Peaky’s Enters Resort Market With A Rooftop View

OCEAN CITY — For a local man, a dream has come true as the restaurant where he started out busing tables he now owns.

Peaky’s Rooftop Restaurant & Bar officially opened Feb. 27.  Owner Justin Schaub received the keys on December 24 and it was only a couple days later he and his team were in there making cosmetic repairs.

“We have had a great response … we have had a soft opening and plan on a grand opening hopefully in late April,” he said. “We want to make sure we have all the kinks worked out.”

The space on the top floor of the Fenwick Inn on 138th Street was previously Jordan’s Rooftop Restaurant, owned by Al Jordan, for 20 years followed by Skyline Bar & Grill for 20 months.

“I will be here for 30 years,” Schaub said breaking the mold.

Peaky’s Restaurant originated in Princess Anne over 50 years ago and was owned by the Peacock family until Schaub’s family bought it in 2007. The new owners kept the traditions of the restaurant alive, such as Peaky’s famous prime rib, crab cake and fried chicken recipes.

Schaub grew up in Salisbury and upon graduating from high school he began working at Jordan’s Rooftop Restaurant as a busboy until he left to work at Harpoon Hanna’s and then onto Brew River in Salisbury, which are both owned by the Hanna family. It was when Schaub’s family took over Peaky’s in Princess Anne he put all the experience he had gained from the local restaurants to good use.

Throughout his different positions in the local restaurants and at Peaky’s, the rooftop restaurant location always lingered in his mind.

“Over the years, I just kept my ears open listening for it because I knew this place would become available someday and I always wanted it, always,” he said. “When it became available, I was able to do it. I think it has a lot of potential.”

Schaub kept the core values of Peaky’s in opening its second location atop the Fenwick Inn, except for adding more seafood as it caters to Ocean City, but still offering its famous prime rib and fried chicken.

“We use traditional Eastern Shore recipes,” he said. “The fried chicken is cooked to order … you may have to come in and wait 20 minutes but it is cooked to order, and I think that is why people like it so much.”

While Peaky’s may not sit on the water, Schaub said the resort’s panoramic view more than makes up for that.

“On a clear day, you can see all the way down to Sea Colony [to the North in Bethany Beach] or all the way to the end of Ocean City,” Schaub.

Besides the extensive dining room, there is a bar area with a lounge and pool tables. Behind the lounge is a banquet hall.

Schaub has ongoing plans to enhance the restaurant starting with the next phase of cosmetic repairs to the banquet hall. In the next two to three years, Schaub wants to take advantage of the view and transform an existing outdoor space into an outdoor deck area. He also hopes to continue adding Peaky locations near and perhaps far.

Schaub added he can’t help but be grateful for his former employers, from Al Jordan to the Hanna family.

“They allowed me to learn, just let me into their business, and taught me everything I needed to know so I am grateful for that,” he said.

Peaky’s Rooftop Restaurant & Bar is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For more information or to view the menu, visit www.fenwickinn.com or visit Peaky’s Rooftop Restaurant & Bar Facebook page.

New Walk Smart Program Planned For Ocean City

OCEAN CITY – Following a sharp increase in pedestrian crashes last summer, a new Walk Smart campaign has been initiated to spread pedestrian safety awareness in Ocean City starting this summer.

On Tuesday afternoon, Karen Waggoner of the Maryland Highway Safety Office came before the Mayor and City Council to request permission for projects sent forward by the Ocean City Pedestrian Safety Committee (OCPSC).

Waggoner has been working with the committee that is made up of representatives of the State Highway Administration (SHA), Ocean City Public Works Department, the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, the Worcester County Health Department, area business owners and more.

“I have to say it is by far the best committee I have ever worked with as far as people being interested, concerned and working hard, so kudos to the people in Ocean City,” she said.

The OCPSC was formed to help reduce the number of pedestrian crashes that have occurred in Ocean City. SHA Assistant District Engineer Ken Cimino is the chair of the committee.

“We are taking a three-pronged approach to pedestrian safety in Ocean City, which is the three E’s, engineering, education and enforcement,” Waggoner explained.

Cimino was absent during the presentation due to illness, and unable to speak in detail over engineering issues.

“But I can tell you the speed limit is something that has been on the table. It has been discussed and there have been traffic studies,” Waggoner said.

Waggoner requested permission to have city employees to wear T-shirts on casual Friday’s in the summer to serve as a reminder of pedestrian safety to summer visitors.

The Maryland Highway Safety Office will purchase the shirts that will be in the bright highway safety green color with a Walk Smart logo on the back and a small “OC” logo on the front. The design is not finalized.

“We were thinking for public works people that are out all the time would be visible, especially on Fridays when new groups of people are coming into the city, to serve as a reminder because most of the pedestrian crashes happen on the weekend,” she said.

