By Scott Cronick
There is no question that La Strada at the Shore has some big culinary shoes to fill at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City.
Replacing Steve Martorano means that you not only have to have food that can rival Martorano’s, which closed earlier this year, but Martorano also brought personality and an overall fun, South Philly vibe that featured everything from TVs playing “Goodfellas” to a DJ encouraging dancing every night.
Wisely, La Strada at the Shore doesn’t try to copy Martorano’s, nor should it.
La Strada, even though many on the East Coast may not be aware of the fine-dining Italian brand, has quite a reputation of its own.
Dating back to 1978, the original La Strada opened in Reno, Nev., by Don Carano, the same Don Carano who founded the renowned Ferrari-Carano wine business with Rhonda Carano in 1981 as a third-generation Italian-American who always loved great food and wine. In fact, the Caranos opened their winery after being introduced to the beauty of northern Sonoma County while searching for wines to enhance the wine lists at the Eldorado, their hotel casino in Reno that housed La Strada … and still does at the now Caesars Entertainment-owned Eldorado Resort Casino in downtown Reno.
The Harrah’s location, like the original, lets the food do all the talking.
There are no more TVs, which have been replaced by artwork that pays homage to the restaurant’s Italian roots. There is no DJ booth, which has been replaced by a hightop table for communal dining. There is a redesigned fireplace area that looks sharp. And South Philly staples like cheesesteaks and water ice martinis have been replaced by porcini mushroom ravioli and a martini made with pasta water.
In other words, while Martorano’s will be missed for its quirkiness and fun vibe – and yes, that awesome cheesesteak – those who are more concerned with getting a truly authentic, upscale Italian meal in a relaxed, classy setting will be delighted by La Strada’s East Coast debut, which has all the makings to become one of the finest Italian restaurants in Atlantic City.
“La Strada keeps authentic Italian flavors at Harrah’s with a great history dating back to 1978 in Reno,” said General Manager Nick Matthews. “They have done wonderful things out there, and it carries such a great reputation. When you take something with that much history in authentic fine dining and Italian cuisine and bring it to Atlantic City is a large undertaking. But what better way to have authentic Italian food here and have people experience the way Italian food is meant to be tasted?”
Three pillars of love
Those familiar with Martorano’s at Harrah’s will certainly recognize La Strada. The dining room remains pretty much untouched at its core. Physically, there have been very few changes. The stunning bar with its stellar staff greets you at the entrance, and the classic black-and-white color scheme remains intact, the only major difference being red accents throughout the space, including the new La Strada at the Shore logo that hangs proudly above the open kitchen.
What really hasn’t changed since 1978 is La Strada’s vision to only use the finest ingredients. Led by Italian-born Ivano Centemeri, who started as executive chef of La Strada in Reno and now is executive chef of the whole casino property there, La Strada focuses on bringing authentic Italian cuisine to the East Coast in the form of its signature dishes.
They include the best prosciutto-wrapped shrimp ($24.99) you will ever have featuring grilled, braised leeks, fresh herbs and a white balsamic and orange beurre blanc; and the to-die-for, homemade porcini mushroom ravioli ($32.99) with roasted mushroom cream sauce, which was placed on the Food Network’s 2019 list of the “Best Pastas in the Country” by Sara Ventiera.
Matthews said the company’s “three pillars of love” – Amore per l’Italia (love of Italy), Amore di famiglia (love of family), and Amore per la cucina (love of cooking) – remain intact in Atlantic City.
The Harrah’s Resort team continues La Strada’s legacy to emphasize traditional methods and recipes from Italy with the best and freshest ingredients sourced from Italy by Italians to create food that you want to share with family and friends.
But that’s where the comparisons between Reno and Atlantic City can stop.
Freedom on the East Coast
Centemeri apparently knows a good chef when he meets – and works with – one. At Harrah’s in Atlantic City, that chef is Jason Kuey, a Harrah’s veteran with Italian roots who has been given the keys to La Strada’s kitchen and legacy.
“I am humbled and fortunate that Chef Centemeri has given me the freedom to do a lot of stuff on my own,” Kuey said. “I trained for a long time in Italian kitchens and studied under Italian chefs when I was young, so working with Chef Centemeri and rekindling my past has been incredible for me. I love working with him. His ideas are very similar to what I was brought up with. And his passion is just crazy. He flew out here for three days just to work with me on five or six new dishes that we are debuting on our new fall menu. I bring him the recipes, and we work with it and make some changes to make sure they are perfect for La Strada.”
And, by the sneak preview of those dishes we received last weekend, perfection is the right word.
Kuey is being a bit modest because with the exception of the two signature dishes mentioned before, the entire La Strada menu at Harrah’s comes from Kuey, including the base red, white and cream sauces; Kuey’s meatballs ($19.99) served with Sunday gravy, whipped ricotta and grilled crostini; and popular Italian staples like veal marsala ($54.99), veal parm ($50.99), chicken saltimbocca ($42.99) and chicken parm ($42.99).
