Scene Around: Donovan’s 50th; Yesteryear ‘Cheers!’

It was something to dance about — or “Cheers!” about, at least. And while there was no dancing in the street in Sea Bright, there was what looked like some dancing on the deck at Donovan’s Reef on Aug. 10 when the iconic Sea Bright beachfront bar and grill was celebrated for its 50 years in existence by a Monmouth County official and its owners.

Donovan’s started out in 1976 and thrived for decades as a seaside tiki sort of shack on the oceanfront. It became the unofficial gathering spot for RFH grads from that summer of senior year in high school and all through the years including countless reunion night-before ritualistic partying.

No one knows the power of tradition packed into every fiber of the Donovan’s being like an RFH grad. From cozying shoulder-to-shoulder into the small, unassuming shack on the water to hanging on the sea wall deck and down on the sand by the tiki hut of later years (later than the ’70s, anyway), many milestone moments have been had at Donovan’s.

And those milestone moments took a wallop of a tragic turn for the iconic spot when Superstorm Sandy’s near-tsunami smashed it to smithereens and literally lifted the little main building and bar like the house that landed on the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.

A piece of the sign, ironically the DO, was a telling remnant that was left behind in the storm’s wake, prompting then Mayor Dina Long to use it as a motivator in her speech at a rally at RFH on Nov. 2, 2012, a month after Sandy hit. “DO is what we’re gonna do,” she said to the cheers of the crowd packed in the Borden Stadium, many of whom lost everything.

And “DO” is what Sea Bright and area residents did. The peninsula borough was rebuilt, piece by piece, and, finally, Donovan’s came back in the summer of 2015 in its beach tiki bar form. On Memorial Day weekend in 2017, the bar had been completely rebuilt and expanded.

It has thrived since, to the point of it being too packed in the summer months for RFH reunion gatherers to celebrate the Donovan’s connection.

There was, though, a memorial tribute party for Rumson-raised Kit Rowett.

And only hearing the stories of iconic anchoring that Donovan’s has inspired through the years, yet knowing the accolades bestowed upon the Rumson-Fair Haven area hot spot, Monmouth County Commissioner Director Tom Arnone recently joined present Donovan’s Reef owners Michael Cardelfe, Christine Carducci and Bob Phillips to recognize the iconic Sea Bright spot at 1171 Ocean Avenue and its official 50 years of existence, since Aug. 10, 1976.

To understand what a little hideaway Donovan’s was back in its earlier days, the area newspapers of 1976 had no Donovan’s ads until about 1978, no stories about the place, only a liquor license notice, and a tiny October ad announcing free sandwiches, hot dogs and cable TV for Monday Night Football.

Also, there were plenty of showings of the John Wayne movie the bar was named after the classic John Wayne movie from the early 1960s about a former WW II era sailor who owns a bar on a South Pacific island named, of course, Donovan’s Reef.

Oh, there was also a tiny ad for beach lockers and shower privileges in 1977 at $100 per season. More about old Donovan’s later …

Once the Donovan’s secret was out, though, the very casual, low-profile bar that featured regulars, recent RFH grads, football watching, local bands, beer, wine and well drinks in plastic evolved into a Best Beach Bars in America hit list of shishi lala coolness — with that old-time twinkle of simple always winking back.

The truth, though, for any Donovan’s loyalist of its infancy, from shack on the beach to built-out deluxe tiki to withstand any storm, the locals of the ’70s, their children and, soon enough, grandchildren will still always make their way home to Donovan’s.

Happy 50th Birthday, Donovan’s! Cheers to a lifetime of tradition spanning generations!

— Photos/Monmouth County Division of Tourism