Long Beach’s iconic 2.5-mile boardwalk, built in the early part of the 1900s with the help of circus elephants who carried big pieces of lumber in their trunks to the beach area, has always been a place of fun, providing paths to skateboard, bike, jog and walk.
As a result, it was a natural place for a group of health-related businesses to open up shop. And some are already there. Three are already open and two more are slated to open later this fall.
“We have leveraged the health of the boardwalk with health and health-related” businesses, David Burman, a principal of B2K, developers, told the Press. “It’s all now geared for healthy living.”
The new shops front the tall condo and co-op units. So far, Mount Sinai South Nassau has opened a primary-care walk-in facility.
Barrier Beets, which specializes in fresh salads, juices, and snacks, but where a juicy steak is also available, has also opened.
A place to be called YogaSix is to open in the fall. A Mexican-style restaurant, Tulum Tacos, is also set to open its doors in early winter.
The Skudin family, never to be left out of Long Beach’s retail scene, will open Surf Haus around November or December.
David Skudin, who will own the facility along with Will Skudin, told the Press that the shop is “designed to enhance recovery, reduce inflammation and promote long-term recovery.”
One or another of the family already operates Skudin Surf, Skudin Swim, Space Cowboy Coffee Company, the Codfish Cowboy and Nornir Apothecary.
There will also be an as yet-unnamed ice-cream store amidst the other retail facilities. Burman said talks with the operators of that store are ongoing.
Aside from the new stores and the ones to be opened soon, the boardwalk now offers Beach Burger, Marvel Ice Cream, Riptides, the Surfside Subs/Shakes & Shuckers and Snack Shack.
Margo Palazzo owns Barrier Beets along with her partner, Toni Marie Milito.
On a quiet summer afternoon, Palazzo, 46, who has worked in the restaurant industry most of her adult life, sat in the restaurant, which offers a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean.
“All our offerings are clean and fresh,” she said, “Nothing is processed. It’s healthy food. And somebody could come in and get a steak if they wanted to. And our menu has a vegan option. Any diet is okay here.”
Barrier Beets opened in July, after the partners secured a Small Business Administration construction loan.
“It took us a year to get it,” Palazzo said. “They have to believe in you and your product.”
Palazzo had worked for the famous Anthony Scotto restaurants in Manhattan before opening Barrier Beets. She said the restaurant blends in well with the Long Beach atmosphere.
“The character of the boardwalk was here first,” she said. “This is all a health and wellness center. People come here to stay healthy.”
The City of Long Beach has undergone a reformation in the last few decades. In the 1980s, dozens of run-down homes stood along the beach, deteriorating. A number of patients at New York State Mental Hospitals had been released, and many lived in such homes, unsupervised or given much care.
The city was nearly broke, and corruption was rampant. But the run down homes were either demolished or repaired. As a result, a number of people lost their homes, and a more gentrified Long Beach took over.
The city spruced up the downtown, with new stores and restaurants. The fiscal crisis was ultimately resolved, and a major artifact of a revived Long Beach was the big condos and co-ops that were built only a few years ago on the Superblock.
The boardwalk, too, was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The boardwalk was re-built over a newly created seawall. Dunes were created in front of the boardwalk. Sand was pumped from the ocean floor to re-build the beach. New jetties were built where there had been none.
Do B2K developers have more shops coming?
“I wish I had more room,” Burman said. “But I don’t.”
