GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – The Mott’s Creek Inn is a hangout.
For some 70 years, it’s been at the same location a mile and a third from Route 9 at the end of Mott’s Creek Road, which is about a mile north of the Historic Towne of Smithville.
“It’s got new owners and new management,” manager Julie Miller said. “Over the years it has been at times a restaurant and a bait shop since the 1930s.”
The inn was shut for three years before being purchased by four men who “liked hanging out here,” she said. It reopened Aug. 16.
Miller, too, was attracted to the facility, whose floor space is mostly taken up by a bar. Flat-screen televisions are at each end of the room, usually playing sports.
“I wanted to work at a place that I would hang out at – a relaxed, fun atmosphere,” Miller said. “I fell in love with the place. It was in the middle of construction and I still fell in love with it.”
Miller, who comes from Shamong Township, had just completed bartending school in Cherry Hill when she applied for a job. She was originally hired to tend bar but was quickly promoted to manager.
“I came down; I had a whole list of places I was going to apply,” she said. “This was my first – and my last – application. As soon as I came in, I knew this was where I wanted to be.”
She said the four owners are all originally from Mount Holly.
“They all grew up spending summers on Long Beach Island and used to frequent the bar here,” Miller said. “Now they all have places in Beach Haven. They all come here in their boats.”
The owners, she said, are Dave Parker, his son Gregg Parker, Greg Kipple and Miles Powell.
For now, all food is served at the large rectangular bar that seats about 40.
“We’re hoping to rebuild the dining area during the winter,” Miller said. “Then we plan to reopen it in the spring.”
Typically, the customers are mostly regulars.
It’s a friendly, mostly beer-drinking – and most of that Budweiser – and good-time crowd.
“We have a lot of locals. A lot of fishermen. We’re right on Mott’s Creek,” she said, although the locals pronounce it “Mott’s Crick.”
“They’ll tell you that a creek is a creak in the floor,” Miller said. Here, “a creek is a crick.”
Business has been good, she said.
“Everybody’s slowly finding us,” she said. “It’s all been just word of mouth and an ad in The Current. People come in and you hear them saying things like, ‘I can’t believe it. I used to come in here when I was 5 with my Dad.’”
There were children eating in the bar around noon Saturday, out to lunch with their father.
While the kitchen is scheduled to close at 8 p.m., Miller said that any orders placed by 8 get filled. Last weekend, a customer asking for a sandwich that wasn’t on the menu was cheerfully accommodated.
“If we can make it for you, we’re eager to please,” Miller said. “We’re very open.”
Chef David Clark said he starts getting things ready at 7:30 a.m.
“Everything is fresh and homemade,” he said. “I make small batches. Anything we don’t sell, we eat ourselves – but usually everything sells out. Business has been great. We have loyal customers who appreciate good food served in generous portions at reasonable prices.”
He said he makes potato salad and other side dishes daily as well as the chowders.
The inn’s motto, Miller said, is “Beware of the locals.”
She quickly clarified: the locals referred to are the greenhead flies.