The EOS Restaurant Group specializes in boutique hotels and restaurants, opening Via Sophia by the Sea in June 2023 in the Bethany Beach Ocean Suites Residence Inn, joining sister restaurants in Kennebunkport and Washington, D.C, which is the private equity fund owner’s business model to attract seasonal and weekend visitors to its hotels.  Food at a hotel lobby restaurant usually competes with a cool lobby bar scene as the main draw.  Here is no different, with Via Sophia’s bar equally attracting hotel guests and boardwalk stragglers alike, looking to mingle and catch the game on the several available flatscreens while enjoying crafty cocktails in a vibrant setting.  But the quality of pre-dinner drinks and the tempest of flirting are not worth the food stretch.  The kitchen perhaps needs time to find its culinary footing, but Via Sophia is not inexpensive, so if you are willing to endure high prices to learn if chef meets the challenge, expect to be disappointed.  Sure, the coastal dishes are innovative and there is a hint of fresh fish among the heavily sauced entrees, but the food portions are small and mostly bland, including the over-priced and sometimes over-cooked beef dishes.  New restaurants helmed by corporate owners catering to tourists often need a season to adjust, find a competent staff and general manager, and learn how to attract local repeat visitors, who are key to a restaurant’s longevity and off-season survivability.  Via Sophia has a nearly captive hotel audience with seaside dining overlooking the Bethany Beach boardwalk hustle, one of only two hotels in all of Bethany Beach, but with so many better options in that heightened restaurant price range, diners may start to balk at the hotel rates the same way they appear to be avoiding the convenience of lobby dining – the food just isn’t worth the price.

99 Hollywood St.

Bethany Beach, DE 19930

302-539-0299