Maryland has lost another longtime dining institution, following a string of beloved restaurant closures around the state. DaVinci’s by the Sea in Ocean City has served its final meal after 40 years on the Boardwalk, closing a family-run chapter that began in 1986.
The restaurant’s final season ended in late September at the Harrison Hall Hotel on 15th Street. Owner Vince Sapia said his parents started DaVinci’s four decades ago, and local coverage of the closing emphasized how deeply the restaurant became tied to the family’s life and to generations of seasonal workers and returning vacationers. Hoodline reported that the family had announced well in advance that 2026 would be the final season.
Italian comfort food by the ocean
DaVinci’s built its reputation on the kind of Italian-American dishes beach-town families could return to year after year. Its menu included homemade lasagna, chicken parmigiana, fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti, alongside seafood dishes that reflected its Ocean City setting. Maryland crab ravioli, garlic shrimp, mussels marinara and seasonal seafood pastas gave vacationers a taste of the coast without leaving the familiar comfort of a red-sauce Italian restaurant.
The restaurant also leaned into weekly specials during its final summer, including seafood scampi, blackened tuna, baked gnocchi and pasta dishes made with clams, shrimp, scallops and mussels. That mix of traditional favorites and changing specials helped make DaVinci’s the sort of place families could revisit without feeling as though they were repeating the same meal.
Four decades of summer memories
What made the closing especially emotional was the restaurant’s role beyond the dining room. Ocean City businesses depend heavily on seasonal employees, and DaVinci’s became a workplace for generations of summer staff, including international J-1 students spending their first season in the United States. Sapia recalled that the restaurant had been part of his daughter’s life as well as the lives of nieces and nephews who had never known the family without it.
Customers had their own traditions. For many, an evening at DaVinci’s was woven into a beach vacation: a walk along the Boardwalk, a plate of pasta or seafood, and another summer memory attached to the same familiar dining room.
The end of a family era
The family did not frame the closing as a sudden business collapse. Instead, it announced the final season months ahead of time, giving regulars a chance to come back for one last dinner. That long goodbye allowed customers and former employees to treat the restaurant’s 40th year as a celebration as much as a farewell.
Ocean City will keep changing, as resort towns always do. But after four decades, DaVinci’s by the Sea leaves behind something harder to replace than a menu: a family restaurant that became part of other families’ vacations, too.
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