Business owners and residents moving from nearby metropolitan areas to the beach resorts here to start a second life is nothing new. Every day, they flock from Washington D.C., Baltimore, New Jersey and even New York to make a retirement home or to open a business.
Coastal Point • JONATHAN STARKEY:
Brooks Long stands next to some framed art in Steakhouse 26. Long is a business partner in the restaurant, as well as owner of Nassau Gallery and Custom Frame House, now in Millville.
Moving businesses from beach resort to beach resort is a bit rarer. But that’s exactly what Rehoboth Beach resident and area businessman Brooks Long did.
After spending 14 years with his business, Nassau Gallery and Custom Frame House, in Rehoboth, Long packed up the paintings and frames, said goodbye to his longtime Rehoboth Avenue-location and moved the business to blossoming Millville.
After Steakhouse 26 — in which Long is a partner — opened in June in the new Millville Town Center, Long opened his new Nassau Gallery and Frame House just a couple doors away.
“I was ready to get out of Rehoboth and start in a new area,” said Long, adding that his grandparents have lived in the Ocean View/Millville area for more than 50 years. “I was ready for a change to come down to Millville and start in a new area that has a lot of growth potential. The response has been very good.”
Oil paintings and prints featuring herons, beach-life scenes and Mediterranean landscapes are still strewn across the new Millville store, which Long admits is still a work in progress about two months after its opening.
The paintings range in price, he said, adding that high-quality art is available for those who wish to spend money on a nice piece, and lower-priced prints that would be perfect for decorative purposes are also available.
Paintings are also on display in the modern Steakhouse 26. All of the high-quality pieces of art that line the walls of Millville’s newest eatery are for sale, and in the meantime, give diners something artistic to study while eating. Long said, in fact, that he has sold more paintings out of the steakhouse than the gallery to date.
But, he noted, the artwork is not what Long’s new-to-Millville business is known for, or for what he believes it will come to be known. Although other galleries in the area offer framing services, Long — who boasts upscale clientele in Washington, D.C., among other places — said there is no competition locally for the framing services he provides. And he can find a custom frame for anyone with any budget, he added.
“We do very high-quality custom framing,” Long said. “(And) I can always find something to suit someone’s budget.”
And since Long has been in Rehoboth since 1992, he already has a strong customer base in the northern resorts and locally that will support his long-time frame house and new steakhouse, he said.
“I still have more improvements to make but I am settled in,” Long said this week. “The word on the street is very good.”