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Trump’s beach eatery not appetizing to all

BY EMERSON CLARRIDGE | Special to Newsday

September 25, 2006

Neil Noble came to Jones Beach 67 times this summer because the beach at Parking Field Six is as wide as the cross-section of working-class New York families it attracts.

It's an alternative to the East End beaches favored by the ultra-rich, he said.

But from his spot on the beach yesterday, Noble said he was worried that The Donald would soon change all of that if he carried through with his plan to build a $40-million restaurant and catering facility on the boardwalk.

"I grew up on this beach," said Noble, 48, of Douglaston. "I just hope it doesn't change."

Trump on the Ocean, which has already won state approval, would radically change the face of the beach, according to several beachgoers out on a warm, humid Sunday afternoon.

They framed their opposition as a matter of class, and sharply criticized Trump's plan as out of place. Construction on the 36,000-square-foot, three-story facility is to begin in November and the complex to open in the summer of 2008.

Noble, a New York sanitation department worker, said working-class people would be unable to pay for pricey dishes offered at the restaurant.

"I don't think I'll be able to afford it," he said. "I don't think I'll even be able to afford the valet parking."

In announcing the deal last week, Trump acknowledged that the restaurant would be marketed to the affluent, but cautioned that others could find offerings, too.

That did not assuage all out at the beach yesterday.

"We don't need Fifth and Madison Avenue brought out here to Long Island," said Kerry Grubb, 50, of North Massapequa, who was out for an afternoon stroll on the boardwalk with his wife on their 24th wedding anniversary. While he railed about an "ostentatious" structure, his wife, Peg Grubb, lamented that the restaurant would be "ruining the serenity and the peacefulness of a place like this."

Others welcomed Trump's plan.

"I would love a penthouse on the top and a buffet on the bottom level," said Lee Chase of Forest Hills, who joined her husband at a table on the boardwalk.

Andrew Chase, 63, said he didn't expect the real estate billionaire to maintain the beach's character.

"I don't trust him. I think it would be too glitzy. Too much glass and steel," he said.

The couple continued to bicker about whether the restaurant would be good for the island.

"I wouldn't come within 10 miles of the place," Andrew said, interrupted by his wife, who said, "I'll come alone."