Twenty years ago, Mark Juliano (at right) discovered the Il Mulino Restaurant in New York. When Juliano came to the Trump Taj Mahal
in 2005, he encouraged the Il Mulino Restaurant to open a location there. Last night this became a reality when Juliano, the CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts and Jerry Katzoff (left), Chairman of the Il Mulino, USA, invited guests for a preview of the foods that Il Mulino will offer when the restaurant opens at the Taj Mahal this summer.
Juliano said, "We are very excited that we will soon offer our guests the opportunity to enjoy one of America's finest Italian restaurants.”.
Katzoff noted, "It's recognized that Il Mulino New York is the crown of Italian dining in New York and reservations are always at a premium."
Katzoff explained that there will be two separate dining concepts located at the Taj Mahal: Il Mulino New York and Trattoria Il Mulino. Il Mulino New York will offer the traditional white table cloth experience with tuxedo-clad waiters and an extensive list of daily specials with wine recommendations.
The Trattoria will offer a more casual dining experience featuring many of the creative fares of Il Mulino New York, along with more traditional pizzas, pastas and lighter dishes.
The foods were prepared in the Taj kitchens by the chefs of Il Mulino, New York. Executive Chef Michele Mazza (bottom photo - left) and Corporate Kitchen Manager, Michael Greco (bottom photo-right) made sure that everything was perfect. Chef Mazza trains the chefs at all of the Il Mulino restaurants.
(photos by Lew Steiner)

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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.”

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Trump Taj Mahal has announced that the casino will be opening a new restaurant in partnership with Il Mulino New York, the legendary Italian restaurant. The opening of Il Mulino in A.C. is scheduled to take place in late spring. Il Mulino New York has garnered critical acclaim for more than two decades. The restaurant is inspired by the been ranked the number one Italian restaurant in New York by the Zagat Survey for over two decades.
There will be two separate dining concepts located at the Taj Mahal: Il Mulino New York and Trattoria Il Mulino. Il Mulino New York will offer the traditional white table cloth experience with tuxedo-clad waiters and an extensive list of daily specials with wine recommendations. The Trattoria will offer a more casual dining experience featuring many of the creative fares of Il Mulino New York, along with more traditional pizzas, pastas and lighter dishes.

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I love crabs. I’ve never been crabbing but I do purchase live crabs and steam them myself. When I saw that a new restaurant called Steamers had opened at the old location of Stumpo’s (and before that the Sailfish) in Margate, I had to check it out. The ad in Atlantic City Weekly said they had jumbo crabs. Newly opened on June 21, I checked out the place last Sunday with my Mom. I’ll be writing a full review later, but I wanted to let fellow blue claw crab fans to know they really did have jumbo crabs, reasonably priced at $6 each. After a filling appetizer, I ordered three and could only eat 1½. The reach on the crab pictured is 17”. I had the other 1½ the next night for dinner. The crabs were delicious, so sweet and perfectly cooked. I’ll give you the web address but the site isn’t up yet.

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Before the Carrie Underwood debut Friday, May 25 at Caesars Circus Maximus, media members were invited to a dinner at Mia. Fashionably late, thanks to a five hour limo ride from New York City, was famed Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto. I’ve spent hours stuck in holiday Parkway traffic, so I felt his pain. For someone who mingles with the rich and infamous, Musto was down-to-earth as he chatted with his tablemates.
Since he was sitting across from an AC local, he asked about the obvious changes in AC in the past few years and I was happy to catch him and his companion up on the World’s Playground (I’m old school and I like AC’s old nickname).
I’ve been a fan of Musto and his La Dolce Musto column in the Voice since his first byline in the early 1980s. Check out his latest column here.
Dinner, by the way was delicious, especially my scallops and lobster tail with fingerling potatoes, and the selection of mini-desserts that included a yummy crème brulee.

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I had a chance recently to check out the new Waterfront Buffet at Harrah’s, part of the on-going expansion at the property. The buffet had to be really good since it replaces the Fantasea Buffet, for many years the standard bearer for casino buffets locally.
My first impression was favorable, which is good, since I worked up an appetite walking from the parking area to the buffet. With seating for 630, the buffet is huge, with enough space between tables so that you don’t feel crowded. The 22 ft. high ceiling adds to the open feeling.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that renowned chef Susanna Foo, going against the tide of several Philly area restaurateurs, will close her Suilan restaurant at the Borgata on Jan. 1. The Euro-Chinese restaurant opened with the Borgata in July 2003. Last week, it was also reported that Foo reached a deal with prosecutors that would allow her to instruct Philly's homeless on cooking instead of "facing trial for allegedly striking a Parking Authority ticket writer" earlier this year.

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It hasn’t been the Million Dollar amusement pier of my youth for a long time. Now, the most recent incarnation of the ship-shaped property jutting out into the Atlantic, the Pier at Caesars is rounding into shape nicely. Check out my Nov. 16 story in Atlantic City Weekly.http://www.acweekly.com/view.php?id=5517&issue_id=154

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