Stephen Starr learned how to hustle on the Atlantic City boardwalk. Now, he’s back.

Stephen Starr in his newly renovated restaurant, The Occidental, in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2025.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Atlantic City boardwalk hums with trams transporting tourists to and from buzzing casinos and the historic Steel Pier.

But for restaurateur Stephen Starr, this stretch of wooden planks is more than a backdrop for a family summer vacation. It’s where he learned how to do business.

Starr worked three summers as a teenager in one of the boardwalk shops, thrusting anything he could — T-shirts, trinkets — into tourists’ clamoring hands.

“I learned everything about business from being on that boardwalk,” he said. “You saw the best and the worst of people, the best and worst of yourself. And we worked 14 hours a day, six days a week.”

Now, the James Beard Award-winning restaurateur who helped turn Philadelphia into a dining destination is going back to his roots by conceptualizing two new restaurants on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

stephen starr at the opening of chez frites at ocean casino resort — Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr, whose signature mix of spectacle and sophistication has left a lasting mark on dining in New York and Philadelphia.

Ocean Casino Resort

A Philadelphia native, Starr owns the eponymous STARR Restaurants, which operates 43 restaurants in six cities, including Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC.

Starr is often credited with transforming Philadelphia’s dining scene from the 1990s through the early 2010s, turning it from a city known for cheesesteaks into a culinary destination by fusing elevated cuisine with the theatrical flair he developed as a concert promoter.

It began in 1995 when, after recognizing martinis gaining prominence in other cities, he opened the Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar, a retro-chic spot that helped revitalize Old City with its playful, oversize martinis.

Over the next six years came heavy-hitters like Pan-Asian restaurant Buddakan, with its dramatic 10-foot golden Buddha, and Morimoto, a contemporary Japanese restaurant helmed by chef Masaharu Morimoto.

Buddakan NYC great room and banquet table — The great room and banquet table inside Buddakan NYC.

STARR Restaurants

In 2017, he took home the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur.

Critics over the years have argued that his restaurants, which leaned heavily on theme and theatrics, put style over culinary substance.

A 2015 Eater review characterized Starr’s New York restaurants Buddakan and Morimoto as examples of “culinary dilution” and “a basic and boring approach to luxury,” respectively.

More recently, Ann Limpert of Washingtonian critiqued Stephen Starr’s March reopening of The Occidental, noting that one entrée, as even the server admitted, was “more about the show than the flavor.”

He’s an alchemist of ambiance. Center City as we know it today simply wouldn’t exist without him.Kirsten Henri, Philadelphia Magazine

Still, the reach of Starr’s empire is undeniable. The New York Times reported in September that his portfolio now generates $400 million in annual revenue and employs about 5,000 people.

“The man is an urban planning genius. He’s a real estate visionary. He’s an alchemist of ambiance. Center City as we know it today simply wouldn’t exist without him,” Kirsten Henri of Philadelphia Magazine wrote of Starr in 2012, calling him “one of the most brilliant innovators we have.”

Starr hasn’t lost his touch, either, when it comes to creating buzzworthy dining experiences.

Starr’s March reopening of The Occidental, a 14,000-square-foot, 280-seat restaurant just two blocks from the White House, is no small venture, and locals are taking notice. The revived spot earned praise from The Washington Post and The Infatuation, which called it “a loving homage — and an assertive return — to power dining.”

And now, Starr has brought his culinary prowess to AC — a city still struggling to shed its reputation as a gaming town past its prime — by helping conceptualize two new restaurants inside Ocean Casino Resort, which spans over 20 acres across the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Stephen Starr speaks at the ribbon cutting for grand opening of Chez Frites and Sunny's at Ocean Casino Resort — Stephen Starr speaks at the ribbon cutting for grand opening of Chez Frites and Sunny’s at Ocean Casino Resort.

Ocean Casino Resort

Sunny’s, which opened July 11, is a bright and inviting brunch restaurant that serves simple but well-executed breakfast staples like avocado toast ($17), eggs Benedict ($23), and omelettes ($20-$21), as well as more creative brunch entrées like The Elvis: a double-stacked French toast with maple caramel sauce, peanut butter whipped cream, banana, and bacon bits.

Chez Frites, which opened about a week later, is a classic bistro. Its prix fixe menu includes a mixed green salad and the choice of steak ($49), salmon ($44), lobster ($67), or a vegetarian salt-baked celery root ($36), each served with unlimited fries to satisfy any Atlantic City buffet-lover.

To someone familiar with Starr’s more out-there, extravagant concepts, these restaurants may appear more subdued, but they fit the bill for what Ocean wanted from Starr.

“They wanted something very simple,” he told Business Insider, noting that the concepts are built around single, streamlined ideas.

sunnys atlantic city menu — Sunny’s is only open for breakfast and lunch, a service Starr has never offered before.

STARR Restaurants

Many Atlantic City spots are tied to big-name celebrity chefs — Gordon Ramsay has three restaurants there, Guy Fieri has two. Yet Starr’s new locations aren’t obviously branded with a famous name.

He has respect for celebrity chefs like Ramsay, but knows he’s doing something different. “He’s a great chef,” Starr said of Ramsay. “He knows the classics, and now he’s cashing in. You can’t fault people for doing that.”

