Looking for good food and some amazing summer fun? If so, then you must put New York Beach Club Restaurant in Atlantic Beach at the top of your list. The restaurant, which officially opened Memorial Day weekend, is open to the public seven nights a week for dinner, and sits on 85,000 square feet of private beach front overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Alexander Jacobson, CEO and owner of the New York Beach Club, took over operations of the private club in April of 2016. There was no restaurant at the time. The previous space housed a small area which served sandwiches to members. Knowing that a restaurant would add value for members, New York Beach Club contacted Lovin’ Oven, a local Long Island based company known for its restaurant and catering work, to partner with them in opening a restaurant at the club.
“This is exactly what our club needed,” said Alexander Jacobson. “A restaurant operator to take care of our 800 plus members with an array of great, delicious options for lunch and dinner.”
And now the public is invited to partake in this great new venture. Every night from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., New York Beach Club opens its doors to non-members to enjoy fabulous food, spectacular sunsets, and live music on the weekends. A Sunday buffet barbecue is open to non-members from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and on Wednesdays is Lobster Bake Night featuring local lobsters, clams and mussels.
When you step foot on the grounds of the New York Beach Club, you feel like you’ve just arrived at a popular beach resort on the coast of somewhere other than Long Island. Complete with palm trees and beautiful sand you feel like you have just arrived at a tropical paradise. The restaurant is situated under the boardwalk, where passersby stop and listen to the music below. Inside, the restaurant seats about fifty patrons, while outside about 120. The outdoor area literally ends where the sand begins, and even then, there are tables and comfortable chairs for lounging, and sipping drinks while listening to entertainment. I had to repeatedly remind myself that yes, I really was still on Long Island.
At the helm of the kitchen is executive chef Adam Nolan-Charles, who was educated at the Le Cordon Blue Schools, and whose career has spanned two decades. He worked for Lovin’ Oven for three years at Tribeca Rooftop Restaurant in Manhattan, and previously he worked in five-star restaurants and resorts in Florida where he grew up. He developed a passion for food at an early age, assisting both his mother and grandfather in the kitchen where he learned to prepare slow-cooked dishes. When he became a chef, he was influenced by the fresh ingredients and seafood that was available year round.
“I brought with me my experience and influences from the time I spent in Florida,” said Chef Adam. “Things like sustainable, fresh seafood are important to me. I also try to bring in a Caribbean influence to my food. I lived in the Caribbean, I lived in Korea, so I try to put those influences into some of my cuisine.”
Working in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area, helped him to hone in his gastronomic skills in world cuisines from Asian and Europe, as well as the Caribbean. Chef Adam was also trained extensively in the benefits of healthy cooking, and still prefers slow cooked food that he says is tasty, yet healthy and nutritional.
Also on board is executive chef Andrew Paules, a Johnson & Wales graduate who joined Lovin’ Oven as a sous chef in 1988. He has been very instrumental in the company’s growth, and is now the CEO of NYBC Restaurant where he oversees all the kitchen operations and culinary staff.
New York Beach Club Restaurant is proud to feature oysters from Pink Ribbon Oysters. As Chef Paules explains, “The oysters from Pink Ribbon are North Shore oysters harvested by actual divers. The company is environmentally conscientious. Equally important to so many consumers is the fact that a portion of the proceeds is given directly to breast cancer awareness.”
They oysters are purchased from South Bay Seafood, a fish company in Bohemia who is involved with the operation of Pink Ribbon.
The food at NYBC Restaurant is fresh, simple and seasonal. Appetizers include Maryland-style crab cakes, a seaweed salad with mango puree, a shrimp cocktail with watermelon salsa and mango cocktail sauce, a buratta and heirloom tomato salad, and ceviche. A classic Caesar salad is offered as well as a summer salad featuring baby spinach, a boiled egg, strawberries and blueberries with candied walnuts in a pomegranate vinaigrette.
For entrees, the Chilean sea bass is their most popular dish. It is pan seared and served with red quinoa, tropical slaw and key lime in a beurre blanc sauce. The salmon is another popular item and is served with roasted corn and fingerling potato relish in a truffle corn puree with popcorn shoots. For land lovers, there is a choice of chicken scarpariello, chicken parmigiana over pasta, a New York Strip Steak and the NYBC burger.
For my tasting I was started off with a glass of Cavit Chardonnay from Italy which was paired with the buratta salad. This light and flavorful dish featured a rich and creamy buratta with yellow and red heirloom tomatoes, over a bed of fresh baby arugula. It was topped with a Kalamata olive tapenade, balsamic drizzle and microgreens. It was the perfect summer dish.
Next up was the Maryland-style crab cakes. These were crispy, fresh and delicate, and loaded with crab. They were served with a delicious roasted corn succotash, and a lemon Sriracha aioli which added just a touch of heat. Who would not want to eat this dish seaside? It paired perfectly with a cool and refreshing glass of NYBC Restaurant’s homemade white peach sangria. A must have!
NYBC Restaurant does offer some nightly specials, so I was given a delightful fried scallop entrée with Sriracha aioli. The tender sea scallops were lightly breaded and fried, and were served with fresh lemon over a bed of mesclun greens.
Dessert was over the top with the NYBC Smore’s, their specialty dessert. Two scoops of vanilla ice cream is sandwiched in between two graham crackers topped with chocolate ganache and graham cracker crumbs. Along each side are brûléed marshmallows. This dish was sinfully delicious and would be good to share. They topped me off with a fabulous beach brownie mudslide after dinner drink, while I listened to the popular cover band, The Mystic.
Fun, fresh and delicious is how I would describe New York Beach Club Restaurant. Without a doubt, it has definitely been the best kept secret in Atlantic Beach…until now.
New York Beach Club Restaurant will be open to the public from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Sundays until Labor Day weekend. Reservations are recommended.
