“It’s this little spot hidden away in a strip center that you wouldn’t expect to find, like this little jewel,” says Weppner, “You go to pick up a gallon of milk and here’s this fine dining place with insane food.”

Weppner and Sanders, who are both in their thirties, met when they were working at Fager’s Island. Sanders received his training at Sullivan College in Kentucky and bounced around the Ocean City food scene before landing at Fager’s as a line cook. Weppner had bartended at the iconic O.C. establishment for 16 years. It was there that the idea of a casual fine dining establishment began to incubate.

According to Weppner, when Jules opened in July of 2003, the timing was just right. Anyone visiting Ocean City today will notice a change in the sea breeze. Many vestiges of the town’s delightfully tacky history are beginning to fade as a new breed of vacationer--upscale baby boomers purchasing condominiums for as much as $800,000--moves in. In an average year, the resort area welcomes 300,000 visitors, and there are only about 10 fine dining restaurants to feed them.

While there was certainly a demographic in Ocean City to support a restaurant like Jules, there were personal reasons why the couple threw the dice in that town. “We live here, our kids are here, we own property here,” Weppner explains, “We thought we could make a go of it here.”

Since its opening, Jules has accrued a loyal following, with some customers coming in for meals several times a week. Inevitably, when neophytes call for a reservation, they ask how the view is from the restaurant--is there a nice vista over the bay side at sunset? Perhaps a view of the ocean?

“I tell them it’s great once you get inside,” says Weppner. While the restaurant may be hidden in a strip mall, what draws people in is no secret: good food, good service, and a welcoming environment (once you pass through the front door).

“We wanted a place people would come to that was comfortable and nice and kind of low-key: Fine dining, but not pretentious,” says Weppner, who adds that they approached the design of the restaurant as if it were their own home. “We didn’t want it to be gaudy or beachy.”

The restaurant décor is streamlined, as if echoing the colors and feel of the beach without needing umbrellas in the drinks to remind guests that they’re in a resort town. The walls are soft sage green with a board-and-batten chair rail the color of sand. At the center of the restaurant is a semi-circular bar from which the tables radiate, each set simply with a white tablecloth and single bamboo shoot instead of flowers.

The menu is not fussy, either. There is no enormous book of choices here, simply a handful of appetizers, one soup, two salads, and six entrées. The wine list is a more impressive two pages, designed by Weppner and her friend Rick Pario of Ocean City’s Avalon Market. “After being at Fager’s Island, I know how important it is to have a great wine list,” says Weppner. “There isn’t a bottle of wine on the list I wouldn’t drink.”

Of course, all the understated interior design and high-end wine lists in the world don’t mean anything if the food isn’t up to snuff. Here, Chef Sanders does not disappoint.