How Covid Is Changing the Feast-Fast Cycle of Shoreside Restaurants

Cheap rents, an exodus from cities, and demand for outdoor dining have led to a bump for out-of-the-way spots in the offseason.

Two Australians walk into a North Wildwood bar: One, Joel Romano, tan and motor-mouthed. The other, David Gill, with a silver beard and a hoop through his nose. Smelling like smoke. Not that kind of smoke. Well, maybe a little, but oak smoke mostly, from trees harvested from the piney wilds of southern New Jersey. They’re barbecue guys, and the gossipy islanders of this five-mile splinter encompassing three of the Wildwoods beach towns drank up the curious presence of the Aussie arrivistes like shots of Tullamore Dew.

This was how Romano and Gill, owners of Wildwoods BBQ, spent last June and July, guerrilla marketing over Guinness instead of racking ribs and stacking bills as they’d planned. “We were going around, meeting the town, and it was building buzz,” Romano says. “Everyone was like, ‘What are two Australian guys doing in Wildwood opening a barbecue restaurant?’”