During our recent visit to Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa we had a chance to speak with celebrity Chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson. Inspired by his time living in Japan and global travels, his restaurant Izakaya, creates a dining experience that celebrates traditional Japanese culture with classic dishes, an expanded sushi menu, and tea service presented with a modern approach.

The Modern Japanese Pub offers guests a unique way to indulge their appetites for both enticing Japanese cuisine and an alluring social scene, within a sensual, energetic environment.

Under the Schulson Collective banner, Schulson is the owner of day-to-night destination Double Knot; the expansive Independence Beer Garden; Sampan and the adjacent Graffiti Bar; and of course he serves as chef-partner of the aforementioned Izakaya.

Schulson recently opened new-American spot Harp & Crown in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square, and contemporary Izakaya Monkitail in Hollywood, Florida.

HOMBRE: What are your feelings about the Savor Borgata event?
Michael Schulson: It’s a great event. It’s once a year that the Borgata has all the chefs here. It’s really nice when everyone’s here; from Michael Symon, Geoffrey Zakarian, Wolfgang (Puck), Bobby (Flay), myself. It’s just nice that we all come together and we have to step up our game based on what each person is doing. You all want to compete against each other and do the best thing. It’s a great time.

H: What are your feelings about the development of Izakaya?
MS: Izakaya has been great. We’re about to hit our ten year anniversary. It feels like yesterday. The Borgata is going to be fifteen years, so we are a little behind but it’s great. It’s busier than ever. Atlantic City is doing great right now, the MGM is here in charge of it. We’re having a good time with it.

H: What are your inspirations when you create a restaurant?
MS: I believe that even as a chef, as crazy as this might sound, food is the third most important thing. And I know that sounds crazy, you looked at me like – wow. But it really is. The first thing is design. When you walk into a restaurant that is the first impression. Is it dirty? Did they not spend a lot of money? Is it going to be fancy? Is it going to be expensive? Or is it just going to be fun and a good time? Next is service. Think about service, if you have amazing service and the food is okay, you’re going back. If the service is horrific, horrific, and the food is pretty good, you’re not coming back. So therefore, you have those two and then you put the food after that and that’s kind of what we look for. To take it even further, the design and lighting is so important – it’s the most important thing. And the music and the temperature has to be just perfect every time. That’s how we start with it.

H: How involved are you in the entire process?
MS: We have eight restaurants now and we are really involved. We have over eight hundred employees and we just need to be involved. We have great people, but the vision starts at the top, and that’s us. When I have a vision of what the restaurant is, we have a saying, it’s like, “stay true,” and when you design something it has to be the design, the food, the service, the culture. Everything has to hit that line, so it all needs to come from one place. That’s where we’re at.

H: How do you manage to differentiate all the restaurants that you have?
MS: One, you need really good people. I mean, here I am in a room on a Saturday night at 5:15PM, clearly I have good people running the restaurants. But you know what, you just have to treat people with respect. It’s all about respect and dealing with people and making sure it all happens.

H: You’ve come so far and achieved great success, what advice can you offer?
MS: That’s a really good question. Follow your dream. This industry is really interesting now. When I started out my parents looked at me and said, “you’re going to school to be a what?…A what?!”. And I said, “a chef.” This was twenty-five years ago. There was nothing on TV, there were no shows, and I was like, “I’m going to be a chef.” They said, “why are you going to be a chef?” Because I love to cook. “There’s no money in that. Why don’t you become a lawyer like your brother?” Listen, it’s really hard work. People look at us and they go, “oh my God, look at this, you’re celebrity chefs and it’s all glory and it’s all great.” And that’s not what it’s about. We’re dealing with investors with millions of dollars, we’re dealing with guests that are pissed off, and guests who are happy and it could be something as simple as, “I can’t get a reservation at your restaurant.” It’s a lot of work and it’s not just cooking anymore. Cooking is the easiest thing that we do. Which brings me full circle to this event. What do I like about it? I get to cook. We literally get to come here and I get to make some food and I don’t have to worry about all the other BS that’s going on. So, my advice to everyone is, don’t get in this if you want to be rich, don’t get in this if you want to have fame, get in this if it’s what you dream of doing and love doing. It’s like everything though. Whether you’re a lawyer, whether you’re a doctor, whether you’re a teacher, whether you’re an entrepreneur, if you don’t love it, you’re probably not going to be very good at it. So, follow your dreams.

H: What’s next for you? Are you opening any other restaurants?
MS: We’re opening up an Italian restaurant in Philly. It’s going to be called Guiseppe & Sons. It’s going to be about 300 seats, Italian, down and dirty, gravy, red sauce. After that we’re going to try and roll out a sushi take out concept. So that’s exciting.

H: Where?
MS: It’s going to be in Philadelphia. And then we have another Italian one that we’re opening up in Philly as well. And we just opened up a restaurant at The Diplomat in Florida. It’s called Monkitail. It’s been open for about five months now and it’s been great.

Izakaya
Borgata
1 Borgata Way
Atlantic City, NJ 08401