Kathy Larkin mixes a cocktail at O'Donnell's Pour House.
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Joe Barrett toasted his wife, Denise, with a glass of red wine. Denise, in turn, toasted her husband with a glass of white wine.
“Billy Joel said it best, a little red, a little white,” Joe said with a laugh while paraphrasing the wine-inspired opening lyrics to the Piano Man’s song, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”
Whether it was red wine, white wine or something else, there was certainly a lot of toasting all over Sea Isle City as thousands of revelers celebrated New Year Eve’s with a holiday getaway at the shore to welcome the arrival of 2023.
The rainy and foggy holiday night was capped off with Sea Isle’s traditional fireworks display.
Kathy Larkin mixes a cocktail at O'Donnell's Pour House.
For their holiday outing, Joe and Denise Barrett enjoyed dinner at the stylishly decorated outside dining area at La Fontana Coast, the upscale Italian restaurant.
Residents of Springfield, Pa., the Barretts have a vacation home in Sea Isle that served as an ideal setting for what was expected to be a low-key New Year’s Eve for the couple after they finished their dinner and drinks.
“Having dinner outside on New Year’s Eve is so nice,” Denise said amid the hum of La Fontana’s outdoor heaters. “We just wanted to have a quiet dinner.”
Both Denise and Joe didn’t have a new year’s resolution in mind, but they said they were hoping that 2023 ultimately proves to be as fun for them as 2022 was with all of the travel and family time they enjoyed in the past year.
Rich Bowren, second from left, and his family celebrate at O'Donnell's Pour House.
While the Barretts planned to stay in Sea Isle for the night, Rich Bowren and his family were bar crawling from Strathmere to Stone Harbor for New Year’s Eve. Bowren stressed that they hired a jitney for the evening to safely chauffeur them for their holiday celebration.
“We always come down to the shore for New Year’s Eve. We love this place. We come all the time to Sea Isle,” said Bowren, who lives in Doylestown, Pa., and has a summer home in Sea Isle.
He and his family were savoring drinks at the crowded bar at O’Donnell’s Pour House in Sea Isle. Their first stop for the evening was the Deauville Inn in Strathmere. After O’Donnell’s, they were planning to continue their pub-hopping celebration in Avalon and then Stone Harbor.
“It’s nostalgic. It’s tradition,” Bowren said of their holiday celebration at the shore. “We’ve done the last 10 New Year’s Eves down here.”
Krista Salvadore buys some beer at Diamonds Liquor store for her holiday dinner at home.
Krista Salvadore, on the other hand, was celebrating her first New Year’s Eve in Sea Isle as a new homeowner in town.
Salvadore was cooking a tenderloin steak with garlic butter for a holiday dinner at home with her boyfriend.
“It’s a little different for me. I’m happy to stay in instead of going out,” she said of this New Year’s Eve.
She stopped at the Diamonds Liquor store to buy some beer for dinner. Salvadore was among a steady flow of holiday customers buying beer, champagne, wine, vodka and other spirits at Diamonds Liquor.
After her home-cooked dinner was over, Salvadore wondered whether she would stay awake long enough to watch the traditional televised ball drop at midnight from Times Square in New York City.
“I think I can stay up that late. But a steak usually puts me to bed,” she said, laughing.
Fireworks light up the sky over the beach at John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
Although most cities have their fireworks display at midnight to welcome the New Year, Sea Isle traditionally shoots off its fireworks at 8 p.m. as part of its family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration.
Despite drizzle and fog, hundreds of adults and children gathered under their umbrellas to watch the thundering, multicolored fireworks explode over the beach at John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The 10-minute display provided a boisterous welcome to the New Year.
