By Chuck Darrow
There are many excellent restaurants under Atlantic City casino roofs, but only one can trace its history back to 1868. There is also only one that has been in business at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa since the bayside pleasure dome opened in July 2003. Both are Old Homestead Steakhouse, which by any measure, is a signature AyCee eatery.
The dramatic and plush — but not stuffy — bi-level beefeteria that sits just off the casino floor bustles with customers seven days a week throughout the year. And, unlike the typical gaming hall top-tier dining room, it’s not just high-rollers enjoying comped meals who keep the lights on there. As Marc Sherry — who with his brother, Greg, co-owns the original location in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District as well as the local outpost — noted, a significant portion of their business is derived from repeat visits by cash customers.
So what made the Sherry family, who has owned the Old Homestead brand since the 1940s, decide to roll the dice at Borgata? Sherry didn’t hesitate before responding to the question during a recent chat at the restaurant on a typically jumping Friday evening.
As he explained it, in the early days of the new millennium, “A single gentleman came three nights in a row to the Old Homestead in New York City. On the third night…I went over and introduced myself. His name was Bob Boughner and he said to me, ‘I’m building a hotel in Atlantic City and I would love to put this restaurant there.’
“I said, ‘Listen, Bob, I’m really good. I’m not in the expansion mode. We’re okay. Thank you. I appreciate the offer.’
“He said, ‘Just come down and see the project.’” Sherry did, and was impressed with what Boughner, Borgata’s visionary founding president and CEO, showed him — and by Boughner himself. “It was because of my belief in Bob Boughner that I signed on to the Borgata in 2001, which was two years before it opened,” he said.
“It was a combination of Bob’s approach, Bob’s personality, Bob’s intellect, the way that he operated. He didn’t just say ‘Order the beds.’ He laid on the bed to make sure that it was right. He had complete dedication to this project, and that’s the kind of people that you want to work for and with.”
Sherry added it didn’t take long for his faith in Boughner and the casino exec’s vision for the property to be validated: “We opened [on July 4, 2003], and we haven’t had an empty seat since,” he declared.
Although Old Homestead’s history — and menu that emphasizes top-shelf meats and seafood like lobster and crab (“The crab meat cocktail is the biggest lumps that I’ve ever seen!” bragged Sherry) — pretty much makes it the template for the American steakhouse, it isn’t mired in tradition. For instance, the room’s wood trim and fixtures are not the kind of heavy, dark decorations favored by so many high-end casino steak houses throughout North America. And the atmosphere, while luxurious, is not oppressively so, as is often the case.
Nonetheless, Brian Palin, the salon’s general manager believes there’s more to Old Homestead’s recipe for success than interior design and large portions. Consistency, he suggested, is key.
“Everything’s consistent from the service standpoint. Everything’s consistent from the kitchen standpoint.
“When you go somewhere and you start to like a dish and you come back and it doesn’t taste the same, you’re like, ‘What happened?’ So we thrive on consistency: consistency of food and service.
“Customers come to expect that you acknowledge them, that you know who they are, and you know what they like, because these [are often] repeat customers.
“The prices at every restaurant have gone up. Food prices have gone up, so the prices on the menus have gone up. But our customers walk out of here and say, ‘I feel like I got a bang for my buck here. The service was great, the food was great. I’m full.’”
Or, as Sherry, put it, “If steak is your religion, then this is the cathedral.”
Figuring out Penn & Teller
Ever since I first saw them (as part of a comedy-magic-and-music trio called the Asparagus Valley Cultural Society) in the summer of 1979 at a small “black box” venue on the fifth floor of Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theater, the team of Penn (Jillette) & Teller have never relinquished their status as my favorite live-entertainment act of all time.
I have spent the ensuing decades spreading the Penn & Teller gospel with the determination and blind enthusiasm of the most zealous true believer. When pressed for why I hold the duo in such high esteem, my stock response has always been to praise the intelligence, cleverness and belly-laugh hilarity of their one-of-a-kind act.
But last Thursday, while watching them perform at the Sound Waves theater inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, I finally realized what has made them so special to me the past four-and-a-half decades: It is simply the pure, unadulterated joy that radiates within me when I watch them perform.
At Hard Rock, as has always been the case, from the moment the lights dimmed to the moment they took their final bows, I sat there amazed, enchanted and with an enormous smile that never left my face.
Never in my almost 50 years of being an entertainment writer-critic has any act in any genre provided me such pleasure. More importantly, Penn & Teller have never disappointed me. I go into every performance expecting to have a wonderful time, and that’s what happens.
So, to Penn (the one who talks) and Teller (the one who doesn’t), I offer my heartfelt gratitude for all they’ve given me through the decades. And to everybody else, I offer my heartfelt wish that you get the chance to see them perform at least once if you haven’t already done so.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
