OCEAN CITY – A monkey sporting stellar shades is now looking over mid-town Ocean City and calling all to come taste a variety of specialty burgers and craft brews.
Business partners John Fager, owner of Fager’s Island, and Kevin Myers, general manager of Fager’s Island, opened Bad Monkey on 58th Street and Coastal Highway late last month.
The brightly colored Bad Monkey features a sub shop with counter service for indoor and outdoor seating as well as carry-out on the first floor and a craft burger bar with table service on the second floor deck.
“The idea was to have two different styles. If you want to come and get waited on, come upstairs, but downstairs you can get carryout and take subs to the beach,” Myers said.
Upstairs there are eight craft beers on tap along with a variety of canned craft brews.
“On draft, we’re representing several different states but mainly focused on Maryland and Delmarva. We have a couple of really neat ones that we have gotten a good response on,” said Myers, pointing out Devil’s Backbone Stripped Bass Pale out of Virginia that is donating a dollar of every case purchased to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Keeping it local, Bad Monkey is purchasing its beef for its craft burgers from an organic cattle farm located in Monkton, Md. The cattle are grass fed
The new Bad Monkey is located on 58th Street and Coastal Highway. Photos by Joanne Shriner
resulting in an all-natural, antibiotic free and hormone free product.
“It is dry-aged so it gives it a little bit of a taste profile,” Myers said. “That is the product we have built the burgers around. Right now, we have a couple different selections but we are going to extend that significantly.”
Currently ,Bad Monkey’s menu offers a create your own style burger or guests can select from specialty burgers, such as the Hell Burger made with jalapenos, pickled red onions, pepper jack cheese and guacamole or the Jersey Shore burger made with prosciutto, fried egg, mozzarella, tomato and basil.
Also available upstairs starting at 9 a.m. is Bad Monkey’s breakfast menu that includes omelets and eggs any style made with organic eggs as well as homemade French toast and pancakes.
“We wanted to do breakfast from the beginning,” Myers said. “We felt it would be a great business to have because whether the people live here or are just visiting breakfast is one of the best meals to go out for, and being able to sit outside and have breakfast is fun. That menu has been really well received.”
The sub shop’s menu offers a variety of salads and subs, chicken tenders, jalapeno poppers and onion rings. All subs are served on all-natural, 10-inch rolls made and baked in house daily.
The specialty item shared among breakfast, burgers and subs is Bad Monkey’s homemade bread.
“Every day we are baking our own bread from French toast for breakfast, white bread for toast to breakfast, and our burger and sub rolls. Chef Leo from the Atlantic Hotel came over and got us started on our recipe and our process there,” Myers said.
The concept behind Bad Monkey was to take a different pace from Fager’s Island, Myers explained.
“At Fager’s Island, not that we take ourselves too seriously over there, but you can sit down in fine dining or be in a fast-paced night club with awesome DJ’s or great bands. It is a tremendous environment, so we wanted to do something a little bit more light-hearted over here,” he said.
Bartender Elizabeth Sykes pours one of several Maryland Delaware craft beers available on tap at Ocean City’s newest establishment.
Architect Jeff Schoellkopf designed Bad Monkey keeping that “light-hearted” idea in mind by having the second floor an open-air deck.
“We wanted to accomplish a light, airy and open feel, and we wanted the building to be an advertisement in itself, so instead of having heavy signage when you look at it, you see a brightly colored building with the people on the deck and good energy,” Myers said.
Myers pointed out a few of the building’s special characteristics, including a mirror behind the bar on the second floor that was located at a downtown Ocean City soda fountain landmark over 100 years ago and mounted on the walls are fish made out of drift wood crafted in Costa Rica.
Bad Monkey has several plans to ride out into the future by expanding the specialty burger and craft beer list as well as offering a delivery service.
“There is lots more to come,’ Myers said. “The process and everybody that we have worked with has been fantastic. Everyone has been very positive and the idea has been well received. We have a lot of folks that live around here that have been very excited about this space, as well as he design and the concept. It’s been nice to have such positive feedback.”