Jersey Shore Magazine
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/141619
s h o r e j e r s e y 9th Avenue Pier, Belmar. 38 Corn Fritters, Coleslaw, & Chowder, continued from page 37 This scene along the dock is one that has been played out for generations. Fishermen make a living off the bounty of the sea and happy people gobble up the simple pleasure of steamed lobster dipped in drawn butter. Jack Baker, the Point Pleasant native and restaurateur who formed Chefs International, knew this was a winning combination from the outset. After establishing the Lobster Shanty in 1957, he opened a series of restaurants in three different states until his retirement in 1988. Now nearly eighty-two, Baker grew up in Point as the son of a fisherman. When he was sixteen, he crewed on a boat being delivered to Florida. "When I got to Florida, I had never seen anything like it before…the palm trees," he recalls. So he decided to stay for a while, getting a job as a busboy at the Biltmore Hotel in Palm Beach. "That's how I started in the restaurant business," he says. Mentioning Kurt, the chef at the Biltmore, Baker says, "I learned a lot from him…like how to make corn fritters." But then the Korean War came along, and Baker used his restaurant skills to run the mess hall. After military service, Baker returned to Point in 1955 and began fishing with his father, Barkos. Shortly thereafter, they decided to open a small four-table restaurant in the side porch of their home, which stood at the site of the present day Lobster Shanty on the shores of the 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. • s p r i n g 2 0 1 3 Jersey shore People I was young and full of energy." He continues, "All I served was hot boiled lobsters. The only thing I sold was what I caught." Shanty in Cocoa Beach, Florida; and a new seasonal restaurant, 9th Avenue Pier, in Belmar. With over five hundred employees and sev- Baker's Water Street Bar & Grille, Toms River. As word got out, people flocked to the restaurant. Business grew rapidly and eventually the old clothes washer was traded in for a bathtub, which was also converted to a gasfired cooker, and a deep fryer was purchased. "The demand was tremendous…there were virtually no restaurants around," says Baker. The porch could no longer accommodate everyone, so a twenty-eight-seat building was constructed. Today, the Shanty hardly resembles its "shanty" name. Instead, it is an elegant, window-enclosed restaurant of stunning waterfront views that is also home to the Sunset Ballroom, a lovely banquet venue hosting approximately seventy weddings a year where brides can dance the night away under six large crystal chandeliers that reflect the sparkle of the surrounding water. Besides the Shanty and the Wharfside located right next door, Chefs International currently owns: Baker's Water Street Bar & Grille in Toms River; Baker's American Bar & Grille in Monroe; Moore's Tavern & Sports Bar and Escondido's Mexican Restaurant in Freehold; another Lobster Shanty and Mr. Manatee's in Vero Beach, Florida; a third Lobster eral regional supervisors covering two states, Chefs International has certainly come a long way from its humble, four-table beginnings. At the time of Baker's retirement, Chefs owned eight restaurants, and its success has continued under current President Bob Cooper, another lifelong resident of the area. Through the early years, four "Cs" greatly contributed to the restaurants' successes. The first three include mouth-watering corn fritters, coleslaw, and clam chowder still made with "sacred recipes that have been in the company for years," says Cooper. "A lot of the [selections/recipes] I picked up in my travels," says Baker. Cooper mentions a story in which a rustic Delaware restaurant was being renovated. Just as the work crew were about to paint over a recipe written on the wall, Baker stopped them and copied it down. "I remember that incident," says Baker. "I think it was New England clam chowder." The fourth "C" was "charisma," and this is where Baker thrived. Baker was "very entrepreneurial. Jack was fun, he was fearless," says Cooper. "He's a character. He was