Rebirth at the Shore - Chefs International

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Rebirth at
the Shore

Reflections on
Superstorm Sandy

Chefs International Restaurants Jack Fusco’s Amazing Images

The Evolution of Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty Shore Astrophotography & Seascapes

jersey shore • spring 2013Jersey shore People

Corn Fritters, Coleslaw, & Chowder
The Legacy of Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty
by Christine Menapace

The Hurricane (the original Wharfside),
Point Pleasant Beach.
Jack Baker's Wharfside
Restaurant today.

Above: Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty, Point Pleasant Beach.
Left: Sunset over the Wharfside Patio Bar on the Manasquan River.

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Current President, Bob Cooper.

Riverside at The Sunset Ballroom at Jack Baker's Ablue and green hued six-pound lobster
Lobster Shanty, Point Pleasant Beach. is waving its thick yellow claws in the
air as it’s proudly held aloft by a man named
Livingston. Six enormous bubbling turquoise jersey shore • spring 2013
tubs in this giant refrigerated room currently
hold about 1,600 lobsters. But it is winter. In
the summer, the tubs contain about 5,000
pounds of lobster, explains Livingston. As
an employee of Point Pleasant-based Chefs
International, the managing company of ten
restaurants including the iconic Jack Baker’s
Lobster Shanty and the Wharfside in Point
Pleasant Beach, Livingston is the “lobster
manager.” And it’s no small job. Year-round
two fishing boats come into the dock just
off the Wharfside filled with a daily haul of
lobster and scallops caught right off the New
Jersey coast. To give some perspective, the
Wharfside and Lobster Shanty alone will go
through about 30,000 pounds of lobster in a
summer, says Jeff, the director of purchasing.

Jack Baker (right) and friend, Net Lane (left), sometime in the continued on page 38
1960s. Says Baker of the early years, “the only thing I sold was
what I caught.”

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Jersey shore People Corn Fritters, Coleslaw, & Chowder, continued from page 37

jersey shore • spring 2013 This scene along the dock is one I was young and full of energy.” Shanty in Cocoa Beach, Florida;
that has been played out for genera- He continues, “All I served was hot and a new seasonal restaurant, 9th
tions. Fishermen make a living off boiled lobsters. The only thing I sold Avenue Pier, in Belmar. With over
the bounty of the sea and happy was what I caught.” five hundred employees and sev-
people gobble up the simple pleasure eral regional supervisors covering
of steamed lobster dipped in drawn Baker’s Water Street Bar & Grille, Toms River. two states, Chefs International has
butter. Jack Baker, the Point Pleasant certainly come a long way from its
native and restaurateur who formed As word got out, people flocked to humble, four-table beginnings. At
Chefs International, knew this was the restaurant. Business grew rap- the time of Baker’s retirement, Chefs
a winning combination from the idly and eventually the old clothes owned eight restaurants, and its suc-
outset. After establishing the Lobster washer was traded in for a bathtub, cess has continued under current
Shanty in 1957, he opened a series of which was also converted to a gas- President Bob Cooper, another life-
restaurants in three different states fired cooker, and a deep fryer was long resident of the area.
until his retirement in 1988. purchased. “The demand was tre- Through the early years, four
Now nearly eighty-two, Baker mendous…there were virtually no “Cs” greatly contributed to the res-
grew up in Point as the son of a restaurants around,” says Baker. The taurants’ successes. The first three
fisherman. When he was sixteen, porch could no longer accommo- include mouth-watering corn frit-
he crewed on a boat being delivered date everyone, so a twenty-eight-seat ters, coleslaw, and clam chowder still
to Florida. “When I got to Florida, building was constructed. Today, the made with “sacred recipes that have
I had never seen anything like it Shanty hardly resembles its “shanty” been in the company for years,” says
before…the palm trees,” he recalls. name. Instead, it is an elegant, win- Cooper. “A lot of the [selections/reci-
So he decided to stay for a while, get- dow-enclosed restaurant of stunning pes] I picked up in my travels,” says
ting a job as a busboy at the Biltmore waterfront views that is also home to Baker. Cooper mentions a story in
Hotel in Palm Beach. “That’s how I the Sunset Ballroom, a lovely banquet which a rustic Delaware restaurant
started in the restaurant business,” venue hosting approximately seventy was being renovated. Just as the
he says. Mentioning Kurt, the chef at weddings a year where brides can work crew were about to paint over
the Biltmore, Baker says, “I learned a dance the night away under six large a recipe written on the wall, Baker
lot from him…like how to make corn crystal chandeliers that reflect the stopped them and copied it down. “I
fritters.” But then the Korean War sparkle of the surrounding water. remember that incident,” says Baker.
came along, and Baker used his res- Besides the Shanty and the “I think it was New England clam
taurant skills to run the mess hall. Wharfside located right next door, chowder.”
After military service, Baker Chefs International currently owns: The fourth “C” was “charisma,”
returned to Point in 1955 and began Baker’s Water Street Bar & Grille in and this is where Baker thrived.
fishing with his father, Barkos. Toms River; Baker’s American Bar & Baker was “very entrepreneurial.
Shortly thereafter, they decided to Grille in Monroe; Moore’s Tavern & Jack was fun, he was fearless,” says
open a small four-table restaurant in Sports Bar and Escondido’s Mexican Cooper. “He’s a character. He was
the side porch of their home, which Restaurant in Freehold; another
stood at the site of the present day Lobster Shanty and Mr. Manatee’s in
Lobster Shanty on the shores of the Vero Beach, Florida; a third Lobster
Manasquan Inlet. After a busy day of
lobstering, Jack and his father would
cook their catch in an old clothes
washer that had been converted to a
gas-fired cooker. “I had the spindle
taken out,” laughs Jack. “I’d fish in
the day and serve lobsters at night.

