And those menus, crowded with choices from chicken livers to lobster thermidor, were another advertising vehicle - one that could travel widely. For decades, every one carried a prominent message: "This is your menu. You may take it with you." Hackney and his staff encouraged patrons to take the menus, leave them in jitneys, on the trains, anywhere that would give his restaurant more exposure.
But Harry also had plenty more ways of spreading the name and Hackney's famed, red-lobster logo.
Hackney had all sorts of tableware and such emblemized such as plates, cocktail glasses, swizzle sticks, sugar packs, pocket protectors, ashtrays, delivery trucks, a sailing yacht (that gave rides to paying customers), and much more. Many watering holes and eateries have advertised on match packs, obviously, and Hackney's did too - but Hackney's also had its messages put on individual matches within the packs.
Hackney's is often remembered by locals for it's famous Miss America Cocktail Lounge where the signature drink was the Miss America Cocktail. It got that name because it featured bourbon from Kentucky, apple jack from New Jersey, lemon juice from California, sugar from Louisiana among other ingredients - all served in a lobster-logoed souvenir glass, of course.
Unfortunately, due to its location along the shores on the Inlet, the restaurant took massive damage from the legendary storms of 1944 and 1962, but a 1963 fire did even worse by the landmark. The restaurant shut down until 1965, when it was reborn as a smaller, more modern building. But by then, Atlantic City was obviously struggling itself - and the Inlet worst of all as it tried desperately to recover from that '62 northeaster. The rebuilt Hackney's could seat about 1,500 people (compared to the near 3,600 in the old building). By the mid 60's, with Atlantic City in a steep decline, Hackney's also began to decline. The Hackney family finally sold the restaurant in the mid 70's.
After the family sold out, the new owners kept running a restaurant into the early 1980s. But they gave up and closed it, then sold again in 1993, a year before the new owners made news by announcing plans for a $2 million renovation that would again cut the size of Hackney's in half - down from the 15,000 square feet of the rebuilt, post-1965 incarnation. But while the restaurant sat empty beside the Boardwalk for years - with tables neatly lined up and covered, looking like it could open again with the simple turn of a key - it never served another meal.
News reports show the rusting steel frame was still there at least into the late 1990s, but when it was torn down, the restaurant once "as famous as the Boardwalk" drew little notice - even among the family that ran it so lovingly for so long. Now there's no sign left that Hackney's was ever there - and the exact section of Boardwalk it dominated is closed to walkers by decades of storm damage and neglect.