Atlantic City Weekly

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MARGATE — The old adage that timing is everything in life could never be more apropos than in the case of Sam Kaufman, owner of Margate’s modern Latino hot spot, Mangos.


The 33-year-old, who quite candidly admits to having rather stumbled into what has been thus far an amazingly successful culinary career, achieved the dual milestones of opening his first restaurant and becoming a father almost simultaneously earlier this year.


Having worked as a professional cook or chef since his late teens, the Philadelphia Main Line native was enticed to Atlantic City by family eight years ago after stints at Philly-area standouts Savona and Baci.


Kaufman was definitely in the right place at the right time then, too, quickly obtaining a personal interview with then Caesars executive chef Robert Irvine.


Shortly after a successful audition meal, he was installed by Irvine to help open Nero’s Steak House. Working his way up from soups, salads and plating through to the prestigious grill/broiler post, the kinetic Kaufman also attracted the attention of his next boss, chef Joe Guinta.


Kaufman describes Guinta — who presently serves as Caesar’s vice president of non-gaming operations — by saying, “He turned out to be my mentor. I learned how to be a chef from him. Joe fostered an environment of continuous, constant thinking.”


Within a few years, Kaufman moved on to help run six separate outlets within Caesar’s — the bakery, butcher shop, café, buffet, Diamond Club and cafeteria — grinding out prodigious quantities of food like 100 gallons of marinara and 50 gallons of brown sauce daily.


Along with two other chefs, he was responsible for the creation of all house stocks, soups and pastas plus supervising over 100 employees. Expecting a child with longtime amour, Christina Jones, Kaufman began thinking about exploring different options late last year.


First hearing about the availability of this Ventnor Avenue location — formerly Dune for five years — last December, he took possession shortly after the birth of son Nathaniel Ezra in late spring. Mangos opened a couple of weeks later, on June 3. 


Most of the summer, Kaufman functioned in an executive chef capacity, training his line cooks, inspecting plates and expediting orders from the restaurants tiny pass-through window. Front-of-the-house duties were largely left in the capable hands of husband-and-wife duo Oscar and Luz Guzman, Mangos co-managers. Oscar, like Kaufman, is also a veteran of Caesars’ food and beverage department.


The couple’s influence can also definitely be felt on the menu, with plenty of esoteric influences from their homelands of El Salvador and Colombia. Like cazuela de marisco, a luxurious seafood stew of squid, clams, shrimp, fish and mussels balanced in a rich, mildly spicy coconut creme broth. Or perhaps the menu’s most inventive creation, tostones bruschetta, a deceptively simple idea which works magnificently. Traditional tostones, twice-fried, pounded discs of plantain, are ladled with a tomato-cilantro-garlic-vinegar blend. 


Kaufman tells us that their biggest seller this initial summer was, somewhat predictably, the churrasco bar-be-que presented in authentic Brazilian style on a metal skewer. What’s unique about Mangos’ version is the protein mix: steak, of course, but also chunks of chicken, Colombian chorizo and calamari.