Welcome to the
Beach House!
The Beach House at the Hingham Bathing Beach is known for out-of-this world Smash Burgers, locally caught seafood, perfectly-seasoned fries, and tasty vegan salads.
Now in its third year, the Beach House has become a popular gathering place for families, friends, and neighbors to enjoy their favorite beach food and other menu items sitting on one of the picnic benches or on the stretch of grass, with spectacular views of Hingham Harbor, especially at sunset.
The Beach House is fast becoming known as a happy, friendly place run by happy, friendly people, where fond memories are made.
The owners of Stars on Hingham Harbor, Tosca, Caffe Tosca, and Fireking Baking Company — which are all part of Eat Well, Inc. — partnered to make the Beach House happen as part of the long-awaited completion of the new bathhouse/snack shop/community room building at the Bathing Beach.
The same high-quality ingredients and care that go into preparing a meal at Tosca, Caffe Tosca, and Stars go into the preparation of orders at the Beach House, which opened for the first time in 2020 to rave reviews.
Fireking Baking Company owner Greg Acerra, who negotiated the lease with the town and designed the kitchen, said it’s been a great season so far.
The owners and staff — including the friendly teenagers who serve up the orders from the pick-up window — love what they do, and their high spirits and energy are appreciated by the many customers who return again and again to enjoy old favorites or to try something new.
Kevin Long, Tosca’s executive chef who curated the menu, explained that while preparing beach food and soft-serve treats sounds simple, “there’s a massive amount of development every step of the way to meet customers’ expectations.”
Take the Smash Burgers, made with the Beach House’s own blend of ingredients served on a bun made by Fireking — “which is not your average bun,” he said.
All the bread served here is made at Fireking. “There’s nothing like it around,” said Chef Dave Smyth, who executes the menu. Another plus is that although the food is made fast, it’s also high-quality — created from the freshest ingredients, nothing frozen, and prepared with the Beach House’s in-house beer batter, which is beyond delicious.
“The combination of tasty food, close proximity to the beach, and the beautiful setting makes the Beach House the place to go,” Smyth said. The new restrooms are a plus.
An added benefit is that the Beach House offers job opportunities to local youth.
Long noted that Eat Well started in Hingham more than 30 years ago. The addition of the Beach House within a mile of its other restaurants is a sign of the company’s success and interest in serving the community.
Among customer — and staff! — favorites are the Beach Burger, Lettuce Wrap, Double Langlee, and Button Island Smash Burgers.
Customers also love the fresh, summery “Street Corn” salad, the new Smash Burger Bowl featuring a chopped double cheeseburger, mixed greens salad, baby tomatoes, and lime vinaigrette; and the fabulous Fireking Lobster Roll.
A “snack stand” at the harborfront was first envisioned in the 2007 Master Plan for Hingham Harbor, which was funded by Community Preservation Act funds and prepared by a landscape architecture and design consultant for the Harbor Development Committee.
“A Request for Proposals for converting the old 1960’s vintage bathhouse into a combination bathhouse and snack stand was floated about seven years ago but attracted no interest because we were told it was too small,” according to Bathing Beach Trustee Alan Perrault.
After numerous attempts to bring this vision to reality, CPA funds were secured for engineering and architecture to evaluate the best location and design and budget estimates.
Thanks to a significant grant from the Massachusetts Seaport Economic Council toward construction of a new building, with architecture by the Hingham-based Strekalovsky Architects, Acerra was selected as the vendor. Hingham Town Meeting provided additional funding to meet the construction budget, and the vision of a place offering great beach food and other menu offerings at Hingham Harbor became a reality, far beyond the initial plan for a “snack stand.”