For those who loved the Merion Inn in Cape May, like us, then we have some sad news, it’s Permanently Closed.
Merion Inn was located 106 Decatur St in Cape May and was a cozy restaurant situated in an 1885 marine boarding villa.
Cape May’s The Merion Inn Permanently Closed
In 1900 the owner, Patrick Collins, opened up the first cafe in the building called Collins Cafe. There you could get old whiskies, fresh seafoods, Milwaukee beers and “neatly appointed rooms for ladies.”
Andrew Zillinger, chief steward of the Merion Cricket Club on Philadelphia’s Main Line, purchased the inn in 1906 and changed its name to The Merion.
It had changed hands many times in it’s time but now it’s no more.
In early February rumors started that the lease in the Merion Inn has expired and wasn’t going to be renewed.
If you were like us you started calling the restaurant to figure out why they hadn’t updated their hours or post about their Mother’s Day Brunch.
Doing some research in public records we found our answer.
On March 9th it was posted that there was an application made to the Local Alcoholic Beverage Control Issuing Authority of the City of Cape May for a place-to-place transfer of Plenary Retail Consumption License No. 0502-33-003-008.
The application called for expansion of the licensed premises to include premises located at 19 Jackson Street and 106 Decatur Street.
19 Jackson Street is the location of the Mad Batter which No. 0502-33-003-008 belong to.
After a quick call we were able to confirm that indeed the Mad Batter had purchased the Merion with intensions to add a new restaurant in it’s place.
This left the question of what happened to the The Merion Inn license 0502-33-012-003? At the moment this is a pocket license. This means that it doesn’t belong to a property (and is just sitting in your pocket).
Since the Mad Batter didn’t purchase this license or the restaurant we could see a Marion Inn open in another form.
At this moment though we don’t have any information on where or when that could be.
