VENTNOR – After a long harsh winter that caused eateries to close unexpectedly for weeks, the Ventnor Beautification Committee wants to give business owners a break. It has cancelled this year’s Chef’s Night Out dine-around event, which brought 400 diners to more than 20 participating restaurants, ice cream parlors and liquor stores.
“Just like Hurricane Sandy, the winter storms packed a punch,” organizer Shelley D’Orazio said. “We felt like they got hit hard and we couldn’t ask them to prepare food for 400 people this year.”
D’Orazio said participating eateries foot the entire bill to welcome diners for small bites of their food offerings.
“People don’t realize the Beautification Committee has zero expenses. All the tickets, food, servers, restaurant staff and musicians are donated 100%. We felt that out of respect for the businesses, we would take a year off and come back next year bigger and better.”
PROVIDED/Ventnor Beautification Chairwoman Shelley D'Orazio and her spouse, Peter D'Orazio at the bandshell groundbreaking.D’Orazio said before she posted the announcement on the organization’s Facebook page, she visited all the establishments that had expressed interest in participating this year to give them fair warning.
Some of the restaurant owners were disappointed it was being cancelled, but others understood the effort for financial relief, she said.
“People are already calling me for tickets,” D’Orazio said. “It’s the best event of the year because it covers the entire city.”
The response from the community, as expected, was that they are disappointed.
“I was so looking forward to this event,” one Facebook poster stated. “Even as a local, I found spots that I hadn’t visited that I never knew were so good. Very disappointing.”
Another said, “Bummer! It’s my favorite event of the year! I love finding new restaurants in Ventnor during Chef’s Night Out.”
Instead of holding the event on Sunday, May 17, D’Orazio said the entire Beautification Committee would be going out to dinner to support the businesses.
“We’re asking those who would normally buy tickets to do the same,” she said. “Go out and support Ventnor’s fine restaurants by purchasing a full dinner. People may not realize the big hit they took having to close for weeks this winter. Some had to close down until April and others went out of business. We can’t put this expense on them after they got killed this winter.”
The restaurants supply everything needed for the event at no cost, including purchasing extra food, cooking it, paying their servers and even purchasing paper products and disposable utensils that they don’t normally use.
The Ventnor Beautification Committee has been putting on Chef’s Night Out for 13 years, except for the year following Hurricane Sandy. It is the main fundraiser for the committee, which contributes the proceeds for things that spruce up the city.
Last year, it donated $100,000 toward completing the new band shell at the Newport Avenue beachfront park that hosts the weekly concert series during the summer season.
“We’re a tiny committee, but we get stuff done,” D’Orazio said when the band shell was dedicated in late June last year.
For more than a decade, the committee has also provided the city with new trash receptacles, beach trash enclosures, banners, American flags, and more.
D’Orazio said the next big contribution to the beautification of the city would be to assist the city with the installation of new welcome signage.
“The old ones are getting a little weather beaten,” she said.
Past ticket holders may be inclined to mark their calendars for April 1, 2027, the date tickets will go on sale for next year’s event. Tickets sell out fast.
Follow Ventnor Beautification Committee on Facebook.
Copyright Fideri News Network 2026