SHA would also like to produce buttons with the same Walk Smart message for city employees to wear during the week and distribute to the area bars and restaurant workers to wear. Additionally, it was suggested to produce Walk Smart window clings for city offices and local businesses to display.

“We have a lot more things that are going to be going on, including banner planes and the bus stops,” Waggoner said. “The bars and restaurants have been wonderful in the committee and supportive. They are also going to help us with some projects.”

Public Works Director Hal Adkins supported the idea of having his employees sport the pedestrian safety awareness T-shirts but cautioned placing bumper stickers on trashcans that would promote additional graffiti.

“The existence of that sticker promotes more stickers … as a compromise if you wanted to do so I would ask that you limit that exposure to the cans on the beach but not the ones on the Boardwalk and not the ones at the bus stops,” he said. “It would create a nightmare for us.”

Councilman Brent Ashley presented figures distributed by the Insurance institute for Highway Safety.

In 2010, 70,000 pedestrians were injured and 4,280 pedestrians were killed, which equates to 13 percent of motor vehicle deaths. Also, 35 percent of the fatally injured pedestrians age 16 and over had blood alcohol levels above 0.08. Between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., this figure rose to 51 percent.

According to the 2012 Ocean City Police Department year-end report, alcohol was a factor in over 60 percent of the pedestrian involved collisions dealing with the motor vehicle operator and pedestrian. Drunk driving arrest were up by almost 67 percent. Pedestrian accidents rose from 27 in 2011 with no fatalities to 44 in 2012 with two fatalities.

“I think the Walk Smart campaign is a great idea as are some of the other strategies such as signal timing, signal phasing and speed reduction,” Ashley said. “However, in my mind, these measures treat the symptoms but not the disease. Perhaps the campaign slogan should be ‘Walk Smart-Live Smart-Don’t Drink’.”

Waggoner responded she will take back Ashley’s recommendation to the committee.

“This is just a small piece that we are doing,” she said. “The bars are a huge focus for us because a lot of the pedestrian crashes are happening at closing time, and I will say Seacrets, Macky’s and some of the others have been attending the meetings and are doing whatever they can to help us.”
The council voted 6-0, with Councilwoman Margaret Pillas absent, to approve the OCPSC requests so that SHA can move forward in producing Walk Smart campaign items.

New West Ocean City Hotel Planned

OCEAN CITY — A revised site plan for a proposed 78 unit Holiday Inn Express in west Ocean City breezed through the Worcester County Planning Commission last week.

The commission has seen previous versions of the site plan and expressed some reservations about the layout of the facility. Land planner Bob Hand told the commission that the proposal is “continuing to evolve.”

“The floor plan is being modified. The biggest modification I saw was taking the pool from the northeast corner down to the southwest corner,” said Hand. “That will integrate it into the building instead of letting it wrap around.”

The pool was a major factor in earlier plans, noted attorney Hugh Cropper, who represented the property owner, West Ocean City Investments, in front of the commission.

“The pool was actually a big concern, how we would control access from people getting through the motel,” he said.

With the new placement, however, Cropper said that the site plan is streamlined and the commissioners’ early concerns over access should be addressed. Land Planner Robert Heron agreed and explained that plans have been significantly revised since last month.

“Since then, over the last two weeks, things have been refined more, tightened up,” he said.

Because Holiday Inns are a franchise commodity, Heron said that designers are a bit cuffed in the way they can lay out the hotel. However, there is some flexibility in the defaults, including extra rooms factored in with the expectation that the design will change. Even with the pool being integrated into the southwest corner of the facility, none of the 78 planned rooms had to be cut.

The site’s footprint was also reduced significantly without any loss of units. Originally, the area was expected to come in at about 48,000 square feet while the revised plan clocks in just under 42,000 square feet.

Besides a few detail issues with transparency and color schemes, which were waived or fixed, the commission was quick to approve the revised site plan.

The building will feature 78 rooms spread out between four levels, as well as an internal pool. The building site will be located on the south side of Route 50 east of Keyser Point Road. A construction timeline is not yet known though ground could be broken as early as this spring.

Boardwalk Tram Wraps Weighed

OCEAN CITY – A proposal by an essential spice in most households of Maryland to be featured on Ocean City’s Boardwalk trams was turned down this week until further research takes place on the value of the advertising space.

The town’s current vehicle advertising agency, Direct Media, requested approval to expand saleable advertising space on Ocean City’s Boardwalk trams to include full wrap advertising on all eight power units, which is where the driver is positioned.

Currently, Direct Media’s contract with Ocean City allows for advertising to be placed on the roofs of the trams to be seen by those looking down from the buildings on the Boardwalk. The roof advertising falls in the range of $400-$500 to advertise per roof per month.

