Landmark Birch Bay restaurant back in business

By Tara Nelson

The former Dry Dock restaurant is back with a new name.
Bob Grant, along with the restaurant’s former owners, Don and Mary-Lynne Carl, all of Birch Bay, opened Shores restaurant May 2, in the new Sandcastle building next to their former location on Birch Bay Drive.

The restaurant had been a popular destination for 10 years before it was torn down by Goldstar Resorts in 2004. Don Carl said the demolition of the old building gave them time to re-create the restaurant with a new atmosphere and improved menu items.
“We just thought we’d go new everything,” Carl said. “We had a chance to make it a nice restaurant and change part of the menu. Now we’re just excited to get back to serving the Birch Bay area.”
Customers can expect long-time favorites such as the Dry Dock burger, which comes smothered with sautéed mushrooms, bacon and melted swiss cheese ($8.50) – Carl added the restaurant has sold about 800 of them since it opened two months ago – the fish and chips ($10) and pulltabs but with a more upscale dinner menu.

New dinner items include interesting entries such as king salmon curry ($20), a charbroiled filet of wild king salmon served on basil risotto and topped with a rich curry sauce and the dover sole roulade, or a filet of sole wrapped around a bay shrimp, lemon, pine nuts and thyme, pan seared and finished with hollandaise sauce ($17).

Grant said he also recommends the seafood linguine with shrimp, scallops and local manila clams ($15) as well as the restaurant’s steaks.
“There’s a mix of new and old, but more new than old,” Grant said. “We tried to make some variety. Birch Bay’s a pretty diverse place, so you want to provide lots of options.”

One of those options includes organic beef and free-range chicken for some of their menu items such as the Dry Dock burger, the chipotle chicken burger ($8.95) the Thai peanut chicken satay skewers ($7) and their deluxe cheeseburger ($6.95).

The restaurant also offers a Saturday and Sunday all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring eggs benedict, bacon, sausage, waffles, pancakes, French toast, danishes, salmon and cheese blintzes with strawberry sauce for $10.95. Discounts are available for children 9 years of age and younger.

Shores restaurant is located at 7848 Birch Bay Drive and is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Their bar is open daily until 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. on weekends. They can be reached at 371-3464.