Vol. 5, No. 4, April 2008
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Local Legends in Atlantic City
It’s a family affair for these favorite Atlantic City restaurants
For the best in fine dining with a family flair and a side of history, Atlantic City has a handful of landmark restaurants that have been here for generations. Their reputations precede them; the memories made there will endure for generations to come.
The Dougherty family has been in the restaurant business for well over a century, proving the aphorism, “Experience counts.” The Doughertys today run both Dock’s Oyster House and the Knife & Fork, two legendary dining halls that have stood the test of time, and still have customers lining up on a Saturday night.
At the turn of the 20th century, Dock’s was a neighborhood oyster joint with 12 fryers in back, green-and-white tile floors in front, no liquor license and little attention to “ambience.” Today it’s a wine connoisseur’s paradise (with 3,000 bottles) and a seafood lover’s nirvana. Perennial menu favorites at Dock’s include crab au gratin, freshly shucked oysters and 16-ounce to 20-ounce Brazilian lobster tails. New additions include pan-seared halibut with white wine, tomatoes and jumbo lump crabmeat; pecan-crusted salmon over sautéed spinach, apples and mushrooms with a horse radish drizzle; and flounder and crabmeat with tomato buerre blanc and asparagus. Soups are tried-and-tried: Maine clam chowder, lobster chowder and corn and crab chowder.
Owner Frank Dougherty is proud of Dock’s “fun, casual” atmosphere (there’s a piano bar too). “The tables are close together and it can be a little boisterous in here, but everyone likes it.”
The Knife & Fork, built as a men’s club in 1912, almost closed during Prohibition. When the Latz family took over in 1927, they quietly established it as one of the city’s first speakeasies.
By 2005, Mack Latz was ready for last call. He sold the Knife & Fork to the Dougherty family. Famous for its Flemish-style architecture, the historic restaurant includes a third-floor temperature-controlled wine room with 7,000 bottles, and a classic menu that emphasizes steaks cooked over a natural wood fire, plus lots of seafood. Dougherty recommends the salmon with black caviar lentils, lobster Thermidor, and the pan-seared halibut with sautéed wild mushrooms, crushed Yukon gold potatoes and tomato vinaigrette.
The desserts at the Knife & Fork are tantalizing: Mack’s lemon pie (named for Mack Latz), Joe’s cheese pie (named for Joe Dougherty), walnut-crusted cheesecake, pumpkin crème brulee and the mixed-berry Napoleon with white chocolate mousse, among others.
“The Knife & Fork is a little more upscale (than Dock’s)—quieter, but still friendly,” says Dougherty.
Answering rumors of a sale to casino developers Bashaw and Barr, who plan to build nearby, Dougherty says, “They bought the land that surrounds us and they have an option to buy the Knife & Fork through January 2009. If they do that and get all the approvals, they’ve proposed moving the building as opposed to demolishing it.”
A plea to the developers: Cherish this bit of Atlantic City history, and let it stand.
Angelo’s Fairmount Tavern, family-owned since 1935 by the Mancuso clan, boasts that it has “simply the best Italian food in the city,” and that claim would be hard to refute. Locals love it; visitors and passers-through make it a point to stop by. And the Zagat Survey has consistently hailed this friendly corner bar and restaurant with its Award of Excellence.
More than seven decades ago, Angelo’s began as a 35-seat corner bar and bistro in the city’s Ducktown section. Though the neighborhood’s fortunes have changed with the years—it is once again on the ascent—Angelo’s has done nothing but grow; it is now a multi-level restaurant with three banquet rooms and a reputation for great Italian food and decanters of fruity, full-bodied homemade wine.
The menu declares the baked lasagna is “just like Grandma used to make,” and you’ll agree. With five lip-smacking layers of beef, cheese and tender pasta, this is Italian food for purists: straightforward, unadorned, and just right in every detail. Ditto the eggplant Florentine, the chicken piccante, the spinach and artichoke hearts over linguine and the mussels marinara—classic recipes all, classically prepared, like matriarch Isabella Mancuso used to make.
Angelo’s 16-ounce aged steaks are all made Sicilian-style, seared on the edges in a cast-iron skillet to make sure the juices are sealed in. Try the New York Steak Angelo, topped with roasted peppers, sliced black olives and artichokes in a tangy balsamic vinaigrette; Steak Maryland is heaped with sweet jumbo lump crabmeat, bleu cheese and Gorgonzola.
The Mancusos continue to make their own desserts including (sigh) peanut cheesecake, ricotta cheese cannoli, chocolate tartufo and (of course) Italian rum cake.
With the requisite checkered tablecloths, framed photos of entertainment and sports greats on the walls and Sinatra playing in the background, Angelo’s gets the atmosphere right too, and the service is warm and welcoming. In short, you haven’t dined Atlantic City-style until you’ve been to Angelo’s.
On Albion Place is Chef Vola’s, a tiny basement bistro located, literally, downstairs at the Esposito family residence. The restaurant has attained cult status among foodies, not just for its menu but for the air of intrigue and exclusivity that surrounds the place.
Though the restaurant has been in business since 1921, for many years it was impossible to get the phone number at Chef Vola’s unless you (nudge wink) “knew” someone. The New York Times wrote, “We learned that at the beginning of each year most of the regulars send faxes with all their desired reservation times to a private line at the restaurant.” Supposedly a hangout for wiseguys of the ’50s and ’60s, Chef Vola’s was also a favorite of Frank Sinatra whenever he came to town.
But enough of the mystique. How about the food? One blogger on the Zagat website raved, “It’s worth the 400-mile round-trip drive from DC.” Another on Fodor’s wrote, “Chilean sea bass with tequila lime marinade is a slice of heaven, the filet with bleu cheese butter is superb and the pasta is great.”
These days, Chef Vola’s is an open secret, and the restaurant even has a website. But log on, and you’ll see this message: “This is not an advertisement. The phone number and address cannot be obtained from this website.”
Only in Atlantic City.
