Seabring Inn: A delicious mix of old and new

On an afternoon drive through the hamlet of Newfield, Sabine Detterbeck and her fiance Jordan Rosenbaum spotted a for-sale sign that would forever change their future.

“We were just driving by and we saw this for-sale sign in front of the Seabring Inn,” Detterbeck said. “It turned out to be for a piece of property behind the Seabring Inn. We were disappointed to learn that the bar itself was currently under contract.”

Unwilling to let the opportunity of having the perfect location go, Rosenbaum looked into the status of the property further.

“It turned out that the property had been under contract for longer than what would be considered normal,” Detterbeck said.

The couple felt that the location and the time was right. When the contract that was in place expired, they decided to put in an offer and just see what happened. The rest is history.

“We went and got approved for a bank loan, put in the offer and waited,” Detterbeck said. “It all moved pretty quickly after that. We officially purchased it five days after COVID hit, so everything, including signing the paperwork and showing our IDs, were done over Zoom.”

The onset of COVID-19 made complications inevitable. The unprecedented circumstances created challenges that were unavoidable.

“Tompkins County wasn’t issuing any new health permits, so we were not going to be able to open like other restaurants and offer a to-go menu,” Detterbeck explained.

Prior to the property purchase, the couple had toured the region with their food truck Eat the Foood, which still had an active Tompkins County health permit.

“We decided to open our food truck in the Seabring Inn parking lot and sell a mixed menu of some of the things that were our most popular items,” Detterbeck said. “It was the only option to offset the cost of everything.”

After a few months of going back and forth with the Tompkins County Health Department, they were granted the permit that would allow them to utilize their kitchen and create the menu they had dreamed of.

“I am definitely more behind the scenes, more of the kitchen person that does most of the cooking,” Detterbeck said. “Jordan is out front more because he loves to talk and he’s a people person.”

Although new to the location, the couple was aware of the Seabring Inn’s 50-year history in the hamlet of Newfield.

“The history was important to us, and we wanted a lot of it to stay the same, but we wanted to make it our own at the same time,” Detterbeck explained. “The building is mostly the same, but we’ve changed the menu.”

Every night of the week, the inn offers a different food special, from pizza and wings to burgers and fries.

“We want to get people motivated that haven’t been in too much to come out and see what we’re doing out here,” Rosenbaum said.

Detterbeck and Rosenbaum aim to fill a culinary void in Newfield.

“We aren’t aiming to be some fancy tap house or cafe, but we have designed our menu to have classic foods done right,” Rosenbaum said. “If you look at the size and quality of our handcrafted burgers, they’re huge. We use quality ingredients and we cook them the correct way and put them together to make them a simple, delicious comfort food.”

In keeping with their vision to make the Seabring Inn more than just a bar, Detterbeck is the head of the kitchen and oversees the current menu, daily specials and the barbecue cookouts that take place in the summer.

“I am definitely the cooking side of the operation,” Detterbeck said with a laugh. “I prepared all of the chilis for the Chilifest of 2020 and the Chowder Cook-Off last year. I’m going to be doing it again this year.”

Detterbeck’s entries are proof that she means business. The Seabring Inn won first place for people’s choice, second place in the meat category and third place in the vegetarian category at the 2020 Chilifest and took first-place honors in the meat category for the Annual Chowder Cook-Off in 2021.

“We are planning to add karaoke, trivia and live music in the future,” Rosenbaum said. “But for now, we are thriving out here and plan on continuing to thrive.”

Information for the Seabring Inn can be found on their Facebook page, facebook.com/SeabringInn.

Newfield Notes appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.