It’s been a busy year for Ocean Shack, the seafood restaurant and sports bar that opened in Waverly Hills last November.
With an emphasis on sports, seafood and social media, the restaurant — which celebrated its one-year anniversary a couple weeks ago — overcame some initial growing pains to regularly draw in weekend crowds.
A key part of the young restaurant’s success, co-owner Tea Shao told ARLnow, is its social media marketing, which has secured some 25,000 Instagram followers and millions of views.
The restaurant has partnered with dozens of local influencers over the past few months, usually inviting one or two each month to show off free seafood boil platters of snow crab, butter-doused lobster tails and scallops, among other offerings.
“We feel like collaborating with influencers is essential because they have thousands of followers already,” Shao said. “If they can film some content and spread out the word for you, that’s generally, in my opinion, more effective, and even cost-effective, compared to some traditional advertising ways.”
As some of these Instagram Reels and TikTok videos earned up to 2 million views, Shao said the restaurant’s first brushes with internet fame helped it grow, but also presented some challenges.
“When we went viral on social, there was a time that people had to wait for like, more than an hour in line,” Shao said. “It was definitely a lot of pressure for front staff and the kitchen staff.”
The restaurant received some negative reviews on social media and Yelp during that period, with some customers complaining about customers service or food quality.
“We sometimes didn’t provide good enough service to customers … it’s really hard for us to adjust, but we still try our best to do better,” Manager Hang Zheng told ARLnow. “We’re definitely going to do better and better on this … we have more experience than the day we were opened.”
Nowadays, weekends are the restaurant’s busiest times — and as the business heads into another winter season, customers are visiting at a more manageable pace.
Patrons usually fit into one of two categories: sports-watchers and lovers of seafood. The sports crowd includes former patrons of Thirsty Bernie, a sports bar at the same address that closed in May 2023.
“They already had a strong bond to this restaurant,” Zheng said.
Promotional day-of-the-week deals, like $1 wings on football nights and a “Sports Sunday” $15.99 fried seafood combo, also help. Other attractions have included events like live music and trivia nights, which will return after the holiday season.
In tandem with the first year anniversary, the restaurant has been promoting a new “premium” all-you-can-eat menu at $79.99 per person. This option — as opposed to Ocean Shack’s regular $57.99 all-you-can-eat deal — includes higher-end options like lobster, Dungeness crabs and scallops.
Ocean Shack is currently testing to see if the premium menu will become a permanent addition. Although no decisions have been made, Zheng said customers seem to like it.
“[Customers] do enjoy the all-you-can-eat concept,” he said. “Most importantly, they do like the way we cook, season the seafood, and I think that’s how they choose to like us and keep doing it.”
