WILLIAMSBURG — For those who love Longboards in Norfolk and Portsmouth, the wait is over for the restaurant’s expansion to Williamsburg.
With an eye on mid-September, the restaurant will open at the former Oceans & Ale location at the Williamsburg Premium Outlets.
Rodney Williams, Randy Snodgrass, and Mark Bernecker, friends from college, recalled first reading about Oceans & Ale’s original plan to build a freestanding restaurant on the old Yankee Candle property.
“We immediately started talking about knowing this space, and having a history of how good it was done from a building standpoint. The corner spot at the outlet mall and the traffic makes it a great place. For us, it was a no-brainer location, and knowing the restaurant, we felt it would be a suitable spot to bring the Longboards concept here,” Bernecker explained.
Longboards, which has locations in Norfolk and Portsmouth, is known for its coastal, laidback vibes. The menu boasts everything from seafood to burgers and wings.
“There is a little bit of a Hawaiian flair in some of the menu items, but it’s not over the top. You are not walking into this Hawaiian restaurant; you walk in and it has very much a beachy vibe, but very much tied to it is that Hawaiian tiki flair,” Bernecker said.
According to Bernecker, renovations are underway and progressing ahead of schedule.
“The bar will very much have a tiki bar feel to it. The whole place will have a beachy feel when you come into it. We’re adding some booths to where the live music stage used to be in Oceans & Ale. The new booths will be sitting in a cabana-like setting. As far as the outside bar area, it’s going to also take on the beachy feel too. All the black railing you see now is going to be completely wrapped with bamboo, and it will have bar tops going along the entire rail so people can stand and have drinks while they are waiting,” Bernecker said.
While the location will not feature live music inside the restaurant, Bernecker says that acoustic music will happen on select nights on the patio section of the restaurant.
The owners are excited to bring the Longboards name to the area.
“We want this to be a local establishment, with great food and a great atmosphere. We want it to be like an old school ‘Cheers,’ where everyone knows your name. That vibe is really important to us. Williamsburg does not have an abundance of quality, local dining spots like you would find if you were dining in Norfolk or Richmond. We didn’t want another chain to jump into this corner, so it really was like, the time was right to create something that our friends and their friends will like and appreciate, that they will want to come back to and make it feel like their place,” Bernecker said.
The Williamsburg menu is now available online. Construction updates and grand opening details will be available soon.
For more information, visit eatatlongboards.com.