By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City’s beaches are becoming a huge, open-air dining experience for the summer crowds.
Vendors already peddle ice cream and gourmet coffee from carts on the beach, but the menu is expected to grow this summer.
At a meeting Tuesday, City Council took the first step to allow a beach vendor to sell acai bowls, those healthy smoothies topped with fresh fruit, granola, seeds, nuts, peanut butter and other goodies.
“They’re good. They’re healthy,” Mayor Leonard Desiderio said.
The Council vote paves the way for the city to seek competitive bids for the acai bowl concession. The two-year contract would generate a minimum of $5,000 in annual revenue for the city.
City Council President Mary Tighe initially questioned whether the city was going too far in allowing vendors to sell even more food or beverages from carts pushed along the beaches.
“We’ve got all these people going up and down on the beach with carts,” she said, alluding to the ice cream and coffee vendors already permitted in Sea Isle.
But Tighe joined with her fellow Council members in agreeing to seek bids for the acai bowl concession after she was assured by officials in Desiderio’s administration that there will be restrictions on the contract.
“As with anything, if we don’t like the way it’s going, we can pull the plug,” City Business Administrator George Savastano told Tighe.
Savastano noted that no acai bowl sales would be allowed on the beach between 32nd and 45th streets to avoid competition for businesses in town that already sell the tasty health food.
“We don’t want to disenfranchise the local businesses,” he said.
Food and beverage vendors marching up and down the beaches are nothing new for Sea Isle.
For years, the ubiquitous “Fudgy Wudgy Man” ice cream carts have been a source of excitement for children and adults alike.
In addition, a vendor called Beach Brew sold gourmet coffee last summer in Sea Isle. Beach Brew’s baristas pushed specially designed carts that are essentially mini coffee bars along the beaches. Coffee lovers had their brew made fresh, right in front of them.
“The coffee was so successful that we’re trolling out there for other ideas,” City Solicitor Paul Baldini said of Sea Isle considering the acai bowl concession.
Initially, the terms of the proposed acai bowl contract called for the vendor to pay the city $1,500 in annual revenue, Tighe said. She objected to that figure, saying it was too low.
“I just don’t want to give away the farm,” she said.
Based on Tighe’s concerns, the terms of the proposed two-year contract were changed to include a minimum payment of $5,000 annually to the city, Savastano said.
But Savastano told Tighe there are no guarantees that vendors will even submit bids for the acai bowl contract.
As with other beach concession contracts, the city will take it on a “case-by-case basis,” he said.
For food concessions, Sea Isle also allows hotdog vendors to operate on the entryways to the beaches at eight locations: 32nd Street, 40th Street, 52nd Street, 59th Street, 75th Street, 77th Street, 81st Street and 85th Street. By state law, the licenses to sell hotdogs are given to military veterans.
