New café is helping Atlantic City's Ducktown rise

ATLANTIC CITY - Frank D. Formica knew it was time to do something radical when he saw the success of The Walk, the outlet mall that replaced the tenements along Michigan Avenue a few blocks from the bakery his grandfather started just after World War I.

"We had branding, and now we had upscale shoppers coming into the neighborhood," said Formica. "It was time to do something new."

So, in 2006, the Formica Brothers Bakery Café was born. What was once a cramped sales shop attached to an industrial bakery on Arctic Avenue has become something fun, something pretty, something chic.

The biscotti from Formica's grandmother's recipes - key lime, cranberry nut and chocolate orange among them - are still there, as are the cannolis that have warmed Ducktown neighbors' hearts for three generations.

Now, though, instead of dim lighting and old glass-and-stainless-steel cases, there are designer chairs, café tables, artisan breads and espressos and lattes.

"I invested $11,000 in the best espresso machine; if you are going to compete with Starbucks, you had better have the best," said Formica, who is also president of the Ducktown Revitalization Association. Ducktown - which got its name from some long-gone duck farms, and is historically known as Atlantic City's Little Italy - is nestled behind Boardwalk Hall between Florida and Mississippi avenues.

"We have a chance to be a showplace neighborhood now," Formica said. "This is just a part of the transformation."

Formica Brothers has long been a successful Atlantic City business. Francesco Formica (pronounced "four-mee-kah," not as is the floor covering) brought hand-crafted bread recipes from Italy and settled in Ducktown in 1919. His three sons took over after World War II. Formica, who had tired of being a casino executive, bought his father and uncles out in 1987.

While the bakery has always had that little shop, it has mostly been known as the area's biggest purveyor of sandwich rolls. The White House, the hoagie mecca of Atlantic City, is right across the street and a prized customer, but Formica Brothers also supplies the casinos and 300 groceries and restaurants.

"I'm proud that we put out 25,000 to 30,000 pieces a day, but I knew there was a whole market I was missing," said Formica. "The demographics of the area had changed."

As casinos expanded in the 1990s, he said, more and more people came to Atlantic County from elsewhere.

"No longer was my competition places from here, but the great bakeries in New York, Long Island, Philadelphia," he said. So Formica Brothers started making "artisan breads," specialty breads that require starters, take more time from start to finish and have more flavoring and other ingredients.

"People didn't just want the standard Italian rolls, but things like Asiago Cheese Bread or brioches," he said. "We hope they still love our submarine rolls, but we know people who come from New York to the casinos are looking for more specialties, too."

Thus, he said, the café is not only a retail business but also an experimental station for new recipes. Formica said that the bakery now does 140 different items, but he has a place to try out more, whether it be that Asiago bread or sugar-free cheesecake or a strawberry croissant.

"We still have those cannolis right out of my grandmother's recipe, though," he said. "There is no marital dispute that a good cannoli can't solve."

Those cannolis go for $1.50 for a small, $2.50 for a large and $3.25 for a large chocolate at the café. Among the other items are the biscotti at $1.80, a slice of tomato pie for $1.50 and a whole-wheat sub roll for $1.40.

On Saturday nights, the Formica Brothers House Band, sometimes with Formica himself on guitar, plays the intimate, 600-square-foot cafe. It's a combination country, R&B and oldies band - Formica's computer wallpaper is a scene from a Beatles concert.

"It keeps the neighborhood alive on a Saturday night," he said. "We used to do OK with the old bakery, getting maybe 150 to 200 walk-ins a day. Now on a Saturday, we will get 400 or more."

He is hoping to have Mississippi Avenue, the cross street nearest to the café, turned into an arts district, with an anchor at the Atlantic City Arts Center, which he has hopes of moving from Garden Pier to the corner of Mississippi and Atlantic avenues.

He also has in the works another, larger Formica Brothers Café in the new Kensington Square center at Tilton Road and Hingston Avenue in Northfield.

"I was always doing OK, but you have to keep up with what is going on around you," said Formica. "We'll still be making sub rolls, but we're moving along in other areas, too. The future of Ducktown should be bright." *

Formica Brothers Bakery Café, 2310 Arctic Ave., 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily, until 10 p.m. on Saturdays, 609-344-8723, www.

formicabrosbakery.com.