Shorebreak Lodge opens mid-season on Rehoboth's Wilmington Avenue

After working in the hospitality industry throughout the Cape Region for decades combined, when the opportunity to take over a restaurant located just 133 steps off the water arose mid-summer in Rehoboth Beach, Chef Rob Stitt and Bartender Matt Sprenkle said they couldn’t pass it up.

“We had been talking about opening a place forever,” Stitt said. “This came about more than six weeks ago. Three weeks later, we opened with help from our closest friends.”

And so, Shorebreak Lodge opened its doors Aug. 11 just in time to catch the last hurrah of the summer season and begin its evolution into the lodge of their dreams. From opening day through Labor Day and after, Sprenkle has reported good numbers and happy customers.

So far, the menu could be classified as bold American, but the partners said they are hesitant to pigeonhole Shorebreak Lodge into a specific concept beyond what it has already become, a dining destination and watering hole for the local crowd with a seaside location.

Specials are created daily from seasonal fresh ingredients and the regular menu is divided simply by size, they said, so Stitt, an accomplished chef who has created memorable dishes for some of the area’s most well-known restaurants, has little to bind him creatively.

Items as unpretentious as the Shorebreak Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup and the Steakhouse Wedge can be found alongside more complex fare like Seared Tripletail with tropical fruit buerre blanc and Wild Mushroom Fricasee Pasta, to prove the chef has some culinary chops.

As for libations, Sprenkle said the bar is a work in progress, but down the road he hopes to add more microbrews and keep the specialty cocktails seasonal. Currently, specialty cocktails range from the Garden Martini to the Cucumber-Basil Cocktail, and with only four taps, the beer list is supplemented by a variety of craft brews in bottles.

But now that the volume of summer tourists has gone home, the partners said they will be working to make Shorebreak Lodge the restaurant they dreamed of. Moving into the slower winter season at the beach, Sprenkle said he is looking forward to seeing some of the year-round residents and fellow industry workers he knows making their way over to the lodge.

“There are a lot of friends who haven’t even had a chance to stop in yet, so hopefully we’ll get some familiar faces in through the winter,” Sprenkle said.

Rehoboth Beach resident Katie Lyell stopped in for the first time recently after her shift ended at another area restaurant. Lyell said she had heard a lot of buzz about the new place and now that Labor Day has passed, she finally had some time on her hands to check it out.

“I’m usually up for a drink after work and now that the season is over, it looks like a pretty cool place to hang out,” she said.

So far, Stitt said the simple recipe for Shorebreak Lodge has been successful. As time passes, the chef spoke for the partnership when he said they would like to continue evolving the lodge and put their own stamp on the place.  However, with so much accomplished in so little time, they are just focused on daily operations.

“A lodge is a place you go for rest, and to re-energize, and that’s what we would like to be,” Stitt said. “We would like to be a local hangout - if that’s possible at the beach.”

Shorebreak Lodge is located on Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach and opens daily at 5 p.m. For more information, call 302-227-9752.