If, when you think of Atlantic City, you immediately conjure the image of a crusty, cheesy old hellhole where geriatric cases in plaid polyester slacks amble slowly through casinos, pilfering their life savings, don’t be surprised if the Ghost of Atlantic City Past — who likely will appear in the form of a 1940s Mafioso regular from Skinny D’Amato’s long defunct 500 Club and the city’s storied glory years — visits you tonight and whispers in your ear, “Fugettaboutit.”
The elderly do still enjoy it, but Atlantic City rapidly is losing its albatross of an image by going all-out in a massive housecleaning and rebuild that is pulling hip, younger East Coasters in an unprecedented wave.
A recent report in Bloomberg News cited the average age of Atlantic City tourists at 52. But — thanks to the vision of casino operators and club owners who seized upon a wasted kingdom — a new guard of young, energetic club-goers is rousing this sleeping giant. Atlantic City entrepreneurs are realizing exponentially more profit by getting the most out of the existing base of locals, gambling day-trippers, clubbers looking for something more and vacationers. Beginning with the city’s prime location, in proximity to major urban areas on the East Coast, players in this formerly all-but-dried-up gambling town are making it worth the drive for clubbing and otherwise hanging out, besides just gambling — for an experience beyond going out in the respective nearby markets.
“Atlantic City is considered Philly’s city and Jersey’s city, and, for example, it’s a destination for Delaware (residents),” says Davina Inalsingh, director of sales for the brand new second location of Hip Hop mogul Jay-Z’s sports bar and lounge, The 40/40 Club, which first launched in New York. “We are getting dressed up and we are going out, and we are getting more than a club.”
Prophets of Profit
Generations ago, Skinny D’Amato’s 500 Club was a mob sanctuary and launching pad for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Tony Bennett and others. Its very adult, smoky corner on cool nightlife was an Atlantic City institution. As the decades wore on, that club and others faded away, and the city itself was eclipsed by Las Vegas, the latter flying by at warp speed. Eventually, Atlantic City became associated with the image of wheezing senior citizens with walkers, inching toward slot machines. You might say it was, at best, the poor man’s Vegas.
In 1997, the Trump Taj Mahal slowly began reaching out to young 20-somethings, a previously untapped segment, with its Casbah nightclub. But the catalyst for the biggest sea change and movement toward a new paradigm in the city’s image and offerings was the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa, which opened on July 4, 2003, and includes four bar and lounge concepts and 11 restaurants.
The Borgata interjected nightlife attractions such as the Mixx club and B Bar near the gaming facilities to create the kind of one-two punch Vegas has been using for years, requiring clubbers to find their way through the enticing slots and roulette tables to get there. The Borgata’s importance has been to create Atlantic City’s answer to the Bellagio in Vegas.
But no discussion of the start-from-scratch upgrade of entertainment offerings in Atlantic City is complete without The Tropicana, another key founder of the new Atlantic City. The Tropicana pumped $280 million into a mix of clubs, restaurants and boutiques called The Quarter, unveiled in late November 2004, which includes 32 Degrees, TSOP and Cuba Libre (see cover story of ¡Salud! y Buen Provecho supplement in this issue) among others. The Quarter, though connected to the casino, is situated across the street and has become a major local attraction for shoppers, diners and club hoppers, including those who don’t care to gamble.
“On the macro level, the Tropicana has done an outstanding job and taken enormous risk, and it’s paying off for them,” says David Kelly, partner and founder of Rí~Rá Irish Restaurant & Pub, located in The Quarter. Appealing to a combination of locals, day trippers and vacationers — with a broad spectrum of different and exciting entertainment offerings — is crucial to taking Atlantic City to the next level, Kelly says.
