Shore House Tavern Ready To Expand In Point Pleasant After 10-Year Road Odyssey

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — It has been a long journey for the owners of Shore House Tavern, but one that will soon pay off with a long-awaited addition.

The Gullace family recently received approval from the Point Pleasant Planning Board on plans for a new kitchen, a new dining room/private party room, and a 1,100-square-foot outdoor deck at the restaurant they have owned since 2013.

Getting to this point has been an odyssey that has lasted nearly as long as the Gullaces have owned the restaurant, because of a snafu that goes back nearly 40 years involving a paper road.

For decades, the eastern portion of Route 88 ran from the former Laurelton Circle (where the five-way intersection exists now) in Brick, straight across the Point Pleasant Canal, with a drawbridge that sat just above the sides of the canal.

By the late 1970s, the bridge’s age and an increasing number of bridge openings — and traffic backups resulting from the openings — led to the construction of the current bridge, which opened in 1986. As part of the project, the NJDOT rerouted Route 88 from Maxson Avenue to Memorial Drive, adding lanes and adjusting the road’s path to join the new, higher and wider bridge, and a jughandle was added at Herbertsville Road in an effort to manage traffic.

Nearly 40 years after the bridge opened, pieces of the former Route 88 remain visible — especially when you look at the Shore House property.

“The telephone poles line up with where Route 88 went right between the two buildings,” Frank Gullace said after the April 10 Borough Council meeting, referring to the Shore House and Kelly’s Dog Grooming.

When the project was completed, that piece of the former Route 88 was supposed to be vacated by the state, released to the businesses that sat on either side of it. It wasn’t, however.

“The paperwork wasn’t completed properly to vacate that strip of land to the business owners of the time,” Gullace said.

“We knew when we purchased the Shore House that this was the case,” he said, “but we had no idea how challenging it would be to get it released to us.”

It has taken nearly 10 years and purchasing the property that’s home to Kelly’s Dog Grooming, along with what Gullace said was a tremendous amount of back and forth with the state to get the land released.

Purchasing the dog grooming business property gave them leverage to convince the state to turn it over, because the Gullaces’ property sandwiched the paper road, he said.

“In January of this year the state finally released it to us,” Gullace said. “It would not have been possible without the incredible work of our GM Nichole Letts and the amazing people in the state that we made contact with over the last year.”

Letts “worked tirelessly for the better part of two years to make this project happen,” he said.

Ocean County officials also have relinquished claim to the strip of land, Gullace said.

There is some remaining paperwork; borough attorney Jerry Dasti said a survey with specifics on the property for deed purposes is needed and Point Pleasant has to sign off on turning it over.

Mayor Robert Sabosik said that process, which includes introducing and approving an ordinance to turn it over to Shore House, would take 60 to 90 days.

“Once all of the necessary paperwork for the town is complete we will begin the project right away,” he said. “The town of Point Pleasant has been amazing to work with and we appreciate their faith in us to continue to expand and build on our business.”

Gullace, who was at the council meeting seeking approval to set up temporary outdoor dining for this spring while those issues are settled, said the expansion of the restaurant has been their dream.

He was hopeful for an approval of the temporary outdoor dining because “It is great for the town and keeps people dining in the Boro during the warmer months when there are many other outdoor dining options in the beach and surrounding towns.”

The addition, plans for which he shared on Instagram, will include a 1,100-square-foot deck for outdoor dining in the future.

“We have the greatest customers in the world and we cannot wait to be able to give them an even better experience in the future,” Gullace said.