The Casino File
By Chuck Darrow
It doesn’t have a big-time celebrity-chef overlord pushing the boundaries of contemporary cuisine. Nor does it have sleek, cutting-edge décor, or a hip-and-happening reputation. But Capriccio inside Resorts Casino-Hotel does boast a timelessness—from its Roman-inspired, mural-bedecked interior design to its traditional, Italian-focused menu–that makes it easy to understand why it is the longest-running restaurant of Atlantic City’s legal-casino era.
Since its opening on May 26, 1978, Capriccio (Italian for either a brief, lively piece of music or a song or painting that combines elements of reality and fantasy) has operated in the same, ocean-view space on the dining level of the first legal gaming hall outside Nevada. As it has for many years, it arguably stands today as the gold standard of Atlantic City casino Italian restaurants.
But it has achieved that status with a minimum of alterations and virtually no dramatic changes. Perhaps the most notable difference was the years-ago removal of the bright lime-green-and-lemon-yellow striped upholstery on the booth benches and chairs in favor of a more muted color scheme.
In an industry where “new-and-different” is as crucial to success as slot machines, how does Capriccio manage to not just survive, but thrive (as in its numerous awards, including multiple annual citations from USA Today as the nation’s best casino restaurant)?
“I believe the secret to Capriccio comes down to tradition,” offered Resorts’ executive sous chef David Wong during a recent chat at the eatery.
“If you get any recipe from your grandmother or your grandfather, from anybody from back in the day, it’s about tradition. They do things the right way, the right process. It’s a little bit slower and you take your time with it. And that’s exactly how we do it. All our recipes are the same way.
“And our service is the same way. And when I say service, I mean both in the kitchen and in the dining room. When I say taking your time and paying attention to all the little things that matter, that means there’s no rushing involved.
“Unfortunately, in this day and age, when it comes to corporate [demands], when it comes to trying to beat the bottom line for investors and stuff like that in a restaurant, you’re trying to push as many covers as you can out the door. And unfortunately, when you do that, you’re not putting that love of tradition into your product, into your craft, into your service.”
The result, he continued, is that “guests feel rushed and probably don’t feel the love in the food as well, the flavoring and stuff like that. If somebody’s rushing, they can miss a few ingredients. You can miss seasoning something properly. Maybe you don’t reduce sauces properly.”
Part and parcel of that devotion to tradition, noted Wong, is keeping the past part of the present.
“We’re trying to preserve and pay homage to the original chefs and the original layout of the restaurant, which is what makes it classic,” explained Wong, an Orange County, NY native and Culinary Institute of America grad who came to Capriccio from Old Homestead Steakhouse at Borgata.
“The key word is ‘classic.’ I think what you see in newer restaurants, whether they’re very heavily corporate, whether it’s a restaurant group or whatever, they know that depending on their clientele, they want to change things so that it is more visually appealing and doesn’t seem boring.
“But in our case, [it’s obvious] that we’re trying to keep and preserve every part of Capriccio like it was from Day One. Nothing’s changed. All we do is make sure that it’s [kept clean].”
It seems that today, more and more high-end restaurants have strayed from accepting customers’ requests to go off-menu. For the most part, that isn’t the case at Capriccio.
“We definitely do it as much as we can handle,” said Wong. “When there’s a Saturday night show rush, we reserve the right to hold off a little bit. But we try to do our best because at the end of the day, that’s our job as a chef. I’m not saying that we’re going to go completely off the path and say, ‘Let’s make up some stuff.’ But, if we have the ingredients, we’ll do it. That’s our job.”
So, what’s the one dish anyone dining at Capriccio must have?
“It’s, the seafood zuppetta,” declared Wong without hesitation. “It’s a seafood pasta [dish] with linguini, lobster, scallop and shrimp. It’s a dayboat scallop [that’s locally sourced]. Everybody goes for it. They love it.”
Nonetheless, it isn’t Wong’s favorite.
“I go for the Bronzino because it’s very clean and light,” he advised. “And it gives me room for dessert.”
For more, go to resortsac.com/restaurants/fine-dining/capriccio.
Coming attractions
Fans of the pop music sub-genre known as “yacht rock” will want to be at Ocean Casino-Resort on Aug. 1 as Toto (“Africa,” “Roseanna”) and Christopher Cross (“Sailing,” “Arthur’s Theme”) hit the Ovation Hall stage. Both acts are identified as key to the format’s development and continuing popularity by the recently released HBO documentary, “Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.”
Also on the bill is Australia’s Men At Work (“Who Can It be Now?” “Down Under”).
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
