Five Ocean closes in Long Beach

As the Long Beach summer season begins to heat up, one familiar business will be missing from the boardwalk: Five Ocean, a top restaurant for seafood that was also featured on Newsday's 2023 Top 100 Restaurants list, has closed. The restaurant normally shutters for the winter season, but owner Craig Attwood said he sold the space to veteran bar owner John Lugano, who runs a string of bars and restaurants including John Scott’s Surf Shack in Westhampton Beach. 

Lugano could not be immediately reached for comment but a liquor license application filed for the space in November lists a concept called Dock Taco Inc. If it pans out, this will not be the only taco spot expected to open along the Long Beach boardwalk. The popular Mexican restaurant chain Tulum Tacos & Tequila plans to open a "Mexican chophouse" at The Breeze apartments this fall, according to a news release. 

Attwood, a Manhattan and East End fine dining chef, said he had tired of the seasonal nature of Long Beach, and needed the money to put into a yet unannounced concept he's working on in Lindenhurst. Over the six years since he opened Five Ocean in 2019, he said that many of his customers didn't appreciate what Five Ocean was all about. While the modest locale definitely had beach shack vibes, Attwood maintained a seasonal menu and was devoted to highlighting locally caught seafood. 

"Long Island diners want to make their own menus," he said, noting the popularity of fishes like branzino. (Five Ocean) just wasn't for them. I don't want to insult Long Beach, but as some of the locals will say, they want bar and grill, burgers and fried food. They want to drink Bud Lights." 

One of the top restaurants in Long Beach, Five Ocean served gorgeous plates of halibut and ahi tuna layered with fresh vegetables. But sometimes it was difficult to appreciate the complexity of the dishes while sitting outside with minimal lighting, next to a sand dune feeling the mist coming off the waves. In a 2019 Newsday review, Erica Marcus wrote that Five Ocean was a "terrific restaurant." Despite the beautiful food, she wrote, "neither of the two dinner entrées were as satisfying as the grilled fish tacos I had at lunch."

But Attwood says he really enjoyed his time working so close to the water, and the spontaneity that comes with the local catch. Like the time a guy walked in with six fresh mahi mahi and he filleted one on the spot.

"That's the kind of stuff that I enjoy," he said. "When you're on the beach, you're not in the Hamptons or Montauk. But a guy pulls up and they bring you live fish. It's fun." 

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.