Patsy's Branching Out in AC
Somewhere, Frank Sinatra is smiling.
For years, he begged his favorite New York restaurant, Patsy’s, to open up a branch in Vegas or Palm Springs, where he spent so much of his time in his final years. He could have added Atlantic City to that list, and now, finally, there will be a Patsy’s outside of Manhattan, at the Hilton.
Scheduled to open Memorial Day weekend, Sal Scognamillo, executive chef of Patsy’s and the grandson of the original owner, will supervise the creation of a new Patsy’s. (Pictured, above, is a rendering of the dining area). It was long time customer Nicholas Ribis, owner, vice chairman and partner of Resorts International LLC (parent company to Resorts and the Hilton) who suggested the expansion to Atlantic City. The fit seemed perfect to Scognamillo.
“I feel really comfortable about this. It’s a big undertaking — “I’m Italian, so I don’t trust anybody — But I don’t have any reason not to trust these people. If there weren’t so many lawyers in the world, I think this could have been done on a handshake deal.”
Scognamillo is all about family and he feels confident that the Hilton branch of Patsy’s will continue that family feel. Scognamillo will be training the chefs and other staff at his restaurant for a nine-day boot camp, and will continue that supervision and training the first week in Atlantic City. Since Patsy’s already bottles and sells their master marinara sauce, it will be used at the new Patsy’s.
The Hilton put out a lunchtime spread of some of Pasty’s favorites April 17 to announce the restaurant that will replace Caruso’s. These included some incredible, tender meatballs (made only with veal, said Scognamillo), the restaurant’s hot and cold anti-pasta (the melt-in-your-mouth eggplant Rollatine was delicious), and Rigatoni Sorrentino. The desserts included mini cannolis and creamy Tiramisu.
Speaking of desserts, Patsy’s has a tradition on December 12, Frank Sinatra’s birthday, of serving his favorite desserts to everyone in the restaurant for free.
Here’s hoping that tradition will be passed down to the Atlantic City branch. To get your tastebuds prepped for the May opening check out Patsy's Web site.