It’s not just a brewpub; it’s an empire
No doubt you’ve seen Dogfish Head brews in your grocery store? Well, Rehoboth is where it all started, back in 1995, with the opening of Delaware’s first brewpub.
Now brewing 20 different styles of beer – including some very esoteric offerings (Palo Santo Marron aged in Paraguayan wood tanks, anyone?) – Dogfish Head is a true local success story, selling in more than 25 states.
The Rehoboth Avenue brewpub is a nice, comfy spot for a beer and a burger. Dark wood dominates the interior, with wood booths lining one wall and a long bar covering the other. The booths, the bar, and all the tables in between are usually packed with music-loving beer drinkers starting at 10:00 pm on most Fridays and Saturdays. If you go, pick your spot carefully if you’re thinking of having a chat with tablemates; the stage is small but the band members can be many, and loud.
Try the excellent woodgrilled pizzas (try the Canary for One, with chicken, caramelized onions, roasted red pepper & scallions), or the burgers and sandwiches, like the Olde School Salmon Sandwich served on a grilled baguette with bleu cheese, roasted garlic aioli and marinated red-onion salad.
Kids choose from five meals for $6, including drink and dessert.
Wine drinkers: don’t expect a whole lot. This is a brew-centric establishment. Happy hours Monday-Friday from 3-6 gets you $1 off house-distilled spirits, select pints, and appetizers.
DFH fans will be interested in the free tours of the Milton, DE brewery (yes, samples!) Tuesday – Saturday afternoons. Make reservations online.
Or take a free tour of the Rehoboth experimental brewery where Brewpub Exclusive beers are created. Just show up at the DFH Brewing and Eats at 4:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Or if you live in Virginia, you can find Dogfish Head Ale Houses in Fairfax and Falls Church, and Marylanders have one, too, in Gaithersburg.
Price: Pizzas $10-13, sandwiches $7-11, entrees $16–23
Open: Open every day at 12:00. Live music starting at 10:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Phone: 302-226-2739
Address: 320 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
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A diner what am
Behind the faded orange canopy of the Crystal Restaurant lies the second-best breakfast in Rehoboth. (Okay, since the first-best – Royal Treat – is only open in-season, maybe we can upgrade Crystal to best-year-round breakfast.) Delaware Today magazine readers have voted Crystal Best Breakfast, too.
Not best as in Ritz Carlton Sunday Brunch (though I guess the orange canopy gives that away). Best as in dependably good food served by fast-moving but polite people.
Here’s what I mean: my group of 12 wandered in at 11:00 am on Polar Bear Plunge Sunday (aka Super Bowl Sunday), just 60 minutes before the event was due to start. The Crystal staff magically shoehorned us into several tables at the back, patiently scribbled as our pre-teens hemmed and hawed over life-changing choices like chocolate milk vs Sprite, then delivered our 50 items within 15 minutes, and sent us back out into the cold with plenty of time to spare. Now I’m not saying they can deliver that every time – or on July 4th weekend – but Crystal is a lean, mean, breakfast machine.
Favorites: home fries (the best in town), huge stuffed omelets (try the shrimp and crabmeat), French toast.
Get there early on weekends; the secret’s been out for a long, long time.
Price: $5-$9
Open: Open for breakfast and lunch year round (daily in summer)
Phone: 302-227-1088
Address: 620 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
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Hello, Romance
Eden is a shoe-in for any restaurant competition that includes a “most romantic” category, and there is certainly romance to be had here.
Food, also, is a standout. The menu changes constantly, so it’s hard to make recommendations, though there’s usually a little of everything, from chicken to veal to scallops to tuna. The Grilled Caesar Salad is a regular, with sun dried tomato/olive tapenade for $9, as is the Mac n Cheese pasta with goat cheese, parmesan reggiano, grilled chicken, spinach and roasted peppers ($25). Both are excellent, and we’ve tried to duplicate the grilled Caesar at home, but I can tell you it’s harder than it seems.
Entrees are pricey – this is the second most expensive restaurant in Rehoboth on average – and portion sizes are a third to half of what most restaurants are piling onto our plaste these days. (That’s actually a relief.) At Eden, it’s all about the quality, the presentation, and the service. If you’re looking for a simple steak or a sub-$15 pasta, this isn’t the spot.
