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Ate: November 19, 2005 Published: November 27, 2005 $$ With my cold gone and myself feeling better, the two of us trekked out on Saturday afternoon. After spending way too much time fighting huge crowds while trying to do some early Christmas shopping at Sam's Club, we headed out looking for someplace to have a late lunch. We hadn't been down looking for a restaurant down along what is considered the "main tourist drag" in a while, so we headed to Ocean Boulevard. This turned out to be a little more challenging that we expected. Apparently many of the nicer places down on the boulevard close around two o'clock and don't re-open until around five. That left us with just a few options. Of those, the one that looked the most enjoyable was called Bummz Beach Café, right down on the oceanfront. If you haven't visited Myrtle Beach in a couple of years, you wouldn't recognize Ocean Boulevard today. Construction cranes are everywhere. It seems almost like every oceanfront hotel has either recently completed or is in the process a major remodeling - which in some cases has even meant tearing down the whole building and constructing a new bigger one. In the last twenty years, the Grand Strand area has grown from a regional summertime vacation destination to a national year-round one, and Ocean Boulevard is finally starting to reflect that. Bummz is right in the middle of all this growth, located right next to the Breakers Resort. When you walk in, you are immediately greeted by a casual bar and grill atmosphere that lets you know this is going to be a fun place. Out back, they have a large outdoor patio, complete with a tiki bar. Nine months out of the year, the patio is a great place to sit, enjoy a drink and a meal, and watch the waves. But even on the South Carolina coast, mid-November can be a little chilly for the patio, so we contented ourselves to sit inside. They don't call themselves a sports bar, but from where I was sitting, I could see nine different televisions showing four different college football games or pre-game analysis. There were also way more bartenders and waitresses than you would expect to find working on a typical Saturday afternoon, but they knew that it was going to be anything but a typical Saturday night. This was going to be the night of THE game (South Carolina vs. Clemson), so everyone was getting ready for the crowd that would no doubt be at Bummz that evening. After having to suffer long checkout lines at Sam's Club because only one-third of their registers were open, it was nice to see a company that actually anticipated peak events and staffed accordingly. I've already described Bummz as being a casual oceanfront bar and grill, and their menu is exactly what you would expect. For an appetizer, the two of us ordered onion straws and they were quickly served by a very pleasant waitress. They were good, full of flavor and didn't have the over-breaded, too greasy flavor that a lot of onion rings have. We sat back, enjoyed the appetizer and watched football. Our meals arrived quickly. My wife had ordered a Philly cheesesteak and fries. The sandwich was made up of generous amounts of roast beef, provolone cheese and sautéed green peppers and onions. Looking at it from my seat, it looked pretty tasty. According to her, it was. It was served hot, with the peppers and onions still crisp and plenty of gooey provolone and I'm happy to say that my wife enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for cute names, so I had ordered their Boisterous Oyster sandwich. When it arrived, I just stared at it for a minute, trying to figure out how I'm going to pick it up and eat it. There were a lot of oysters. A whole lot of oysters. I had to eat several of them before I could attempt to fold up the sides of the hoagie roll and eat it like a sandwich. The oysters were fried in the classic southern style. There were still hot, steamy and cooked just right, with the breading clinging really well to the oyster. It was a lot of food and really good. Our fries were tasty as well, very light and crispy. But after devouring the onion straws as an appetizer, we both ended up leaving a fair amount of our fries on the plate. They were good, but the sandwiches were the main course. During the day, Bummz is a very family-friendly place and we saw families there with both small children and teenagers. During the week, a lot of Bummz's customers are local business folk taking a short break from the daily rat race. When it's nice outside, you can watch them sitting on the patio looking at the waves and thinking, "Oh, yeah. Now I remember. This is why I moved to the beach." Besides serving good food and having a wonderful ocean view, Bummz is also a bar. As you would expect, the clientele shifts after the dinner hours. They have a pretty nice selection of domestic and imported beers. Personally, I came up fifty-fifty. I'm sad to say that I didn't see my favorite domestic beer, Yuengling on the list, but I did find my favorite import, Newcastle. Ocean Boulevard has been growing, and during peak times, parking is at a premium. The best parking for Bummz's is a free parking lot across the street. If that lot is full, the next best parking is a set of parking meters right behind the free lot. Yes, Myrtle Beach now has parking meters. Whether you're a local looking for a good lunch getaway, a family vacationing for a few days or a golfer looking to have fun with your buddies, Bummz is worth a visit. Come down to Ocean Boulevard and check them out. |
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