By Scott Cronick
When Rhythm & Spirits opened on Tennessee Avenue four years ago, co-owner Lee Sanchez had a plan – and a great deal of hope – for the brand’s future.
Like any new business, when R&S debuted, it was a hybrid of a bunch of different ideas, some which worked, some which didn’t.
With co-owner Mark Callazzo, R&S was part Iron Room, the former Albany Avenue restaurant that once briefly occupied the R&S space, offering upscale modern American food. It was part Italian and part Spanish, offering homages to Sanchez’ culture. With a pink door – now replaced by a glass one – it was a nightlife destination that ran the gamut from punk bands after dinner to drag shows late at night. And lastly, it was – and still is – possibly the greatest cocktail bar in Atlantic City.
But like any good owners – and businessmen – Sanchez and Callazzo fine-tuned Rhythm into what it is today: A contemporary Italian-American restaurant with a twist to make it unlike any other Italian restaurant in the city. Yes, there are still some Spanish nods. Yes, the cocktail list still excels over most others. Yes, there is still an entertainment component – now more mixed into its dinner program. But, most importantly, it has found its identity, and it’s an awesome spot that anyone who appreciates food – not just Italian food – should explore regularly.
A trip up the Expressway
Sanchez, a former vice president of food and beverage for Harrah’s Atlantic City, could have easily stepped into another high-paying casino or resort job anywhere in the country when he departed Harrah’s. But with the urging of Callazzo – and me, to some extent – Sanchez decided to put his talents to use to help make Tennessee Avenue the destination that it is today.
But, in the back of his head, that plan – and hope – included expanding Rhythm and other concepts off Tennessee Avenue.
And, by the end of the year, that plan will come to fruition as Rhythm & Spirits will expand to Philadelphia, offering the City of Brotherly Love a unique and exciting option that should certainly resonate among the masses.
The second location of Rhythm & Spirits will be located at Suburban Station in Philadelphia. Right across the street from Love Park in Center City, the space at One Penn Center on John F. Kennedy Boulevard formerly housed Classic Cake Bakery & Café, whose ownership will partner with Callazzo and Sanchez on the new venture.
The location is incredible. Not only is it located at one of the three core Center City train stations in Philly and one of the busiest stations in the Regional Rail System, Rhythm & Spirits will be surrounded by office buildings, retail outlets, other restaurants and nearby City Hall.
“When I left Harrah’s, and Mark and I partnered up, it was always about Atlantic City, but it was that we would start in Atlantic City and then grow the brands to take other places,” Sanchez said. “We worked our butts off to make this happen, and we are so excited.”
Sanchez said the expansion to Philly just makes logical sense for a variety of reasons, proximity to Atlantic City being the first, customer relations being a close second.
“We have a very large reach and have customers from Brooklyn and North Jersey and New York City, but a majority of our customers are from Philadelphia, so it just makes sense to start there,” Sanchez said. “But we will be Atlantic City proud in Philadelphia, too. Even our tagline – A.C. Famous – will be used in Philadelphia. We want to bring this thing that made us famous in A.C. to Philadelphia. But it will be bringing different versions of our existing concepts to Philadelphia so they are basically all under one roof.”
The project is ambitious, for sure.
The new R&S will be about 4,500 square feet, more than double the existing R&S space in A.C., and will include an outdoor dining experience just like R&S in A.C.
The quirky, fun décor of a trippy, tropical – upscale yet approachable – oasis will remain in Philly, but it will feature windows – unlike A.C. – to brighten things up, along with a white background palette as opposed to the black one in A.C.
“It will pretty much be identical, except a reverse color scheme from black to white,” Sanchez said. “It’s going to be stunning.”
In the rear of R&S will be 32 Chocolate Speakeasy, the Philadelphia version of Bar 32 Chocolate on Tennessee Avenue, offering bean-to-bar chocolate creations including dessert, cocktails, candy bars and more.
“The only way to find it is once you are inside the restaurant, a giant 32 neon sign will light up, and then the curtains will spread so you are transported to an almost identical space of Atlantic City. It will be unlike anything else in Philadelphia.”
