bizSearchThe Business of Eating
So many restaurants, so little time! Food writer Bob Yesbek exposes the inner workings of the local culinary industry, from the farm to the table and everything in between. He can be reached at bob@RehobothFoodie.com.
Recent Posts by Bob Yesbek
The Business of Eating
Ivy raises the bar in Dewey
By Bob Yesbek - May 22First it was Coconuts. Then Suds. Then Venus on the Half Shell. But this prime Dewey Beach location - with its private, sandy shore and unobstructe...
The Business of Eating
Like it fresh? Then look for the logo
By Bob Yesbek - May 15People love to jump on bandwagons. Not literally, of course (do bandwagons still exist?), but the point is this: For the last few years, everybody’...
The Business of Eating
Late-night tastings and a Slow Food party
By Bob Yesbek - May 08It’s no secret that Rehoboth’s Porcini House restaurant never really caught on. Some say it lacked a strong theme. Others say that the menu was a ...
The Business of Eating
Off-centered marketing for off-centered stuff
By Bob Yesbek - May 01It was lunchtime in midtown Manhattan. Always primed to nibble at the Big Apple, I ventured into Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain to peruse the menu ...
The Business of Eating
Three brothers open three restaurants on the Avenue
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 24Seems like I hit a nerve last week when I rattled off a list of Rehoboth eateries that are 30 or more years old. I missed at least one – my ...
The Business of Eating
Rebranding transforms a Frogg into a prince
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 17There’s only a handful of local dining and drinking establishments that have been around for 30 years or more. The Blue Moon, Back Porch Café, ...
The Business of Eating
Great big small-town bakery cooks up sweet memories
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 10Ahhh, the aroma of freshly baked bread. And cookies. And muffins and pastries. And cakes, doughnuts and pies. Just the thought of it brings to ...
The Business of Eating
Hickman’s Meat Market sings with success
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 03Every so often I like to return to my Mediterranean roots by making a ridiculously complicated Middle Eastern dish called kibbee. Properly ...
The Business of Eating
Go window shopping in Rehoboth Beach!
By Bob Yesbek - Mar 27In my ongoing effort to keep up with the latest scientific facts on nutrition and pigging out in general, I found myself engrossed in a recent ...
The Business of Eating
The cheesy side of Rehoboth Beach
By Bob Yesbek - Mar 20Most dare not speak its name. But for centuries, its siren song has lured the innocent into an unrelenting grip. It starts out socially – even ...
The Business of Eating
Local entertainers brave the off-season
By Bob Yesbek - Mar 13Duke Ellington once said, “The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.” A few months ago I wrote about Paul Cullen, who entertained...
The Business of Eating
Deli’s success bodes well for the beach
By Bob Yesbek - Mar 06It’s no secret that many of us sand dwellers silently pine away for our beloved ethnic cuisines and markets we left behind in Philadelphia, ...
The Business of Eating
The Wizards of Food include one talented Brit
By Bob Yesbek - Feb 28Pay no attention to the man - or woman - behind the curtain! To the average vacationer, Rehoboth Beach is an exuberant Oz, where ribbons of ...
The Business of Eating
Dragon sighted on Wilmington Avenue!
By Bob Yesbek - Feb 21Though the Chinese lunar year officially began a few weeks ago, Shawn and Danielle Xiong are celebrating it on this long holiday weekend. More and ...
The Business of Eating
Nage Rehoboth rolls out the red carpet
By Bob Yesbek - Feb 14Last week’s first Winter Food & Wine Festival at Nage turned out to be a huge success. It was certainly the place to see and be seen, to eat, eat ...
The Business of Eating
Milk foodies love Rehoboth Dairy LLC
By Bob Yesbek - Feb 07Sometimes the most insignificant sound can rekindle memories of events long past. That certain song, a voice - and suddenly it all comes flooding ...
The Business of Eating
Wine, women … and a parade!
By Bob Yesbek - Jan 31It was with some trepidation that I accepted an invitation to attend December’s Women and Wine Club event at Lupo di Mare. After all, the ad was ...
The Business of Eating
The midwinter burger battles: Who’s the best?
By Bob Yesbek - Jan 24Bundle up and break out the four-wheeler! It may be cold and windy, but it’s wintertime and that can mean only one thing: Cheap hamburgers! ...
The Business of Eating
Solve your dinnertime dilemmas with magic
By Bob Yesbek - Jan 17Along with a cool wave of the hand, Abracadabra! has long been a favorite of stage magicians applying trickery to create something from nothing. ...
The Business of Eating
Dewey dive dishes up great crab cakes
By Bob Yesbek - Jan 10Baltimore-born Jimmy O’Conor really has no choice but to serve a killer crabcake. After all, very few towns are as militant about their crabcakes ...
The Business of Eating
What a long strange trip it’s been!
By Bob Yesbek - Jan 03The Grateful Dead certainly didn’t have Rehoboth restaurants in mind when they titled that 1977 album, but 2011 has left a trail of openings, ...
The Business of Eating
Milk and cookies for Santa Claus? Fugetaboutit!
