Playing Catch-up...2020 In Review, cuts from the Watt.

Awaiting a return...empty sand and a slow wave jam. 23rd and a flat beach break, 2/22/2021.

Strange fascinations fascinate me
Ah, changes are taking
The pace I'm goin' through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Ooh, look out, you rock 'n' rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

                 -David Bowie, Changes

   2020 was a shortened season for us Crew reps. This whole pandemic thing had certainly gotten to us. Notice I didn't say the best of us. Would take a lot more than a damn pandemic to take the Crew down. Regardless, so much change in the world around us. So many concessions made to create a safe space.  Even on the beach and in the water. One of the evenings I was out, there was one other guy in the lineup, and he was wearing a mask. I fight it out there enough; didn't need any more constraints to further help my cause. For bar and restaurant patrons... distancing, face masks, continuous clean-up. Lots more outdoor dining made available with seating spaced out or closed off to create the manifestation of a sanitized dining environment. Paranoia abounded. An earlier reference to our shortened season...some numbers: last couple years we had averaged 35 session reviews per year (even with vacations worked in), 2020 saw just 19 reviews, 8 new establishments- some in former locations of establishments we had visited. We tended to hang out in both newbie and otherwise visited that boasted of the safer dining options- less occupancy, more spacious layout, outdoor options, etc. Thus, with fewer critiques to consider, simplicity boded well, and fell into three easy categories- our worst, our runner-up, and our best of the year. 

Dry 85 - 6/18/2020.
 Left us feeling barren.

   The year started out quietly enough. We hit up a few "new to the Crew" places in Wicomico County through February, the initial shutdowns of the pandemic occurred in March, and it wasn't until June before we got back to the beach. Started out just hangin' ten for the first couple sessions, then our first and the worst in the third week of June. We started out towards a different location, but at this point places were just beginning to open back up and outdoor seating was limited to unavailable at most. But with his eye on the target, T-Man found deck seating for us at Dry 85. Good conversation, a fender bender for entertainment, and the frustration of poor service. A sesh of weak knee-hi's, an unknown tug on the leash, thus relaxed conversation was welcome. The head turning automotive distraction added excitement.

Clean thighs, 6/25/2020.

 But ultimately the warm beer, cold burger and wings, and poor service left Dry 85 with a 1.90 score and at the bottom of the proverbial barrel (it was a whiskey bar), and the Crew playing catch-up for the remainder of the season. It is said, out of every culinary plight hope springs eternal...redemption. Steve King maybe? 

Alley Oops MidTown - 6/25/2020.
Temperate hope early on.

Well for the Crew it was the very next week, and after finding improved surf featuring waist high swell, we got planted in our first OC newbie of the year, Alley Oops Midtown. Part of the Ropewalk chain that featured a beach theme combined with open concept dining replete with arcade games and mini-bowling, Alley Oops had refaced year-long shutdown Ironweed Alehouse, formerly OC Brewing. The perfect post-surf oasis. It fit right into the Crew's wheelhouse. A string of cold brews on tap, well presented, quality sports-bar type food- a nice experience that made for a memorable session. We thought the season would begin to smooth out. However, this was to be a unique and unsettling stretch. Maybe the whole pandemic thing infected our outlook, for it seemed one after the other, new or established, most of our follow on taverns struggled to be rated over the mid-twos. On the flip (side), the pandemic certainly had taken its toll on all local businesses.

Taphouse Bar & Grille - 10/22/2020.
Best and last of our balmy outdoor evenings.

Restrictions, quarantines; both made consistent employment difficult, forced shut-downs for sanitizations, even interrupted supply chain services. Limited menus and tap availabilities were not uncommon. The combination of the previously mentioned certainly contributed to the adversely affected ratings. Surf was equally mediocre. This was more due to timing than lack of weather fronts. Timing, a bad year for it. The end of October finally provided a window though. Chest-plus high, semi-clean sets should have been the primo session of the year, but not to be. The cure to an afternoon of being caught inside was the Taphouse Bar & Grille, a newbie sorta kinda in that we had been to the 45th Street Taphouse itself, but not their outdoor venue. It is always hard to put a bad day on the water out of your mind, but house made beer pretzels, a thick angus burger piled with bacon, some hot wings, and a generous selection of cold craft brews did a pretty good job at easing the pain. The highest rated bar of the season had not been challenged since. As the shoulder season moved in, temperatures dropped, autumn faded to winter and the  pandemic had made a surge. Even LWatt and I were not immune...although we are for now. As we entered 2021, vaccines started being distributed. Yet high demand, and a fear provoking media have kept many in isolation. Our eateries are currently at 50-70% capacity, depending on location. The infection rate has been on the decline. Will we become the latest victim of the pandemic? If jointly, the Crew determines that we will forge on (and I, for one, certainly hope we do), it looks like we'll be playing catch-up again. That' okay, the Stoke would more than make up for it. The Ocean will beckon, the watering holes will call. Time will tell. As Mr. Bowie so eloquently put it...

I said that time may change me

But I can't trace time.