I have seen no, absolutely no, tidal wave of popular support or demand for a restaurant in Cape Henlopen State Park, only the plans of La Vida Hospitality Group to put one there. I love the quiet that most of the park offers, and I am dismayed that more fishing licenses may result in the beaches becoming more of a parking lot during the summer. The park is already overcrowded with many folks not able to get in during the summer. A restaurant open beyond the park’s usual 8 a.m. to dusk hours would increase an already overburdened natural ecosystem.
If you want to have something more than a snack to eat, please frequent the many restaurants in the Lewes area. Grain on the Rocks, located at the ferry terminal, has good food, a playground, a beer garden, a water view and outside dining when the weather cooperates. And there is parking that won’t interfere with people trying to actually use the beach. The Dairy Queen provides family memories of soft ice cream, shakes, root beer floats as well as burgers and fries. And all the other local restaurants on the two main roads – Savannah Road and Freeman Highway – exiting the park, including Crooked Hammock, another La Vida enterprise, provide more than enough eating venues. These are already stretched thin in finding adequate staff to serve hungry clients.
Please leave our carry-in/carry-out beautiful park the way it is. Please find another contractor to run the concession stand if LaVida does not want to do it as it is.