From Casino Kitchens to King's Pub: How David Wong and His Partners Found Their Place in Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY — When chef David Wong and his partners took over a longtime Tennessee Avenue watering hole, they weren't looking to erase what had been there before.

They weren't trying to build a casino restaurant, either.

They wanted something somewhere in between — a neighborhood pub with better food, an inviting atmosphere and enough of the old place left that longtime customers would still recognize it.

About three years later, Wong says King's Pub has found its footing.

“We're following big footsteps,” Wong said during an appearance this week on WOND's Off The Press with Scott Cronick. “They're known for wings. They're known for their dive-bar-style atmosphere.”

Wong and his partners came from the Atlantic City casino industry and believed they could take that familiar formula and, as Wong put it, “kick it up a notch.”

The result is King's Pub, a Tennessee Avenue bar and restaurant that occupies the former home of the Pic-A-Lilli Pub.

But the story of King's Pub isn't really about replacing what came before it.

It's about figuring out what not to replace.

‘You Don't Want to Change Everything’

Wong said he and partners Mike and Dimitri had known each other through Atlantic City's hospitality industry. They had worked together at Borgata and crossed paths elsewhere in the casino business.

Some members of the ownership group continue to work in casinos, something Wong believes helps keep them learning.

“We continue to learn every day,” he said.

When the former Pic-A-Lilli location became available, the group saw an opportunity.

The challenge was taking over a place that already had an identity.

King's Pub could be cleaner and updated. The menu could become more ambitious. But Wong didn't want customers who had spent years visiting the old bar to walk through the door and find that everything familiar had disappeared.

“You don't want to change everything,” Wong said. “Everybody has expectations. And that's my challenge — to live up to the expectations and then, you know, obviously do our flair. Something different.”

The goal, he said, was something consistent — a place where someone could simply say, “I just want to hang out for a minute.”

“Not fancy, but clean,” Wong said.

That philosophy is evident in the food.

King's Pub still has wings, but Wong and his kitchen have developed their own signatures.

Chef Christian, one of Wong's protégés, created an apple bourbon wing sauce made by reducing apple cider and bourbon for hours, with chili flakes providing some heat.

“It's just something I like to do,” Wong said of taking familiar foods in unexpected directions. “I like to do the different and outrageous things.”

There is also an Australian perch sandwich with Guinness in the batter and a splash of Sprite to help create its crisp texture.

Fresh mozzarella is battered and fried rather than served as a conventional breaded mozzarella stick. Customers can order it traditionally with house-made marinara and pecorino or with arugula, fermented chili honey and prosciutto.

And a buffalo chicken dip eventually evolved into buffalo chicken egg rolls.

Some of that experimentation is new. Some is King's Pub's answer to customers asking for versions of things they remember from the restaurant that came before it.

Finding an Audience Beyond the Casinos

Wong said customers are now finding King's Pub from well beyond Atlantic City, mentioning visitors from North Carolina and Pittsburgh.

He also sees more people venturing away from the Boardwalk and casinos to explore other parts of the city.

That's important to Wong.

He pointed to efforts involving the Orange Loop and other organizations trying to highlight an Atlantic City experience that extends beyond casino properties.

“Everybody's trying to do the right thing in terms of highlighting ... Atlantic City, what's different,” Wong said. “Not just casinos.”

For King's Pub, participating in local food events has also helped.

Wong credited events including Wing Wars/WingFest with exposing the restaurant to new customers. Around the three-year point, he said, the bigger challenge is no longer simply attracting people.

It's making sure success doesn't hurt the experience.

“We've been, yeah, just nonstop and almost to the point where we're just getting full,” Wong said.

He worries about what happens when a restaurant gets so busy that food quality slips, service slows or customers can't get a drink.

“I don't want the quality and I don't want, you know, the customer service to go away,” he said. “That's the key thing.”

And then Wong dropped an intriguing possibility.

“One day we'll expand.”

There is no announced second King's Pub, and Wong offered no specific expansion plan. His point was more about where the business has reached after approximately three years.

From Late-Night Bar Food to Breakfast in Wildwood

There is, however, another restaurant project.

As South Jersey NewsBeat reported this week, Wong and his partners are behind the purchase of Larkin's Restaurant in Wildwood, the longtime breakfast spot that had remained in the Larkin family for roughly 75 years.

The group plans to retain the Larkin's name, but the concept presents an entirely different challenge from King's Pub.

Instead of a Tennessee Avenue bar serving into the early morning hours, Wong is thinking about families on vacation looking for breakfast.

“We're doing a lot of research development on how we can capitalize on the breakfast game,” Wong said.

“Everybody loves breakfast,” he added. “When you go to Wildwood, you're gonna have kids, you're gonna have your nieces and nephews, they go down for the week and everybody's gonna have breakfast.”

His goal?

“I have to find the most whimsical menu I can and execute it the same way I do.”

Wong described Larkin's as “a completely different animal” from King's Pub. The ownership group is still considering whether dinner will become part of the concept, and renovations are underway on an aging building that includes outdated infrastructure such as cast-iron piping.

Asked when Larkin's will open, Wong didn't manufacture a date.

“No clue,” he said.

“It's a work in progress.”

In some ways, however, the two projects share the same philosophy.

At King's Pub, Wong and his partners inherited a place with customers, memories and expectations. They changed it without trying to erase its past.

Now they're preparing to do something similar with a Wildwood restaurant whose history stretches back generations.

For Wong, the challenge remains the one he described when talking about King's Pub:

Live up to what people remember — and then add something of your own.