The former Dunkin' on Main Street is turning into a sushi restaurant. The old ice cream window at 314 Main is now a bagel counter run by a chef with three decades in professional kitchens. And a block of oceanfront that used to end at a stretch of dune fencing is on track to connect all the way to Avon-by-the-Sea by the end of the year.
None of these are dramatic on their own. Read together, they describe a town quietly rearranging itself on two axes at once. The retail spine along Main Street is turning over faster than it has in years, and the physical shoreline is being pushed south under a state-funded engineering project. If you live here, the small signals are worth reading in sequence rather than as one-off news items.
The Main Street Turnover, Address By Address
The clearest way to see the change is by walking the addresses. A few of the newer or in-progress additions:
- 314 Main Street — Bradley Beach Bistro Bagels. A ribbon cutting was held for Bradley Beach Bistro Bagels on Main Street, opening a new, year-round dining spot. Owner and chef Will Stargell brings over 30 years of hands-on kitchen experience, and the menu leans into beachside items like a Beach Bagel Lox with avocado aioli and capers.
- Former Dunkin' on Main — Xina. Xina, a new restaurant scheduled to open in Bradley Beach, will feature sushi, seafood and Japanese and Chinese dishes in a conversion of the former Dunkin' location. Owner Rick Lee, who runs Xina on Route 37 in Toms River, had hoped to open his Monmouth County spot early in the year, and the Bradley Beach operation will allow patrons to bring their own alcoholic beverages. No opening date has been set as renovation work continues.
- Second Avenue and Ocean Avenue — Boardwalk Bandit. The Boardwalk Bandit sandwich and soda shop, located on the boardwalk promenade at Second Avenue and Ocean Avenue, opened its doors to the public for the summer 2026 season, serving sandwiches and handmade old-fashioned sodas daily.
The pattern is worth noting. Two of the three are conversions rather than new construction, and both operators are locals expanding rather than out-of-state chains testing the market. That is a different signal than what a broader tourist strip usually sends.
What The Bulkhead Project Actually Changes
The second axis is the shoreline itself. Bradley Beach is extending its Ocean Avenue promenade bulkhead to the borough's southernmost town line with Avon-by-the-Sea under Project P.R.O.T.E.C.T., connecting the borough's bulkhead to Avon's seawall with the eventual goal of connecting the towns' boardwalks. The project is designed to protect Bradley Beach's southernmost area near Sylvan Lake from future ocean surges or flooding.
The funding structure tells you why this is happening now rather than a decade from now. The $4.275 million project is funded 95% through state and federal grants, with the borough covering a 5% match through its beach utility, and the grant awarded in December 2024 stipulates the project must be completed by December 31, 2026.
The practical read: whether you walk south from the pavilion in November or wait until spring, the southern end of town is meant to feel physically different by the time the holiday decorations come down.
For residents on the blocks near Sylvan Lake, that matters twice over. A continuous walk to Avon changes weekend routines. Storm-surge protection changes the calculus every time a nor'easter shows up on the extended forecast.
Reading The Riley Park Calendar Like A Local
The borough's Summer 2026 events calendar is easier to use once you learn its rhythm. Rather than reading it as a list of one-offs, most of the recurring programming lands in a handful of predictable slots.
| Slot | Where | What tends to land there |
|---|---|---|
| Weeknight 7:00 PM | Riley Park | Summer Jazz Series (Zach Lorelli, Demolition Brass Band and other acts) |
| Weeknight 7:00 PM | Newark Avenue Beach | Brookdale Concerts |
| Evenings at the Gazebo | Main Street Gazebo | Swing Dance and Line Dance sessions |
| Weekend evening | Beachfront | DJ sets and family programming |
| Saturday 6:00 PM | Riley Park | Saturdays in the Park thematic nights (Elvis, tribute acts) |
The calendar also anchors the big-ticket dates residents plan around: a 250th Celebration at Riley Park on July 1 at 3:00 PM, a Kite Fly on the beachfront at 7:00 PM the same evening, and Fireworks on the beachfront on July 2 at 9:00 PM. If your out-of-town cousins are asking when to visit, that is the cluster to point at.
The farmer and maker market piece is separate but complementary. Bradley Fresh runs its Thursday market in downtown Bradley Beach, with the organizers describing it as summer nights built around fresh produce, food, art and music. It is the closest thing the town has to a standing weeknight social hour that does not require a reservation.
The Old Guard Still Sets The Tone
New openings only tell half the story. The reason Main Street can absorb a sushi conversion and a bagel launch without losing its character is that the anchor businesses have been in place long enough to define what the street is.
Del Ponte's Bakery at 600 Main Street was founded in Brooklyn by the Di Iorio family and has been open in Bradley Beach since 1999, offering a selection that includes over 40 cookie varieties, pies, cakes, breads and pastries. Next door, Del Ponte's Cafe & Creamery handles the coffee-and-crumb-cake traffic, with Del Ponte's Coal Fired Pizza in the same building. Three storefronts, one family, one corner of Main that has looked the same for a generation.
A block or two north, the identity gets even older. Vic's American-Italian Restaurant has been established since 1947, with a traditional Italian atmosphere. Bradley's Beach Plum Ice Cream at 420 Main Street is a classic ice cream shop that most residents can walk to without checking a map. Skratch Kitchen is a small Italian restaurant with a small dining room and small outdoor patio that has been featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Round out the everyday roster with Bradley Beach Bowl on Main and D'Arcy's Tavern, both operating under active borough liquor licenses renewed in 2026 borough council resolutions, and you have a stable of places that keep the street familiar even as the corner of Main and Fourth turns into something new.
What To Watch Between Now And Labor Day
Two things are worth tracking through the rest of the season if you live in the borough.
The first is the Xina opening. A restaurant that positions itself against the sushi rooms in Asbury Park and Point Pleasant, but is BYOB in a walk-up building on Main, will pull a different crowd than either Del Ponte's or Vic's. Whether it draws in from the neighboring towns or mostly serves resident demand will tell you something real about how far Bradley Beach's food reputation has traveled in the last five years.
The second is how quickly Project P.R.O.T.E.C.T. moves through the fall. A December 31 deadline in a coastal construction project always has weather risk. If the bulkhead work is visibly on schedule by mid-October, expect the connection to Avon to reshape late-fall walking routes almost immediately. If it slips, expect the southern end of the promenade to look like a construction site well into the holidays.
Either outcome tells you something about how the borough is going to feel next summer, which is really what a Bradley Beach August is for. The town is small enough that a single conversion on Main Street or a single grant-funded seawall changes the daily texture for everyone. That is the case for paying attention now rather than reading about it in a year-end roundup.
If you own a home here and have been quietly wondering what the current wave of Main Street activity and the promenade extension mean for your block specifically, that is a conversation worth having with someone who watches this market closely. Carly Ringer works Bradley Beach and the surrounding shore towns block by block, and is happy to talk through what these changes look like at the property level whenever you want the read.