9th Avenue Pier, Belmar.

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the face of the restaurants, and he Interview With Jack Baker jersey shore • spring 2013
would get to know you. He was a
celebrity. This was a small town,” At eighty-one, Jack Baker has retired to Richmond, Maine.
adds Cooper. To demonstrate Baker’s Still sharp as a tack, Baker talked to us about his life in
charisma, Cooper mentions how Point Pleasant, his home in Maine, and his memories of
Baker even convinced a piano player World War II as a boy out on the sea fishing with his father.
in the Bahamas to move to New
Jersey. “Oh, Earl Roach,” laughs You grew up in Point Pleasant?
Baker. “Actually it was Bermuda. We I went to the grammar school and the high school. It was my hometown.
were partying in Bermuda and as The football team were state champs in 1948. It started as a fishing village. I
the night progressed I thought I was guess we got our first motel around 1945 or 1946. It was right after the war that
Fred Astaire. The next morning the things really took off.
phone rang and a gentleman asked, I’ve got to say, Point Pleasant was one hell of a lovely area to grow up in…it
‘What time does the plane leave?’ It was great and a great place to start a business. I have so many great memo-
turns out I had hired him the night ries…everyone always pitched in and helped each other…it had a real community
before.” He adds, “He was supposed spirit.
to stay just a few weeks, but he stayed
fifteen years. Now he’s retired to Why did you decide to retire to Maine?
New Orleans. He was a real musi- There’s something about Maine. It’s like Point Pleasant Beach was in the
cian’s musician.” 1940s when everyone knew each other. Before Richmond, I lived on Bailey
“Jack created all of this for us,” Island. It’s just like Point, a little fishing town that’s now a tourist mecca.
credits Cooper. But it was also Where we live now is very rural, we love it.
Baker’s son-in-law, Anthony Papalia,
who served as company president What have you done since retirement?
after Baker retired from 1988 to I couldn’t stand sitting around so I opened and sold a few restaurants in
2005 who provided leadership and Maine. For a while, I would help the senior citizens by cooking dinner once a
administrative structure. “Both of month or so but lately I’ve let someone younger take over and they seem to be
these men taught me the business doing okay. I’m going on eighty-two-years-old now after all.
and allowed me the opportunity to
continue the legacy,” says Cooper. Do you have a favorite dish?
I love anything francaise and anything marsala. You have to understand, I
grew up with seafood. It was seafood all the time. So I actually don’t like sea-
food. But there are so many different ways to prepare it now. Back in the day it
Baker’s American Bar & Grille, Monroe. was broiled lobster or broiled flounder. My wife thinks tilapia is terrible. We like
haddock francaise.
During a period from 1977 to 1999,
Chefs International was publicly Do you get back to Point much?
owned. Cooper himself started with We try to get back three of four times a year. My wife has eight sisters that
the company in 1982 as a bartender still live in the area.
during his college years. “I was sup-
posed to be a school teacher,” laughs Have you been back since Hurricane Sandy?
Cooper. Cooper’s mother was a server My wife and I went down at Thanksgiving after the storm. My son has cre-
and manager with Chefs and Cooper dentials that let us see Mantoloking and Bay Head. I could not believe it. I lived
himself quickly progressed to dining through three or four hurricanes, and they were nothing compared to this.
room manager. “I guess the job picks
you,” says Cooper. Cooper also met Anything you’d like to add?
his wife at the Lobster Shanty (she There’s almost no one I can talk to about this. It sounds like you’re not tell-
was a server and hostess) and they ing a straight story…but people don’t realize how close World War II was to us
were married, naturally, there as well. on the Jersey Shore. The German subs would lay in wait within twenty miles of
shore. Many nights we’d hear the “boom boom” of depth charges and such. The
continued on page 40 beaches would be littered with tar, debris, and wreckage all along the coast…it
was quite a thing. The Coast Guard would patrol the beach on horseback. They
also had a vessel in the Inlet and you had to have a pass to get by them. They
would come aboard to make sure you didn’t have supplies for the German subs.
We used to see periscopes regularly while we were out fishing.
Being on the coast, we had to have our car headlights painted black halfway
down so they’d be less noticeable. And all windows on buildings and houses that
faced the ocean had to be painted black too.
I’ll never forget one incident in particular. We were out fishing one night, and
we could hear the war vessels all around us. The few fishing boats that were out
were afraid of getting run down because of course, everyone was blacked out
without their lights on. Then, for just a flash of about fifteen seconds, the entire
fleet lit up. They had done it just so we would know where we could safely set
our nets. n

