The Atlantic House, on First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands, has steadily been making renovations and additions to the location they purchased last year. The building is over a hundred years old and was occupied by the popular Memphis Pig Out for the last three decades. While there is no opening date set, today they did announce their executive chef. Brendan Neville, formerly of New York City’s Cooper’s Craft and Kitchen will be coming to the new restaurant which is owned by Richard Crocker, a partner of Asbury Park’s Festhalle and Biergarten. 

Chef Neville hails from Warwick, New York, in the Hudson Valley. Atlantic House noted on their Facebook that his upbringing in an area replete with bountiful produce and farmer’s markets helped inspire him to seek a career in culinary arts. He attended Johnson and Wales University, and has been working in restaurants since starting as a dishwasher at age 14. His resume includes time at Bite Cafe in Chicago and Mulberry and Vine in New York City, in addition to Cooper’s. We wish him the best of luck at his new post!

The building they are renovating is a historic one. It was once used as a speakeasy in a town that you could say served as the capital of rum-running and bootlegging on the eastern seaboard during Prohibition. Legend (or maybe more fact than legend) has it that one of many tunnels in the town for running booze had its entrance in the basement of this building. It is associated with mobster (and Godfather basis) Vito Genovese. Several employees of the Atlantic House have already toured the town’s historical society headquarters, the Strauss Mansion Museum, where I have volunteered since 2013. They have expressed interest in incorporating local history into the restaurant’s decor. We are hoping that a menu and opening day will be coming soon.

The Atlantic House is located on 67 First Avenue in Atlantic Highlands, and will feature open-air rooftop dining, a new component of the old structure.