Dining in Atlantic City by Eddie Applefeld

 If we were playing a word association game and I said Atlantic City, you're response would probably be boardwalk or ocean, probably not restaurants.  Fair enough, but let me mention this to you.  Recently I returned from that Jersey resort town and had an outstanding dining experience at Harry's Oyster Bar & Seafood located in Bally's at Park Place and the boardwalk.       Serving lunch and dinner seven days, with seating for 180 inside and another 150 outside, this happens to be one of the favorite locations for locals.  They offer live music nightly, 13 tv's and a fabulous raw bar.  The raw bar alone is worth the visit.  Over a dozen varieties of oysters available.  Who even knew there were that many varieties.  Names familiar to me are blue point, Chesapeake and Chincoteaque.  Also offered at the raw bar are lobster, tuna, shrimp and crabmeat.  For my entree I had the salmon with teriyaki sauce.  Some other menu highlights include the cobb salad, arugula salad, crab cake sandwich, tuna nicoise, bbq pulled pork and the lobster tail.  On the night of my visit one of the specials was hard shell crabs.  That should make many Marylanders feel at home.  This restaurant, along with two others in Atlantic City are locally owned.   The family is Dougherty.  Harry opened the first of them back in 1897.   Today all three are run by Harry's great grandson Frank and his wife Maureen.    They have three children and no doubt before too long all of them will be working in one of the restaurants.  For you Atlantic City history buffs you will find it interesting that Bally's has incorporated the old Hotel Dennis into it's current structure.  By the way, Harry's menu is printed daily to take advantage of the freshest seafood catches.  There is a boardwalk entrance so the place is easy to find.   I totally recommend Harry's Oyster Bar.  For more information go to harrysoysterbar.com.  .