Legends still loves Midland Park

When Legends Steakhouse — the former Porchlight Grill — in Midland Park was profiled in The Record's Starters feature last month, co-owner Frank Ficca talked about turning it into the kind of place his dad -- who owned the former restaurant -- would have liked.

"He wanted it to be a real restaurant with nicer food and nicer clientele." In other words, no "barflys," Ficca said.

More than a month later, that last part is not sitting well with the locals -- or the owners.

"The barflys that you have recently drove out of your restaurant is what kept you in business for many years," one reader wrote in a letter to The Record.

Bob Corcoran, the other owner, said business has suffered because other readers were deeply offended by that part of the story. "It was talking about upgrading the clientele as though the clientele was no good. That's how people in the town took it," he said. "It's a small town. A good portion of our livelihood is getting [customers] who live right in town."

Corcoran said that if he were writing the article, "I probably would have handled it differently." he said. "The purpose of what we did was to upgrade the restaurant ... basically, we wanted to change the menu and obviously change the physical appearance of the place but it wasn't about getting rid of existing clientele."