Carl Redding opens a soul food restaurant in Atlantic City

GIVEN Atlantic City's rich African-American history and culture, the city should be a destination for Southern-style comfort cuisine. Among those surprised to find that that wasn't the case was Carl Redding, who late last year opened Redding's Restaurant on the northwest corner of Pacific and Kentucky avenues.

"What I saw was an opportunity to open up my style of restaurant," explained Redding. "There were no other restaurants [in Atlantic City] that do what I do - comfort cuisine, soul food. This town was underserved as it pertains to the style of cuisine I serve."

And so the ex-Marine introduced Redding's, a spacious, 240-seat operation open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Although Redding, who turns 47 next Tuesday, grew up in a Harlem, N.Y., public-housing project built in the early 1960s on the site of the fabled Polo Grounds baseball stadium, his gastronomical roots can be traced to his mother's family's 300-acre Alabama farm, where he spent his childhood summers.

Redding's doesn't just dabble in trendy, Southern-style dishes. It goes whole-hog, as it were, on such regional delicacies as chicken and waffles, fried turkey chops, chitterlings (pig intestines) and okra, collard greens and barbecued ribs, done North Carolina-style, with a vinegar-based sauce.

Redding is most proud of his eatery's emphasis on fresh ingredients, and that all dishes are prepared from scratch, "from salmon croquettes for breakfast to fried chicken for dinner."

He boasted that his grits are from South Carolina, and that the pecans are from Georgia and Alabama. That go-to-the-source philosophy is such that even the maple syrup he serves with the large variety of waffles offered (and with which he finishes his "mapled" chicken wings) comes from Canada and is, as he put it, "100-percent maple syrup."

The bright, cleanly decorated restaurant is marked by laminated wood tables and maroon vinyl booths and chairs. A bar area in the back is separated from the dining room by a small lounge. Along the Pacific Avenue window is a counter where cakes, pies, cookies, peach cobbler, cinnamon buns and the like are sold, along with soft drinks and Redding's barbecue sauce, which comes in mason jars bearing handwritten labels.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Redding's is that it even exists. Construction commenced after Atlantic City's fortunes had turned sour, thanks to the double whammy of a lousy economy and competition from legalized casinos in Pennsylvania. According to Redding, it was his financial partner, Mitchell Mekles, who encouraged him to set up shop in the beleaguered gambling capital.

Mekles, the landlord of Amy Ruth's, Redding's original (and still operational) Harlem restaurant, has owned the property, which most recently was a pizzeria, since 1985.

Said Redding: "[Mekles] said to me, 'This would be the best time to open this type of restaurant there, and to make a statement in the food service world. If we build a restaurant now, we will be in place to make a contribution to the community when conditions improve in Atlantic City.' "

It seemed crazy enough to take a chance on the town under such circumstances. To do so without being affiliated with a casino? Even nuttier. But for Redding, a gaming-hall eatery was never an option.

"I didn't do it in a casino, because I'd been there and done that," he said, referring to another Amy Ruth's (they're named for his mother) that opened in 2005 at the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut but closed the next year.

"[It] was the first African-American restaurant to even exist in a casino," according to Redding, but the setting didn't work. "My style is comfort foods, and most people who go to casinos don't want to sit down for a heavy meal. They want to come in, get something to eat and hit the slot machines again.

"After that experience," he said, "I'd never go back into a casino."

Redding's location along Kentucky Avenue is quite the historic coincidence for an establishment that focuses on traditional African-American fare. During the town's rise to preeminence as a vacation destination during the first half of the 20th century, Atlantic City's black residents - a significant number of whom migrated to the Shore from the South - held the menial, but essential jobs in the whites-only hotels. A vibrant black culture and community revolved around Kentucky Avenue, where much of the city's dining and entertainment establishments were.

When asked, however, Redding admitted that history didn't play nearly as much of a role in his decision to locate in Atlantic City as did business considerations.

Redding got into food service as a youngster in Harlem, working as a dishwasher at Wilson's Bakery, at 158th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Soon he was managing the cake counter and, subsequently, baking and decorating desserts.

After leaving the Marines, Redding, who lives in the Atlantic City area, began an eight-year stint as personal assistant and chief of staff to civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network. But his passion for cooking never faded, and, in 1999, he opened the original Amy Ruth's on 116th Street, in Harlem.

Obviously, a place like Redding's, with its emphasis on deep-fried, high-caloric dishes, is hardly going to find favor with more health-conscious types - and its co-owner/chef is unapologetic. There are things just as important as physical health, and that's what Redding's nurtures.

"I'm not purporting to serve the healthiest food," he said. "This is comfort food. This food is about bringing back memories, memories of the warmth of family.

"My [mother's family] was from Alabama, and Alabama, at that time, had a sense of family. The family was the cornerstone of everything. The only memory I have is of food revolving around everything. I thought it was the way every family functioned."

Redding's will be participating in Atlantic City Restaurant week, Sunday through March 5. Lunch is $15.11, dinner $33.11.