Rehoboth Beach food memories
I love the tone of this guest post from Dave, one of the readers who responded to my request for beach memories or recommendations in honor of Beach Week. I like it because I think of Rehoboth as full of chic, trendy, very unbeachy restaurants. He remembers when it wasn't. Here's Dave. EL
I have fond memories of traveling the Rehoboth Beach for summer vacations. When I was young (single digits) we would rent a house with my aunt and uncle and stay a week. Food-wise, we ate in, but would get sticky buns for breakfast at a bakery on the shore side of the canal. ...
Of course, there was always Kohr’s Bros. Soft Serve (my aunt and uncle's preference) and Mack’s Ice Cream (my parents' preference), caramel popcorn from Dolle’s and Candy Kitchen Salt Water Taffy.
Eating out at the beach didn’t start until I was in double digits and we stopped renting houses for a week. We would stay at one of the motels in town. Breakfast was at a place I thought was called Best Breakfast in Town, but was actually the Squire's Pub. They had a passable breakfast, pictures of the great nor’easter and Bloody Marys which could be doctored with innumerable hot sauces (or so it seemed). Eventually we found the Sunrise Diner in Dewey after the Squire's Pub closed and we tired of McDonald's.
But who cares about breakfast? Lunch and dinner are more important meals. So much so that we always ate them late, lunch about 2 p.m., dinner around 8 p.m. This was done to beat the crowds.
The only time we would eat early is when we took my great aunt and great uncle to dinner. We would be early birds at Harbor Lights, located south of the Indian River inlet. My dinner of choice was crab imperial served in a scallop shell. Harbor Lights is now a bunch of condos. I never did know what happened to it.
Other favorites were Louie’s on Rehoboth Avenue for subs and pizza; Nicola Pizza on First Street between Rehoboth Avenue and Baltimore Street, for Nic-a-boli’s and salad; Jake’s at the corner of Baltimore Street and First Street back when it only took up one or two storefronts (now it takes up the whole building) for sandwiches.
There were other places for sure, but I can’t remember them. Some only lasted a season or two, some longer.(Kim Hairston/Sun photographer)
Comments
Dave,
I'm impressed on several levels, the greatest of which is your memory of meals when you were in single digits.
I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
All my early "beach" vacations were taken at lakes in northern Wisconsin. All I remember is a friend and I having a contest to see who could eat the most beef jerky and sweetarts before throwing up. the horrible part was we never threw up.
Posted by: jl | June 17, 2009 6:46 PM
wasnt georges lunch next door to Kohl bros? or it may have been Kohl bros...Best fries @ the beach WAY before boardwork fries
Posted by: kitty | June 17, 2009 7:45 PM
You don't remember the mosquitos, jl?
Posted by: Lissa | June 17, 2009 8:44 PM
I don't recall eating mosquitos.
Posted by: jl | June 17, 2009 11:08 PM
They don't call it bug juice for nothing.
They used to fly into my mouth all the time.
Posted by: Lissa | June 18, 2009 6:31 AM
I grew up going to Rehoboth and sadly have not been down in a few years. However, one thing that always takes me back to my childhood is walking past Gus & Gus on the boardwalk. Simply a great beach burger. From my older days, nothing beat a slize of Grotto's pizza or a Nic-a-boli, after last call at the Summer House. The trendy, up-scale places are nice, but don't forget about Arena's Deli.
Posted by: Brian | June 18, 2009 8:13 AM
Oh Nic-A-Bolis, how I love thee.
Posted by: Dawn Diff | June 18, 2009 1:26 PM
My grandparents lived in Lewes when I was younger. My pop pop always took us out for ice cream, I don't know if they are still there but it always had hand dipped banana ice cream. There was also a favorite pizza place on the boardwalk that had really good white pizza (not grotto).
Posted by: Sarah G. | June 18, 2009 2:30 PM
EL -- I think the "Carlosmessi" post is nothing more than a shill for some commercial website that has nothing to do with food. Delete it?
Posted by: hmpstd | June 19, 2009 7:23 AM
Sounds somewhat shill to me hmpstd!
Posted by: Joyce W. | June 19, 2009 7:43 AM
Thanks, Joyce W. Thankfully, EL has deleted both shill posts by now.
Posted by: hmpstd | June 19, 2009 12:55 PM
A few years ago, my partner (at the time) and I stopped into The Frog Pond for lunch. This place is mostly known for their nightlife, and I think I know why. Their "Surf and Turf" is a hot dog covered in tuna fish. Some older gentleman ordered it while we were there and the, um, aroma, engulfed the entire place.
Posted by: Trixie | June 19, 2009 5:48 PM
Trixie--guh-ross!
Posted by: Dahlink | June 20, 2009 7:42 AM
This was our 7th consecutuve summer vacation at Bethany Beach. We always went out to eat one night at The Big Fish in Reh. Beach and had dessert at Mack's. We were very disappointed this year to see that Mack's Ice Cream had been demolished and replaced with a worthless building with 3 small retail offerings. One occupancy existed - a cell phone store. What a waste!
Posted by: TB | July 27, 2009 9:52 PM
You mentioned Jakes on Baltimore and First. There are now two, that one and one on Route one, Those of you from Baltimore know that this is the same family of Snyder's at hanover Street fame in Baltimore, famous for fish sandwiches.
Posted by: angolajohn | July 28, 2009 1:46 PM