Preserving Delmarva Dynasties: The Jamestown Hospitality Group
With a name like Jamestown, you’d expect a hospitality group to have a Virginia headquarters or a Colonial-themed restaurant. However, Wilmington-based Jamestown Hospitality Group (JHG) is devoted to Delmarva and laced with legacies.
JHG’s diverse concepts include Tonic Seafood & Steak, Juniper by Tonic, and Park Café in Wilmington; TBG at Braeloch Brewing and Giordano’s in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania; and Deep Blue at Kitty Knight in Georgetown, Maryland.
But each one has a pinch of local lore.
Breaking new ground: Tonic Seafood & Steak
Tonic was a rebranding of Deep Blue Bar & Grill, which opened in Wilmington’s business district in 1998. The downtown renaissance was still in its infancy, and the restaurant was a risk. However, the owner was Dan Butler, the young chef who’d invigorated Wilmington’s Trolley Square in 1991 with Griglia Toscana—now Piccolina Toscana.
Paul Bouchard, Robert Lhulier, and Michael Majewski cut their teeth at Toscana, and Butler brought all three to Deep Blue. By that time, Lhulier had graduated from the Culinary Institute of America.
The contemporary, seafood-centric Deep Blue was a hit, particularly with businesspeople and theater crowds. “We killed it the first year—killed it!” Bouchard recalls. In 2006, Butler, Bouchard, and Majewski opened Brandywine Prime Seafood & Chops. The restaurant is in the Chadds Ford Inn, an establishment dating back to 1736 that the Wyeth family frequented.
Steak crept onto Deep Blue’s menu, and customers responded. On one Tuesday, Bouchard sold 45 steaks. So, when Deep Blue needed a reset, steak became the star of the newly christened Tonic Bar & Grille in Deep Blue’s space.
The restaurant was popular among contractors, including Chris Blackwell of Jamestown Painting and Specialty Finishes. Blackwell hadn’t expected to enter the restaurant business but, like many investors, he liked the social aspect. The rewards include “the opportunity to see old friends, meet new ones, and provide a memorable dining experience to our customers,” he says.
Blackwell became a partner, Butler later sold his shares, and Blackwell and Bouchard formed Jamestown Hospitality Group. They dropped Tonic’s “bar” and rechristened the restaurant as Tonic Seafood & Steak.
“By changing the name, we’re clarifying that, hey, we’re a restaurant and have music—not the other way around,” says Bouchard, who is the managing partner and the face of the brand. “I’ve always felt that the restaurant could drive the bar, but the bar could never drive the restaurant.”
There’s still a steak section, but Tonic gives equal space to pan-seared salmon, crab cakes, seared duck breast, and lobster tail.
Back to the start
Like Bouchard, Blackwell grew up in Delaware. In the summer, he cleaned the offices of the family business, Blackwell & Sons, which dates back to 1908. But the West Fifth Street building in Wilmington would house many companies, including Movable Feast, the gourmet carryout shop, caterer, and restaurant that took up residence in 1997.
When managing partner Steve Horgan died suddenly in 2018, the property went up for sale. Blackwell bought it, and JHG opened Park Café, whose expanded commercial kitchen could accommodate Jamestown Catering.
JHG removed the low ceiling to expose the rafters, complementing the stone accent wall. French doors open to a renovated patio covered by a 24x16-foot pergola with louvers. To honor Horgan, Bouchard put the blue bench he’d loved in front of the café.
Park Café does a respectable business, and the catering kitchen stays perpetually busy. But Jamestown Catering isn’t the only catering arm. Located next to Tonic, Juniper by Tonic offers 5,000 square feet of flexible space for weddings, private parties, and concerts.
Reinventing a classic
Naming their restaurants is part of the adventure at JHG. Juniper is the signature ingredient in gin—as in gin-and-tonic, so the name was a no-brainer. Park Café is next to Wawaset Park, a tony neighborhood developed by the DuPont Co. on a former racetrack.
But when Jamestown Hospitality took over the Kitty Knight Inn on the Sassafras River in Maryland, Bouchard had trouble finding a restaurant name that signified new management since the restaurant had changed hands multiple times.
Bouchard had always loved Deep Blue, and after much consideration, he resurrected the name for the restaurant overlooking the river. While the original Deep Blue was a high-end late-20th-century concept, the new incarnation features barbecued chicken, grilled salmon, chicken cheesesteak and the requisite crabcakes and rockfish.
The 11-room brick inn, meanwhile, is named for Catherine “Kitty” Knight, who reportedly saved two homes from burning during the War of 1812. On May 3, 1813, she pleaded with the British to spare the property she rented and an older woman’s home. In 1836, she bought the circa 1755 house and lived there until her death. Some maintain that her spirit walks the halls at night. But the inn is more famous for its expansive deck with a water view.
Staking a claim in Mushroom country
Clearly, JHG is comfortable crossing state lines, which first happened in 2019 when TBG (Tonic Bar & Grille) began handling the food service at Braeloch Brewing in Kennett Square. The brewery is in a former trolley barn built in 1903. The brick structure later became the Mushroom Growers Association’s headquarters and the place where Lion Total Care cleaned and repaired firefighters’ uniforms.
Working out the logistics of a separate restaurant within a taproom was initially difficult. The kitchen is small, and Bouchard and team opted for counter service and a casual menu that complements beer.
When the Giordano family decided to sell Giordano’s, they did their research and approached JHG. “It never hit the market,” Bouchard says. “They wanted someone who would carry on their legacy.” On Christmas Eve in 2022, the family and the restaurant group hashed out the details, shook hands, and the deal was done. JHG got the building and the recipes.
The restaurant, built in the early 1990s, was an offshoot of the family’s takeout pizza parlor and had grown into a landmark on the borough’s edge. Longtime customers did not like change, including new carpeting and other improvements. But they are coming around.
Service with a smile
Managing the culinary operations for such diverse concepts isn’t easy. However, Chef Patrick Bradley takes it in stride. “While each concept is different, our core values are not,” says Bradley, a Toscana alum who was at Deep Blue when it became Tonic.
Bouchard is the personification of the values. “Paul’s natural ability for understanding food and beverage—the business—is unlike anyone I know,” says chef Robert Lhulier, a friend for 30-plus years. “He gets it. But it’s his huge heart that makes him an exceptional hospitality professional. The French writer BrillatSavarin said: ‘to receive guests is to take charge of their happiness during the entire time they are under your roof.’ Paul exudes this belief.”
Bouchard credits Toscana’s owner, Dan Butler, for teaching him about the hospitality business. “He knows more about the business than anybody I know,” he says. “The little things he always said stuck with me, like, ‘Hey, man, you don’t pay your bills with percentages, you pay with dollars.’”
The feeling is mutual.
“People use the word ‘hospitality’ to describe an industry in general, but in all my years and all the people I’ve worked with, no one personifies that term more than Paul,” Butler says. “No one—myself included—doesn’t love Paul.”
WHEN YOU GO
Deep Blue at Kitty Knight
14028 Augustine Herman, Highway, Galena, MD (410) 648-5200
Giordano's
633 East Cypress Street, Kennett Square, PA (610) 444-5733
Juniper Banquet Space
111 West 11th Street, Wilmington, DE (302) 777-2040
Park Café
2510 West 5th Street, Wilmington, DE (302) 543-2233
TBG at Braeloch Brewing
225 Birch Street, Kennett Square, PA (610) 612-9242
Tonic Seafood & Steak
111 West 11th Street, Wilmington, DE (302) 777-2040
