A new restaurant serving up dishes from four continents has settled into one of Ventnor City's busiest commercial blocks. Culina Mundi opened its doors for the first time on September 4, taking over the former Mr. Gordo's location at 5217 Ventnor Avenue, right next door to longtime neighborhood staple Sack O' Subs.
The restaurant is the work of Adam Colon, who founded Culina Mundi after 25 years in the hospitality business, according to 97.3 ESPN. The menu draws on global cuisine, with dishes inspired by destinations around the world, including a signature miso-glazed seabass served with wasabi mashed potatoes. Diners can choose between an indoor dining space and an outdoor patio area.
Culina Mundi fills a spot left vacant after Mr. Gordo's Taqueria closed following the COVID-19 pandemic, per the same report. That operator, managed by HMRX Group, a South Jersey hospitality firm founded in 2013 that also runs Deadend Bakehouse, Sand House Kitchen, and Dockside Kitchen, has since shifted its primary focus to the Ocean City Boardwalk and a new storefront in Somers Point, as detailed in Hoodline's recent coverage of that mainland move.
A Block Rebuilt From the Ground Up
The site at 5217 Ventnor Avenue carries decades of local history. The address originally housed Sack O' Subs, founded there in 1969 by Anthony “Fuzzy” Sacco, who began working at White House in 1946; his cousin Anthony Basile opened Atlantic City's famous White House Sub Shop, according to Shore Local Newsmagazine. That decades-long run ended after a three-alarm fire tore through the building on June 18, 2022, originating in an adjacent structure and displacing residential tenants above the ground-floor storefronts, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time.
The Ventnor City Planning Board received a site-plan application for 5217 Ventnor Avenue in October 2023. Sack O' Subs is located next door at 5223 Ventnor Avenue, and Culina Mundi now occupies 5217 Ventnor Avenue. The property includes commercial and residential space.
BYOB Tradition Lives On
Culina Mundi's business model fits neatly into Ventnor's long-standing BYOB culture. The municipality permitted restaurants to operate without liquor licenses until voters approved a November 2016 referendum permitting up to three restaurant liquor licenses, according to the Inquirer's reporting on the vote. Even so, when the city auctioned its first license in June 2017 with a minimum bid of $100,000, no application was submitted, as local restaurant owners opted to stick with the established BYOB approach, CBS News reported at the time.
The new restaurant sits within Ventnor's main commercial corridor, which serves roughly 9,900 year-round residents and swells to about 17,000 during peak summer months, according to Wikivoyage's entry on the town. That mix of permanent and seasonal foot traffic supports the block's growing food scene, which also includes the nearby Ventnor Square Theatre, a restored art-deco cinema that reopened in 2021 following a multimillion-dollar renovation, per the Inquirer.
Part of a Broader Dining Wave
Culina Mundi's arrival is one piece of a larger surge in food and dining businesses along Ventnor Avenue this summer, with Poppy's Bagels and new vendors at the local farmers market. For now, Culina Mundi is open six nights a week, Wednesday through Monday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and closed Tuesdays, giving residents and visitors another dining option on a block that has seen plenty of change over the past few years.
