TWO MILE LANDING – Time travel to Medieval Europe in say, 1850, and don’t expect to order fresh strawberry mead in the middle of winter. There wouldn’t be a single strawberry on the vine! It’s this sense of seasonality – working with what’s fresh – that guides the drink menu at Port Marina, where upstairs bartender Jeremy Scrocca whips up fresh cocktails for every season.
Port Marina & Restaurant is a new spot on the 2-mile oceanfront between the Wildwoods and Cape May. With a renovated interior and a redesigned menu, Port Marina was a big shakeup for the storied property when it opened last summer. If you haven’t been since the changeover, Port has the freshness: a robust sushi menu, live music, panoramic views of the ocean, and of course, bartenders who put up with us buggin them during a busy afternoon.
Jeremy is a local surfer and gardener. Sometimes, he’ll bring in fresh tomatoes or basil from his bayside garden to give drinks a local kick.
One thing that smacked us in the face the first time we walked upstairs is how upscale and thoughtfully decorated the place feels without beating up our wallet. Some of our favorite dishes use local ingredients and are price competitive. We recommend the Wok Charred Wood Song Mushroom salad, with mushrooms from West Cape May mushroom farmer Lin Conover, and the Fried Black Sea Bass salad, with fish caught right off the Cape May coast.
Okay- back to Jeremy. He’s a lifelong local who worked for over a decade at The Ebbett Room, one of the most famous spots in the county. This is his 15th year bartending, but he was humble about it. He has worked in the local service industry since he was just 14 years old, working his way up from busboy to bartender.
The long winters can be tough on locals, but Jeremy kept busy by catching waves with his little brother. He caught the thrill bug that infects so many surfers: he travels in the off-season to places like Nicaragua for waves that Cape May can only dream of.
He joked that in his “old age” (still a spry young man in our book) he uses a longer board for greater stability. “Hey, there’s no shame in it!”
“Here at the bar, I make drinks seasonally. We had a drink in the beginning of the season with strawberries and basil, now we’re moving onto blueberries and watermelon.”
Jeremy rattled off a lot of seasonal beverages when we asked, but one that caught our attention was the “Brine and Dine,” made with local oysters steeped in Alibi gin from Atlantic City for 48 hours. It’s served with whole oysters and Crème fraiche, a rich, fatty crème often made with buttermilk.
Summer is just getting started here at Port Marina, which means “we’re moving into tomato mozzarella martinis, drinks summer herbs. By mid-June, the summer harvest is here, things like cucumber, watermelon,” he said.
During our visit, Jeremy made us a Port Sunset, a drink you can order any time of year. It’s a beautiful orange drink, with notes of lemon and coconut that reveal themselves throughout the sip.
- 2.5 oz blue coat coconut washed rum
- 2 fresh squeezed lemons
- 1 oz of Chinola passion fruit liquer
- 1 oz Aperol
Summer is just getting started here at Port Marina, which means “we’re moving into tomato mozzarella martinis, drinks summer herbs. By mid-June, the summer harvest is here, things like cucumber, watermelon,” he said.
Visit Port Marina any day of the week. Tell them Do the Shore sent you!
