — you can’t have anybody eat outside. In about two, three weeks, the weather will break and nobody wants to sit outside because it gets cold,” he said.
Wescott said the dining restrictions have been harmful but also provided an ideal opportunity to study something that probably would not have happened otherwise. He said the SPBA and city Economic Development Advisory Commission want to look at how outdoor dining has and has not worked because the city may continue it in the future.
Captions
Jaeda Cooper, of Hammonton, was celebrating her 22nd birthday Aug. 20 with boyfriend Mike Colon, 26, of Vineland, at The Point. Also enjoying the view were Steve and Melissa Rotay, who own a home in Ocean City.
Having dinner at Caroline’s by the Bay were Josh and Jody Gannon with their children Jordan, 16, John and Jace, both 12, from Binghamton, N.Y. They visit the area once a year.
Jeff and Susan Andress, of Berwick, Pa., were having dinner at Caroline’s by the Bay overlooking the wetlands with their son Zach, 23, and his wife, Madeline, 22.