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Jersey shore People Corn Fritters, Coleslaw, & Chowder, continued from page 39

Cooper says many other employees tions of today’s patrons. “Restaurants sphere, and weekly entertainment.
are locals who have worked for the have moved from dinner houses to Robert Lombardi, Jr., architect for
company for years. “We hire a lot of more casual venues with live enter- Sonnenfeld and Trocchia in Holmdel,
kids whose parents work here. We’ve tainment,” says Cooper. was the designer of all three renova-
all been around for a long time,” he As a result, the company trans- tion projects.
comments. “Most of us have grown formed the back dining room of Yet another highly successful
up in the area.” Moore’s Tavern in Freehold into a enterprise has been the introduc-
tion of a seasonal restaurant, the 9th
Moore’s Tavern & Sports Bar, Freehold. sports bar, leaving Avenue Pier, at the Belmar marina.
the front Tavern Opened last July, the restaurant and
Since 1999, Chefs International the historical land- bar is the result of a public/private
has been owned by the Lombardi mark that it’s been partnership to capitalize on what was
family, a partnership of five highly since the 1700s. an under–utilized area that is “one of
successful brothers who grew up in “It’s been thriving the most beautiful spots in Belmar,”
Edison, all went to Rutgers, and now ever since. It’s been says Cooper. With a breathtaking
count among their ranks two ortho- extremely success- view of sunsets over the water, the
pedic surgeons, two attorneys, and a ful,” says Cooper. A restaurant is already a favorite of
dentist. While it may appear there’s similar transforma- photography clubs and locals alike.
“too many cooks in this kitchen,” tion took place at In fact, last summer the restaurant
Cooper says the reverse is actually the American Bar & sponsored a “best sunset” photo
true. “They’re an amazingly tight-knit Grille in Monroe. “It contest, and they ring a bell each day
family. It’s quite a dynamic. It’s fas- was a good location when the sun dips below the horizon.
cinating, it’s very admirable. They’re but we had a seafood Of course, the “bread and butter”
incredibly respectful of each other’s restaurant where of Chefs International is still the
opinions.” Perhaps most importantly, we really needed a Lobster Shanty and the Wharfside,
“the culture is the same. They respect sports bar,” explains says Cooper. Before rebranding
that. They have someone running it Cooper. The intro- Moore’s Tavern, Baker’s American
who’s grown up here,” says Cooper. duction of a more casual atmosphere Bar & Grille, and Baker’s Water
Under Cooper’s management, with brick oven pizza, paninis, and Street, Chefs International renovated
Chefs International has had to face wraps added to the steaks, chops, the expansive outdoor Patio Bar at
the challenges of a very different res- and seafood converted a “struggling” the Wharfside. Today, it’s an idyl-
taurant industry than the one Baker location to one that’s “also been very lic waterfront spot overlooking the
first encountered. At that time, there successful,” says Cooper. natural beauty of the Manasquan
were very few restaurants in Point After these two renovations, Inlet and the Fisherman’s Cove
Pleasant and almost none in Brick. Chefs International set its sites on Conservation Area, known to locals
“Now Brick’s practically a city, and the old Toms River Lobster Shanty, as “the dog beach.” Conveniently, a
the chains have moved in. There’s so reintroducing it in 2010 as Baker’s sandbar just off the patio usually has
many options,” comments Cooper. Water Street Bar & Grille, offering just enough room at low tide for four
To survive, Chefs has found that a waterfront setting, a casual atmo-
jersey shore • spring 2013 several of their restaurants needed
rebranding to better fit the expecta- Escondido’s Mexican Restaurant, Freehold.

