Scratch-made Italian, Delaware oysters and $3 beer coming to historic Hockessin building

A long-vacant and cavernous hall in Hockessin Corner will soon come back to life —  as a two-story restaurant and bar with local oysters, steamed crab, cheap beer, red-sauce pasta and flame-cooked pizza.

Michael Rocco, a longtime veteran of Delaware restaurants whose most recent project was Bogle Cove Oyster House in Pike Creek, said he couldn’t believe what he saw when he walked into the 19th-century building that will soon be home to his restaurant, Corner Cove.

“When people walk in, their mouth drops,” he said. “It’s all exposed wood beams. I’ve got a fireplace in there. When you go upstairs, you’re looking at actual horse stables.”

He plans to open Corner Cove as soon as December, at 410 Hockessin Corner.

To some, the space may already look familiar when it opens. The 3,800-square-foot space, with two bars and a balcony and capacity for 100 diners, was the original home to Hockessin’s iconic 43-year-old Back Burner restaurant. In 2000, Back Burner moved to a larger space in Hockessin Corner, where it continues to serve its locally famous pumpkin mushroom soup and better cheddar spread.

For 23 years since, Back Burner's previous space sat silent. Now, it will be filled with Rocco’s family Italian recipes and a whole lot of seafood.

More: Beloved Hockessin Corner store, Everything But the Kitchen Sink, closing after more than 40 years

Flashback: Dining reporter Patricia Talorico reviews Back Burner restaurant in 2014

Corner Cove will be home to cheap beer and scratch-made seafood and Italian

Rocco has been renovating Corner Cove since July, installing new ADA-compliant bathrooms and two new bars, and filling the place with high-tops and whiskey-barrel tables  — while endeavoring to keep the historic feeling of the place intact.

The pizza oven, which came already installed as part of a previous pizza experiment by the Back Burner clan, fell out of Rocco’s wildest Italian-American dreams. The gas-flame, white-brick dome oven from Baker’s Pride functions a bit like a wood-fired oven, but with a precise temperature gauge.

Corner Cove's scratch-made pizzas will come in at $14 for a large, and $7 for a personal. Rocco also plans $3 domestic beer, and always available buck-a-shuck oysters.

“Where do you get a $14 large pizza anymore?” Rocco mused. “You’re not gonna get it. A guy can come in here and drink three beers and have a personal pizza, and it’s still 16 bucks.”

Rocco plans to keep the prices low at Corner Cove by selling a lot of food, not by cutting corners, he said. All dishes will be made from scratch and to order, and nothing will come in frozen, he promised. He won't buy a microwave, lest anyone be tempted to use it.

Among Italian-American dishes, Rocco plans marinara made the old-fashioned way, Italian wedding soup, pasta and clams, and crab spaghetti the way his family used to make it in Philadelphia. His father used to sauté the crab meat and shell lightly in garlic and oil, before steeping both in homemade sauce for hours until the flavor permeated everything.

Seafood at Corner Cove will include classic preparations: steamed crabs and crab cakes, clams casino, oysters Rockefeller and fried oyster sandwiches, and of course oysters on the half-shell.

Crabs will come in from vendors he knows at the Philly port. Oysters will include everything from Chesapeake Bay Virginians to shells from New Jersey and Delaware — making Corner Cove one of very few places in New Castle County to source the new crop of oysters from the Inland Bays.

“I dig the Delaware oysters,” Rocco said, namechecking Delaware Cultured Seafood's Bethany Big Boys and Blue Hen oysters in particular. “I’m gonna bring in all of those guys.”

Corner Cove planned as all-purpose, everyday spot in Hockessin Corner

In an area already known for dining and shopping options, Corner Cove is planned as all things at once: a utility spot for busy and cash-strapped families, a haven for oyster lovers after the closure of George & Sons across the street, and a spot for sports fans to catch a meal and drink.

Rocco figures a family could go there and get more costly seafood for themselves, but pizza for the kids.

The exposed beams and historic setting offer old-school ambience, but he’s still bringing in big screens for sports at the upstairs and downstairs bars.

Buck-a-shuck oysters will sit alongside new-school and local shells. Wine and tequila and local craft beers will join $3 domestics. By spring, he'll add a patio for outdoor drinking and dining.

“I’m giving people a lot of options,” Rocco said.

He wants to create a place where people can come back again and again, rather than reserve dinners for special occasions because their mouth drops when they see the bill.

But when the check comes at Corner Cove, he still hopes his customers will be shocked at the price.

“They’ll look at the bill and say ‘Oh… that’s it?’” he said. “Because that’s how it should be.”

Corner Cove will open as soon as December at 410 Hockessin Corner, Hockessin.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Historic Hockessin building is new home to crabs, oysters and Italian