I kid, I kid. What obviously happened is that I lost $20 in quarters and only saw Atlantic City from behind a drizzly car window on my way to and from the noisy, flashing, neon cave that is a random casino floor. All that to say, I really didn’t know what would greet us when we arrived for a day-trip this past weekend; I’d heard so many down-on-its-luck stories that I expected there to be like tumbleweeds rolling down a shuttered boardwalk and feral cats having gang fights on the beach.
We spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing on the beach and reading—and by that I mean secretly listening into every conversation that was going on around us, the best of which involved someone telling her boyfriend that he better “stop acting like that before my whole house gets robbed again.” Huh.
When we’d had enough of that we wandered the boardwalk in search of refreshment and came upon The Playground, the recently opened refurbishment of the Pier Shops at Caesars. The Playground is, more or less, a ritzy mall enclosed on a pier, which now features something called “T-Street,” a row of small, fancy-schmancy restaurants that feature live music, pricey, hand-crafted cocktails, and food done by Jose Garces. At the end of T-Street you make your way out onto the Riviera Beer Garden, which had top-notch water views from three angles. Pretty sweet.
Happily fattened, we hopped in the car for a quick hour and ten minute ride home to Philly.
So we will certainly return for a visit, AC. And I hope that others will, too and maybe, just maybe, you can pick yourself up, dust your self off, and be back on your way to becoming America’s Favorite Playground again.