Atlantic City Travel Guide
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No More Weekdays at The Water Club (Again)
Just in case you weren’t convinced that the cool weather is here to stay in the Northeast, here’s a big hint by way of Atlantic City: The Water Club at the Borgata is closing up shop on weeknights. And if you think you’ve heard this song before, you’re not going crazy: the Water Club also closed rooms midweek back in March, when business was slow, re-opening for the summer party season in May.
Guests wishing to stay at the property Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays can be accommodated at big brother, the Borgata, and it doesn’t look like all weekdays will be blackouts. When we checked out the online reservation system, we noticed that the week of November 15 is showing up as available, from $209 a night. Also, you can crash at the Water Club for just $159 a night tomorrow night.
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Attention Foodies: Gorge Yourself on These Fall Food Festivals
This week, we heard about some tantalizing foodie festivals at properties around the world, and here are three of the more intriguing ones, from happening Atlantic City to the bustling by-ways of Seoul, South Korea, to the pristine beaches of Grand Cayman, this fall means fabulous food for all.
Park Hyatt Masters of Food and Wine in Seoul, October 29-November 8
For over 20 years, Park Hyatt has held an annual Masters of Food and Wine festival at one of its properties, and this year, the fun-filled week is heading to the Park Hyatt Seoul. Over the course of a week, chefs and sommeliers from Hyatt’s properties all over the world will host seminars and demonstrations cooking up “gastronomic masterpieces.”
Highlighted participants include Michelin-starred chef Ulf Braunert of the Palace Luzern in Switzerland, the Park Hyatt Seoul’s executive chef, Stefano Di Salvo, and special luncheons and dinners including an “art gallery dinner” at the Gallery Park Ryu Sook. The whole week culminates with a gala dinner featuring the works of the following chefs:
· Daniel Chambon, owner and chef de cuisine of Le Pont de L’Ouysse in France
· Kenchiro Ooe, chef at the Park Hyatt Tokyo
· Sarawut Im-sup, chef de cuisine at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok’s Tearoom
· Ilhame Guerrah, pastry chef at the Park Hyatt Shanghai
· Hee Seok Seo, sommelier at the Hyatt Regency Incheon
· Chefs Braunert and Di Salvo
Rates at the Park Hyatt Seoul during the festival start at $250 per night.
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Wine, Dine and Unwind Every Day of the Week at The Borgata
It seems like lately, The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City has been offering all kinds of deals and specials to lure in gamblers and sun-seekers despite the economic slump. They’ve had $99 night rates, prix-fixe spa menus, had No Doubt kick off their comeback tour there in May, and hired Hell’s Kitchen winner Danny Veltri to work at the hotel’s Fornelletto Cucina Italiano.
Speaking of which, one of the latest special is a new Wine Down Wednesdays at Fornelletto featuring specially priced small plates paired with wines from a different Italian region each month. In October, the pairings will be wines from the south of the country, like dry red Nero D’Avola ($8/glass) from Sicily, and bright white Falanghina ($10/glass) from Campania.
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Bookable Rooms at The Borgata for $99
This year's most auspicious date - 9-9-09 - is fast approaching, and although we ended up pretty unimpressed by the Mondrian's virtually-unbookable $99 deal in Hollywood, we're hoping that the $99 specials at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa and The Water Club at the Borgata in Atlantic City work out better.
There are three parts to the Borgata's 9-9-09 promotion, the first being the same $99 room deal offered by the Mondrian – but better, because when we checked the online reservations we actually found plenty of $99 rooms, and you don't even need a special code.
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The Chelsea Atlantic City Puts The Focus Back On The Beach
This is what the beach in Atlantic City, NJ looks like, specifically just in front of The Chelsea Hotel. It's been open just barely a year, and as the city's only non-gaming nice hotel on the Boardwalk, we're surprised it's doing so well.
When we popped by last weekend, we noticed that the area of the beach covered with "The Chelsea" umbrellas and chaise loungers was definitely the most populous of all the hotel sand. Our theory? We think that the people who come to stay in The Chelsea in Atlantic City are the ones who are there to enjoy the natural beauty of Atlantic City (the beach, the walking down the boardwalk) rather than the lights and synthetic glamor of the casinos and expensive buffets at the other hotels.
And you know what? We're right there with The Chelsea guests; we can only handle so much Trump.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal Covers The Grit In Gilt
Guess where we were last weekend? No, not Las Vegas, but close! We took a day trip down to Atlantic City for the fun of it, and for some hotel reconnaissance. Also, we only took a day trip because we refuse to pay over $200 a night at a hotel where weeknights go for $40-60.
If you haven't already guessed from our picture above, we meandered through a Trump property or two, this one that obviously overdosed on chandeliers being the Trump Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is like an old Jersey Shore woman spending her retirement getting plastic surgery: she pretties up here and there, but in the end she's still old and still facing the inevitable.
But now that Donald Trump has recently bought back control of his Atlantic City properties, will this old lady shake her weakening hips once more? For the record, we also spent time at the Hilton, Showboat, Caesar's (where we won $25 on slots!), and Resorts, and, although the Taj still has a lot of work to do to reheat Atlantic City's hipness, at least it isn't the worst property on the boardwalk.
[Photo: HotelChatter]
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Order Up Some Class, Pure Class, at The Water Club at The Borgata
We've kicked off our Summer Cocktails series where we profile fun new summer drinks that hotels are making. Got one we should know about? Send us the recipe with a photo of the drink. Otherwise, enjoy and @reply us when you're wasted!
