Mildred’s
To call Mildred’s old school is like calling Strathmere tiny
Andy Raffa is in the kitchen every morning—and has been for 35 years—by 5:30, straining tomato sauce and cutting homemade pasta and ravioli on machines almost as old as the restaurant itself, which opened as Mildred’s Strathmere Diner in 1951.
The history of the building and the people who brought it here is as rich as the Seafood Newburg.
Mildred Conascenta became enamored with this slim strip of barrier island (Strathmere is only 1,500 feet wide in some spots) in the 1940s. So much so that she decided to bring a restaurant to the tiny community, so she bought an old metal diner in Philadelphia for a dollar (the owner was expecting a new one and wanted the old one off the lot) and shipped it to Strathmere. When she realized she bought a sardine can covered with three layers of grease, Mildred had a big case of buyer’s remorse. A friend convinced her not to give up, so she got on her hands and knees and began scrubbing away. In 1951, a sparkling diner was open to the public. That same diner now makes up the center of the building that has undergone four renovations/additions over the years, and now seats up to 175 people.
Mildred and her husband, Charles, lived in the upstairs apartment that overlooks the beach. Charles died in that apartment and Mildred couldn’t bring herself to ever go in the room again. So she moved to a condominium in Sea Isle City until she died seven years ago. Mildred worked like Andy Raffa works. He’s naturally a dedicated craftsman, but Mildred also ingrained in him the importance of using quality cuts of meat and fresh fish. We make things from scratch, she stressed, because people appreciate the difference. The interminable message was simple: Do things the right way, the old-school way.
“I’m like that anyway,” said Andy, who got his first cooking job at Mercy Hospital in Sea Isle when he was in grammar school, “but Mildred left a lot of that with me.”
Mildred also left him the restaurant when she died seven years ago, proof that she thought of him as the son she and Charles never had. She left the business to Andy and Dave Farina, a Sea Isle native who ran the front of the house for Mildred. Farina, a local Realtor, sold his share of the business to Andy four years ago.
The entire operation is now run by Andy and his wife, Sallee, who, by the way of completing this romantic history lesson, met Andy when she was a waitress at—where else?—Mildred’s. She’s been there for 25 years; they’ve been married for 19 years.
Andy and Sallee (Willis), both Ocean City High School alums, live in Sea Isle where they’ve raised five children: Jennelle, 26, Gina, 18, Christy, 15, Andrew, 13, and Anthony, 11. They spend every day of the summer in the restaurant with the knowledge that it will end by Labor Day. Then they’re open on weekends for most of the rest of the year.
“Our children know the summer is a time for us to work hard every day, and then we get back to family meals together, soccer practices, family-oriented things. But we love the restaurant,” said Sallee. “We’d never do anything else.”
What they’re doing is simply continuing the tradition that Mildred began. Their menu is almost something out of a time capsule, or Central Pennsylvania. Who goes to a Jersey Shore restaurant for roast turkey or spaghetti and meatballs for crying out loud?
Hundreds of people a night, that’s who.
“We get the same people come in two or three times a week,” Sallee said as she walked through the cozy dining room. “Once people try our food, they realize the difference in quality from what they’re getting at other places. Andy’s in here first thing in the morning making all the sauces, making the ravioli, checking to make sure the deliveries are fresh and the meats are perfect. He does this every day.”
“I don’t need much sleep,” Andy deadpans as he finished a meal before going on the line for the night. His day, which began nearly 12 hours ago, is just getting started as the earlybirds get seated. At 4 p.m. on a recent Thursday, Sallee’s already holding two filled pages of reservations, and the phone is ringing off the hook.
“I tell him to go home and get a nap once in a while, but he’s afraid something won’t get done. The soup needs this, the delivery needs to be checked, we need more pasta,” she said. “He also might be the only chef left who works both the fryer and the broiler. If I had one-fourth of the energy he has, just one-fourth…”
Andy gets many deliveries from Philadelphia purveyors he has trusted for decades, like Esposito’s Meats. So he’s asked why he doesn’t add South Philly’s P&S Ravioli Co. to his list of deliveries and save him the time of cranking out his own each morning. Sleep in until, oh, 6:30 a.m.
“Because it won’t be as good as mine,” he said with an it’s-as-simple-as-that smile.
Their customers over the years know that.
“People that I waited on when they were kids are now coming in here with their kids,” said Pat Farina, Sallee’s mother, who has been waitressing at Mildred’s for 38 years.
“They trust Andy’s food. It’s all-American, down-home, good old-fashioned cooking,” Sallee said. “He still makes his own braciole (rolled stuffed steak), he still breads everything on his own, he still makes his own desserts.”
To be fair, it isn’t just the traditional American cuisine that is on the menu—although they are the tried and true year-round favorites. Andy also creates specials for the more adventurous. On a recent visit there were Chilean seabass topped with crabmeat and Hollandaise sauce, and St. Peter’s fillet topped with crabmeat.
“People love the specials but they also love the regular dishes we do,” Sallee said. “Wait until you see the prime rib (one regular showed off his cut, a thick, juicy behemoth), and the roast leg of lamb, people die for that.”
New customers are surprised when they step inside what looks like a weathered shorehouse from the outside. It’s neatly decorated, with fresh white walls contrasted by the blue carpeting and linens.
“See? I told you it was cute,” said one early arrival to her companion.
“We get people come in and almost apologize for dressing casually,” Sallee laughs. “But we tell them don’t worry, we are casual, it’s just nice inside. They think they’re walking into a diner. The old-fashioned diner.”
Hey, don’t knock old-fashioned.
Mildred’s
Ocean Drive &
Prescott Road,
Strathmere
263-8209
ON THE MENU
Hours: Dinner served 7 days a week
beginning at 4 p.m.
Chef’s Favorite Dishes: Prime Rib (You’ve never seen a cut this thick, and it’s as good as it is big); Veal Andrew (named after the chef/owner; veal topped with shrimp, mushrooms, and asparagus in a shrimp and wine sauce); Crab Imperial (one of their top movers). Also, the specials, especially the fish, are very popular with the regulars, including Chilean Sea Bass topped with crab and Hollandaise, and St. Peter’s fillet topped with crab.
Children’s Menu:
Pot Roast, Roast Turkey, Flounder, Shrimp, Spaghetti and
Meatball, Fried Chicken, Chopped Steak.
Prices: Appetizers $5 to $11; Entrées $13 to $23.
Parking: Free parking in lot right off the beach.
Reservations:
Recommended, especially weekends. If you don’t have a
reservation by 2 p.m. on a Saturday, you’re not getting in.
BYOB
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog