"We're all in it together. It's a short season, and there's plenty for everybody."
Barry Baxter said that to The SandPaper a few days after a late-September nor'easter pushed water into Barry's Do Me a Flavor on West Centre Street. He has owned the place since 1987, and 2026 was its 39th season. In Beach Haven's shoulder season, a shop that has already closed for the year is often the spare-parts room for one that hasn't. This fall, that help reached Bay Avenue from the island's north end, its south end and the middle.
Six days on one stretch of Bay Avenue
Here's the order things happened in, because the order explains everything after it.
- Friday night, Sept. 25. Baxter stayed at Barry's until 10 p.m. preparing, and planned to come back early Saturday before the tide peaked.
- Saturday morning. When he got there, the water was already inside. The kitchen came through fine. The dining room and the garage storage did not, and "at least five pretty substantial pieces of equipment" were ruined. That knocked the ice cream parlor side of the business out completely.
- Saturday and Sunday. Around the corner on Bay Avenue, Guapo's Coffee House took on significant water, and the cleanup ran for days.
- Chowder Cook-Off weekend. The storm landed just before the event The SandPaper calls Beach Haven's "last hurrah." Thanks to borrowed equipment, Barry's opened anyway.
- Wednesday, Sept. 30, 7 a.m. A fire broke out at BLVD Pizza, 610 N. Bay Ave., and spread damage to Sincerely June, the boutique next door.
- Same day. Okie's Butcher Shop in Surf City started a fundraiser with LBI Source.
That's two separate disasters on a few blocks in less than a week. Each recovery leaned on businesses well outside those blocks.
Why a closed ice cream shop was exactly what Barry's needed
The equipment Barry's lost was the kind you can't replace on a deadline. In The SandPaper's account, with the busiest weekend of the fall coming, there was no time to replace things like the ice cream boxes.
Two offers came in. One was from The Boardwalk, the ice cream and beach-gear shop at 2306 South Bay Ave. in Holgate. The other was from Poppy's Ice Cream Parlour at 607 Broadway in Barnegat Light. Both had already closed for the season.
Being closed was the whole reason they could help. A shop that has wrapped its season has coolers and freezers sitting unused and an owner with time to answer the phone. Poppy's equipment fit what Barry's needed better. Baxter told the paper, "Within five minutes, Lori was dropping off a key," meaning Lori Malay, who runs Poppy's and the How You Brewin coffeehouses. Poppy's own site now says it's closed until the 2027 season.
Baxter said that getting help "from both ends of the Island" meant a lot to him. He also explained why it works:
"In July and August, there's plenty of business for all of us. It's not a competition."
If you only shop the island in July, this side of it stays hidden. In the summer, these businesses are all open at once and chasing the same crowds. By late September, the calendar has split them into two groups: shops still trying to finish strong, and shops that have closed and have gear and time to lend. Barry's made it to Chowder weekend on the second group's equipment.
The block ran like one business
The help on Bay Avenue was smaller but steadier. Guapo's owner Sammy Jo Alvarez told The SandPaper that through the worst tides that Saturday and Sunday, "Nicole from Barry's was sending me updates pretty much hourly." On the first day of cleanup, "Matt from k+co LIVING bought all of us lunch."
The addresses show how tight this is. Guapo's is at 106 N. Bay Ave. k+co LIVING, a furnishings, home-decor and lifestyle boutique, is two doors up at 110 N. Bay Ave. Barry's is around the corner at 309 W. Centre St. Everyone was cleaning out their own shop, and they were still checking on each other. "It was nice having everyone on our block checking in on each other," Alvarez said.
A few days later, that same habit of checking in would matter a lot more.
Wednesday at 7 a.m.
The BLVD Pizza fire started at 7 a.m. on Sept. 30 and was under control by 7:45, and no one was hurt, according to The SandPaper's report. Before any fundraiser existed, the island had already sent help. Fire companies from Ship Bottom, Barnegat Light, Stafford Township and Parkertown backed up Beach Haven's firefighters. Stafford EMS and the Beach Haven First Aid Squad also responded. The Ocean County fire marshal is investigating the cause.
The money came from mid-island. Okie's Butcher Shop in Surf City and LBI Source set up the BLVD Pizza's & Sincerely June Fire Recovery page to support both businesses and their staff. By Oct. 5 it had raised $29,194, according to The SandPaper. By mid-October it showed $31,063 toward a $35,000 goal, and donations were still coming in. Most of the money arrived in the first five days, and it has kept coming more slowly since.
Okie's owner Robert "Okie" Whitcraft explained it to the paper by pointing back to an earlier storm:
"I was raised on the Island. Since the storm of '62, we all helped each other then, and we should all help each other now."
BLVD owner Mike Franzoni thanked "Okie and his wife" and said their 46 years on the island show "why they're still a driving force in this community." The owner of Sincerely June told The SandPaper that other local clothing stores had offered her space to run pop-ups in their shops. "That wouldn't happen anywhere but here," she said.
Look at who stepped in. Ship Bottom and Barnegat Light sent fire companies. Surf City organized the fundraiser. Barnegat Light and Holgate offered the ice cream equipment. Competing boutiques offered retail space. Every part of the island that could help, did.
Where Bay Avenue stands heading into the off-season
If you want to support these businesses this fall, here's where each one stands as of this week:
- Barry's Do Me a Flavor, 309 W. Centre St. It opened for Chowder Cook-Off weekend on borrowed equipment. Its website now reads "CLOSED! Thank you for a great 39th season!"
- Guapo's Coffee House, 106 N. Bay Ave. Its site lists a season of May 1 through January 1, so on paper it has more than two months of the year left.
- k+co LIVING, 110 N. Bay Ave. It's the furnishings and lifestyle boutique that bought lunch for the block on the first day of cleanup.
- BLVD Pizza and Sincerely June, 610 N. Bay Ave. Both were damaged in the Sept. 30 fire. BLVD's website also lists a Surf City shop at 1503 Long Beach Blvd. The recovery fundraiser is still accepting donations.
- Poppy's Ice Cream Parlour, 607 Broadway, Barnegat Light, and The Boardwalk, 2306 South Bay Ave., Holgate. The SandPaper reported that both had already closed for the season when they offered Barry's their equipment. Poppy's site says it is closed until the 2027 season.
Whitcraft also explained why late-season money matters so much to these owners: "We have a small window to pay for the winter's bills." For the Bay Avenue shops still open, that window lasts through the coffee runs and boutique stops between now and the new year. Guapo's posted season ends on January 1.
If you missed Chowder weekend itself, our guide to how that Saturday fits with the firehouse block party shows how compact this part of town is. To see the Barnegat Light end of this story, read how that town's fall calendar works.
Roberta Brackman lives on LBI and works here all year, including the months after these shops close for the season. If you own in Beach Haven and want to talk about how the off-season fits your plans for your property, schedule your free consultation. For more on the town itself, start with our Beach Haven neighborhood page.