By Bob Yesbek - Dec 24Dear Santa,I’m writing this letter to prepare you for your upcoming visit to Rehoboth Beach. You see, our little town is a popular dining destinati...
The Business of Eating
Preserving the past, one Brick at a time
By Bob Yesbek - Dec 20There are few among us who can’t name at least a couple of restaurants that were always held in reserve for special occasions. In the Washington, ...
The Business of Eating
Food By Design aims for the stars
By Bob Yesbek - Dec 13Years ago, I was a partner in a catering business. It was backbreaking work. You literally packed up an entire restaurant’s worth of stuff - ...
The Business of Eating
Too many cooks can be a good thing
By Bob Yesbek - Dec 06When I showed up for our interview, it took a while for Nage owner Josh Grapski to get past his deep-seated mistrust of food writers. And who can ...
The Business of Eating
Barkeep mixes up tequila, Philly sports and the ponies
By Bob Yesbek - Nov 29It’s the eternal question that has plagued mankind for centuries: Where can you go in Rehoboth to talk Phillies baseball, Eagles football, Flyers ...
The Business of Eating
He gets by with a little help from his friends
By Bob Yesbek - Nov 22Bad boys in the kitchen seem to be all the rage nowadays, from TV’s snarky Anthony Bourdain to pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini’s wise-guy persona at ...
The Business of Eating
So how do you like those apples?
By Bob Yesbek - Nov 15There’s a great book out there called, “How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table.” While examining the history of modern ...
The Business of Eating
Sit back, relax and leave the cooking to us
By Bob Yesbek - Nov 08So there you are, at the computer, in your bunny slippers, trying to figure out where to dine for a special occasion. You could visit one of those ...
The Business of Eating
Chefs love the whisper of local lavender
By Bob Yesbek - Nov 01There seems to be no escaping the latest culinary buzzword, “farm to table.” Everybody’s jumping on the bandwagon (at least those of us who can ...
- The Business of Eating
Mexican holiday celebrates treasured memories
By Bob Yesbek - Oct 25Food carts, trucks, trailers, wagons, boats, blimps … you name it - they’re all the latest craze to hit the restaurant industry. If it moves and ...
The Business of Eating
Villa Sorrento: sauce, the song, and family memories
By Bob Yesbek - Oct 18Sunday Italian suppers were a weekly occasion for the DePace family, and 3-year-old Mara spent many a weekend in the kitchen, elbow-to-elbow with ...
- The Business of Eating
30 years comes around once in a Blue Moon
By Bob Yesbek - Oct 11It seemed like a good idea. Back Porch Café co-owner Victor Pisapia and New York caterer (and part-time Back Porch hostess) Joyce Felton had been ...
The Business of Eating
Delaware twins’ quest for the perfect burger
By Bob Yesbek - Oct 04I have to admit I couldn’t quite figure out why Jake’s Hamburgers changed its name to Jake’s Wayback Burgers. What’s a wayback, and what does it ...
The Business of Eating
Successful restaurants depend on strong financial skills
By Bob Yesbek - Sep 27Owning a prosperous restaurant is a lot more than having a knack for entertaining your friends. So many talented home cooks mortgage their ...
The Business of Eating
A slice of Rehoboth Beach: The pizza chronicles
By Bob Yesbek - Sep 20I get suspicious when people blame their parents for various and sundry dysfunctional habits. After all, we’re not kids anymore. Can’t we use our ...
The Business of Eating
Four schoolteachers and a nurse change Rehoboth forever
By Bob Yesbek - Sep 13It was never supposed to happen the way it did. After all, young Sydney Arzt had it all figured out: graduate high school at 16, earn her master’s ...
The Business of Eating
Like the food? Buy the place!
By Bob Yesbek - Sep 06If you were stranded on a desert island with only one thing to eat, what would it be? Questions like that force you to take a serious look at ...
The Business of Eating
Veteran barkeep shows his spots nightly at Espuma
By Bob Yesbek - Aug 30At one point during my reign of terror as the barbecue maven of Bethesda, Md., I became thoroughly fed up with my bartender. He thought he was Tom ...
The Business of Eating
Award-winning chef is defined by his smart decisions
By Bob Yesbek - Aug 23Successful chefs often work their way through the ranks by doing the “heavy lifting” back in the kitchen and in the dining room. At the tender age ...
The Business of Eating
The Midway mystery: Who’s that hangin’ around 1776?
By Bob Yesbek - Aug 16Somebody’s watching you at 1776 Steakhouse. Of course, your server and bartender keep an eye on you, but … there’s someone else. He’s been there ...
The Business of Eating
Rehoboth restaurants set the tone with gifted performers
By Bob Yesbek - Aug 10Playwright William Congreve wrote, “Music has charms to soothe the savage breast.” Heck, restaurants and bars figured that out years ago. In fact, ...
The Business of Eating
Fifty-two years of fun, food and friendship at The Starboard
By Bob Yesbek - Aug 03It appears that I rattled some chains a few weeks ago with my article about longtime Rehoboth fixture Chip Hearn. The stories that landed in my ...
