Michael Schulson Is Opening Two New Restaurants in Atlantic City
And they won’t exactly be unfamiliar to Philadelphians.
Atlantic City from the Ocean Casino Resort / Photograph by Federico Scotto/Getty Images
After Stephen Starr yanked the Continental and Buddakan out of the ill-begotten Pier at Caesars in Atlantic City in the dismal days of late-2020, Michael Schulson was the only of Philadelphia’s more prolific restaurateurs with a lasting concept in the city by the sea. At all of the Jersey Shore, really. Schulson opened Izakaya at the Borgata in 2008, marking his official transformation from chef to chef-owner. (He’d open Sampan in Philly one year later.) But Schulson closed Izakaya on January 1st after a 15-year run, leaving Atlantic City without a big Philly name. But not for long.
It turns out that Schulson’s absence from Atlantic City was merely temporary.
This summer, Schulson will open not one but two restaurants at Ocean Casino Resort, located on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
The first is Samuel’s, Schulson’s take on an all-day diner. The menu will feature lots of Jewish delicatessen staples and inspiration from his grandparents, immigrants who ran a kosher butcher shop in the Bronx when they came to America. It was called Samuel’s Deli.
A rendering of the Michael Schulson restaurant Samuel’s in Atlantic City / Image courtesy Ocean Casino Resort/Michael Schulson
If this sounds at all familiar to you, it’s because Schulson opened Samuel’s Deli on Sansom Street in 2022 — and then closed it a year later. That space is now occupied by Schulson’s gorgeous French spot, Bar Lesieur. And if you’re wondering why Samuel’s might work in Atlantic City when it didn’t exactly kill it on Sansom Street, here’s one reason: There are very, very few solid options for breakfast and lunch on the Boardwalk. And a great hot pastrami sandwich on marble rye or fresh everything bagel piled high with lox or whitefish salad? Fuhgetaboutit.
And speaking of familiar, Schulson isn’t going too far off the path of what he knows for his second restaurant at Ocean. He’s also opening an Atlantic City outpost of Pearl & Mary, the oyster bar and seafood restaurant he unveiled on 13th Street in November 2022.
A rendering of the Michael Schulson restaurant Pearl & Mary in Atlantic City / Image courtesy Ocean Casino Resort/Michael Schulson
At Pearl & Mary in Atlantic City, expect an impressive raw bar and cocktail list and entrees like crabs and spaghetti and fried oysters, though we’ll have to see if his fried oysters live up to or exceed the currently peerless ones at the Atlantic City iteration of 15th Street’s Good Dog Bar.
Samuel’s and Pearl & Mary will both be located on the lobby level of Ocean Casino Resort, whereas most of the restaurants at Ocean are on the casino level. The most important consequence of that is that you won’t walk out of the restaurant into somebody lighting up a Marlboro, because the lobby level is non-smoking. The restaurants are also, notably, right across from The Park, a popular outdoor rooftop (FYI, the lobby is not actually on the ground floor) gathering space loaded with firepits and rocking chairs with views of the Boardwalk and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean.
And it sounds like Schulson might have even more in store for Atlantic City. “The team at this property is first class,” he said in a statement. “And I look forward to opening additional concepts with them in the future.”
