THERE’S AN “AIR OF SECRECY” surrounding certain establishments, then there’s Chef Vola’s. This unmarked, cash-only feasting hall has no advertised phone number, email, or website, equated by one New York Times food critic to “a game of hide and seek.” The space comes by it naturally: It was likely once a speakeasy.

Before it became a restaurant in 1921, the building that now houses Chef Vola’s was a rooming house owned by brothers Joe and Pina Vola. Joe took to cooking nightly dinners for their tenants while selling liquor in the basement, the restaurant’s current owner told the Press of Atlantic City.