Casually delicious
Stylish new restaurants shake out the white tablecloths in an easier, breezier wave of fine cuisine this summer.
By Craig LaBan
Inquirer Restaurant Critic
There are gigantic white billboards alongside the Atlantic City Expressway trumpeting the long-awaited arrival of Mia - Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio's new restaurant in Caesars - as if it were a gift from the culinary emperors of Philadelphia to the casino city's hopeful dining scene.
Down in Stone Harbor, meanwhile, you're more likely to find chef Lucas Manteca riding a surfboard than a billboard. And if you ask folks at the Wawa on Third Avenue where to find the Argentine's charming little BYOB called Sea Salt, located in an old ice cream shop just a few blocks down the street, they'll most likely shrug and send you in the opposite direction.
The obscurity hasn't prevented Sea Salt from blossoming into one of this summer's most intriguing Shore dining experiences, with rhubarb sorbet as an unexpected complement to a crab salad, and chimichurri that gives hanger steak an herby South American savor. The huge publicity blitz, likewise, hasn't guaranteed a sure-bet success for Mia. Its sophisticated cuisine may simply be no match for the intensely cheeseball aura of the casino world, which has "Money Honey" showgirls auctioning off casino dollars to a busload of seniors just beyond the fabric scrim that separates Mia from Caesars' lobby.
But in this strange summer of 2006, who knows? Amid the broad spectrum of places aiming to make a splash this season, much has not gone as expected. Several of the biggest planned openings - Daddy O and the new-look Gables on Long Beach Island, Sophia's in Margate, and major expansions to the Borgata, not to mention Caesars' new Pier - were still construction sites as of late June.
Of the restaurants that did make the scene in time for Memorial Day, few were entirely fresh discoveries like Sea Salt. This has largely been a year of new places from familiar faces and a swanky new look for an oldie called Mac's. And considering winners like Lucky Bones Backwater Grille and Joe Pesce - opened by the owners of the upscale Washington Inn and Tucker's Steak & Seafood House, respectively - the push has been to create more casual venues with a sense of style and value.
Could the days of white-tablecloth dining be numbered down the Shore?
"We've seen a major change in that direction over the last 36 months," says Washington Inn and Lucky Bones owner David Craig.
But judging from some of my best meals this June, a little evolution for the Shore's dining scene may not be such a bad thing after all.
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