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Ocean Pines Beach Club

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(July 12, 2018) Ralph DeAngelus of the Matt Ortt Companies last Thursday responded in an email to some criticisms of operations at the association beach club.

The email came after a the minutes of a recent clubs advisory committee were forwarded to Ortt and DeAngelus.

At issue was a news story last week of a clubs committee meeting that included a personal anecdote from one committee member about a poor experience at the beach club.

“Matt and I appreciate the detail in which suggestions have been made to make both properties the best they can be. That being said, the information put forth about the Beach Club couldn’t be more inaccurate,” DeAngelus said.

“First off, 75 percent of our food business is grab and go just as we had described it would be. Yes, we do have servers taking drink orders at both the pool and tables around the decks, and yes, if someone asks the server to get them food, OF COURSE, we are more than happy to do that. No guest is required to wait to be served, grab and go is always the fastest option, which is why it was our choice of food delivery from the start.

“Second, there are five options of draft beer. Bud light, Corona Light, Beach Club Shandy, Beach Club Lager and finally RAR Draft. As you can clearly see, there is not a fruit connection to 60 percent of those options. Additionally, we have 13 other canned beer products to choose from giving us a grand total of 19 beer options.

“Either Matt or myself will be at the next meeting to make sure all of the suggestions made by the group get a proper look over, and to dispel the information that is clearly wrong before it gets sent to the Board or the Ocean Pines Community.

“We take great pride in our operations and just ask that inaccurate information gets corrected before being disseminated downward.”

DeAngelus, in a phone interview Monday, added the suggestion by the committee to take reservations at the yacht club was unnecessary, because reservations had always been allowed.

“We’ve been taking reservations forever — Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” he said. “It’s only Fridays and Saturdays that we don’t take reservations. We’re just too busy for that.”