I’m trying to do the everyman’s restaurant with a little bit more culinary attention paid to it.Stephen Starr

“Those restaurants are not equivalent to what I’m doing. Those restaurants are giant productions,” he said. “These are everyman’s restaurants, but I’m trying to do the everyman’s restaurant with a little bit more culinary attention paid to it than you would elsewhere.”

Bill Callahan, Ocean Casino Resort’s general manager, told Business Insider that while restaurateurs and celebrity chefs differ in name recognition, that wasn’t a concern for the resort.

“We picked Stephen Starr because he’s not a face, but we didn’t necessarily want a face,” Callahan said.

“We wanted a good brand, and we wanted something consistent,” he added. “We wanted a great partner and operator, and he has proven to be all of these.”

This isn’t Starr’s first foray into the Atlantic City dining scene.

Two people eat in an otherwise empty Continental restaurant in Atlantic City on January 23, 2020.

Wayne Parry/AP

In 2006, Starr brought his Continental Restaurant and Martini Bar to Atlantic City, opening an outpost at The Pier Shops at Caesars. The new location echoed the retro-chic style and martini menu that made the Philadelphia original a hit.

Around the same time, he opened the second iteration of Buddakan, which offered entrées like wasabi-crusted filet mignon, wagyu beef satay, and dim sum options like dumplings, pork belly, and bao buns.

For a time, the Continental and Buddakan gave the Atlantic City crowd a taste of Starr’s big-city culinary prowess, until both shuttered in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was a nice run, but we had to say goodbye,” Starr told the Associated Press in October that year, citing weakened foot traffic and monthslong closures that affected the business’s finances as the reason for closing the two restaurants.

Still, those closures haven’t deterred Starr from trying again — this time on the boardwalk and with a different playbook.

ocean casino resort chez frites — Stephen Starr opened Chez Frites this summer inside Ocean Casino Resort.

Erin McDowell/Business Insider

“It’s not a worthwhile investment anymore to open a fairly large restaurant,” he said in an April interview with Restaurant Business, in reference to his previous larger-than-life openings in other cities, citing increased food costs and stricter labor laws as hindrances to opening a big restaurant.

“The payback, in terms of what you can make as profit, is getting smaller,” he said. “I can’t open restaurants any longer if I don’t get a significant contribution from the landlord.”

It can be inferred — though Starr has not said this directly — that partnering with a major casino like Ocean Casino Resort could allow him to reduce some of the financial and operational risks of owning and operating a brand new restaurant.

However, opening a restaurant in AC — even in the capacity that Starr has — can have its drawbacks.

Hurricane Sandy, the COVID-19 pandemic, declining tourism, and growing competition from other casino hubs, such as Miami and Las Vegas, have all taken a toll on Atlantic City’s ability to attract visitors.

Add in higher-than-average unemployment and crime rates, and it might seem like the last place anyone would want to open a restaurant.

But tourism in Atlantic City is climbing, NJBiz reported, and the wave of multimillion-dollar investments in its casinos suggests the city may be poised for a comeback.

chez frites atlantic city menu — The menu at Chez Frites is simple, designed to cater to a wider audience.

STARR Restaurants

“[Ocean] separated themselves from the tumult and craziness of the boardwalk,” Starr told Business Insider. “It felt freer, and it didn’t reflect the negatives of Atlantic City. It was sort of this fresh new approach to the casinos there.”

Since the pandemic, Atlantic City casinos, from Hard Rock to Bally’s, have invested millions in upgrading hotel rooms, amenities, and dining, marking a shift away from their traditional gaming-first approach.

In 2021, Caesars announced a $400 million overhaul of its three Atlantic City casinos, with $240 million going into Caesars Resort renovations alone. The upgrades included a Nobu restaurant and a Nobu boutique hotel.

Ocean Casino Resort has also shown its commitment to becoming a high-end travel destination. In April, the resort announced it would invest an additional $50 million in upgrades this year as part of a seven-year, $270 million transformation plan.

This upscaling aligns with Starr’s vision for Atlantic City as a culinary destination that breaks away from the decadeslong dominance of pizza joints, sandwich shops, and all-you-can-eat buffets. He also envisions a scene that leans into the locale’s strengths: seafood and open-air dining.

Atlantic City is for everybody. Young, old, rich, poor — everybody at some point gets there.Stephen Starr

“Ironically, there’s no seafood restaurant by the water in Atlantic City,” he said. “You should be able to get a steamed lobster and flounder stuffed with crab, whatever, sitting outside looking at the ocean, and it doesn’t exist.”

With the concepts he developed for Ocean, he ultimately aims to cater to the existing crowd and attract foodies from neighboring culinary cities, such as Philadelphia and New York.

“I pretty much think that Atlantic City is for everybody. Young, old, rich, poor — everybody at some point gets there,” he told Business Insider.

Still, he’s quick to admit it’ll take more than a few new restaurants to pull off the same transformation in Atlantic City that he’s seen in other second-tier and major cities.

“I think it needs a visionary — a developer, a visionary government, or a state government that has a master plan,” he said. “Doing things piecemeal won’t work. There has to be a big plan for Atlantic City.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

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