Carrie's Restaurant
Known Name(s)
Carrie's Restaurant
Address
40 N. Kentucky Ave. Atlantic City, NJ
Establishment Type(s)
Restaurant
Physical Status
Extant
Detailed History
Carrie’s Smack Shack, also known as simply Carrie’s or the Smack Shack, was a restaurant in a one-story brick building in the lively night-life district of “KY and the Curb,” the Kentucky Avenue block between Atlantic and Arctic Avenues. It was listed in the Green Book under its various names between 1941 and 1952. A later business there was Sapp’s Restaurant, where barbecue was the main attraction. Today it is Sonny’s Hair Salon, which is flanked by the only other surviving historic buildings in this block of Kentucky Avenue, a taxi stand at #38, and a two-story brick commercial building at 1600 Arctic Avenue, once the site of two other Green Book listings—London’s Drug Store and the Timbuktoo tavern. This Kentucky Avenue address has since gained a new significance for William “Sonny” Lea, the living barber who ran this shop from 1975 to 2018. Sonny Lea is exemplary of many generations of Southerners who migrated to Atlantic City to make a better life. After stints at busing tables at restaurants and as a hotel doorman and bellhop after his arrival in 1960 from Georgia, he became a barber and worked at three Kentucky Avenue locations: Little New York Barbershop, Grace’s Little Belmont Hair Salon, and his own. While at Grace’s Little Belmont, also a well-known jazz bar, he cut the hair of such greats as comedian Slappy White, Blues artist B. B. King, and boxer Muhammad Ali. Sonny Lea has been recognized as a community pillar—a city historical marker honors his contributions of training young barbers, mentoring city youth, sponsoring events, and keeping the history of “KY and the Curb.”
