The Tropicana Casino Resort in Atlantic City held a Benefit Thursday, August 30 for the Covenant House in Atlantic City with the help of the Beatles Tribute Band "Yesterday" and "Ticket to Ride" Author Larry Kane. Shown from left to right: Tropicana President Mark Giannantonio, Larry Kane, "Yesterday" and representatives from the Covenant House with Covenant House Atlantic City Site Director, Brian Nelson on the extreme right.
Photo by Lew Steiner.

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My alma mater, Atlantic City High School, will begin the 2007-2008 school year with a dress code. According to an article in South Jersey.com:

The upcoming school year will start a new mandatory high school uniform policy. The policy bans students favorites, jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies. The uniform consists of plain polo shirts, only white, navy, or black, and only black, navy, or khaki color dress pants or skirts. The ACHS school logo is the only logo allowed on clothing.

As someone who grew up during the “Age of Aquarius,” I find that rather ironic. My generation of ACHS students (Class of 1971) was one of the first that was allowed to wear jeans to high school. I remember a favorite pair of mustard bell-bottoms that I wore often. The hair on male students was often long, big Afros were popular with African-American students and the only time I had to wear a skirt was when I played basketball.

Continue reading "Dress Code at ACHS" »

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Pastry Chef Eugene Ess (left) and Director of Food and Beverage Ray Bertschy are shown with some of the delicious pastries at the grand opening of Plate American Café and the Trump Taj Mahal’s Spice Road. (Photo by Lew Steiner)

Mark Juliano, Chief Executive Officer of Trump Entertainment Resorts is very enthusiastic about the new changes at the Taj Mahal, from the casino floor and the suites to Spice Road. At the opening of Spice Road, he introduced Michael Mangini, Senior Designer for SOSH Architects. Mangini who served as Lead Designer for Spice Road, used natural material in unconventional ways to create a modern interpretation of India and South Asia.
Also participating in the grand opening was celebrity party planner, David Tutera who has opened his first retail project, Stem (also located along Spice Road). Stem is a full-service florist, with emphasis on one-of-a-kind presentations. Stem’s floral creations added to the ambiance of the restaurants of Spice Road.

Continue reading "Trump Taj Mahal celebrates the completion of Spice Road" »

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In a move designed to unify and streamline management of its properties in New Jersey, Tropicana Entertainment today named Mark Giannantonio President and General Manager of both its hotel and casino operations at the Tropicana Atlantic City. Giannantonio, a 19-year veteran of the Atlantic City property who began his career as a food and beverage analyst, will assume his new position immediately.
“We’ve been experimenting with a unified management concept at some of our other properties,” said William J. Yung, owner and CEO of Tropicana Casinos & Resorts, parent of Tropicana Entertainment, “and the results satisfy me that, in the hands of the right manager, we can create efficiencies and at the same time clarify lines of authority and communication. Mark has demonstrated that he has the skill to be that kind of manager for our important assets in Atlantic City.”
The top hotel and casino operations management positions at the Tropicana Atlantic City were previously held by separate individuals.
For the past seven years as Vice President of Hotel Operations from 2000-2006 and Executive Vice President of Operations from January 2007, Giannantonio has been in charge of daily operations and marketing administration. His scope of responsibilities has included food and beverage divisions; engineering, housekeeping and public areas; convention, leisure and transient sales; VIP and casino customer services; reservations and yield management systems. He also managed all of the construction projects on the site.
From 1996 to 2000 Giannantonio was Executive Director of Casino Customer Service. He directed the casino’s marketing analysis staff and was in charge of profitability analysis for casino marketing and promotion. From 1988 to 1996, he held a variety of positions rising from food and beverage operations analyst to marketing shift manager.
A lifelong resident of Atlantic City, Giannantonio earned his BA in Economics from Richard Stockton College in 1987.
Giannantonio replaces former President and Chief Operating Officer of the Tropicana, Fred Burro.

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Hey, fellow Entourage fans, Johnny Drama and E are taking a break from the left coast to visit AC. Entourage stars Kevin Dillon and Kevin Connolly will be hosting SPLASH-The End of Summer Bash at The Pool at Harrah’s on Saturday, Aug. 25. With the stars of Entourage on hand at this event, and with a music mix provided by Ani Quinn and Mateo, it will have the ambiance of a real Hollywood party.
If you’re not a fan of Entourage, why not? This hilarious HBO series, that reveals the life and times of Hollywood’s young elite, is loosely based on the early years of series executive producer Mark Wahlberg. Those 21+ with valid I.D. can crash the party by paying admission at the door (the cost has yet to be announced). For more on Entourage go here. (Pictured, above, at the New York opening of Entourage are Jeremy Piven, Kevin Dillon, Kevin Connolly and Adrian Grenier.)

