One Bakery to Replace Another in Sea Isle

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Something sweet is in the works for the former Nickelby’s bakery that closed down last year and was put up for sale. Shorebreak Café, the upscale bakery and coffee shop renowned for delectable pastries and other artisan treats that are as beautiful as they are tasty, will be moving into the old Nickelby’s spot this spring. Shorebreak Café is part of the Ludlam hotel, bar and restaurant complex at the corner of John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Landis Avenue in the heart of Sea Isle City’s downtown business district. The downtown location for Shorebreak Café will remain closed while the owners of the property consider future plans for the highly visible site. In the meantime, Shorebreak Café will open a new location across town in the old Nickelby’s site at 83rd Street and Landis Avenue in the Townsends Inlet section of Sea Isle. Sea Isle developers Christopher Glancey and Bob Morris are buying the Nickelby’s property for an undisclosed price. Glancey said Shorebreak Café will make the move in late April or early May. “It’s going to be a nice addition for Townsends Inlet,” Glancey said in an interview Sunday. The old Nickelby's building is a longtime landmark in Townsends Inlet. The building will undergo mostly cosmetic changes on the inside to fit the high-quality Shorebreak Café brand, Glancey said. No changes are planned for the exterior of the property, a distinctive grayish-brown, cedar-shake-style building dating to 1960. “It’s a perfect location because it’s been a coffee shop and bakery for so many years,” Glancey said of the transition from Nickelby’s to Shorebreak Café. He noted that Shorebreak Café will be the latest amenity in a cluster of retail shops and restaurants within walking distance of each other in a commercial section of Townsends Inlet along the Landis Avenue corridor. “This is a new addition for keeping commercial activity in that area,” he said. Nickelby’s bakery and deli had occupied the building since 1983. Nickelby’s had been a favorite summer stop of locals and vacationers for crumb cake, key lime pie, muffins, breakfast sandwiches and coffee. After Nickleby’s closed in 2023, the property hit the market with an asking price of just under $3 million. The purchase allows Glancey and Morris to add to their retail, restaurant and residential revival of Townsends Inlet in Sea Isle’s south end. Developer Christopher Glancey is pictured at Shorebreak Cafe in 2021, the year it opened. They began in 2016 with the trendy Dunes development, a restaurant, banquet and condominium complex on Landis Avenue between 86th and 87th streets. Anthony’s restaurant recently announced that it is moving into The Dunes to replace the Beachwood restaurant as the commercial anchor of the site. Glancey and Morris followed up on the Dunes with two more mixed-use projects in Townsends Inlet called the Cove and the Cape. The three-story buildings, which blend retail, commercial and condo space, are located a block from each other on Landis Avenue between 85th and 87th streets. In 2018, Glancey and Morris made another splash with their $7.3 million purchase of the LaCosta Lounge, a popular Sea Isle bar that had been a centerpiece of the beach town’s entertainment scene since the 1960s. They gave LaCosta a sweeping facelift and rebranded it as The Ludlam hotel, bar and restaurant complex. The LaCosta’s old liquor store was converted into the Shorebreak Café in 2021. Under the direction of executive pastry chef Dana Iannelli, the café quickly established a reputation for making freshly baked savory treats and special confections. Now, it will sell its pastries and other delights at a larger bakery in Townsends Inlet. “We remain committed to our high-quality products and service and look forward to serving you in our new Sea Isle home,” Shorebreak Café told its customers in a posting on its Facebook page. Eventually, the plan is to have two Shorebreak Cafes in Sea Isle City, including reopening the original site at 4000 Landis Avenue once the property undergoes a redesign, according to the Facebook post. The Nickelby's property at 83rd Street and Landis Avenue hit the market in 2023 for an asking price of just under $3 million.