Last week, my honey and I took our very tired selves to Retro Café on Wilmington Avenue in downtown Rehoboth Beach for dinner. No, that’s not a typo. Yes, I meant to write "dinner."

It’s well known that Retro Café has great breakfasts and lunches and is especially famous for their beignets (only available on Wednesdays), Belgian waffles, and bananas foster pancakes. But you may not know that since moving to their new location recently (right next door where Dos Locos used to be), they are now open for dinner and offer a full bar.

While we didn’t drink that night, we did check out their wine list which has nice variety and the special cocktails looked interesting. There were even two very unusual items: a Tangtini and an Ovaltini (each made with a pinch of Tang and Ovaltine respectively).

If you visited Retro Café in the old location, you know that there were only a few tables in their tiny space. Now they have many tables in an expansive space and a huge patio (friendly dogs are welcome on the patio at management’s discretion). They even have a private banquet room in the back which is perfect for parties from 10 to 40 or 50. I love the new space.

Downtown Rehoboth was busy for a Monday evening, and the streets were full of hungry families peering into windows, checking out posted menus, and trying to decide where to eat.

The new dinner menu at Retro Café has a little something for everyone. The blackened Ahi tuna is popular, as are the crab cakes and the pasta dishes. They also offer some of their lunch items like wraps and burgers (delicious burgers!) as lighter fare on the dinner menu, and they have a kids menu.

My honey, Sharon, and I got a great parking space right out front (only in Rehoboth would that be newsworthy) had a bird’s eye view of the happy hungry people trolling the streets when we were seated in the big front window of the restaurant; it was an excellent spot for people watching.

Our cute, friendly and funny server, Greg, brought us some refreshing drinks as we perused the new menu. Co-owner Jim Slusher greeted us and brought us a sample of various appetizers to start.

A special starter that’s not on the menu (but will be available for the next month or so) was the coconut shrimp. I love coconut shrimp. There is something so special about that combination of flavors, and the ones at Retro Café were very good. There was just the right amount of coconut topping so that you could still taste the shrimp. They were served with a super sweet mango cranberry sauce that tasted very fresh, light and summery.

When I ran out of shrimp, I ate the sauce with a spoon!

I also loved the duck tenders which were little delicious nuggets of duck meat covered in a thin coating of crushed almonds and fried. They were served with a sauce that the menu calls "sweet and sour," but I found it to be more like a Chinese plum sauce. It was yummy. We also had the parmesan and garlic beignets which came to the table with a lovely dark brown color to them, but were surprisingly moist and flavorful; they were served with a horseradish artichoke spread.

For our entrees, Sharon chose the Weiner Schnitzel, which is a thin veal cutlet covered in Italian breadcrumbs, grilled and then topped with a hint of lemon juice. It was savory and delicious, and I appreciated that it wasn’t fried in the traditional way.

I ordered the Retro Chicken, which was a juicy wonderful thick chicken breast, covered in a honey pecan butter sauce. It was really good (and my leftovers were even good the next day).

All the entrées come with your choice of two sides. We tried the grilled asparagus, grilled broccoli and mashed potatoes. All of them were great. The grilled asparagus were the skinny kind cooked to perfection. The broccoli was different and wonderful. And the potatoes were definitely homemade with lots of butter. Delicious.

All of the pies at Retro Café are made in house. For dessert we shared a slice of Jack Daniels Preakness Pie, which was served hot. I mean very hot. In fact, everything we had that night was served very hot, and we appreciated that. This pie was filled with a fluffy mix of pecans and melted molten chocolate chips, then drizzled with Ghirardelli chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream. It was scrumptious. If you order this pie, don’t forget to order the scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with it. There’s nothing like hot pie with ice cream. Retro Café serves Seattle’s Best coffee, and that would have complemented the pie as well.

Along with Slusher, Co-owner Thom Morris and Daytime Manager Mario Baldessari are usually at the restaurant to greet people warmly and serve the hungry crowds. When you go in there, be sure to check out the special photography show currently running in the back. It’s a collection of wonderful black and white shots by Carolyn Watson Photography featuring the local area, and prints of each can be ordered.