LIVE AND LET DINE AT THE BARLEY BEACH HOUSE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEREMY WAYNE
WONDERFUL DINING
FOOD & SPIRITS
For the first time in 14 ½ weeks, I am going out to lunch, gingerly making my way towards the restaurant entrance like some inept villain in an Ellery Queen detective story. If I were wearing a raincoat, the collar would undoubtedly be turned up, but the mercury has just hit 86 degrees and the sky is a cloudless blue. So, I’ve no raincoat and no collar, although, somewhat ironically for someone who is neither about to commit a crime nor investigate one, I am wearing a mask and gloves. The former Seaside Johnnies in Rye Town Park and Beach overlooking the Long Island Sound changed hands in 2018 and, having installed heating, is now open year round as The Barley Beach House. Still, nothing beats the beach on a summer’s day. Arriving midweek without a reservation, we approach a romper suit-wearing hostess, inscrutable behind a mask of her own, who bids us follow her and, despite two lines of empty tables, shows us to what is undoubtedly the worst table on the outdoor deck. So far, so mediocre. But, heighho, the sun is shining, the ocean is sparkling and The Foundations are belting out “Build Me Up Buttercup” over the speaker system, so as they say in the classics, what’s really not to like — so far? Heavy silverware, wrapped in a paper napkin, is already set at each 84
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place, although salt and pepper, as I have already gleaned from reading a 10-page directive on Phase-3 restaurant openings, will be available only on demand. A server appears almost immediately, shorts so short we had to wonder why she had gone to the trouble of putting them on, but full of summer cheer. For me, fish and chips, a generous slab of piping hot, beerbattered cod, brought with hand-cut French fries and a tangy coleslaw. Others in our small group tucked into crisp, fried calamari, golden trinkets piled high in their light summer coat
Top: The Barley Beach House terrace. Below: Connecticut Lobster Roll at The Barley Beach House.
