Web Exclusive: Savaradio in Linwood, N.J.

A former employee cafeteria has been transformed into an elegant restaurant with a kitchen featuring 20 sauté burners and other equipment for producing an ambitious menu with Mediterranean, Asian and Cuban influences. A lower-level storage and food prep space supports the bustling kitchen.

By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 1/1/2006

In 1992, Lisa Savage opened her first restaurant in Atlantic City, N.J. It was small, indeed, with five tables and 18 seats. In October, the enterprising chef opened her fourth restaurant, this one in Linwood, near Atlantic City. This facility is eight times the size of her original venture, with 60 tables and 250 seats in the dining room and another 32 seats in the private dining and special banquet rooms. “This was a dream project for me,” says Savage, who earned a degree from the Academy of Culinary Arts at Atlantic Cape Community College and trained further in Turino, Italy.

Constructed in a 14,000-square-foot space in a building complex with retail stores, executive offices, a conference center and a fitness center, Savaradio resides in a space that previously served as a cafeteria for employees of Prudential Life Insurance, which moved out of this building nearly 15 years ago. The space Savaradio occupies remained dormant until Savage and her partners, Michael Boettcher and John Zaccardi, decided to turn it into a premier restaurant featuring elegant décor in a dining room with beverage, raw seafood and pizza bars.