What is Rhythm & Spirits
“The best way to describe it is a trip inside my head,” Sanchez said. “It’s really my life experiences. To understand the background of Bar 32, me, Scott (Cronick) and Mark used to go on vacations and trips and eat food and experience things that most people wouldn’t do. We would eat in gas stations and the places people didn’t think to eat, and we would research where we wanted to eat and then decide where we wanted to go travel to. And that led to a lot of different things. Me and Mark are both of Italian-American descent, and we really brought our life experiences and our travels and what we like to the table and figured out what we wanted to do. It’s a little Mark and a lot of me.”
Sanchez puts it best by describing it as an Italian restaurant and cocktail bar that breaks every single rule possible.
When you look at the menu, you will see what Sanchez is talking about. Sure, it’s rooted in traditional Italian-American food, but when you read the descriptions, you see the twists and creations that make R&S the special place it is.
For appetizers, squid ink arancini with sauteed crab meat, Ivan Drago’s Oysters with parmesan garlic butter, fried calamari with a limoncello glaze and hot honey and – as a throwback to the Iron Room – the Neuske’s thick-cut bacon will all impress.
Pasta choices include spicy rigatoni with vodka, cream, butter and onion; cacio e pepe with the ability add caviar – and you should! – truffle bucatini alfredo with the legendary truffle mac sauce from The Iron Room; and the carbonara with glazed Neuske’s thick-cut bacon.
The Heritage pork chop with rosemary garlic butter is probably the best seller, but the Wagyu burger with sauteed broccoli rabe, provolone, mozzarella and roasted cherry pepper aioli served with truffle fries is pure awesomeness. Even the chicken parm is different as it takes former chef Kevin Cronin’s southern fried chicken sandwich recipe featuring chicken thighs to an entrée level by adding old-school red sauce – Sanchez learned to make this sauce from his grandmother when he was 12 – along with Reggiano parmigiano, mozzarella and a side of broccoli rabe instead of pasta.
But even of you keep things simple like the spaghetti and meatballs, you won’t be disappointed.
“The recipe for the meatball is my grandmother’s, but my mother is the guardian of that recipe,” Sanchez said. “One time my mother came to my house for our first Sunday dinner with our family and the Callazzos, and my mother says, ‘Your meatball sucks! That’s not how you make a meatball. I showed you better than this.’ So, for the next Sunday Supper, she showed me how to make the meatballs again, and then she came to Rhythm & Spirits and our sister restaurant Cuzzie’s and showed every single staff member how to make the meatball so we all make it correctly. Now, my mother trains everyone how to make the meatball. And if she doesn’t train you, you can’t make them, and that includes me not being able to train people. That’s how serious we take our recipes.”
The Philadelphia menu will be identical to the Atlantic City menu, and that menu will undergo significant changes before debuting in Philadelphia.
“We have been testing things all summer, including a new burger, a mortadella sandwich designed for Philadelphia, and another sandwich called the North Ward – named after the North Ward of Newark where my mother was born – that is a chicken cutlet with buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula tossed in extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and aged balsamic, and roasted cherry pepper garlic aioli. It’s awesome.”
That burger will feature a chuck, brisket and short rib blend of beef laced with bone marrow to give it a super decadent flavor, topped with heirloom tomato, burrata and that signature cherry pepper aioli. There will also be clams casino that eats more like a clams oreganato thanks to the bacon being shredded into the breadcrumb, along with some new creations that will evolve between now and December.
Just like Atlantic City, brunch will play a major factor in Philadelphia. Currently, brunch is offered 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays to Mondays, with the Monday standing out as an industry brunch with some great specials including $3 mimosas.
The brunch stands out as one of the best in Atlantic City. Must-try items include the Hammonton Waffle, a Belgium pearl sugar waffle with honey-whipped ricotta, fresh mint and blueberries tossed in a raspberry-basil-lavender simple syrup; the Bar 32 Waffle with brulee’d marshmallows, vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate, brown butter cookies, graham crackers, double-chocolate brownie crumbs and fresh whipped cream; Colorado Hatch Chili Hash with green hatch chilies, Neuske’s bacon, sweet Italian sausage, fried potatoes and two sunny side-up eggs; fried chicken Benedict with southern fried chicken thighs on top of the sugar pearl waffle with hot sauce Hollandaise and a sunny side-up egg with hot honey; a slew of signature pizzas from Cuzzie’s; maple bourbon wings; and possibly the best cheesesteak in Atlantic City with slow-roasted, thin-sliced prime rib, Cooper sharp cheese, mozzarella and melted onions.
