Owners of the iconic Rip Tide Lounge are looking to sell the restaurant and building at 116 Pleasant St. for up to $1.8 million. Owner Mikael Vienneau of Broadway Capital told the Current he isn’t putting the Rip Tide on the market, but is soliciting offers from local buyers.
Vienneau bought the Rip Tide in 2023 for $1 million and said he spent $600,000 on renovations.
This has been the plan all along, he added.
“Our main focus is on real estate development, not running restaurants and businesses. We stabilized the asset. That was our primary objective from the start — to buy this, enhance the asset and then potentially sell it when the time was right.”
The recent renovations included updating the building’s infrastructure and restoring its facade to reflect its origins as a Ford Model T dealership. Notably, the project brought the structure into compliance with modern accessibility standards. Veinneau said they spent $70,000 on just accessibility upgrades, including $30,000 for a new front-entrance ramp.
Vienneau stressed there’s no firm timeline for a sale.
“Maybe we’ll never sell it if we don’t get the right price. We’ll just retain it,” he said.
In the meantime, the Rip Tide continues normal operations. Recent changes include the return of a pool table and jukebox, additions made in response to customer feedback.
”We put the pool table back in last week,” Vienneau noted. “And we put the jukebox back in to bring back kind of the old Rip Tide feel, where a lot of the customers were asking for what they wanted.”
Caffe Italia on the move after Fen Yang buys building
The Current has learned that Fen Yang House owner Ling Chen has purchased the Caffe Italia building at 10 School St. Chen said she isn’t sure if Fen Yang, now at 40 Atlantic Ave., will move.
Caffe Italia owner Donna Oliviero confirmed that her restaurant will be moving, but she’s not sure when.
“I’m not moving until I have a suitable space,” Oliviero said.
“All I can say is, I love Marblehead. I love all my customers, AKA restaurant friends which I call them. I’m not going to leave Marblehead,” she added.
**This story was updated with a new quote from Donna Oliviero.
