Atlantic City
Ocean Resort
Just returned from a few days at AC. We stayed at 2 hotels, the Ocean Resort which is the old Revel building and the Borgata. We had some great food and wine and di some fun ocean swimming,
The Ocean Resorthttps://www.theoceanac.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2MTbBRASEiwAdYIpsa7V-wQI5Q2bwEn5ow4MwC-8525We4TJgWUH-GS2-wA-e1xH8z84FxoClxAQAvD_BwE is right on the boardwalk and the beach. All rooms have great views. The lobby is on the 11th floor. The place is huge and takes some time get oriented. It is still a work in progress as all the restaurants and amenities are not yet completed. We had nice, modern room during the week for $69 plus about $30 in taxes and fees. The casino is very large and and somewhat circular so you always get lost.
The beach is across the boardwalk, very convenient and you can have free chairs, umbrella and towels from 10 to 4PM daily. The beach is clean, free and the water is great. We found it a real treat to have the beach so close to the hotel and to have the chairs and umbrellas there for us.
They have a number of restaurants. The fancy ones are Amada https://www.theoceanac.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Amada-Menu-Ocean-Resort-Casino.pdf, American Cut and Dolce Mare. We ate at Amada for the second time and it was very good. The restaurant is stunning and the views of the boardwalk and the ocean are great. The food is mostly Tapas and prices are not bad although things can add up quickly. We had 6 tapas from potatoes to calamari linguine and shrimp/chorizo flatbread. Dessert was vanilla and chocolate ice cream with some olive oil. It is great and the chocolate ice cream exceptional. Our dinner for 2 with wine, tax and tip was about $120, but we are not big eaters.
The wine list is pretty good. We ordered one of the least expensive wines, $44, a white wine, Via Arxentea from Bodega Via Arxentea 2016, a mixture of Treixadura and Godello. the wine is great,medium bodied, great flavor, lots of fruit, not that acidic but balanced. Very small production 15,000 bottles. Have not seen it at retail.
We also ate dinner and Landshark Bar and Grill https://resortsac.com/restaurants/casual-dining/landshark-bar-and-grill/, the beach bar restaurant at Resorts. It is the only permanent restaurant on the beach in AC. The food is edible but the price is right and the we sat out on the covered patio overlooking the water. We had a fish sandwich,grouper, onion rings and peel and eat shrimp. Beer washed it down. I had a Goose Island , IPA which was very good and not too hoppy. Dinner for 2 was about $60.
The Borgata
We moved to the Borgata, which we usually like a lot and it was very nice this time as well. We stayed at the Water Club which is one of their 2 hotels , the Borgata is the other. We ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill https://www.theborgata.com/dining/fine-dining/wolfgang-puck-american-grille#t#menu and it was very good. Wolfgang had an event at the Water Club indoor pool that night and we could have gone to that but we decided to eat at his restaurant instead.
We had the famous Chinois chicken salad, pizza, stir fried veggies and wine. Peach cobbler for dessert The wine was a Melville Chardonnay 2008, yes 2008. Melville is outside of Santa Barbara, CA and is one of my favorite wineries out there. Any chance to have an older wine in a restaurant is an opportunity so we jumped on it. $66 which was a bargain. The wine was very good. Lots of flavor and complexity, a nice touch of oak. It was also 14.9% alcohol which was not noticeable.
Towards the end of our meal, Wolfgang came into the restaurant and went around to most of the tables to chat. He came over to our table and sat down next to us and we chatted for a few minutes. It was a nice touch to a very good meal!
Interestingly I recently read an article by Lettie Teague in the WSJ in which she suggested that white wine works well with pizza because of the acidity in the wine and in the tomatoes. She was right on as the wine worked well with our Margherita pizza.
Lastly we ate dinner at Izakaya by Michael Schulson, https://www.theborgata.com/dining/fine-dining/izakayathe an Asian fusion restaurant at the Borgata. They have just added a whole roast duck with Pekin Duck accompaniments hoison sauce, scallions and cucumbers, to the menu. We ordered it and it was very good. It came with small flat buns instead of pancakes. We also ordered shrimp fried rice and stir fried broccoli.
The wine of the evening was our all time favorite restaurant wine, a still white wine, Albet i Noya Curios 2017, from Penedes, Spain made from 100% Xarel-lo organic grapes. The Xarel-lo grape is used for Cava and this winery makes mostly Cava. The punch line is that the wine is $24 for the bottle which is nuts. It is not an expensive wine retail but $24 in a top restaurant is wild. The wine is light, crisp, balanced, good fruit and just a really good summer wine that went with duck.
The Water Club has a wine shop, Vintages and they have a wine tasting on Saturday afternoons. We tried a Sancerre Pinot Noir rose 2017 from Franck Et Sylvain Godon. Sancerres are normally white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes. There are some Pinot Noirs from Sancerre so if they make a rose it is from Pinot Noir. The wine was medium bodied, full flavored with nice fruit and not overly acidic. Not a wimpy rose but easy drinking. They were selling it for $30. The store has high prices so it may be less elsewhere.
Also tried a 2017 Maison Bonne Chance from the Cotes - du- Rhone. 80% Granache, 10% Syrah and 5% Mourvedre $15. It was grapey, high alcohol 15% and nothing to recommend it.
We had breakfast at Gilchrists http://gilchristonthedock.com/. They have 4 restaurants in the area. We ate at the one at Gardeners Basin. There was a long line but they are very organized.I had blueberry pancakes, their specialty with the blueberries in the pancakes and my wife had eggs. We sat at a water side table overlooking the inlet. Everything was fresh and cooked to order and reasonably priced. A really good breakfast spot.
We had some really impressive food and wine at Atlantic City. We followed our stomachs, did not overeat, ordered wines that we thought we would enjoy and did not spend a boatload of money. We also managed to swim in the ocean a few times and spend a day at Brigantine Beach. We also did not spend very much on deluxe hotel rooms. All in all, a great time.
Part 3 of the France and Spain trip is coming soon. It will be on Paris.
Enjoy.