“(The Tropicana realized) the Atlantic City location obviously has a significant, huge demographic right on its doorstep,” Kelly says. “They have borrowed some of the service level that Vegas offers and introduced that to Atlantic City. It was a really good idea. If you think about it, the 12 or 14 casinos in Atlantic City — in the research presented to us two or three years ago — generated a similar amount of revenue as 40-odd casinos in Las Vegas. And yet Vegas produced that revenue again in entertainment and restaurants, and Atlantic City had virtually no revenue in that area.”
“It’s all because people think it’s just a day trip,” Kelly says. “The Tropicana set out to challenge that and built probably the first entertainment district. It’s now, thankfully, sort of spawned the whole movement, and the other casinos are all moving in a similar direction. I think it will be great for Atlantic City. The mix of concepts is very exciting. Because of this sort of mall environment the entertainments are built in, it creates a year-round facility where you can bar-hop and enjoy the ambiance of very different concepts. It was very apparent to me from day one when the Tropicana came to us that their strategy is very solid.”
Night and Day
Each resort has committed to the success of Atlantic City with monumental improvements, expansions and overhauls of their facilities, from gaming to hotel accommodations and beyond. Casual observers from afar flippantly perceiving that Atlantic City is undergoing a mere facelift and image retooling couldn’t be more wrong; underlying the new face of the Eastern seaboard’s gaming capitol is pure meat, and nightclubs and bars — major weapons in the revolution — are a part of the renaissance of every aspect of the city’s attractions.
Make no mistake, each casino property is making sure it has magnets to attract the much sought-after younger, party-all-night demographic.
“(Nightlife) is paramount,” says Harry Hayman, manager of TSOP, also in The Quarter. “It is what is bringing a younger, hipper demographic to Atlantic City. I don’t think there’s anything else you can point to. It’s the only thing that’s been added to the recipe or formula recently that has added any kind of change. The beach is still there, the gambling’s still there, the restaurants that were there are still there. (Nightlife is) the only thing that’s been added to the equation to create such an incredible response. It’s like night and day.”
“The Atlantic City market is more ‘show time,’ if you will,” Inalsingh says. “People expect grandeur, glamour, city lights, etc. I think the strategy is to meet their expectations with a bang.”
Just a few months ago, The 40/40 Club launched in the Atlantic City Live! Complex, which is the entertainment portion of The Walk, an area along the boardwalk. The new 40/40 shares The Walk with properties such as a new Ruth’s Chris Steak House and the Red Cheetah nightclub. Cordish Co., developer of The Walk, has created other urban retail and entertainment projects in other markets.
Trump Plaza’s makeover to become more inviting to the hip will include revamping its casino bar to become Liquid, a 5,000-square-foot venue open to the boardwalk.
Other big players, seeing the re-energized potential of Atlantic City, are getting in on the action. House of Blues opened its 10th venue there at the Showboat, a New Orleans-themed resort. The $55 million HOB property is a milestone signifying the importance of the club concept in the city’s reincarnation; in addition to its music hall, restaurant and beach bar, the footprint includes HOB’s first ever nightclub. Mike Penrod’s Nikki Beach opened at Resorts in May, unleashing a multi-tiered bar, restaurant and lounge touted as “The Sexiest Place on Earth.”
Windows to the World
Taking a cue from Vegas, variety is the order of the day with regard to beverage and food in the new Atlantic City. Offering experiences from distant places keeps it fresh and exciting for visitors. The presentation is, in a word, dynamic.
TSOP, for example, is all about Philly soul. A partnership between Robert and Benjamin Bynum, who are Philadelphia restaurateurs, and Kenny Gamble and Leon Hoff, who are songwriters and the architects of “The Sound of Philadelphia” of the ‘60s and ‘70s, TSOP stands for “The Sound of Philadelphia” and opened when the Quarter opened several months ago. The attraction is a mix of live R&B, classic Soul and Funk seven nights a week. Also, the “Taste of Philadelphia” offers food from a collection of Philadelphia “Soul Fusion” recipes.
