By Chuck Darrow
You may think of a “chef” as someone who merely cooks. But Quincy Logan, the executive chef at the popular Council Oak Steaks & Seafood inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, prefers a broader definition of his job.
“I think I’m a little bit of everything. I do whatever it takes,” offered the upbeat and genial 44-year-old Philadelphia-born, South Jersey-bred Logan during a break on a recent, typically teeming, Saturday night.
“If I need to get on the grill, I’ll get on the grill and help. Whatever the restaurant needs is what I do. But most of the time, I’m almost like [a football team’s] offensive coordinator that’s up in the booth, trying to run the plays. But my main thing is to make sure that every piece of food that goes out of the kitchen is up to its best.”
To hear Logan tell it, that he wound up in the culinary arts was pretty much his destiny. His grandmother cooked at the Fantasy Lounge in Center City Philadelphia, and other, older relatives likewise worked in Delaware Valley kitchens.
“When I got out of high school,” he explained, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I knew I didn’t want to be the ‘computer guy.’ So I said, ‘Let me get into this cooking thing.’ And I went to Atlantic Cape Community College, located right here in May’s Landing. And from there it just took off and I just fell in love with cooking.”
After leaving ACCC, Logan put in time at various restaurants, including the Philly outpost of the Capitol Grill chain of high-end steakhouses and Union Trust, another big-ticket Center City beefeteria. But he identified what was likely his most important stop as American Cut, the steakhouse at Revel (now Ocean Casino-Resort), owned by celebri-chef Marc Forgione. Logan likened working under the “Iron Chef” champ in his outlets in Atlantic City, Puerto Rico and North Jersey to getting a master’s degree in the restaurant business.
Other jobs followed his time with Forgione, but the passion and enthusiasm Logan brings to his current position suggests Council Oak is exactly where he should be at this stage of his career.
One particularly challenging aspect of his job is the intense competition his restaurant faces. After all, every gaming hall has a high-end dining room serving steaks and seafood. And then there are the area’s non-casino restaurants working the same side of the street. So, what sets his eatery apart from the pack, and what role does he play in that differentiation?
“One of the things that is different about us, is our wood-burning ovens and our-wood burning grills,” he said. “We cook on cherry wood, we cook on coal. And that big fire that you see creates a lot of energy in the kitchen. And what I try to [encourage] in the team is, to really bring it, because we are a ‘volume’ steakhouse, especially on a Saturday–I want to say maybe 600-700 people. We do that every Saturday.
“So we need to make sure that we bring a lot of energy. And that energy starts with me. So I can never have a day that I feel down. I always try to bring it.”
For more on Council Oak Steaks & Seafood, go to hardrockhotelatlanticcity.com.
Hitsville hits Borgata
The latest iteration of “Motown Forever,” the atomic-powered salute to the music created in the 1960s and ‘70s for the Motown record label (a.k.a. “Hitsville U.S.A.”) is up and running at the Music Box inside Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. It remains a joyous, high-octane gallop through a musical catalogue that helped shape and define a generation, and which continues to resonate today.
Running Sundays through April 28, the revusical, which contains a jukebox-full of smash hits from the likes of The Temptations, Four Tops, Jackson Five and The Supremes, is a party for the ears and eyes, thanks to its uniformly talented crew of eight singers, six dancers and eight musicians.
It’s the troupe of vocalists who do the heaviest lifting, and they don’t just sonically hit it out of the park; each is loaded with charisma and personality, which makes watching them as much fun as hearing them.
Between the individual and collective performances, sharp, animated choreography by Jillian Reed, eye-catching Technicolor costuming by Kristine Valentine and super-cool, AI-generated backdrops, it’s easy to overlook a couple of aspects of the show that are crucial to its success.
Under the direction of bassist Armand Gilliam, the onstage octet creates a thrilling wall of sound that engulfs the audience and sweeps it up in the pure fun of their work. And keyboardist Gerard Kapral’s vocal arrangements are definitely the show’s “secret sauce.”
For instance, The Supreme’s up-tempo signature, “Baby Love,” begins with a slowed-down, four-voice, a capella verse and chorus before the band ignites a more-familiar arrangement. And “My Girl” and “My Guy” are delivered via an ingenious mashup performed by Jeremy Cousar and Genesis Val Leon.
Bottom line: It’s hard to imagine anyone leaving “Motown Forever” without a bounce in their step and song in their heart.
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
A clarification
In last week’s column, we neglected to mention that Borgata is affiliated with concert-promoter Live Nation.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
