Arena’s flagship location gets a makeover

Arena’s in Rehoboth Beach has been a local favorite for nearly 20 years thanks to its comfort food menu, extensive beer collection and homey atmosphere.

But as the restaurant has passed drinking age, the owners of the Rehoboth Avenue eatery figured the time had come to give the space a new look.

“This location has been here in various forms for 27 years,” said co-owner Ramsey Schrader. “It had gotten to the point where we were due for a renovation. It was basically an all-or-nothing renovation.”

The new Arena’s opened May 18 and is very different for those used to the rustic look of the old place. The new space is brighter and more open but maintains characteristics that make Arena’s Arena’s.

The first step in the renovation, Schrader said, was converting a neighboring space, which had been used for storage, and turning it into a walk-in refrigerator/freezer.

The most notable change is the bar, which had been near the main entrance way, but has now been relocated to the other side of the building. Schrader said the bar now will have 12 draft beer lines, which are connected to the kegs stored in the walk-in.

Almost everything is new: new bathrooms, new kitchen space and new waitstaff areas. Schrader said the kitchen is slightly bigger but still familiar, with the open service window in roughly the same location as before.

“When we began this renovation we decided that first and foremost all of the electrical service was coming out and we were going down to the bare walls and start from scratch,” Schrader said. “Trying to maintain the same general vibe but in a much more modernized way.”

Despite the changes, the new Arena’s has only four more seats, and the menu remains the same. Keeping with the local-friendly vibe of the place, Schrader said there are a number of nods to Rehoboth’s beach town status. There are benches made to resemble the street benches on the Boardwalk, and underneath the bar top is painted in the familiar blue and yellow pattern of the Catts beach shacks.

Schrader said the bar staff is very happy with the wider working space, and patrons have so far liked that there is more room to sit and the TVs are much easier to see.

For Schrader, the tearing down of the flagship Arena’s was an emotional, but necessary thing to do.

“The very first parts of our demolition, it was tough to look at everything that we’d known for so long that everybody knew, but it had to be done. When it came to that point, it was shocking when we started cutting into the walls. It was definitely the end of that version of Arena’s. But Arena’s has had several version changes over the years and it’s just another in the evolution of this place,” Schrader said.