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UPDATE: Bahama Breeze Plans Summer Opening at Ocean County Mall

Caribbean-themed restaurant planned to open this summer, but construction of the site has sparked some controversy.

Bahama Breeze plans to open its latest location at the Ocean County Mall sometime this summer, but construction of the property has sparked concern from some local workers who are upset that a company from outside New Jersey has been contracted to work on the restaurant's construction.  

The 8,000-square-foot Caribbean-themed restaurant is being built as a pad site on mall property, on the southwest side jughandle by Hooper and Bay avenues, and will mark the fourth Bahama Breeze location within New Jersey.

"We are excited to add Bahama Breeze to our roster of more than 120 specialty retailers," said Tara Melodick, Ocean County Mall’s director of marketing and business development, in a statement. "Its arrival is the latest move in our ongoing efforts to offer new dining concepts and expanded dining options to our shoppers in the Toms River area and visitors from all along the Jersey Shore. We think they’ll love its warm atmosphere and great food."

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The construction of the restaurant, however, prompted some officials with the Monmouth and Ocean Counties Building and Construction Trades Council to urge the management of Ocean County Mall to work more closely with them and to hire local contractors for work on the site.

Hundreds of organized labor members came to the mall on Saturday donning hard hats and shopped as a way to demonstrate that "local tradesmen are here and shop the malls," Thomas DeBartolo, president of the Monmouth and Ocean Counties Building and Construction Trades Council said in an interview with Patch. "Of course we would like everything to go union, but our point [on Saturday] was to say 'at least employ people that live in the area, and those people that pay taxes in these towns. Why do you need contractors to come several states away?'"

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The Bahama Breeze restaurant pad would be the third pad site at the Ocean County Mall. The other two, Olive Garden and TGIFriday's, are on the northwest corner of the mall on Oak and Hooper avenues.

"They're going to redesign the parking in the immediate area of the new building," said township planner Jay Lynch last year as approvals were being worked out. "The planning board needed to determine if the site would have sufficient parking, and it does."

The menu features foods containing "flavorful and colorful ingredients of the islands," according to Pat Burson, a public relations manager for the mall. 

Menu items at Bahama Breeze include jerk chicken pasta, chicken kabobs, coconut shrimp, baby back ribs and seafood paella. Tropical drinks are among the beverage selection, and desserts like piña colada bread pudding feature Caribbean inspiration, according to Burson.

The Bahama Breeze liquor license was bought from downtown restaurant Jimmy C's, which sold its license in 2011. 

The first Bahama Breeze opened in 1996 in Orlando and the chain, owned by Darden Restaurants, currently has 24 locations throughout the United States including locations in Wayne, Woodbridge and Cherry Hill.

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