Margate City Dining: Two Real Names, and a Bigger Island Next Door

Amherst Avenue, and What Hurricane Erin Showed About It

On the night of Thursday, August 22, 2025, Hurricane Erin's storm surge triggered more than 50 water rescues in Margate City, including at least 30 people pulled from flooded Amherst Avenue restaurants, per 6ABC Philadelphia. Two of those restaurants were named in that coverage: Sofia's and Maynard's. Maynard's owner, Steve Troiano, described the scene directly: "We had wet vacs. We were pumping it out of the back door and it was coming in the front door." Margate Fire Chief Daniel Adams warned residents afterward to heed lifeguard and rip-current warnings in the days that followed, and officials anticipated similar flooding risk during the high tides that followed the storm.

That is a real, dated, sourced event, not a generic storm anecdote, and it names two genuine Amherst Avenue restaurants still operating in Margate City as of this research pass. It is also an honest reminder that dining a block or two from a barrier-island beach comes with real flood exposure, something worth keeping in mind regardless of which restaurant a visitor eventually chooses.

A Small City, Not a Restaurant Row

Margate City's 2020 census population was 5,317, down 16.3% from 6,354 in 2010, with a median age of 58.7 and 37.1% of residents age 65 or older, per Wikipedia. The city's total area is just 1.63 square miles, 1.42 of it land, and of its 7,124 housing units, 62.8% sit vacant for most of the year -- overwhelmingly seasonal and vacation homes rather than year-round residences. A city this size, with a population that swells and shrinks by season, is not the kind of place likely to sustain a dense, year-round restaurant district the way a larger commercial center can.

That context does not confirm or rule out any specific restaurant beyond Sofia's and Maynard's. It simply explains why a visitor should expect Margate City's dining options to be more limited, and more seasonally dependent, than what a much larger neighboring city offers.

Atlantic City's Much Bigger Dining Scene Is Right Next Door

Margate City shares Absecon Island with Atlantic City, Ventnor City, and Longport. Atlantic City's casino resorts and boardwalk anchor a dining scene built to serve a year-round tourist and convention economy on a scale no small residential-and-seasonal city like Margate City is built for. Visitors looking for a wider range of cuisines, price points, or late-night options than Margate City itself is likely to offer can reasonably expect to find a larger commercial scene a short drive up the same island in Atlantic City.

This project has not independently confirmed specific restaurant names in Atlantic City for this research pass, and does not invent them here. The honest recommendation is to treat Margate City's confirmed Amherst Avenue names -- Sofia's and Maynard's -- as a real starting point, and to check current local listings, review sites, or Atlantic City's own visitor resources for the rest of what the island has to offer.

New Jersey's Own Tax Rules Apply Here Too

Margate City is this project's eleventh New Jersey market, following Cape May, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Avalon, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Strathmere, and Longport, and New Jersey has its own real state sales tax and its own property-tax structure, genuinely different from Delaware's no-sales-tax system. Do not assume Delaware-style pricing carries over to a Margate City dinner check. Current New Jersey state sales tax rates, and any Atlantic County or Margate City-specific rules affecting dining purchases, should be confirmed directly with the State of New Jersey and Atlantic County, since specific current rates were not independently confirmed this research pass.

What This Page Will Not Invent

Beyond Sofia's and Maynard's, both confirmed as flooded Amherst Avenue restaurants during the August 22, 2025 Hurricane Erin storm surge, no specific current Margate City restaurant, cafe, bar, menu, hours, or price point was independently confirmed this research pass, and none is invented here. The same goes for Atlantic City, Ventnor City, and Longport: this page does not guess at restaurant names for its neighbors either.

What is confirmed and stated above is Margate City's 2020 census population of 5,317, its 1.63-square-mile total area on Absecon Island in Atlantic County, its 62.8% seasonal housing vacancy rate, and the real, dated August 22, 2025 Hurricane Erin flooding event that sent water rescuers into Sofia's and Maynard's on Amherst Avenue. Before planning a meal beyond those two confirmed names, check current listings and reviews directly, through Margate City's own channels, Atlantic County tourism resources, or established local review sites.