Stephen Starr’s restaurant group opened two new concepts last week at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., marking the company’s return to the city after exiting in 2020.
Both of the new restaurants are located on the property’s lobby level.
Sunny’s is a breakfast-and brunch concept focused on American comfort food, including a lobster roll, fried bologna sandwich, meat loaf, chicken tenders, shrimp cocktail, and crabcakes as well as traditional brunch fare. Entrées are priced between $16 for an Avocado BLT and $29 for the lobster roll.
For dessert it offers a $14 Duncan Hines chocolate cake with a cold glass of milk.
It also has a full bar, including “Morning Cocktails” such as a Bloody Mary and Bellini, and “Afternoon Cocktails” such as spritzes, a Paloma, and specialty drinks such the Spa Day, with Hendrick’s gin, aloe liqueur, cucumber, and mint. They’re priced at $14-$17.
Chez Frites is one of a growing number of restaurants offering pared-down menus. The 150-seat restaurant offers a prix-fixe menu including choice of $52 prime steak, $49 salmon, and $56 lobster tail served with a mixed green salad, unlimited fries and choice of Béarnaise, peppercorn, or chimichurri sauces.
Four à la carte options are also available: an $18 shrimp cocktail, $19 scallop crudo with lime, passion fruit, and hazelnut oil, $16 mac & cheese, and $18 Mussels Marinières cooked with white wine and shallots. A full dessert menu is available, with options priced between $11 and $14. The restaurant also has a full bar including classic cocktails such as an Old Fashioned, Negroni, and Dirty Martini as well as an Aperol Spritz and a variation on a Dirty Martini. They’re priced between $15 and $18.
Such simple menus are growing in popularity both among customers who are required to make fewer choices, and by restaurateurs who can manage costs better and focus on preparing fewer dishes, and therefore making them better.
Philadelphia-based Starr Restaurants operate some 40 restaurants in Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C., and South Florida, including three-unit French brasserie Pastis (with a fourth slated to open in Nashville), two locations of pan-Asian concept Buddakan, and award winning fine-dining French restaurant Le Coucou in New York.
Starr’s first restaurant, Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar, is still operating in Philadelphia, although an Atlantic City outpost closed in 2020, as did the beach town’s location of Buddakan.
“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 statement about the new restaurants.
Starr is not the only Philadelphia restaurateur to operate at Ocean Casino. José Garces also operates Spanish tapas concept Amada. The hotel, known as a dining destination for the city, also operates Italian seafood concept Linguini by the Sea and Ocean Steak, as well as a variety of more casual venues.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
