The Casino Café and Bar is both a beacon and an anchor for the Davis Park community. Opened in 1945, before ferry service started to Fire Island’s easternmost locality, the Casino’s 80th Anniversary celebration was held on June 6, with some 300 friends and family in attendance. Longtime resident Glen Slater quipped that he’s been at the beach almost as long as the Casino and may be its most enduring patron, while Charlene Lehmann imparted that she and her husband Bill met there. From first dances to last goodbyes, and from the snack bar to sumptuous dining, generations have enjoyed sunlit days toasting by the ocean and dancing under the stars. The Casino even held the community’s first worship services before the construction of the Church of the Most Precious Blood.
On the beautiful June night that we all celebrated together, the so-called Manhattan and Bronx sides joined as one to “ooh” and “ah” under the Grucci fireworks that illuminated the skies and our smiles as we collectively toasted in our favorite place.
The first building that now houses what is known as the Casino was constructed in the same location on June 6, 1945. The plan was led by the “four fathers” of Leja Beach — Lee Coffin, Ed Sembler, Joe Gerard, and Al Brown, whose first names come together as Leja.
The structure has gone through various permutations and extensions over the decades, some due to storms viciously ripping off decking, others from turning the old snack bar that was housed on the west side into a restaurant, to interior improvements on the bar side that still couldn’t get rid of the dreaded Casino feet that plagued so many barefoot visitors.
In 1995, a grand Anniversary party was held to celebrate 50 years, but unbeknownst to all, it was also a send-off. That Casino was taken by the ocean in the winter of 1996, when a January nor’easter washed it away, devastating decades of beachgoers.
Undeterred, Jim Tully and partners, who were just the second owners of the storied structure, made swift work of building what we now know as the Casino Café and Bar, floating it across the bay on a cool April day four short months later. Barring some additional renovations in the mid-2000s, it is the same building that stands there today — the one that beckons with a siren song as you approach Davis Park.
For so many beach kids, the Caz was the site of their first drink, first kiss, and first love, which has blossomed into decades of joy for countless couples. Generations of families gather together and separately to revel in the camaraderie that seems to emanate not just from the place our forefathers and mothers toasted and danced, but from the building itself. It is literally where east meets west: the intersection of Ocean Ridge and Davis Park.
Kristin Tully-Downs, the second-generation proprietress of the Casino, said, “People were excited to celebrate the history of the place. I’m beyond overwhelmed by the love it has from the community. Just incredible.”