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The Pier at Caesars was scheduled to have a nightclub on site by now, the club being Rum Jungle on the 4th level of the Pier. However, since that hot spot has yet to get going, Sonsie, one of the fine restaurants on the Pier’s third floor, is opening for late night as the Sonsie Lounge. The Lounge makes its debut this Saturday, Aug. 11 at 11pm. Sponsored by Leblon and Philadelphia Style Magazine, the night will feature music by DJ Felix Cutillo. Offering reservations and bottle service, the phone number is 609-345-6300.

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The Water Club, a signature hotel by Borgata, is topped off today in Atlantic City at 11 am. Pictured at the ceremony are, clockwise: Noelia Lopez, Joe Ballentine, Hank Andrescavage, Keith Smith (President and Chief Operating Officer, Boyd Gaming), Drew Schlesinger (Vice President and General Manager, The Water Club at Borgata), Larry Mullin (President and Chief Operating Officer, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa), William S. Boyd (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Boyd Gaming), Vincent Fabi, John Giannini, and Janelle Hippen.

At left, the last beam is raised into place atop the new Water Club hotel tower.
The hotel, which will feature highly personalized service, is slated to open in early 2008. It will introduce a unique brand of hospitality to the resort with 800 finely appointed guest rooms and suites; a two-story spa in the sky, 18,000 square feet of meeting space, five heated indoor and outdoor swimming pools – each offering a different experience and six retail shops. The hotel is located adjacent to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. The Water Club is a joint venture between Boyd Gaming and MGM MIRAGE and will complete Borgata’s $600 million master plan development and bring the total investment in the resort to $1.7 billion.

Photos by Lew Steiner

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A memorial for an American WWII pilot in England on the Fourth of July? Read all about the story of Atlantic City native John Pershing Perrin, and the planned upcoming memorial. Very interesting stuff.

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A little late, New York magazine, but so what? Props to the mag for giving Atlantic City props in its current Weekend Travel Guide. Even AC Weekly gets some cred. This should be a busy summer season down here at the Jersey Shore with several new entertainment and dining venues, a Boardwalk that's getting tidied up, a stellar concert line-up for the season, and the beautiful beaches. A train connecting NYC with A.C. directly is still slated to debut later this year.

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Last weekend, every celebrity's favorite DJ — Adam Goldstein (AKA DJ AM) — provided music for an interesting sounding Kentucky Derby bash where one artist-formerly-known-as-the-husband-of-Britney-Spears provided some national gossip column juice. This weekend, Nicole Richie's (along with a boatload of other actresses' and models') ex-beau will fly into town where he'll be spinning at Borgata's mur.mur on Saturday night.

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Mapping technology has really been advancing rapidly on the web. Our favorite map tool is Google Earth and that same satellite image integration has now been picked up by Yahoo maps and Mapquest, among others allowing users get directions and see them in hybrid view which overlays street layouts on satellite images.
Not to be outdone, the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority has added some pretty cool interactive maps of their own on their web site. The maps (one for Atlantic City and another for the surrounding area) let you customize your view by adding points of interest like parking, restaurants, shopping and attractions.
Very cool and worth checking out.

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Thankfully, Atlantic City casinos do not operate in Europe or on the Internet. The online gambling crackdown seems to be heating up: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/world/18cnd-gamble.html?hp&ex=1153281600&en=c5925ab7616bafad&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Posted by Mike Epifanio at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

People send us all kinds of stuff all the time. But this stacks up with the very best submissions. We loved playing with Legos when we were kids, but never dreamed someone could make a living doing it. The Lego artist Nathan Sawaya was commissioned to create this LEGO replica of a vintage slot machine for a private collector in Las Vegas. More photos can be found at: www.nathanbrickartist.com/antique_slot_machine.html

Posted by Mike Epifanio at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the popular YouTube Web site, apparently this stunt paid off for a morning show radio team from North Carolina that headed up the coast to AC earlier this year to bet 10 Gs on one spin of a roulette wheel. The anticipation is worth the four minutes.

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