“La Strada has been famous for all of these years on the West Coast, but Chef Centemeri knows West Coast Italian is very different from East Coast Italian, and the people here have certain expectations,” Kuey said. “So, since I know the customers and what people really want here, he trusts me to execute a menu that East Coast diners will want when they come to an Italian restaurant. He’s from Sicily, so he has this gentlemanly, old-school nature about him. And his cooking style is all about using the freshest ingredients to bring out the flavors. It all starts with using the best ingredients you can find. We have been having fun working in the kitchen together. He’s a great guy who loves food, and he realizes our customer base is different than the customer base out West. So, he’s been very open minded to everything we want to offer here at the La Strada at Harrah’s.”
Kuey knows all eyes are on him as the Carano family has grown in many ways, including Anthony Carano, the grandson of Don Carano, who is now the president and COO of Caesars Entertainment (formerly Eldorado Resorts), one of the largest gaming companies in the world.
“My grandfather used to say, ‘Food is our Frank Sinatra.’ He would joke that we couldn’t afford Sinatra, so our food would be our Sinatra,” Carano said. “He made a point to craft an authentic and homemade menu tied back to our Italian roots, offering high-quality dishes. When he opened La Strada in Reno in 1978, every guest who came through the doors was treated like family, creating a culture that is alive today, both at Caesars Entertainment and in our restaurants. We’re looking forward to paying tribute to my grandfather … in Atlantic City.”
What to order?
Aside from those signature items and the popular Italian staples everyone loves, Kuey’s menu is meant to be savored visit after visit, including the new fall menu that debuts this week.
Some of the must-try starters include eggplant and burrata ($23.99) with Sicilian caponata, fresh, creamy burrata and pesto in a simple dish with all the right textures; the cast iron octopus ($26.99) may be the best octopus we ever had featuring tender calamari with zero chew, Mediterranean olives, heirloom tomatoes, crispy potatoes, long hots, celery leaves and lemon olive oil; and Ligurian stuffed focaccia ($20.99), Crescenza cheese bread topped with San Daniele prosciutto and rucola.
If you don’t have a huge appetite, skip everything else and make sure you order a pasta course – there are about a dozen choices. All of the pastas, with the exception of the linguini, are made in house, including the new butternut squash ravioli ($31.99) with brown butter, sage and sweet, crumbled Italian sausage; the new cheese and candied pear-filled fagotti ($30.99), which are pouches filled with deliciousness and served with a walnut pesto sauce; gnocchi Sorrentina ($32.99), ricotta gnocchi with San Marzano tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, basil and house-made mozzarella; lasagna roulade ($32.99), rolled lasagna with wild boar meat sauce, provolone and bechamel; seafood spaghetti chitarra ($60.99) with mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari, garlic and San Marzano tomato sauce.
“Using fresh pasta is worth all of the effort,” Kuey said. “Fresh pasta is so much more tender than using dried pasta. I think as people learn more about La Strada, they will realize that it’s really much more old-school Italian than Martorano’s was. And that’s not taking anything away from Martorano’s, which was great. This is just different.”
Fresh fish and meats rule at La Strada, including the pan-roasted branzino ($59.99) with potatoes, artichoke, cherry tomatoes, saffron and clam broth; risotto and scallops ($58.99) that made a scallops hater like me into a scallops lover with creamy Carnaroni rice (creamier than a risotto using arborio rice), butternut squash puree and sauteed radicchio; La Strada fra diavolo ($82.99) with a baby lobster tail, shrimp, pan-seared scallops, garlic and macaroni chitarra served in a spicy red sauce; the new ossobuco ($75.99), braised veal shank with saffron risotto and “al salto” gremolada; and Jason’s Cut, a steak entrée that changes weekly, if not daily, based on the best cut Kuey can find that day.
All of the desserts are made in house, including some ridiculously good tiramisu, and the cocktail list is sometimes fun and modern, and sometimes perfectly classic. Check out the dirty martini made with a splash of pasta water.
La Strada’s future
Kuey and Matthews say the first summer for La Strada was a learning experience for both their teams as well as the customers who didn’t know what to expect from the new offering at Harrah’s. But now that fall has arrived, they are confident people have acclimated to the new restaurant and are looking forward to its future.
“Everyone has been happy with the changes and how we have moved forward,” Matthews said. “There are a lot of familiar faces here between our servers, bartenders, kitchen staff and everyone else who works here, so there’s a comfortable feeling when you walk in here because we are all family working together to make La Strada known here like it is on the West Coast. We want to continue to grow the legacy of La Strada.”
(La Strada at the Shore is open 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays to Tuesdays, 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City. Go to Caesars.com)
Scott Cronick is an award-winning journalist who has written about entertainment, food, news and more in South Jersey for nearly three decades. He hosts a daily radio show – “Off The Press with Scott Cronick” – 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays on Newstalk WOND 1400-AM, 92.3-FM, and WONDRadio.com, and he also co-owns Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in Atlantic City, while working on various projects, including charitable efforts, throughout the area. He can be reached at scronick@comcast.net.
