Beloved Daytona beachfront restaurant started as humble hot dog stand
DAYTONA BEACH — For more than 65 years, the Ocean Deck Restaurant & Beach Club has been a breezy fixture on the World’s Most Famous Beach, only steps away from the sand and a few blocks south of the Daytona Beach Pier.
For more than half of that time, it also has been a treasured presence in the lives of Matt and Connie Fuerst, initially as devoted patrons, and for the past 11 years as co-owners with business partners Ken Bots and Vernon Kuftic.
When they talk about the restaurant now, seated at a corner table in the rustic wood-accented upstairs dining room during a recent Friday lunch hour, it’s hard to tell where the personal memories end and the business discussion begins.
“I waited 25 years for the chance to own it,” said Fuerst, a former regional director of operations at industry powerhouse Darden Restaurants. “It’s an open-air beach bar and we’ve always loved it, the feel. The employees always took great care of us. Our kids grew up coming here.
“I never want to change that. I want to hang out here. We still love it every day.”
Live music, beach parties power Ocean Deck vibe
From its humble beginnings as a beachfront hot dog stand in 1957, the Ocean Deck has continued to expand over the years.
In the modern era, the restaurant’s identity as a beachy, reggae-infused hub for tasty seafood and burgers, inventive cocktails and a surfer-friendly vibe was forged by longtime owner Dick Keough.
After pitching offers to buy the restaurant for years, Fuerst, Bots and Kuftic finally got their chance when Keough retired in 2012. Bots and Kuftic were already fixtures at the restaurant as general managers.
Over the past decade, the team has expanded the restaurant’s entertainment presence, offering live music from 4-7 p.m. and 9 p.m.-closing daily, weekend karaoke sessions as well as a busy slate of themed beach parties.
The kitchen stays open until 1 a.m., offering the welcome opportunity for a late-night bite on the beach.
Although the owners didn’t touch the Ocean Deck’s easy-going vibe, they did make operational improvements that included a $300,000 investment in a second kitchen to improve service efficiency within the first year, Fuerst said.
“We were too busy to handle our current business at the time and we wanted to grow,” Fuerst said. “We made the money back in two months.”
Ocean Deck weathers pandemic, storms, heat wave
Over the past three years, the restaurant has endured the rollercoaster of events that has challenged all tourism-oriented beachside businesses, from the pandemic to back-to-back tropical storms Ian and Nicole to this summer’s excessive heat wave that is testing the devotion of open-air restaurant fans.
Ian and Nicole left behind major damage to both the east and west sides of the two-story building tucked among the hotels and gift shops along Ocean Avenue.
The owners had to replace the restaurant’s beachfront deck for the third time in 12 years. In the parking lot, the roof of a gazebo blown down in the storms awaits design plans for a new expanded west deck.
In the same period, the team opened the River Deck New Smyrna Beach two years ago at the River Deck Marina, just north of downtown New Smyrna Beach's historic Canal Street.
More: 'Salute to the past': River Deck restaurant opens in New Smyrna Beach
Ian and Nicole are just the latest in a long line of storms that Ocean Deck has survived, Fuerst said.
“I don’t think anything’s going to knock this building over.”
'Doing something right'
The Ocean Deck’s longevity is a testament to its smart management and its prime spot only steps from the beach, said Costa Magoulas, dean of the College of Hospitality and Culinary Management at Daytona State College.
“That location is priceless,” he said. “Where do you see another place like that right next to the beach and the Boardwalk down there?”
Fuerst’s background with Darden is reflected in the consistency of its menu items and service, as well as the fact that many of the restaurant’s staff members are longtime employees, Magoulas said.
“Those workers know the customers are coming in, that business is constant,” he said. “That tells you they must doing something right. They cook the food right, do the price point right. They know what market’s able to take.”
One of the Ocean Deck’s veteran employees is head waitress Doris Felice, who has worked at the restaurant for 31 years.
“It’s a very easy, family environment,” she said. “For a lot of the customers that come here, we’re a big part of their families, too. We see people celebrating engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. It’s the one place they always go.”
On a recent afternoon, those loyalists included Kedith and Terry Maynor, of Christiansburg, Va., sipping on a margarita and a Red Stripe beer awaiting go-to orders of peel-and-eat shrimp and a quesadilla.
“We’ve been coming here for 20+ years,” Kedith said. “It’s always great, the same girls, same food, good cold drinks. It’s the only restaurant where we can come and just walk right out on the beach.”
Nearby, Rob Summers, who splits time between Daytona Beach and a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, is sharing lunch with his 10-year-old son on the deck.
“I came here with my dad and now I come here with my son,” he said. “It’s good food, good vibes — and one of the best views in Daytona Beach.”
If you go
What: Ocean Deck & Beach Club
Where: 127 S. Ocean Ave., Daytona Beach
Hours: 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily
Online: oceandeck.com
Call: 386-253-5224
Made Just Right: About this series
The Daytona Beach News-Journal is spotlighting area businesses that have been around long enough to be an important part of our collective history. If you are the owner of a business that has been in operation for at least 25 years, or if you want to nominate a business for recognition, please contact reporter Jim Abbott at jim.abbott@news-jrnl.com Be sure to include your name, phone number and a little bit about the history of the business.
Timeline: 1957
When the Ocean Deck opened in 1957, here’s a snapshot of what else was happening in the world:
The Soviet Union inaugurated the "Space Age" by launching Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite. A month later Sputnik II carried a dog into orbit, making that dog the first living being to enter space.
President Eisenhower announced the "Eisenhower Doctrine," pledging defense of Middle Eastern nations against communism
Federal troops were ordered to enforce integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas
European Common Market was created
Britain detonated a hydrogen bomb; the United States conducted its first underground nuclear test
In baseball, the New York Giants moved to San Francisco and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles
Hit songs included the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie”; Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day”; and Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock.”
Hit movies included “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Twelve Angry Men” and “Love in the Afternoon.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ocean Deck Daytona restaurant keeps beachy vibe going for 65+ years