The Business of Eating
Honesty at The Point; get a square deal at Ledo’s Pizza
By Bob Yesbek - Jul 26Good eating brings out the gentle side of people. I guess that’s what they mean by comfort food. Tom Gross, the perpetually effervescent manager ...
- The Business of Eating
The diversity of Rehoboth: lamb kabobs, ice cream and fiery sauces
By Bob Yesbek - Jul 20Much of Rehoboth’s history is chronicled by the succession of restaurants that come and go - and it’s about to happen again. Next week, the ...
- The Business of Eating
This chef’s creativity is more than skin deep
By Bob Yesbek - Jul 13Apparently I hit a nerve last week when I touched on the idea of “taste memory,” i.e., the ability to recall specific flavors from years past. ...
The Business of Eating
In pizza we trust; all others pay cash
By Bob Yesbek - Jul 06I’ve always had a pretty good taste memory. It’s been years, but with a little concentration, I can still recall the flavors of the Teen Twist, ...
The Business of Eating
One-stop shopping at Rehoboth’s Corner Grille
By Bob Yesbek - Jun 29Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. For instance, who knows what you might discover behind the façade of an innocent sandwich shop? Well, one ...
The Business of Eating
From Two Seas to Espuma, it all comes down to family
By Bob Yesbek - Jun 22I just about brought the internet to its knees trying to find a website for Two Seas restaurant in Dewey Beach. I clicked myself into a frenzy, ...
The Business of Eating
Briskets, shoulders and ribs: It’s all about the smoke
By Bob Yesbek - Jun 15It probably started in the Caribbean and the West Indies. Travelers to the New World reported that the inhabitants were sun-drying meat and using ...
The Business of Eating
36 years in Rehoboth! They must be doing something right…
By Bob Yesbek - Jun 08The High Holy Days are here! I’ve replaced the batteries in my fork and had my jaws temporarily unwired in anticipation of Rehoboth Beach Restauran...
- The Business of Eating
Go Greek on the highway; get Nourished on the Boardwalk
By Bob Yesbek - Jun 02One of the (very few) things I miss about living in the Washington, D.C. area is the delicious supply of ethnic restaurants. If you’re willing to ...
The Business of Eating
Boardwalk Plaza lets its hair down at The Point
By Bob Yesbek - May 26Most people celebrate their anniversary by going out to a nice dinner - maybe even throw in a movie just for fun. Not so, however, for Jeff and ...
The Business of Eating
New Rehoboth eateries compete for the spotlight
By Bob Yesbek - May 19The target is Memorial Day as owners of Rehoboth bistros put the finishing touches on their new digs. On Wilmington Avenue, New Jersey restaurateur...
The Business of Eating
Country club cookery: It’s all about the service
By Bob Yesbek - May 12Restaurants take pride in branding themselves. We hear the word Mariachi, and we think Mexican and Spanish. The Italian influence at Lupo di Mare ...
The Business of Eating
Under-the-radar cuisine hidden in a Sussex shopping center
By Bob Yesbek - May 05So there I was, out in the wilderness (well, OK, Georgetown), dangerously close to actually feeling hungry. While I waited for the light at Market ...
- The Business of Eating
From La Quetzalteca to Port, it’s all in the family
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 28I’ve always admired entrepreneurship and resourcefulness. That’s probably why I like to write about people who - for better or for worse - take ...
- The Business of Eating
The race is on! Pass the guacamole and chips
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 21Things are heating up on Wilmington Avenue as four eateries sprint toward the Memorial Day finish line. So far, Beal Thomas and Ken Gerhart are in ...
The Business of Eating
Seven Cape Region restaurants: All in a day’s work
By Bob Yesbek - Apr 14It was oddly warm for Presidents’ Day weekend. Temperatures approached 72 as traffic streamed toward the Delaware beaches. Restaurateurs were ...
The Business of Eating
The sun will be shining on Rehoboth’s Baltimore Avenue
Apr 07When Lauren Cox-Ristenbatt and her husband Ed close their eyes and drift off to their “happy place,” it’s always to Key West, where they got ...
The Business of Eating
Talented chef travels from the Moon to Venus
Mar 31Watch out, Dewey Beach: There’s a new kid in town, and his name is Pete McMahon. Well, he’s not all that new, but this summer he’ll be taking on a ...
The Business of Eating
New life coming to Rehoboth’s Wilmington Avenue
Mar 24Tumbleweeds blustered across the tarmac. The wind whistled mournfully. Windows were dark, as “For Rent” signs quivered in the breeze. What was ...
Do you like chocolate? Don’t lose your temper
Mar 10As legions of chocoholics descend on Rehoboth’s Chocolate Festival this weekend, it seems as good a time as any to explore the magic hidden within ...
From pen to paper: Local porker speaks out
Feb 18Hello! I’m Mr. Delicious. My family name is in Latin and hard to pronounce, so pretty much everybody just calls me a big pig. And that’s music to ...
