Eric McCutcheon, a server at Aqua Grill and architecture student at Tulane University, participated in last week’s Bachelor Auction to benefit CAMP Rehoboth. (Blade photo by Peter Rosenstein)
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — It’s August and Rehoboth Beach is slow and lazy. For most of us that is just how it should be and after a hectic week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia I came to relax for a couple of weeks.
The weather has been generally good, making for fun happy hours at Aqua Grill with its hot waiters and reasonably priced drinks (reasonable at least compared to drink prices at some other local bars). The only complaint and recommendation many have voiced to Aqua Grill’s owner is to have the handsome waiters shirtless more often as they have been in past years. They don’t seem to mind and customers love it.
Even with their New York drink prices, Pamala Stanley continues to pack them in for her performances at the Blue Moon. The restaurant is fantastic and Lion Gardener can lay claim to being one of the best chefs at the beach — if not the best. Meg Gardener is doing a great job running the restaurant and rumor has it their catering business is going full-steam ahead. Many of us are looking forward to the restaurant they will open across the street in the old Seafood Shack. The building has been gutted and they hope to open it before the end of the year. I hear it will be called AXIS. Guess they didn’t like my suggestions of Half Moon or Lesser Moon. We all look forward to its opening.
Surprisingly, some business owners here are complaining of a slow summer. It was hard to tell when trying to go to half- priced pasta night at Lupo Italian Kitchen and being told we had a 45-minute wait at 8 p.m.
Last Thursday at cheap steak night at Café Azafran we were able to get a table for two in the main room as walk-ins, which is the first time that happened this summer. By 9:15 there were empty tables. Thursday night at Azafran is great fun with a filet mignon and salad for $22 and a glass of wine for $5. The best part is being entertained by the bartender — the talented, beautiful, chanteuse Holly Lane with John Flynn on the keyboard.
Sunday night was the bachelor auction at Aqua Grill. It was a benefit for CAMP Rehoboth and raised a record $29,000. Bachelors included generous waiters and bartenders from nearly every local bar. Aqua participants included Matt, Eric, Louie, Remus and bar manager Josh. Matt set a record, raising $7,000 combining two bidders and Eric got one bidder to ante up $6,300. Those two hot boys put on quite a show.
This Saturday, Aug. 13 is the election for the Rehoboth Beach Commission. Everyone eligible should vote for Rick Perry. The commission under Mayor Sam Cooper has actually hurt the reputation of Rehoboth with its nonsensical policies on everything from swimming pools to sound levels. Negative publicity on those issues went nationwide. Then the mayor suggested no liquor should be sold at new restaurants/bars after 11 p.m., but thankfully that proposal died a quick death.
Perry is an attorney and homeowner in town, with a background in government, public policy and finance. He would make a great addition to the commission, joining Paul Kuhns who was elected last year. They would bring common sense back to the commission. Many of us who have spent time in Rehoboth for years hope Kuhns will run for mayor in 2017 when Cooper’s term ends.
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.
