Sitting poolside on the The Sea Shell Resort and Beach Club’s newly renovated oceanfront patio is utterly surreal. No one would ever guess that raging Superstorm Sandy ocean water crashed through the 50-year-old beach resort just eight months ago – an iconic image that took the public by surprise and questioned the fate of the Long Beach Island oasis.
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| Photo by Jack Reynolds Sea Shell bartender Frank Ritacco pours four martinis at once. |
Located on the beachfront in the heart of the Queen City, the Shell has been a family favorite for local beach-goers since it was established in the 1960s. Tom Hughes, the current owner, along with his wife Sherry and brother John, who has since passed away, decided to take over the family business in 1992. Hughes’ daughters, Brittany Hughes and Jaimee Boyle, have also decided to work in the family dynasty.
Although the family has seen many storms blow through the 18-mile Island, their beloved resort has always been spared from any damage, thanks mostly to a 35-foot bulkhead, which has kept water from flooding into the two-story building. Of course, Superstorm Sandy changed all that.
The building suffered from 3 feet of floodwater damage in October when the storm water collapsed through the resort’s oceanfront windows, destroying everything on the first floor and ruining parts of the second floor.
“Literally, this became part of the ocean,” said Hughes, peering around his newly renovated resort. “It wasn’t just a wave that passed through, it was full of water.”
Hughes stayed with his wife at their home in Brant Beach during the storm. Although he was anxious to see what the resort property looked like after the storm, he said the roads were impassable, filled with water and sand, for quite some time. When he finally made it there and saw the onslaught of devastation, he said he felt sick to his stomach.
“It was just utter devastation,” said Hughes. “Everything that was in here was no longer in here – furniture, bars, kitchen equipment. Mostly everything was washed out the front door or submerged and destroyed.”
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| Photo by Jack Reynolds The Shell's new martini lounge 10 South offers a more sophisticated drink menu than its outside beach bar. |
With 18 weddings booked for the spring, Hughes said he considered canceling the whole season. When 20 of his family members and dedicated employees, some smuggled over by boat, showed up two days later to help during the cleanup process, Hughes said he knew the resort would be up and running again by deadline.
“We just started to clean, not really sure what to do first. But we felt that we could get this job done,” said Hughes. “It was a good motivator for us. We decided to keep the season and put the place back together by ourselves, which we did pretty much by ourselves with our own people,” he added.
The initial cleaning process included shoveling out a 1½ feet of sand from the building and 4 feet of sand from the pool and deck area. Ridding the building of remnants of furniture, stripping the walls and reinforcing the front parapet so the building would not collapse took about 3½ weeks to accomplish.
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| Photo by Jack Reynolds 10 South offers a wide selection of specialty drinks, including a Corona-Rita. |
The building process began immediately afterward. Alongside the help of an electrician, plumber and HVAC technician, everything was completely renovated and redesigned by Hughes’ family members and staff.
“We would come in here at night, when our workmen were done, and we would sit around on paint cans and try to envision what we were going to do next,” Hughes remembered. “In the morning, we would decide to put a wall up here, a bar over there. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t. If it didn’t, we’d change it the following day. But we just went day by day to try to take all the things in the last 20 to 30 years that we weren’t super happy with and make them exactly the way we wanted because we were starting from scratch,” he added.
Maximizing the flow of the banquet room and taking away some of the “dead space” was a major priority. Thanks to the crew’s determination and handy work, the resort was up and running again by April 18, ready for the season’s first wedding rehearsal.
“We were literally screwing toilet paper holders into the walls as the first bride was saying ‘I do,’” Hughes remarked.
Now completely refinished, the Shell exudes a more open and sophisticated charm. The old slate floors have been replaced with ceramic tiling and custom granite inlays. The old paneled, brick walls have also been given a whole new color scheme and design.
The Shell has also invested in a brand new martini bar, called 10 South, located just inside the main resort. The upscale lounge, reminiscent of an old rum bar, has a full-fledged menu of cocktails made on the spot with fresh fruits and herbs “and a little love.” A solid copper ceiling, custom wine barrel tables paired with chairs made from the staves of wine barrels and a handcrafted maple and granite-top bar all add to the elegant ambiance. Gourmet appetizers, two 40-inch high-definition TVs and dim-lighted sconces make the new lounge perfect for anyone looking to get away from the outdoor beach bar. The new lounge also acts as a VIP area during evenings when the resort offers itself as a nightclub.
“The Sea Shell is a beach club; you’re outside drinking beer out of a can and drinks out of a cup. (At 10 South) you have a super high-end wine list and mojito and martini and specialty drink list, and you’re drinking out of a beautiful glass,” said Hughes. “It’s just a whole different ballgame. It’s for those who don’t want to have their feet in the sand and do the things we’re doing outside. They can dress up and come in here any night of the week and enjoy the atmosphere,” he added.
10 South is open seven nights a week, offering live piano music three nights a week.
“We’ve always had the beach bar, flip-flop kind of thing going on outside, and we thought there was a need for a little more sophistication in Beach Haven,” said Hughes. “So far it’s working out great. It’s kind of like we’ve created a whole separate business and put it into the Sea Shell without interrupting what we’ve always done here,” he added.
Hughes said he is glad he did not have to close the resort for the season and that Shell fans did not have to miss out on one of their favorite LBI stops. He stressed that none of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of his family members and staff.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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