Stephen Starr plans to open two new restaurants this summer in Atlantic City — one that serves Thanksgiving fare year-round and another with a menu centered on steak frites.
The restaurants, located inside the Ocean Casino Resort on the boardwalk, are the restaurateur's first in Atlantic City since he closed his Buddakan and Continental locations there during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those restaurants — offshoots of two of his best-known Philadelphia restaurants — operated at the former Playground Pier from 2006 to 2020.
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The names of Starr's new restaurants, which will replace the Ocean Casino's former Sky Cafe and Harper's, and their opening dates have not been announced. The menu for his Thanksgiving-themed restaurant also includes comfort foods like pigs in a blanket, tuna tacos, pierogis and home-style meatloaf, a spokesperson for Ocean Casino Resort said Thursday.
"It feels like a full circle moment for me to work on restaurant projects in Atlantic City, a place where I formed some of my finest childhood memories, both at the beach and on America's most popular boardwalk, where I worked as a teenager," Starr said in a news release.
Starr, who built an eclectic empire of restaurants in Philly over the last three decades, has ventured outside the city over the years to open restaurants in New York City, Washington and a handful of locations in Florida.
Ocean Casino Resort previously had planned to open four new restaurants from Philadelphia restaurateur Michael Schulson last summer. But Schulson — known Double Knot, Harp & Crown, Sampan and nine other restaurants — backed out of the arrangement months after the announcement.
"It has become more of a haven for me and my family — a place where we escape, reconnect, and relax together," Schulson told the Philadelphia Business Journal in July. "It was a difficult decision but with closer consideration and after talking more with my family, we won't be opening our concepts there this summer."
Ocean Casino Resort, formerly the Revel casino, has 1,860 guest rooms and suites after completing an $85 million renovation in recent years. In addition to the Gallery Bar Book and Games lounge and Balcony Bar, the hotel's restaurants include the Jose Garces concept Amada, Italian restaurant Linguini by the Sea and Ocean Steak.
Starr, who owns 18 restaurants in Philadelphia, has two more on the way in Center City. Borromini, an Italian restaurant, will open this summer in the former Barnes & Noble at Rittenhouse Square, and Starr also is planning to open another next year at the former Devon Seafood Grill at 225 S. 18th St.