The "Luigi is Turning in His Grave" Story

It was an ordinary day. Trying to decide where we would eat supper. For the last five years my kids and grandkids have been vacationing in Ocean City, NJ. Each year we stay at the same four bedroom condo on 9th Street. Half a block to the beach. And, every year we all share a meal with one another. Carol and I start the week with a salad on Saturday evening. Probably the healthiest meal we have all week. Our daughter, Brynn, and her family, as well as our one son, Derek, and his family also bring a meal. After all these meals, there is always enough left-overs for one more meal. So that leaves us with three more meals to complete our week at the Jersey shore. Hey, pizza is always a good choice and we usually have a meal at the Food Court on the Boardwalk. For the last meal we try to eat in a restaurant. This year someone suggested we eat at Luigi's which seems to be an Ocean City landmark. Place is Italian, as if you couldn't have guessed, and was opened in 1958. We pass it every year as we enter the town. Located at 9th and West streets. OK, so I Google the place on my laptop and ....... holey moley! Over 75% of the reviews were negative! Place smells like manure, sauce comes out of ajar, terrible service, wouldn't accommodate my son who has food allergies, and the most telling; Italians will be appalled - Luigi is turning in his grave. Cross that off the list!! The night before we had passed a restaurant on the boardwalk as we traveled to Wonderland at the north end of the boardwalk. The "Ocean Cafe" was located at 720 Boardwalk (neat address) and was also Italian. It opened in the summer of 2009. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:00 and immediately got a table for nine. Could this be a bad sign. There were no reviews of this place on my computer, so we knew very little about it. Food was very good, plenty of it, reasonable price, attentive service, and it arrive hot and promptly. The place was very large and can accommodate quite a few people. I naturally had the cheese ravioli which I had a hard time finishing. Carol and I shared a bowl of one of the best soups ever: tomato crab bisque. Truly amazing. I will continue with - We will definitely return next year! It was great. The soup was the highlight of the meal for us. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.