Not long after Nicole and Robert Strauss decided they would run the Island’s much-loved mini-golf and ice-cream establishment, The Whale’s Tale (3 Ram Island Road, Shelter Island, 631-749-1839), they went to look over the property with their adult children. They found the fiberglass animals that enliven the course stored inside the store, near the ice cream counter.
“My grown-up kids saw the seahorse and went running over to give it a big hug, saying, ‘Hubbish, Hubbish!’ Which is what the kids used to call the seahorse when they were regular players of miniature golf, 15 years ago,” Robert says.
If you recognize the nostalgia and affection expressed by a grown man hugging a fiberglass seahorse and calling it by a pet name, then you also understand why the Strausses decided running The Whale’s Tale would become their new mission — and that mission launched officially this week on Thursday, July 2.
The Strausses opened this week, to the joy of every mini-golf lover in town.
Robert and Nicole Strauss moved to Shelter Island about 20 years ago. After living in a cottage on her parents’ property in South Ferry, they built their own house on Ginny Drive. When Robert retired from decades of teaching high school and college chemistry, he started a business, Shelter Island Party Rental.
He grew other businesses out of Shelter Island Party Rental — East End Mobile Shrinkwrap, Backyard Movie Night and Shelter Island Photo Booth — all related to having fun and enjoying the Island. Running The Whale’s Tale did not feel like a stretch to him and Nicole.
“We’re doing this because we saw the opportunity, but we’re doing it more because this is just such a part of the Island,” he says. “So many other things are not opening again. It feels like the Island is changing way too much. We’re going to bring this back.”
The Strausses are making a few changes. “We’re going to make the place a little bit more affordable and a little nicer to hang out,” Robert says, noting that the price of a round of golf has dropped from $16 to $12. There will also be a mini-golf club card, which you pre-pay for $100 (so, 10 games for $100 if your math isn’t terrific) and you get a punch on the card every time you play.
In order to encourage the community to stay and hang out, they also plan to have movie nights on the tennis court, a candy wall with old-timey treats and to bring back a miniature-golf tournament that was popular in the days when local putt-putt impresario Scott Lechmanski was a mini-golf champion. Extended hours on Friday and Saturday nights will make Whale’s Tale a great place for a midnight snack.
The Strausses hope to hire workers from the community, and have already been in touch with the Shelter Island School to recruit some, another step toward community-building.
“Ice cream and mini golf brings people together,” Robert says.