Rí~Rá — another perfect example of one of the many varied concepts of the new regime — is famous for meticulously recreating the true Irish Pub experience by importing authentic, century-old pubs from Ireland and carefully reassembling them in the United States, board by board, with genuine Irish food and drink.
“I think that’s one of the things that has driven our success in Atlantic City,” Kelly says. “You do have a much more frenetic, modern, busy environment, and here we are with this place that’s 100 years old. It’s a little bit of an oasis. That’s how we are different from the other restaurants and pubs.”
Each venue is unique, and each is becoming a strong brick in building the Atlantic City of the future.
“The city is growing and changing, and it’s doing it fast,” Inalsingh says. “We want to contribute to the image of its entertainment life.”
Gamble — Or Don’t
“There are three things driving our revenue,” Kelly says, citing the convergence of locals, non-gambling vacationers and gamblers as a profit-pumping triple threat. The Tropicana is one example of the new movement afoot in Atlantic City, with a Vegas mindset, to get non-gambling dollars in addition to casino revenues and maximize profit.
“It’s a very busy location, but we’re definitely seeing local traffic,” Kelly says. “It’s because the Tropicana designed the facility such that you don’t have to be in the casino. You can park in The Quarter, take the elevator down, and you’re right in the middle of the entertainment district. You can blow a dime at P.F. Chang’s or Carmine’s and have a beer at Rí~Rá and go to one of the other spots to dance. It’s very nicely put together.
“That’s helped drive revenue — getting locals in there. There’s also an enormous number of non-gaming visitors. I think it’s 50 million non-gaming visitors a year and 35 million gaming visitors. A huge number of people who live in New Jersey and New York travel to the beach in the summertime. So, The Quarter is helping to position Atlantic City as a viable non-gaming entertainment district. If you’re down on one of these beaches for a week and would never go to a casino, and it rains, you can go up to The Quarter to the IMAX theatre. So it really does offer a whole sphere of entertainment that didn’t previously exist. And if you’re a casino goer, it’s fantastic. It adds to their experience enormously. It encourages people to spend the night in Atlantic City and enjoy the nighttime, rather than just gamble and leave.”
“I always had a good feeling for Atlantic City and really sensed that these projects — the convention center, The Borgata, The Quarter, The Walk — were right on target to help turn the city around,” says Barry Gutin, president of Libre Management, parent company of 32 Degrees, Cuba Libre and Brulee. “I believe Atlantic City is going to see its greatest decade of growth ever in the next 10 years.” NCB
The East Coast version of “The Show” hits Atlantic City Oct. 10-12. Find out more in Show News on page 28 and at www.nightclub.com.
Who's Blue?
At a cost of $55 million, a price tag that includes a Foundation Room for special events, a restaurant, a 2,380-person live music hall for concerts and a nightclub facility called Worship that has drawn the faithful nightly since its grand opening in July, the House of Blues is the latest jewel in the crown of the new Atlantic City.
Unique among 10 House of Blues units nationally, HOB Atlantic City is just what the doctor ordered to draw the young affluent crowd — an untapped and once conspicuously absent demographic on the boardwalk — and build the resort town’s reputation as a nightclub and entertainment destination.
“The one thing that makes us different is that we have the complete entertainment package that other venues don’t have that allows us to cater to multiple demographics on multiple fronts,” says House of Blues General Manager Ron Deimling, who honed his chops at HOB Las Vegas before moving east. “I can do a Commodores show and a nightclub and a restaurant. It enables House of Blues to touch a lot of people.”
No matter what the diverse demographic may be at any given moment, however, Deimling says HOB Atlantic City is an experience meant to please. “We are driven on guest satisfaction and value. I want people to come to House of Blues and feel that the money they invested in us was worth it. Look at show prices and the price of food. We are competitive.”
Thus far, the management at House of Blues is doing anything but singing the blues over its reception in Atlantic City. “Business is steady,” Deimling avows. “I think we see growth every week, and my working relationship with Showboat is very positive.”
