Michael Schulson is no longer planning to open four new restaurants at Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, because he says he wants the Jersey Shore to remain a place where his family can relax.
Schulson – the restaurateur behind Double Knot, Sampan, Independence Beer Garden and nine other Philadelphia restaurants – said in February that he planned to bring two of his restaurant concepts, oyster bar Pearl & Mary and diner Samuel's, to Ocean Resort. The restaurants were to sit side-by-side in the casino's lobby, replacing the shuttered Sky Cafe and Harper's, which had moved upstairs. Both were set to open "before summer 2024."
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Two weeks later, he announced plans to open two more: one with an Asian cuisine focus and another kept under wraps.
But he's since walked back on those plans. In a statement to the Philadelphia Business Journal, Schulson said he's abandoning the restaurants in favor of keeping the Jersey Shore as a place for a"family retreat."
“It has become more of a haven for me and my family — a place where we escape, reconnect, and relax together," he said. "It was a difficult decision but with closer consideration and after talking more with my family, we won’t be opening our concepts there this summer."
Schulson did not return a request for additional comment.
Ocean Casino Resort said it will be making a $5 million capital investment into the space and plans to move forward with a new restaurant partnership, though it declined to share any details or a targeted opening date.
Ocean Casino would have been the second location for Schulson's Pearl & Mary, which opened in Midtown Village in 2022. Schulson opened Samuel's deli above his Italian restaurant Giuseppe & Sons at 1523 Sansom St., but it closed last summer and became Bar Lesieur, a French restaurant.