Angeloni’s Club Madrid celebrates the atmosphere of 1980s Atlantic City

“Everyone has their what-ifs,” reads the menu at Angeloni’s Club Madrid, a hip retro bar-lounge that opened a few weeks ago in Atlantic City’s Ducktown neighborhood. “What if President Kennedy hadn’t gone to Dallas? What if Whitney had never met Bobby? What if Club Madrid hadn’t died in 1981?”

Club Madrid, a bar founded in Center City Philadelphia in the 1920s, moved to Atlantic City in 1927 after too many police raids and later settled into the current building at the corner of Georgia and Arctic Avenue.

Club Madrid “died” in 1981 when Albert Angeloni and his son Alan bought the place from longtime operator Tony Parisi. They renamed their Italian bar-restaurant Angeloni’s II, after the Trenton-area original; they later bought the shady pool hall next door to expand the dining room.

Alan Angeloni retired last year and sold the restaurant to Julie Aspell, owner of nearby retro gem Tony’s Baltimore Grill. “We just wanted to do some touch-ups and bring it back to the way it was,” said Julia Vain, who oversees the restaurant’s day-to-day operations. “But as we dug deeper, we realized this place has so much more history than we ever could have imagined.”

What if the Angelonis had continued to run Club Madrid after the purchase?

Ergo, the spirit of Club Madrid is revived, a mix of old South Philly and Ducktown. Vain, along with designers Kate Rohrer and Annie Serroka of Philadelphia-based Rohe Creative, have brought the look and feel back to the 1980s with its crumpled velvet. You enter through a heavy curtain. A restored 1980s Marantz receiver sits on a tiered stand behind the bar. The TV is a Sony Trinitron that shows Atlantic City newsreels and commercials from the casinos when they opened in the 1980s.

The lounge’s ceiling is decorated with casino security camera bullets. In one corner hangs a chandelier that supposedly hung in the South Philly home of mob boss Angelo Bruno. You can sit at mob boss Nicky Scarfo’s dining table. On one table sits a monogrammed car phone that belonged to former Atlantic City political boss John Schultz. There’s also a plastic-covered sofa. “If that doesn’t make you feel like you’re in your grandmother’s house, nothing will,” Aspell said.

As the evening progresses, the crowd becomes livelier.

Vain’s cocktail menu is peppered with nods to the old days: The Tony Parisi is a gin cocktail. A drink that mixes amaro and Cutty Sark is called 26 N. Georgia Ave., Scarfo’s Atlantic City address. Sparkling wine, wine and beer complete the menu.

The food — and you can order the entire dinner menu for $399 — is plain Italian, from a typed sheet in a plastic sleeve: House-made pastas include lumache with pistachio pesto and orecchiette with crab, shrimp and basil. There’s a wedge salad with sub ingredients from White House Sub Shop down the street. There’s eggplant Milanese and chicken parm. Snacks include focaccia from nearby A. Rando Bakery with dip and spicy garlic cheese spread with fried bread. The cookies on the dessert menu are from Formica Bakery down the street.

From Friday to Monday, the bar offers a free aperitivo with the purchase of any cocktail from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and in August there is also brunch.

Angeloni’s Club Madrid, 2400 Arctic Ave., Atlantic City. Hours: Thursday 4:00 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 4:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and Sunday and Monday 4:00 p.m. to midnight.