By Bruce Klauber
It was a cocktail lounge, an after-hours mecca, a restaurant, a nightclub, a piano bar, a hangout. It was sometimes a dance club, sometimes a jazz club, and sometimes a karaoke bar. It was an Atlantic City institution for 33 years. It was Grabel’s, and people of a certain age still talk about it.
Harry Grabel was a Holocaust survivor. Several years after he came to this country, he served in the Korean War. He moved to Margate in 1966 with his wife, Doris, and his family. And in June of 1972, he took the plunge into the food and beverage business.
It was just about the worst time to open any business in Atlantic City as the resort was near its low point. Legalized gaming, which wouldn’t be instituted for six more years, was still a pipe dream. The old hotels were crumbling, crime and poverty were rampant, tourism was down, and the reputation of Atlantic City as a vacation destination was, to put it mildly, awful.
Despite that, Harry Grabel saw an opportunity. On June 2, 1972, what was formerly a Chelsea cocktail lounge called The Tropics changed hands. As the new owner, Grabel began extensive renovations.
“We’re going to give the lounge a completely new look, from the rugs to the walls,” he told the Press of Atlantic City at the time. “We’ll also feature nightly entertainment. Full-time piano and vocal entertainment will start when the room has its grand opening, hopefully around July 4.”
Grabel’s, at 3901 Atlantic Ave., was an interesting locale for a new nightspot. The 275-unit Warwick Condominium, which was home to Orsatti’s Restaurant since 1966, was several blocks away. Sherlock’s Liquor & Pub, a package goods store that also occasionally featured live entertainment, was close by. But it was, said Realtors at the time, a “quiet and residential neighborhood.” It’s the same today, except the Warwick no longer has a restaurant, and Ryfe Bar and Restaurant stands where Sherlock’s once was.
Live entertainment was always a feature at Grabel’s. One patron remembers seeing Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and Robert Hazard and the Heroes at Grabel’s.
Harry and Doris always treated the entertainers royally. Keyboardist Dennis Righter has fond memories of working there.
“We came to Grabel’s from the Golden Nugget,” Righter recalled. “We worked at Grabel’s on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for years. It was a ‘beginning of the week’ home for us for probably 11 years. My wife, Nancy, was killed in an auto accident in 1991 and Doris and Harry were at the funeral. Club owners were a tough breed back then, but they treated us like we were their children.
“Harry and Doris were sweethearts, but Harry was rarely in a good mood when dealing with the music. He was a tough manager and never stopped talking, commenting and asking for more. But Grabel’s was almost always where we auditioned for casino lounge gigs, and I think almost every casino job we got was secured from a Grabel’s audition, and all this was done with Harry and Doris’ approval and blessing.
“Every night at 4 a.m. Harry would come over to the bandstand and say, ‘Do me a favor. Stay up there and play a breakfast set for me.’ I would say, ‘Okay, one hundred dollars.’ He would say, ‘I’ll give you some pizza.’ We would sigh and say okay, even though the overnight shift would come in from getting off work at the casinos, cash their paychecks, fill up the bar, and ignore us. So it would be five or six sets for us, but I know we were one of the highest paid duos to ever work the place. Harry appreciated show business and a band that understood what he was doing to make a buck.”
The late and great Sinatra-inspired singer, Sonny Averona, profiled recently in these pages, was a frequent visitor to Grabel’s after his 4 a.m. shows at the Taj Mahal. Harry Grabel worshiped Sonny, and when Sonny’s party walked in to a mobbed Grabel’s at 4:30 a.m., Harry made sure that everyone had seats at the bar and were treated to his bar food, especially “steak fingers.” Naturally, at some point, Sonny was invited to the stage to sing a few Sinatra songs.
Pianist, arranger, and conductor Dean Schneider was a frequent visitor, and would often drop in after finishing his work at one of the casinos.
“I’m just remembering all the times (late and iconic pianist) George Mesterhazy and I would go there after Tony’s Baltimore Grill at 3:30 in the morning,” Schneider recalled. “Dottie and Harry Grabel were something else!”
There were trials, tribulations, and ups and downs through the years. It’s the nature of the business. When gaming was legalized in Atlantic City in 1978, it was hoped that existing businesses would benefit. Most did not, but Grabel’s did, most of the time. Even during the off-season, it was packed.
There was a setback in 1991. Because of a fire, Grabel’s closed that summer, but in November it reopened, complete with new décor, new sound system, and plans for new talent. The business continued to thrive.
Harry and Doris knew that evolution and innovation were essentials in the restaurant business, so in March of 1996, Grabel’s opened a 40-seat restaurant in the club.
“The night crowd doesn’t come out anymore,” Harry said at the time. “By 11, 12 o’clock they’re gone. Most of Grabel’s restaurant patrons are unfamiliar with the longtime entertainment establishment. We’ve attracted a new crowd to see what we’re doing. We have to break that thing where people know we’re a nightclub. We’re a restaurant now. In New York City, there are a million places like this. Around here, we’re the only restaurant to have a piano bar.”
It’s difficult to describe just what went on at Grabel’s after hours. It was packed with dancers, drinkers, those in for a late-night meal, visiting celebrities, and friends of Harry and Doris who eventually divorced, but continued working together. And you never knew what the entertainment was going to be at that hour or on any particular night. There were rock cover bands, jazz groups, comedy and karaoke competitions, and everything in between.
By 2000, Grabel’s was still doing well, but Harry and Doris were getting up in years, and business in Atlantic City was changing. In April of 2000, Doris spoke to The New York Times about the effect of casino gambling on the business.
“I don’t know if there’s an answer to this,” she said. “When the first casinos came in, this place was dynamite. We were jammed with the executives and everything. While the casinos still closed at 4 a.m., the workers poured in, but that business withered when they became 24-hour operations. At the same time, the cost of doing business went up.”
On Friday, May 13, 2005, Harry Grabel retired and announced that the club had been sold to Tom O’Grady, whose background was in education and sales. It was called “O’Grady’s” and had an Irish bar theme. It didn’t last long. It was wrong for the neighborhood, and without Harry and Doris on hand, it just wasn’t the same.
Harry Grabel passed away in 2013 and Doris Grabel is well residing in Ventnor. The venue at 3901 Atlantic Ave. has been vacant and for sale, complete with all the kitchen equipment and sprinkler systems, for some time. Memories are not included.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
