Welcome to the online home of Dixie Picnic

Our original location in Ocean City, New Jersey serves Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Desserts in a casual, unique family friendly setting. We're sure you'll find something on the menu to please each and every member of your extended family – no matter how eccentric! With our specialty baked goods like our Upcakes®, gourmet breakfasts, box lunches, slow cooked tasty dinners and hand crafted homemade ice cream, sorbets, and gelatos we doubt that anybody could leave here with their belt on the same notch.

Please don’t mistake Dixie Picnic with one of those “gimmicky” concept restaurants designed to lure you in and trick you into spending your hard-earned money on the same over-processed, mediocre food. We believe that the food on your plate is only as good as the ingredients you start with and adhere to that principle when choosing the best of ingredients to prepare all of our menu items.

Somehow, food just used to taste so much better. For a long time, I thought it was just that I was getting older and my taste buds were coming with me. Then I started taking closer notice of ingredients and additives that were being used to prepare or preserve the food products that were becoming staples of the American diet. Why is it that my Great Aunt Myrtle never used guar gum to make her ice creams? Why is it that the icing on my store bought cupcakes never melted on my tongue? Why is it that so many things looked so good and tasted so awful? Okay, so we take our first bite with our eyes…but should we have to suffer through the rest of the bites that we take with our mouths?

Dixie Picnic celebrates the tradition of food that starts with quality ingredients, made from scratch, and served fresh on the premises. We have searched out artisan food products to enhance and define menu and our food philosophy. Our Barbecue Ribs and applewood smoked Chicken breast are made with top quality meat sources. We use local fresh produce and products whenever possible, and if we have to we spend a little more to make your food special, well, we think you’re worth it!

Dixie Picnic believes flavor and taste should come before fancy presentation. Box lunches my mother Bette, my Grandmother “Bucky” and her sisters used to prepare for my brothers and I when we were young were designed to survive a trip in a cardboard box before being savored under a shady tree or beside a babbling brook with close family and friends. Yet somehow, those Upcakes looked just as beautiful without any decorations as we opened our picnic lunches in anticipation of the treats to come. We use the same simple natural ingredients my great Aunt Bertha used in her bakery even though they cost a little more because we think we know how “flavor” got lost. Utilizing “back to basic” recipes and techniques may take a little more time and effort but results in superior, more flavorful baked goods, breads, dinner entrees, homemade sorbets, gelatos, and ice creams, and yes…even the coffee!