Landmark Cherry Hill nightclub changes hands

For four decades, from the first four-on-the-floor beats of disco to the sudsy advent of the American craft-beer garden, Taylor Mills has run a sprawling nightclub on Marlton Pike, next to King of Pizza in Cherry Hill.

It's carried so many names over the years: Her Place, Gatsby's, Taylor's (two incarnations), Last Resort, Sanctuary, Top Dog (twice), and most recently Craft House.

Early general manager Barry Gutin, who now co-owns GuestCounts Hospitality, says Mills' Crazy Cactus Club - which opened in May 1991 as an outdoor counterpoint to Taylor's - made a "huge impact. Everyone thought you needed water to make a go of an outdoor space." It later was called Iguana Beach Club.

This fall, Mills sold the landmark property, as well as his Williamstown bar, now operating as Rack's. "I needed a break now. I'm working on other stuff," says Mills, 72, a native of small-town Kentucky who in the mid-1960s moved north to wait tables at the nearby Latin Casino (now Subaru's headquarters) and saved up $10,000 to go into business with a rock club called T's Zodiac in Gloucester City. He opened Her Place in 1976.

The Cherry Hill buyers identify themselves as the Aharoni family of Voorhees, and they're preparing an opening later this month of Vera - named after the matriarch. She says they have owned restaurants in Israel.

They're doing some cosmetic work initially on the first floor, but are spending the most attention on the upstairs nightclub, which they're gearing up for banquets. Radio stations will have DJ nights, as well.

Chef Jermeil Lennon, last at the Hilton in Princeton, will execute what the family calls a "modern Mediterranean" menu.

The changeover coincides with last weekend's finale of The Coastline on Brace Road in Cherry Hill, becoming senior housing.