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or five boats, various frolicking dogs, Lobster Shanty in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
and three waving American flags on
poles dug into the sand. As fishing Florida locations taking a major hit Plus, as members of the commu-
boats come and go, it’s a rich visual back in 2004. Also, the financial nity themselves, Cooper and his col-
heritage that greets guests daily. With losses encountered at waterfront leagues knew it wasn’t just a business
an employee base that swells from restaurants could be slightly offset crisis. “So many people lost so much
thirty in the winter to three hun- by inland res- more. We wondered how our employ-
dred in the summer, “it’s an intense taurants that ees were doing…and our customers.”
business in the summer,” admits remained opera- With summer just around the corner,
Cooper. Additionally, large wharfside tional. Finally, Chefs International is ready to face
restaurants carry incredible operation the company it head on with all its restaurants
costs, not to mention the insurance called on its own up, fully operational, and ready for
requirements. employees who the lobster-starved crowds. In fact,
However, insurance is what saw found them- Cooper isn’t worried about continu-
Chefs International through the dev- selves out of ing to operate waterfront locations.
astating effects of Hurricane Sandy work due to the As he looks out at the Manasquan
this past fall. “It was overwhelming,” storm. “We said, Inlet and the gulls flying overhead,
says Cooper. “The patio bar at the ‘Anyone that he says, “People are going to still
Wharfside (ironically, once named wants to work want this.” He adds, “We need these
“The Hurricane”) was completely will get paid,’” beaches, these boardwalks…everyone
underwater. At the Lobster Shanty says Cooper. is dependent on each other. We’re
it was really bad. The waves were About fifty a community and tourism is the
pounding against the bulkhead. It employees from economic driver. No one in Point
eventually pushed the floor up and various aspects Pleasant doesn’t at least know some-
the river rushed in. There was three of the business showed up and got to one employed by the industry. The jersey shore • spring 2013
work cleaning out the Lobster Shanty. fiber of the community is still here.
Mr. Manatee’s in Vero Beach, Florida. Cooper says you couldn’t have asked The area is going to rebuild. It’s what
for a better team building exercise. the Jersey Shore is.” ◆
feet of water in the kitchen of the Co-workers got to
Lobster Shanty.” Though the rest of see each other in
the Lobster Shanty was essentially another light and
gutted and would take months of doing different tasks.
extensive rebuilding, Chefs was able “The storm definitely
to get the Sunset Ballroom gutted in had a large financial
just ten days and fully rebuilt and impact…but things
operational with just a six-week turn- like this are what
around—to the relief of many brides. pulls a company
The Wharfside recovered even faster. together,” comments
A generator was brought in before Cooper.
power was restored, and it opened for Lobster Shanty in Vero Beach, Florida.
business just a week after the storm.
Fortunately, Chefs had experience
with hurricane rebuilding due to its

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