Ask a regular what's changed on Dune Drive this year and they'll mention Gully's, the newest name at 27th Street. Ask what's actually different about that corner and the honest answer is less than you'd think. This is now the third restaurant concept to occupy that address in about three years, and the pattern says more about how Avalon eats than any single opening does.
The corner itself has a short memory. Black Cactus opened there in 2024 with real buzz, helped along by a liquor license that had once belonged to two neighborhood fixtures, Jack's Place and Gallagher's Pub. The coastal Mexican concept lasted two summers before closing for good in September 2025, for reasons the ownership never explained publicly. This spring, Gully's took the space, spending March hiring bartenders, servers, and line cooks to be ready before Memorial Day. Its pitch leans hard into nostalgia rather than novelty: old-school Avalon, yard games, a beach-bar-for-the-whole-family feel, and a slice of Sea Isle City brought north through a Phil's Famous Pizza partnership. Where Black Cactus tried to introduce something the block hadn't seen before, Gully's is betting on reminding people of something they already miss.
The Corner That Keeps Changing Its Mind, and the Blocks That Don't
That 27th and Dune address is turning into a useful marker for how fast a trendy, differentiated concept can burn through goodwill on this stretch. Two summers seems to be about the ceiling for a restaurant that's trying to be the new thing. Meanwhile, a few blocks in either direction, businesses that never rebranded are still running exactly as they were.
Oceanside Seafood has been on Dune Drive since 2006. It hasn't repositioned, hasn't chased a new identity, and hasn't tried to become something else for a new crowd. The one change for 2026 was adding poke bowls to the menu, a small nod to what people are ordering now without touching the rest of the operation. The market still runs first-come, first-served, with posted wait times of 25 to 45 minutes on a normal night and up to 75 minutes over a July 4th weekend. That's not a business reinventing itself. That's a business that figured out its lane two decades ago and has been defending it since.
High Dune Baking Company tells a similar story from a different angle. The bakery at 2709 Dune Drive used to be known to locals as the 27th Street Bakery. Under new owners Maeve McNamara and Andrew Stanton, it kept the family baking tradition intact and simply gave it a new name to match. The identity didn't get overhauled. It got renamed and continued.
Even the newer arrival that's actually thriving followed a different logic than Black Cactus did. Avalon Prime Steakhouse opened for the 2025 season at a well-known Avalon property, with a ribbon-cutting attended by State Senator Michael Testa, Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski. Instead of trying to be trendy, it went upscale and specific, building its reputation around its wine list. That bet paid off fast: in its second year, Avalon Prime was recognized in Wine Spectator's 2026 Restaurant Awards for its wine program, a level of outside validation that a concept restaurant chasing a vibe rarely earns in under two years.
| Business | On Dune Drive Since | What It Did for 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Oceanside Seafood | 2006 | Added poke bowls, changed nothing else |
| High Dune Baking Co. | Continuation of 27th Street Bakery | New name, same family recipes |
| Avalon Prime Steakhouse | 2025 | Won a Wine Spectator award in year two |
| Gully's | 2026 | Third concept on the 27th and Dune corner in roughly three years |
The restaurants that last on Dune Drive aren't the ones trying to be new. They're the ones that picked one thing and kept doing it.
That's worth remembering the next time a shiny new concept opens with a hiring event and a social media countdown. The block has seen that movie before, and the ending usually depends on whether the new place is trying to reinvent the street or just occupy it.
The Calendar Doesn't Turn Over the Same Way
If the restaurant scene on Dune Drive resets every couple of years, the community calendar runs on a much steadier clock, and late summer is when that shows up most clearly.
Thursdays at Surfside, the free concert series co-sponsored by the Avalon Free Public Library and the Avalon Recreation Department, has been running at Surfside Park since June 25, when Yellow Brick Joel kicked off the season with an Elton John and Billy Joel tribute set. The lineup since then has leaned into cover bands built for a beach crowd, Don Jovi, Best of the Eagles, AM Gold Yacht Rock, and the series wraps for the year on September 3. Bring a beach chair, and if the weather turns, the show moves indoors to Avalon Community Hall.
The other fixture worth working into the last few weeks of the season is the Wetlands Institute's guided Dune Walks, held at the 48th Street path through September 2. Avalon's dune system is one of the only remaining high dune systems left on the East Coast, and the guided walks are a rare chance to actually learn what's holding that landscape together rather than just walking past it on the way to the beach.
None of this is new information dressed up as news. It's the same rhythm the town runs every summer, which is exactly the point. The restaurants churn. The concert series, the library programming, the dune walks, they don't.
Here's what's still on the books before Labor Day:
- Thursdays at Surfside concert series, Surfside Park, 7 PM, through September 3
- Wetlands Institute Dune Walks, 48th Street path, 9:30 AM, through September 2
- Avalon Free Public Library's Summer Spotlight Series, various locations, running through the end of August
What This Actually Means If You Eat on This Block
None of this is a verdict on Gully's before it's had a real season to prove itself. It's a pattern worth knowing if you live here and want to guess which new opening is worth getting attached to. A concept trying to introduce something the block hasn't seen tends to get about two summers to prove it out. A business that just keeps doing one thing, whether that's Oceanside's steamed platters or a bakery holding onto its old name's reputation, tends to still be there a decade later. Avalon Prime's early wine award suggests there's a third path too, going specific and upscale rather than trendy, but that's a harder bet to make twice.
If you're the kind of regular who's watched three restaurants cycle through the same corner and wondered whether it's worth trying the next one, the answer is probably yes, just don't expect it to still be there in three years unless it settles into something simple and sticks with it.
Whether you're weighing a Thursday night at Surfside Park against dinner at the newest name on Dune Drive, or you're thinking further ahead about what it actually takes to buy or sell in a town where the restaurant scene turns over but the property market moves on its own much slower clock, it helps to talk to someone who's watched both change. Sean Elstone works Avalon and the rest of the Jersey Shore alongside the Main Line and Center City, and knows the difference between a neighborhood's noise and its actual signal. Request a VIP Consultation when you're ready to talk about what's next.