Yesterday we told you how the Borgata would let you cash in on your clubbin' habits but there's something a little more refined going on at the hotel's sister property, The Water Club.
Inside the hotel's lobby lounge is The Sunroom, a sun-filled space (hence the name) where water cascades down the curved, 50-foot linear blue stone wall into a reflective pool. We know! It's so classy for AC.
Speaking of class, while you're gossiping about the Real Housewives of New Jersey or whether or not you got the latest Bon Jovi or Springsteen tickets, why don't you order yourself some Pure Class? That's a drink made with vodka, fresh stawberries, fresh lemon juice, rock candy syrup and some perrier jouet champagne.
The drink is available in the Sunroom for $14, along with other fresh fruit concoctions (for $12) like the Basil Berry (made with gin), the Blue Berry (made with absolut ruby red and blueberries) and the Banana Cafejito (made with malibu banana and kahlua mocha) but you can make it yourself at home. It's the perfect drink to sip during those RHONJ marathons!
Just don't flip the table after you've had too many. Not classy at all.
Check out recipes for The Sunroom's cocktails after the jump.
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Cash In On Your Clubbing Habits at the Borgata
Atlantic City's Borgata is new, it's nice — and, in our experience, it's a mighty fine place to party. And we're guessing they know it, too: they've launched Borgata Nightlife Rewards, a loyalty program designed for nightlife customers. Ha! So you can cash in on your clubbin'. Nice.
If you sign up for the My Borgata Card, you can earn comp dollars based on everything you spend at the hotel/casino's nightlife venues — mur.mur, MIXX, Gypsy Bar and B-Bar — and then you can use those points toward rooms, even more nightlife, dining, spa treatments, entertainment, retail and whatever you need at the Borgata and its sister property, The Water Club. (Oh, warning though: you can't buy gum. The last time we were there, a retail staffer told us they don't sell gum on the premises. Ugh.)
As part of the launch, the Borgata is also running a "Soul & Cash Giveaway," where you can win one of three Kia Souls (yes, that would be the boxy car driven by the rodents in that commercial), cash and other nightlife prizes if you hit up the Borgata nightlife venues on August 8th, August 22nd and September 5th — more details here.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Paris Hilton / Atlantic City Hotels / Hotel Nightclubs / → All Tags
Paris Hilton Doesn't Let Breakup Interfere With Busy Table-Dancing Schedule
Paris Hilton is going through yet another breakup as yet another one of her "I'm so in love, we'll be together forever" relationships has crashed and burned. The poor fella' this time? Doug Reinhardt. The "table-dancing must go on" post-breakup venue? mur.mur at The Borgata Hotel & Spa in Atlantic City.
Paris hosted a night at the club this past Saturday with some fake "BFFs" and some real ones like fashion designer Richie Rich. Paris even was paid to say shouted out that "mur.mur is the best club in Atlantic City. Borgata is Vegas on the East Coast. So hot I love it!"
Apparently, the party girl stopped at the hotel on her way to Dubai and spent a night in one of The Water Club hotel rooms. Before hitting up mur.mur, she dined at Izakaya with friends. Also in attendance that night at mur.mur was Danny Veltri, recent winner of Hell’s Kitchen, who is getting ready for the opening of Fornelletto Cucina Italiana from Chef Stephen Kalt this summer. In the words of Paris herself, "Yeah, that's hot."
More Paris party pics after the jump.
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Shootout At The Trump Taj Mahal
Ugh. An employee of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City was killed yesterday after sustaining gunshot wounds during what appears to have been an attempted robbery at the Casino. The victim, a shift manager who had been working for the hotel since the first day it opened (almost 20 years) died after a frequent patron of the casino shot him in his office.
Eerily, nobody on the casino floor really noticed all the ruckus going on. According to CBS news:
The shooting and its aftermath were not visible from the casino floor, and the gambling hall remained fully open until management shut its table games down Wednesday evening and sent home workers assigned there. Slot machines remained open.
Yeah. Gotta keep those slots open, no matter what, apparently.
This is the latest in a string of unfortunate incidents at the hotel: in January, there was an 11-hour standoff with a man waving a gun around and, in February, the hotel filed for Chapter 11.
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Order Off the Spa 'Prix-Fixe Menu' This Week in Atlantic City
You know a restaurant is goin' for a fancypants vibe when there's a prix-fixe menu involved (or they're just luring the too-tired-for-math Sunday brunch crowd in with the promise of easy billing) — we assume the same is true of a prix-fixe spa menu.
This week (May 17th through 22nd) in Atlantic City, The Borgata's Spa Toccare and The Water Club's Immersion Spa are launching the first-ever "Spa Toccare & Immersion Week," which is kinda like spa week in major cities — i.e., there are major discounts happening.
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'Hell's Kitchen' Winner Snags Position at New Borgata Restaurant
Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, The Chopping Block — how do we keep all these cooking reality shows straight? Oh, here's how: one of these shows has ol' Gordon Ramsay screaming in contestants' faces and calling them donkeys and stuff. And that show (Hell's Kitchen, in case we've lost you) had its season five finale last night — complete with a viewing party at the Borgata Hotel and Casino to appropriately celebrate the grand prize.
And what was this grand prize, you wonder? Well (spoiler for the Tivo-ers) winner Danny Veltri scored himself a chef's job at Atlantic City's Borgata inside the brand new resto Fornelletto Cucina Italiano under exec celeb chef Stephen Kalt, who also runs the kitchen at Corsa Cucina at Wynn Las Vegas.
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