Atlantic City's Hard Rock Cafe will stay open

ATLANTIC CITY - The Hard Rock Cafe here will remain open as long as the casino in which it operates does, the restaurant said Thursday after warning that it might close.

The restaurant and bar in the Trump Taj Mahal filed a warning notice late Wednesday with the New Jersey Labor Department of a potential April 22 closing, which would put 73 people out of work.

Its parent company said the cafe plans to operate through its current lease, which expires at the end of 2016.

"Conditional notices required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act were issued to employees in the event that the Taj Mahal bankruptcy plan is not approved, resulting in the closure of the Taj Mahal," Hard Rock International said in a statement Thursday.

The Taj Mahal is trying to emerge from bankruptcy under a new owner, billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

It has been struggling to retain customers through the slow winter months, after repeated threats it was closing late last year. A $20 million investment from Icahn is keeping it afloat.

The Hard Rock tried to get the bankruptcy court last fall to force the casino to say whether it would honor its lease. Hard Rock opened on Nov. 15, 1996.