Harborside 1901 Bar and Grill’s Erman Celikel and Metehan Sahin are expanding their operations across the harbor this summer. The pair is taking over food and beverage services at Oceanside Resort’s Coastal Prime Restaurant, following the recent purchase of the property by Lafayette Hotels from Paul Coulombe.  

“We are very honored to be part of this operation. We’ve wanted to upscale our game a little bit, and this gives us the chance to do it,” said Sahin.  

To maintain branding, the establishment will be getting a slight name change to Coastal Prime 1901. The “1901” is a reference to the construction date of the iconic footbridge the pair’s restaurants now bookend. May 15, Coastal Prime will host its inaugural cocktail hour from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Dinner service will begin afterward.  

This is a full-circle moment for Celikel and Sahin, who both did seasonal work for the restaurant not long after it opened. “It just feels great to be the ones running it right now,” said Sahin.  

The duo are hard at work finalizing their offerings, which will heavily feature locally sourced seafood. The plan is to offer three distinct menus. There will be an all-day bar menu and lunch menu (11 a.m. - 4 p.m.) that will focus on more casual dining featuring regional dishes: fish and chips, lobsters rolls and such.  

Dinner will be more upscale with a mix of local ingredients and international influences, said Celikel. The man helping make this vision a reality is their new chef, Ercan Sahin. Sahin has spent the last 15 years traveling, making extended stops in Russia, Dubai and Cyprus before settling in the U.S. — where he’s just coming off time at a successful Spanish fusion restaurant in Washington, D.C. 

“We are super excited to (have) a great location, beautiful atmosphere, and experienced chefs,” said Celikel.  

They hope to play up the natural potential of the area to draw people in, including advertising for weddings and rehearsal dinners. The pair experienced their fair share of working such venues during their tenure at Linkin Bay Resort, where they first met back in 2012, and have been wanting to offer the services themselves. However, they were limited by Harborside’s capacity, a non-issue now with Coastal Primes’s ability to seat over 200 people.

But Celikel and Sahin's visions don't just stop there. Looking even further ahead, the pair want to tap into Celikel's family history in the hotel business and expand their hospitality services to that arena.

“I think (Celikel and I make) a great team together, and we have an amazing team now that we rely on with the management ... They give us the chance to take over more projects like this,” said Sahin.  

The pair’s other businesses will also be opening soon. Harborside 1901 Bar & Grill on May 1, and Downeast Ice Cream Factory and Harbor Treats on May 16.