Direct Media estimated a reasonable fee for wrapping the power unit would be $750 per tram per month. For the four months of summer, Direct Media would receive $24,000 from the advertiser, and according to the contract Ocean City would receive 60 percent, which is $14,400 of additional revenue.

McCormick & Company has approached Direct Media with a desire to wrap all eight power units in the popular design of their traditional eastern shore spice, Old Bay.

The Boardwalk tram currently runs 110 calendar days out of the year. Starting on the weekend of Springfest and picking up again Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend and then on the weekend of Sunfest. The trams come back out to be used for the Winterfest Express, which is the train ride through the holiday light displays in Northside Park during the winter season.

Councilman Doug Cymek was concerned the amount of proposed revenue was not sufficient enough compared to the amount of exposure the brand would receive, and the remainder of the Mayor and City Council agreed.

Cymek also pointed out the trams would have to be stripped before Winterfest, and would like to see the contract with McCormick extend through that period.

Mayor Rick Meehan furthered the power units of the trams have never been used for advertising space before, so there has been no other opportunity for others to bid.

Public Works Director Hal Adkins agreed with the Mayor and Council’s concerns over the value being proposed. He pointed out the town’s 10-year contact with Esskay hot dogs to have five clocks on the Boardwalk brings in an annual revenue of $11,000.

“Maybe Direct Media should have come to us first to discuss what the costs would be, or the value, before they moved in that direction,” the mayor said. “I do think it exceeds what is being proposed.”

Adkins asked if the council wanted Direct Media to open the opportunity to advertise on the Boardwalk trams power units to a national level.

Meehan responded the first thing is to find the appropriate value and then open the opportunity up in a Request For Proposal (RFP) process.

“With a little research, I think we can find a better way to do this and a better way to promote it,” the mayor said. “If Old Bay wants to be part of it that great, I think it is a great brand.”

Councilwoman Mary Knight was aware the Boardwalk trams were just a piece of an overall advertising campaign Old Bay is initiating in Ocean City.

“I would like to see us negotiate with Old Bay at a more substantial number,” she said. “Maybe Old Bay would be willing to discuss their whole advertising campaign that they are looking at that I think will really help Ocean City.”

Adkins said he would work with Direct Media in coming up with a more appropriate value for the tram power unit advertising and return with an update.

Dental Clinic Eyes Future Growth

BERLIN — With a two-year anniversary approaching next month, the Worcester County Dental Clinic in Berlin is planning an advertising campaign to increase awareness of the services offered.

“I still feel like the community doesn’t know we’re here yet,” said Clinic Director Krista Hill. “Not everybody knows we’re here.”

Located on William Street, the clinic serves youth under the age of 21 as well as pregnant women. This is a significant expansion on the services available when the facility first opened in 2011.

“When we first started, the grant was originally written for children under 18,” said Hill. “We have since expanded to be children under 21. So we’ve increased that upper limit and also included are pregnant women.”

The clinic covers all basic dentistry including cleanings and trauma work and serves clients who are uninsured, underinsured or part of Maryland’s Medicaid program. For those who aren’t insured, there is a sliding scale of payment meant to keep the clinic affordable.

Hill reported a majority of the current patients fall into the 6- to 12-year-old age range, meaning the clinic has the opportunity to teach better habits and raise children’s “dental IQ” early, according to Hill.

“We want people to understand that establishing dental habits for their kids is important and needs to be ongoing and not just emergency care,” she said. “If they can take a preventive approach and we can educate the kids as they’re growing up, then hopefully they won’t have problems as adults.”

The majority of dental problems, Hill added, are preventable, with the obvious exception of any accident or trauma. By building good dental hygiene and making regular trips to see a dentist instead of only as needed, Hill noted that things like cavities and tooth decay in Worcester youth would fall significantly.

In an attempt to promote that message, members of the Worcester County Health Department have developed partnerships in the community, including with the Board of Education, to get kids started on the right path early.

“We continue to do outreach in the schools in combination with some other programs on the shore,” said Hill.

As for promoting the clinic, billboards at the southern and northern ends of the county, radio advertisements and possibly a bus ad in Ocean City are all being considered, though details haven’t been finalized, according to Hill.

Even with the perceived lack of awareness in the community, the clinic does see a steady flow of patients. Last fiscal year there were roughly 760 active patients and in the past six months since the current fiscal year began there are already 613. The facility has been growing in other ways as well.

Originally, there was only one doctor on staff available three days a week. Now there are two doctors who cover five days a week. Three new patient stations have also been added to the building. However, there’s still room to expand, according to Hill, not so much physically as with additional staff. There has to be a need in numbers of patients first.

Hill is doubtful that there will be any loosening of the 20-and-under age limit, with the exception of pregnant women, in the immediate future. However, she admitted that she would like to see the clinic expanded to provide senior dental care on top of their youth services.