Rehoboth Beach a seaside joy
Delaware’s closer than you think for ocean fun both in and out of season
Rehoboth Beach in Delaware has everything you need for the perfect getaway: beautiful beach views, fun gift shops, great restaurants open year-round and a fantastic craft beer scene. If you’re planning a trip this summer to Rehoboth Beach, here are some things to see and do while in town.
The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel (2 Olive Ave.)
The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel is a beauty with vintage flair. Spring for an oceanfront balcony room with concierge status and receive special perks like access to the adults only rooftop hot tubs overlooking the ocean, open 24 hours. Our room had a relaxing Jacuzzi tub to unwind in at the end of the day and a comfy bed to watch the sunrise in each morning. Take your coffee up to the rooftop hot tubs to enjoy the sunshine before heading down to explore the indoor/outdoor heated pool. The bar has a great wine selection and cocktails that you can enjoy in the restaurant, by the bonfire pits, or to take back to your room. You can’t ask for a better location, right on the boardwalk overlooking the beach, and a brief walk to Rehoboth Avenue, which is full of shops.
What to do
The Boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue
Penny Lane Mall (42 Rehoboth Ave.) is an alley with European charm and a variety of shops. Browse about Books (133 Rehoboth Ave.), has notebooks, toys and games. Snyder's Candy (60 Rehoboth Ave.) is known for its unique taffy flavors – think dill pickle, buttered popcorn, and chicken and waffles – but also has vintage items and candy from all around the world like licorice from Finland and wine gums from the UK. Bomshell Boutique (125 Rehoboth Ave.) is a women's boutique with gorgeous accessories. The Sea Shell Shop (119 Rehoboth Ave.) is filled with gifts to browse through, and Gidgets Gadgets (123 Rehoboth Ave.) is a must if you love games and records. If you get hungry, stop at the Thatchers (26 Rehoboth Ave.). Open since the 1920s, the eatery fries its famous fries in peanut oil and only serves them with vinegar. If you’re craving something sweet, the Point Coffee Shop & Bakery (37140 Rehoboth Ave.) has popular cinnamon buns and treats.
Family Fun
The weather is warming up quickly, but if it’s still a little brisk, throw on a hoodie and take a walk along the beach to discover horseshoe crabs, rounded clear stones nd seashells. In the summer, Jungle Jim's (36944 Country Club Road) is a fantastic family activity. As Delaware’s largest water park, Jungle Jim's has bumper boats, huge water slides and go-karts to entertain the kids.
The beer scene
Thompson Island Brewing Co. (30133 Veterans Way)
I started with a flight to try some of their delicious sour beers like their pomegranate sour, the guava, or escapades with raspberry and blackberry flavors. With those drinks, we snacked on coconut shrimp and a warm Bavarian pretzel. The pretzel is giant, brushed with butter and dashed with a garlic spice mix, served with beer mustard and beer cheese. The coconut shrimp are huge, plump and served with coconut lime dipping sauce and sesame spice. The fried chicken with sweet cornbread and southern style big beans, served with hot honey, was perfectly seasoned, crispy, and juicy on the inside. The hot honey is always a nice touch on savory dishes. For dessert, we tried the mocha cream pie with cold brew dark chocolate cream, salted milk chocolate caramel, macchiato whipped cream and Java crunch ice cream.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (320 Rehoboth Ave. Rehoboth Beach; 6 Cannery Village Center, Milton)
Being so close to the original brewery’s location in Milton, we ended up checking out both locations. Milton has the steampunk treehouse right in its tasting courtyard. The piece of art was once at Burning Man, created by artist Sean Orlando. The beer options in the tasting room were fantastic, including Umeboshi, a sour beer, light pink in color from plums. The CUPRICIOUS & CANTANKARDOUS tasted like a Moscow mule, with strong flavors of ginger and lime. The SUPEREIGHT combines ingredients like pink sea salt, mango, prickly pear, boysenberry, kiwi juice, blackberry, elderberry, raspberry and toasted quinoa, creating a fruity beer that resembles the smell and taste of Snapple. The Rehoboth Beach location is covered in a colorful mural, and sells some of is famous products like the Roasted Peanut Vodka from its distillery.
Dining
Salt Air (50 Wilmington Ave.)
Salt Air was delicious from cocktails to dessert, with unlikely drink pairings combining grapefruit and cinnamon that worked beautifully. We started with the cream of corn cornbread with silky butter and crab deviled eggs, topped with jumbo lump crab. They were creamy and full of flavor. Crispy fried oysters were lightly fried, so you could taste the juiciness of the oyster without it being masked by a ton of unnecessary breading. For entrées, we split the eastern shore crab cakes with mashed potatoes and sautéed broccoli remoulade with Calabrian chili oil, and the fazzoletti bolognese with fresh sausage, veal and pork. Both were outstanding. For dessert, we had the pear split and an indulgent chocolate cake for a sweet finish.
Henlopen City Oyster House (50
Wilmington Ave.)
Henlopen uses locally sourced ingredients. You can just taste them. The beer oyster shooter with cocktail sauce and the champagne oyster shooters with a drizzle of champagne vinegar mignonette were both briny and flavorful. We started with the sampler of oysters on the half shell, opening my mind up to buttery, creamy and melon-flavored oysters. The classic, creamy oyster stew had full, juicy cooked oysters inside while the oysters Rockefeller were topped with spinach, Parmesan, bread crumbs and a smokey bacon hash. Fried clam strips were lightly breaded and tasty, served with spicy remoulade sauce. The cold lobster roll was stuffed with meat. Spaghetti alla chitarra con vongole consisted of housemade pasta loaded with garlic, Virginia clams, Calabrian chilies, white wine, parsley and olio verde. I tipped the plate to get every last drop of that sauce onto my spoon. We ended the meal with the chocolate peanut butter pie, and beignets with Grand Marnier zabaglione and cara cara orange.