#Surf rider restaurant chesapeake va full#

“It’s very important we go out and do that, not to mention we have great employees. “We still try to go and show our faces and shake the hands and touch the tables,” Chris Bennett said. The Bennetts and Simeone are used to being “hands on” and working long hours. After 17 years, the family sold the 17th Street property at the time when Stanley was working with his son in what was the Haygood Shopping Center Surf Rider location, which eventually moved to Cypress Point in Virginia Beach. The first Bennett family Surf Rider restaurant didn’t initially have seafood on the menu, but Stanley said he would sell the fish he caught for dinner specials.

He said he bought the name Surf Rider for $1 from friend Joe Weller, who had owned a Surf Rider restaurant at 5th and Atlantic Ave. Stanley opened that restaurant with his mother Elizabeth in 1980. Supplier Performance Food Group allows Bennett to find the product he wants along the East Coast.īennett also doesn’t mess with his grandmother’s recipes, which forced the original 17th Street restaurant to expand several times to accommodate growing popularity. in Norfolk - and follows the seasons and where the freshest seafood can be found, Chris Bennett said. Surf Rider uses local suppliers as much as possible - like Waterside Fish Co. “You give people top quality food at a reasonable price, they’re going to keep coming back,” said dad Stanley Bennett, who is now retired. That Surf Rider also has a pool bar.īennett said the key to success is no secret.

#Surf rider restaurant chesapeake va full#

The company took over a small seasonal space at Marina Shores Marina in Virginia Beach in 2000 and completely renovated it last year with a full kitchen to have a full menu this year, Bennett said. The company first came to the Peninsula when Bluewater Yachting Center lured it to Hampton in 2002, he said.Īt each restaurant, Surf Rider maintains the same menu so customers know what to expect. Surf Rider most recently opened at Whitehouse Cove Marina in Poquoson in 2012 and is now enclosing part of the outdoor patio there to help keep the wind out. Bennett has debated with his family over whether to operate a food truck, and Surf Rider did create a mobile kitchen setup for the Poquoson Seafood Festival. The company may look into partnering to allow other restaurateurs to use the Surf Rider concept and name for a percentage of the revenue, Bennett said. “I feel like it’s in my blood,” son Preston said. Bennett also credits his wife Diana for helping in the main office. Bennett said he wouldn’t have been able to expand without the help of Chief Operating Officer David Simeone, who has worked with Bennett since they were teenagers working for his father, and 24-year-old son Preston Bennett, who knows every position and wants to take on more responsibility.