Story: The Wine & Spirits of Atlantic City

Since I have been teaching the wine & spirits program at FDU’s Teaneck/Hackensack campus for 14 years I drove down for a look-see. It is now seven years later and the original location of the school has been torn down. (It was once the Million Dollar Pier and it has been replaced by the Pier Shops at Caesars). They have moved their program to Ocean County Community College. It was time to revisit Atlantic City to see what has changed in the wine and spirits field.

Since I do not gamble at all I opted to stay at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel, a non-casino property, located across the street from the Convention Center and more importantly, one block from The Walk- entertainment & outlet shopping (100 stores). The hotel was also an easy 3 block stroll from the Boardwalk & most of the restaurants that I describe in this article. The Club Level has a free computer (there are also two free computers in the lobby) as well as breakfast and afternoon and evening snacks. If you park your car and don’t want to walk there is the 13 passenger Jitney ($2) that runs along Pacific Avenue, to the Marina area and the Convention Center.

Settled in 1783 Atlantic City has a year-round population of 41,000. It is 60 miles from Philadelphia, 125 from NYC and 175 from Washington, DC. The world’s first boardwalk and salt water taffy are still there. Also, the rolling chairs as well as the Monopoly board’s street names (Atlantic, Pacific, Baltic etc). Although gaming revenue was down in 2007 due partly to Pennsylvania authorizing slot machines & $3 plus gas prices, there are lots of new building taking place. Much of the “slum” housing has been replaced with new apartment buildings and homes. The historic Boardwalk Hall, the long time home of Miss America, has been renovated into a 13,000 seat arena for boxing, the circus, concerts etc. The Atlantic 10 basketball tournament was held there a few days before my arrival.

The 11 casinos include three in the Marina area: The Borgata, built 5 years ago, is building a new tower “The Water Club”- AC first boutique hotel; Harrah’s, also building a new tower, and at 44 floors the tallest in Atlantic City. I especially liked the “tropical paradise pool area” beneath a 90 foot glass dome. It has 6 Jacuzzis and 12 private cabanas all in view of the hotel lobby. Trump Marina is also located here. The downtown hotel/casinos are: Bally’s, Resorts, Trump Taj Mahal (adding a new tower), Caesars (and its Pier Shops) and the largest casino hotel, the Tropicana with over 2,200 rooms. Also the Hilton, Showboat and Trump Plaza.

There were 35 million visitors to Atlantic City in 2006. This article is written for those who do not spend all their time gambling. I visited, had a meal, or spoke to every restaurant mentioned in my story. Several were suggestions from Elaine Zamansky, Manager of Media Relations for the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority and my host. I read the Wine Spectator Best Restaurant issue for ideas and spoke to the concierge at the Sheraton.

Best Rum Bar- Cuba Libre at the Quarter at the Tropicana Resort. 100 rums, Thursday night Late Night Latin Happy Hour from 11PM-1AM. Dancing, singing, conga lines and a Latin floor show. Upstairs at Cuba Libre is the open-air Missile Bar with a real (fake) Russian missile & the declassified history of the 13 Days in October (really 14 days) dealing with the Russian/Cuba/USA missile crisis. If you find David McGee the Director of Sales & Marketing for the Philadelphia based (soon to open in Orlando) operations ask him to tell you the hysterical story of moving the missile from Florida to Atlantic City (right after 9/11).
Best Vodka Selection- Red Square, next door to Cuba Libre- 169 vodka’s & voted best Martini Bar by Casino Player Magazine.
Best Cigar/Wine Selection- Tinder Box/Vino 100- Next door to both restaurants at the Quarter at the Tropicana. Great cigar selection & 100 value wines under $25. I stayed at the original Tropicana Casino and hotel in Havana Cuba in the mid and late 1950’s. The Quarter brought back many pleasant memories of those visits.

Non-Casino Restaurants- Ram’s Head Inn- Gallaway- Five acres of gardens located 8 miles from AC- Same ownership as The Manor- West Orange. Best of Award of Excellence from the Wine Spectator- 970 wines; 100-Half bottles; 30 wines by the glass. Friday from 3-6PM – Happy Hour with over 30 wines sold at $1 per ounce.
Knife & Fork Inn- WS Award of Excellence- Boardwalk area- 10,000 bottle wine cellar- 20 wines by the glass. Ninety three years old and purchased by Frank Dougherty in 2005. His family opened Dock’s Oyster House in the Boardwalk area in 1897. Also a WS Award of Excellence list with 425 wines.
Angeloni’s II Restaurant- Boardwalk area- Italian/American cuisine- 250 wines.

Casino Restaurants- Borgata- Thanks to Anjoleena Griffin-Holst, wine director & her boss- Brian Brennan for the following information and tour of the property, including dinner at Ombra. Borgata Wine Experience events held 4-6 times a year. Wine-off in Ombra was a lively competition between a male and female sommelier. Wine Around was a walking tour of Borgata’s fine-dining restaurants focusing on small bites of their signature dishes with wines to match. Women in Wine had 24 female wine maker/owners and Borgata’s chef-partners in a charity event. Three of their restaurants have a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence- Bobby Flay Steak- 512 wines; Old Homestead- 567 wines; Specchio- 903 wines. Three have the WS Award of Excellence- Ombra- 106 wines; SeaBlue- 361 wines & Wolfgang Puck American Grille- 285 wines. In 2007 almost 64,400 bottles of wine were sold in their six fine-dining restaurants.

The Palm at The Quarter at The Tropicana is also a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner with 165 wines and 13 by the glass.
I had dinner at Sonsie at The Pier Shops at Caesars, opened in 2006. There is a sky bridge leading from Caesars to the four story shopping (80) and dining (7) paradise which also features “The Show” the largest indoor water fountain display in a mall. It operates every hour on the hour starting at Noon. General Manager Andrea Luca Rossi moved from Lyon Group’s restaurants in Boston to open this eclectic bistro and lounge with 300 wines on their list. There is a wine room for private parties and a dining-walk-in glass wine cellar. They do seminars and Wednesday classes on wine and artisan cheese pairings. There are 13 servers with a first level sommeliers certification. Their goal is to serve as a suggestion tool for their guests to make educated choices as to food and wine.

Now you can see that there are other things to do in Atlantic City besides gamble.

Before You Go- www.atlanticcitynj.com – (888) acvisit
www.harrahs.com
www.theborgata.com
www.acoutlets.com
www.ramsheadinn.com
www.sonsieac.com
www.knifeandforkinn.com
www.cubalibrerestaurant.com
www.tinderboxvino100ac.com
www.tropicana.net/thequarter
www.thepiershopsatcaesars.com
www.angelonis.com
www.chinagrillmanagement.com
www.sheraton.com/atlanticcity