Archive: February, 2013
It’s only late February, but the folks at Caesars have already started booking top stove jockeys for the fifth annual Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, which takes place July 25-28 at the four Caesars properties (Bally’s Caesars, Harrah’s Resort and Showboat).
Already on board are Robert Irvine (“Dinner Impossible”), Rocco DiSpirito (“Now Eat This!”) and The Neelys (“Down Home with The Neelys”). More culinary all-stars will be added to the roster in the days ahead.
In addition to presentations by big-time chefs, the festival will feature various events that have proven popular in the past. These include The Grand Market, which event organizers like to hype as a foodie’s bazaar, the gospel brunch and Blues Brews & BBQ, which blends grilling with live blues performances.
This is why Atlantic City can’t win:
Early Thursday morning a shootout in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip left three dead and six wounded.
This is bad enough, but according to the Huffington Post: “The incident marked the latest violence on the Strip since the beginning of the year. Two people were critically wounded in a shooting at a parking garage Feb. 6, and a tourist was stabbed Saturday in an elevator at The Hotel at MandalayBay.”
Absent in Thursday’s announcement about the sale of Trump Plaza casino-hotel to Southern California-based Meruelo Gaming Holdings LLC was any mention of what exactly the new owner plans to do with the aging midtown complex once it receives the keys.
It’s just a hunch, but an existing Atlantic City gambling den may offer a pretty good idea of what’s in store.
It was only a couple of years ago that Houston-based Landry Inc., a hospitality giant whose signature brands include Morton’s The Steakhouse and The Chart House, bought the former Trump Marina for the bargain-basement fee of $38 million. The low-ball price allowed Landry to invest some $150 million in a complete—make that startling—makeover that turned what had been a property with all of the charm of a bus terminal into the sleek and vibrant Golden Nugget.
Unlike so many of my colleagues in the media, I have no beef at all with the Miss America Pageant which, today officially announced its return, after seven years in Las Vegas, to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, where it was born more than 90 years ago.
I thoroughly enjoyed the weeks I spent in AyCee throughout the 1990s covering the event, and considering all of the dangers lurking out there for young women, I see absolutely nothing wrong with encouraging scholarship and social engagement on their part.
While neither of my two grown daughters ever expressed any interest in entering the Miss A program, I would have wholeheartedly endorsed their decisions to do so had they been so inclined.
Since then, Chuck has covered the town and its gaming industry for several area newspapers -- which is why, in some circles, he’s known as “Boardwalk Charlie.”
You can reach Chuck at darrowc@phillynews.com. Reach Chuck at darrowc@phillynews.com.