There’s also a deal where $45 can snag you any entrée, unlimited mimosas, frose, Aperol spritzes and Bloody Marys.
“It’s a great experience, and of course our cocktails raise everything up to the next level,” Sanchez said. “It’s definitely an outside-of-the-box brunch experience.”
Bar 32 explained
While Bar 32 will become 32 Chocolate Speakeasy in Philadelphia, the concept will be identical.
“We are the only bean-to-bar restaurant and producer of chocolate in the state of New Jersey, and we are the only bean-to-bar cocktail restaurant in the state of New Jersey, and we want to bring that experience to Philadelphia,” Sanchez said. “There are other places that have desserts and chocolate, but most of those places serve other food that is not related to chocolate, but we don’t serve anything that doesn’t involve chocolate.”
It’s like Willy Wonka coming to life.
This fall, to prepare for Philadelphia, Bar 32 will undergo the most significant menu change since opening. That will include making chocolate – from milk to dark and everything in between – from scratch with beans ethically and sustainably sourced from all over the world.
“Some will say to make sure you save room for dessert, but we say eat your dessert first,” Sanchez said.
Those desserts include the brown butter chocolate chip cookie – the best I ever had – with cookies and cream ice cream or old-school vanilla gelato; the Resurrection by Chocolate with a double-chocolate brownie topped with Marina Mud ice cream, chocolate drizzle, fresh whipped cream, chocolate shavings and a chocolate Luxardo cherry cordial; banana pudding covered in chocolate with banana Foster drizzled over the top tableside; and Sanchez’s favorite Mama Chocolate’s Cannoli Supreme Cake with double-chocolate brownies, cannoli cream, crushed brown butter cookies, chocolate sauce and crushed cookies.
Lately there have been additions like a peanut butter pie that should be on the regular menu – and might be – and that brunch waffle.
Then there’s cocktails ranging from the subtle chocolate experience like the Intense Orange Chocolate Old Fashioned to the more over-the-top Mark’s Chocolate Martini.
“We basically heat whole milk and take our chocolate and slowly shave it into the milk, so it melts slowly, then we take it over the top by adding 48 Blocks Vodka and salted caramel cream to create the magical drink. People literally crave it,” Sanchez said.
There’s also a variety of chocolate bars and other retail items to take home, and if you are looking for that perfect anniversary or wedding favor, team up with Bar 32 to make custom chocolate bars with custom wrappers, just like Ocean Casino Resort recently did to celebrate their 5th birthday.
Cuzzie’s part of Philly?
Two years ago, Sanchez and Callazzo debuted Cuzzie’s Pizzeria & Kitchen, an Italian-American pizzeria and sub shop, to immediate acclaim.
Featuring the thinnest crust pizza in A.C. and sandwiches with out-of-the-park recipes inspired by Sanchez’ mother, Cuzzie’s is one of the best-kept secrets in Atlantic City.
While Cuzzie’s name won’t be part of the Philadelphia experience, the pizza will be, as new ovens will be installed at the Philly Rhythm & Spirits.
Expect creations like the southern fried chicken pizza; the A.C. Roast Pork Pie with red sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, Manchego, roasted pulled pork and long hot peppers; and new creations like the Spanish-inspired one with chorizo, dry-aged and fresh mozzarella, Manchego, sea salt and a diablo sauce.
Even some of the sandwiches like the Cuzzie’s Special with chicken cutlets, heirloom tomato and honey-whipped ricotta, the aforementioned cheesesteak and the OG Iron Room chicken cheesesteak made with the Iron Room truffle mac sauce may make appearances.
“It’s not about overloading the pizza with all of these heavy toppings,” Sanchez said. “It’s about focusing on flavor and taking a traditional approach to Italian-American cooking and then breaking all of the rules. That’s the food I grew up on. The pizza is thin and crispy and flavorful, and our sandwiches are just incredible.”
Philly bound
Sanchez becomes emotional when talking about R&S expanding to another city in another state.
“This validates I made the right decision partnering with Mark and Scott and (Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall Chef and Partner) Charlie (Soreth) and the Callazzo family on Tennessee Avenue,” Sanchez said. “It validates everything I set out to do when I graduated college, which was to open my own restaurant and build a hospitality company. And the fact that it’s actually happening means a lot.”
(For more information, go to CuzziesPizzeria.com; Bar32Chocolate.com; RhythmAndSpirits.com and TennAveAC.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.
