Ocean City: Why Wait?

In the winter, it can be cold and desolate. In other words, perfect.

You know it's winter in Ocean City as soon as you exit the Beltway. Route 50 is wide open. Traffic on the Bay Bridge is moving above the speed limit on a Friday night, no less. Thousands of wintering snow geese fly above as you carve through the small towns. The ubiquitous radar traps of summer are few and far between. The four-hour driving ordeal is shaved to under three. The main thoroughfare in Ocean City, Coastal Highway, a bumper-to-bumper trial during summer, is open and easy. Need a lane of your own? Take two.

Ocean City in the winter isn't better -- we do love our sunning, swimming and barefoot sand dancing at Seacrets -- but it's different in all the right ways. And starting about now, a sort of preseason buzz emerges as more places open and a few more people appear.

"We used to say that Memorial Day started the season," said Donna Abbott, Ocean City's public relations director. "Now, Presidents' Day is considered the start of the season."

Wake up Saturday morning and head to the boardwalk, where the long list of summer rules has evaporated along with the masses. Walk your dog or ride a bike past noon on the planks, both in-season taboos. You can even detour onto the beach proper with Fido, another summertime no-no. It could be a Saturday in June outside Thrasher's french fries, where about 40 people are lined up at 11 a.m. to get a fix of this O.C. tradition. Ocean Gallery is doing its usual brisk business selling "Scarface" posters and aerial photos of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

On Saturday night, there is a surprising abundance of open restaurants. Even those that close for the off-season usually reopen by mid-February. Gone are the hour-long-plus waits common in July at even the mediocre places. Waltz into Fresco's, Fager's, the Shark and other well-regarded eateries, and after one drink at the bar, your table is ready. Winter weekends bring new places to try or to strike from the list, as restaurateurs race to get situated before the summer crowds. The upscale Galaxy Bar & Grille, with its $22 seared Hudson Valley foie-gras appetizer and $40 rack of lamb, suddenly goes dark as it changes hands. The ultra-trendy Nebula also closes shop but is quickly transformed into a nonsmoking extension of the adjacent Liquid Assets Wine & Martini Bar. No matter that its opening falls on a cold night in January: Word travels so fast that local power brokers and in-the-know tourists pack the place.

The selection of apres-dinner hangouts is a little thinner. Some, such as the twentysomething favorites Party Block and Macky's Bayside Bar & Grill, won't reopen until April. But the massive Seacrets, with its Jamaican theme, has simply moved the party indoors.

Sunday morning before heading home, an hour or two immersed in the area's natural offerings is well spent. The ocean is wilder and grayer, the wind more of a presence. Tides and winds cut a shelf of sand that drops suddenly into the sea, creating a much more dramatic look than the gently sloping sands of summer. On nearby Assateague Island, only a few cars wander the road. Most visitors, armed with spotting scopes and binoculars, are more interested in the rafts of wintering waterfowl than the wild pony celebrity fauna of summer.

It won't be long before the seasonal cycle of beach visitors cranks up again. And the number of off-season visitors is growing: On a weekend last month when temperatures soared, an estimated 93,000 people came to town. But compared with a weekend in high season, when 300,000-plus visit, Ocean City in winter is a little delight.