Garces returning to Atlantic City with seafood restaurants at Tropicana
Tropicana is in the midst of a $40 million renovation.
Jose Garces is coming back to Atlantic City, as Tropicana announced Tuesday that the casino would partner with the chef/restaurateur on "multiple seafood-focused concepts" at the casino, to open by the end of 2016.
Neither Garces nor the Tropicana, in the midst of a $40 million renovation, disclosed the restaurants or the exact location, other than that they would be located "right off the casino floor." It's logical, then, that they will replace the Trop's seafood eatery, Fin.
At an event in Atlantic City less than a month ago, Garces said he would re-enter the casino fray.
Garces' Atlantic City operation was terminated abruptly Sept. 2, 2014, when the Revel casino shut down, idling 230 Garces employees among about 3,000 Revel employees.
Garces, by far the largest restaurant operator at the casino, operated a splashy, 11,000-square-foot Amada, an adjacent Yuboka noodle shop, and branches of Village Whiskey and Distrito Cantina.
I heard at time that the restaurants - which opened in April 2012 - generated about $14 million a year in revenue.