A couple of deals to watch for include a three-course $35 prix fixe menu on Wednesdays (year round), with a half price bottle of wine in the off-season. January through May, every Friday is Classic Night. Signature Eden dishes are discounted 50%, including Grilled Caesar salad, wedge salad, pork polpettes, organic chicken breast, wasabi/sesame ahi tun, and the Eden mac-n-cheese pasta.
If you don’t mind dining in the (cozy & friendly) bar, you can eat well for less. Bar food menu items might include open-faced meatball sandwiches with a salad of mint, pecorino and olive oil salad ($8) or a braised short rib manwich with house pickles (also $8). You can also get selected $5 glasses of wine at the bar; recent entries included a Ferrari Carano fume blanc and a Granacha de Fuego granache.
The wine list includes a wide selection of styles and prices. Whites have ranged from a $22 Chateau St. Michelle Gewurztraminer to a $120 Kistler “Les Noisetiers” chardonnay from the Sonoma coast. Some nice albarinos and verdejos are on offer, as well.
Reds have ranged from several $24 offerings, such as a Bogle Petite Sirah, to a delirious $494 for a Blankiet Paradise Hills Vineyard from Napa. A number of affordable and tasty malbecs are offered, too.
Use OpenTable.com to make online reservations, or call.
Price: $24 – $33 entrees. Bar menu $8 – $15.
Open: Serving dinner from 6 pm daily in season, Tuesday – Saturday off season
Phone: 302-227-3330
Address: 23 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
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Kids, reservations, reasonable: a holy trinity of family dining
Choose Adriatico because the prices are reasonable, kids are welcome, it’s right in town, an easy walk from the boardwalk, and it has an outdoor patio.
Still not convinced?
The garlic bread is great, and the salads that come as part of the entrees are fresh and dressed with a classic Italian (ask for it on the side) and a little cup of blue cheese. The linguine with white clam sauce is redolent of garlic and tasty, and sausage and peppers are nice. Though entrees will not win any innovation awards, it’s a relief to have entrees under $20, pastas for $10, and kids meals for $6 in downtown Rehoboth. (Adriatico also promotes a “Home of the $1 Kids Pasta” special, everyday 4:30-6:00pm.)
Call or stop by for reservations.
Price: Entrees $10 – $27. Choice of 5 kids meals for $6.
Open: Daily in season
Phone: 302-227-9255
Address: 1st Street & Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
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Here’s a great testimonial I just came across on Trip Advisor…
Friends of mine and I were in Rehoboth for a few days over Easter this year and read about the piano bar Sundays at the Seafood Shack. What a friendly and welcoming atmosphere! Not only were the drinks good, service was prompt and the customers friendly! John Flynn at the piano added immensely to our night playing great fun songs that really got the crowd up! I would definitely put this place on my ‘to do’ list for a Sunday night extravaganza! Keep up the great work Seafood Shack! (note: we didn’t try the food, but those eating did seem to be enjoying it.)
Piano bar Sundays from 7-10:30, featuring $12.75 dinner special. Live entertainment also on Fridays & Saturdays from 8:30 – midnight.
Seafood Shack offers outdoor patio dining. Pets welcome on the back patio.
Price: Po’ Boys $8.75 to $12.75, Entrees (grilled, fried, blackened) $16 – $26, Baskets o’ Fried seafood & fries $9 – $14
Open: Daily for lunch and dinner (closed Tuesday and Wednesday)
Phone: 302-227-5881
Address: 42 1/2 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
Directions here
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Upscale Italian on the porch
“They pronounce it the Italian way: zebra. Like Debra. Which makes you feel just a tiny bit continental when you tell your friends that you’re having dinner at Zebra (Debra).
They have one of the rare dining porches in Rehoboth, so it’s a tough call: porch on a balmy summer evening? Or safari room inside, with giraffe or leopard print walls – which somehow manages to not look goofy, but instead romantic and kind of restful?
