Legendary NJ Shore restaurant closure leaves people heartbroken

When a restaurant has been around nearly 70 years and the place you went to as a kid is the place you then brought your grandkids, hearing it’s gone is hard.

Voltaco's, probably the most loved eatery in Ocean City, is finished. Sunday was their final day.

They served Italian takeout and in the end, their menu was as big as a phonebook.

It’s been many years since I lived there, but I spent a year residing in Ocean City while working at an Atlantic City radio station. Even then in the late 80s, you could just feel the love the community had for this place whenever you walked in. They were known for their lasagna but I always loved their sandwiches.

To say this place meant a lot to the locals and even the tourists who would look forward to returning there every year doesn't quite explain it. Maybe people’s own words would do better. When it was announced that they would be closing down for good some of the comments that went around social media were the stuff you’d hear about family.

“So sorry to hear this sad news. Ocean City won’t be the same.”

“I’m having a very hard time processing this.”

“So sorry to see you go. You have been a family tradition since I was a little girl.”

“All good things must come to an end but oh please not Voltaco’s!!!!”

Jeff Taccarino is the owner who inherited this family takeout business. He's only 42 but started working there as a child at 8 years old. That was the same year I used to frequent this awesome place.

The name Voltaco’s would roll off your tongue, not like a restaurant you were heading to but like a friend’s house you were going to stop by for dinner.

If there's a silver lining to any of this summertime sadness it's that they are going out on their own terms. Taccarino’s parents still worked there right up until the end and Jeff himself and the family was ready to move on.

Jeff Taccarino has been in the restaurant business his whole life, and he simply wants to try something new. He's getting trained in fire inspection and as a fire investigator. So it wasn't Biden inflation. It wasn't the pandemic. They made it through all of that. It was very simply just time to move on.

Running a restaurant is all-consuming. Taccarino has a 13-year-old son and a 2-year-old little boy and he looks back on all the things he missed as his teenager was growing up. He doesn't want it to be the same with his little one. Who couldn't respect that?

Hearing of Voltaco’s shutting down really brought me back in time. I could smell the fresh roast from the Boardwalk Peanut Shoppe. I can recall using the pay phones on the boardwalk. Remember those? The old Flanders Hotel and exactly what their lobby looks like and their parking lot across the street. How the streets used to flood with sometimes just a moderate rainfall.

It was a great year living in Ocean City and Voltaco’s was part of it.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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