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More at the Shore: Ocean City to Stone Harbor
We were gone for a minute, but we're back, over the slender ripple of a causeway and a big humpbacked bridge that links Longport at the southern tip of Absecon Island to happy, shiny Ocean City just across the bay. T
More at the Shore: Ocean City to Stone Harbor
Through the summer, we’ll be running monthly installments of more shore recos from a kid who's been spending summers there since he could crawl: our very own Adam Erace.
We were gone for a minute, but we're back, over the slender ripple of a causeway and a big humpbacked bridge that links Longport at the southern tip of Absecon Island to happy, shiny Ocean City just across the bay. This is where we pretend our delay of the second installment of More at the Shore, O.C. to Stone Harbor, was intentional, so as to synchronize with the new season of Jersey Shore. Convincing, no?
It seems fitting to examine Ocean City as "America’s Greatest Family Resort" prepares to vote on relaxing its nefarious liquor laws. You know it's illegal to BYOB in this wholesome community, right? We've heard trespassers are immediately fitted for cinderblock boots and thrown off the Music Pier, beneath which is a favorite underage-drinking rendezvous and the first place I got to second base. (Thanks for the memories, OC!) The backwards booze laws have stymied the dining scene here, nourishing a host of mediocre family-friendly joints that populate this giant island. Stick to the boardwalk for the best eats: unearthly pizza with a cold fountain birch beer from Mack and Manco's (12th and Boardwalk); soft-serve twists from O.C. institution Kohr Bros. (401 S. Atlantic Ave.); fresh strawberry lemonade and skin-on vinegar-doused fries from everywhere. If you have to venture off the boards, you could do worse than Jamaican-influenced 701 Mosaic (701 Fourth St.), where the homemade ginger beer is hot enough to make you sneeze.
Continuing south along the coast, Bay Avenue skirts Corsons Inlet and drop you into tiny Strathmere, where locals gather at bayfront tavern Twisties (232 Bayview Dr.) for icy brews and pappardelle with prawns. Sea Isle, chock-a-block with upside-down townhouses and college rentals, follows, home to the original Uncle Oogie's (6208 Landis Ave.) we love in Deep South Philly — we already told you, eat the Boli Buns immediately — and iconic 129-year-old Busch's (8700 Landis Ave.), which pulled a Favre last year, claiming retirement before opening for the 2011 season. Get the she-crab soup.
Blue-blooded Avalon and Stone Harbor share Seven Mile Island below, the last stops on today's tour. The former is home to the Pub & Kitchen crew’s seasonal American bistro, The Diving Horse (2109 Dune Drive), where you'll want to ask for extra bread, if only for the roasted tomato butter with juniper salt, and pick up a bar of Mast Bros. chocolate in the pop-up "general store" in the front of the restaurant. The town is home to a bout a bajillion ice cream parlors, including the classic Avalon Freeze (23rd and Dune Drive) and Sundae Best (2900 Dune Drive), who incidentally makes the chocolate, cherry and honey-vanilla flavors for Diving Horse's banana split.
In Stone Harbor, Quahog's Seafood Shack (206 97th St.) strikes just the right balance between salty old-school (Cape May salts on the half, fried shrimp) and updated (orange-chipotle-glazed pacu ribs, cinnamon-laced chowder). Chef Carlos Barroz, who sadly closed Hoof & Fin in Queen Village, has even got moqueca on the menu, a traditional achiote oil-anointed Brazilian seafood stew filled with calamari, shrimp, mussels, white fish, scallop, edamame, chorizo, bacalao. South America at the Jersey Shore? We’re not complaining.
Is Who's On First still open in OC?— Gorp512- They moved locations a few summers back and far as I know, they're still there. Ridiculous scones.— AdamErace
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