Delaware Today critics voted Zebra “Best Upscale Italian,”" and they deserve it. They serve a perfect Caesar salad, and the homemade black & white pasta with scallops is so fresh you can taste the flour in the pasta (in a good way). The pappardelle pasta with mushrooms is spectacular, as is the carbonara (it’s the sauced kind – not the dry, purist kind). The rigatoni Bolognese, and any of the risottos, are also worth a try. And you can get the pastas in “small plates” as a main course (they are plenty). Most in the $11 range, they help save a little money – and a few calories. Service can be extraordinary, or extraordinarily slow.
Our one big constant complaint is the by-the-glass wine prices – around $10, and up. That adds up fast, and has made us head to less lofty restaurants on more than one occasion.
Definitely make reservations.
Price: Entrees $20 – $30+
Open: Daily for dinner in summer. Also serving dinner on weekends starting in April, and fall through December 31.
Phone: 302-226-1160
Address: 32 Lake Avenue, Rehoboth Beach
Directions here
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Crab cakes for the connoisseur
Big Fish Grill is an extremely popular place – same owners as Summer House (another line-out-the-door place), and they don’t take reservations.
You’ll find several big, bright dining rooms with lots of wood, stuffed marlin overhead, tuna and barracuda and smaller fry on the walls, and a fair amount of noise bouncing around.
Voted Best Appetizer, Best Crab Cake, AND Best Dessert in Delaware Today’s “Best of Delaware,” there’s much gastronomic happiness here. Seafood is the specialty, of course, with most entrees under $20, including a big choice of seafood pastas and fried platters, plus daily specials offering up the fresh fish choices.
Carnivores have a few choices, such as pork chops, grilled chicken, and a couple of steaks, and kudos to these guys for doing their best to cater to the allergic among us: specialty menus offer entrees free from dairy, egg, garlic, nuts, or shellfish, as well as gluten.
New for 2011: Big Fish now has a Raw Bar in their remodeled tiki room, featuring fresh shucked oysters and clams, plus other raw bar delicacies. The raw bar is open daily.
A Little Fish menu for kids ranging from $5.50 for pasta or meatloaf to $9.95 for tuna (gotta love a tuna-eating toddler), and that includes a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.
Happy hour at the bar Monday-Friday 5-7 and Sunday 4-6, with $2.50 domestic beers and other cheap-o beverages, plus a nice selection of $4 appetizers, including fried oysters and four sliders – pulled pork or cheeseburger.
Rates: Entrees $12 – $25
Hours: Summer hours: Open daily for lunch at 11, dinner from 4-9:30 Monday through Friday, and 3:30-9:30 weekends. Winter hours: Lunch daily at 11, Dinner Monday-Thursday 5-9, Friday 4:30 – 9:30, Saturday & Sunday 4-9
Phone: 302-227-FISH
Address: 4117 Route One, Rehoboth Beach
Directions here
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Special times deux
For nearly 40 years, the Back Porch Cafe has charmed locals and visitors who are lucky enough to investigate the tucked-away restaurant. From Rehoboth Avenue, all you see is a little entryway and a few tables, but beyond, the cafe opens into a cozy, romantic indoor dining room, and then flows into a back courtyard with two level seating.
Delaware Today critics voted this best restaurant in Rehoboth, saying, “The place that put Rehoboth dining on the map, the Back Porch Café continues to lead the charge on progressive bistro dining. International ideas and seasonal produce find their way onto a menu that might include thyme-braised veal cheeks one night and venison schnitzel the next. The porch, of course, is one of the best seats in town.”
The Back Porch makes everything but the baguettes in house, including the jam offered at Sunday brunch, the ginger beer made fresh for the Dark and Stormy’s, the lemonade and so on.
See the long, thoughtfully designed menu here. Entrees ranges from $28 to $36.
The reasonable wine list off-sets the pricey menu, with more than half of the sixty wines offered by the glass at $5.50 to $10.
An “Apres Surf” menu, served daily from 3 to 5:30, features light fare such as Smoked Maine Lobster “Roll”, with Beet Root, Orange, Haas Avocado Crepe and Tarragon Aioli ($16), and Peppercured Yellowfin Tuna with Corn Blinis and Salsa ($14).
Price: Entrees $28 to $36, Lunch $11 to $16, Sunday brunch $11 to $16
Open: April through October-ish, for lunch 11-3, dinner 6-10, and Sunday brunch 11-3
Phone: 302-227-3674
Address: 59 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth, DE
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