Let me say up front that I am holding a bit of a grudge against Atlantic City. During my early teens, my parents would make the three-hour drive there from our home in the northern reaches of New Jersey to attend an annual trade conference that coincided with my birthday, leaving me behind. I was eventually able to put aside my resentment and take a couple of trips there myself in the mid-nineties, but they didn't do much to change my view of the place as less than savory.
The city's shortcomings only became more glaring since then. Las Vegas remade itself, to great success, as an all-around tourist destination — luxe hotels, top restaurants, high-end shops — that just happens to have casinos. Atlantic City, it seemed, was slipping further into the realm of the day-tripping slot-machine junkie and the partying bachelor. But today, as gambling in its various forms spreads across the country, gaming revenue at the casinos is diminishing; even those day-trippers from New York and Philadelphia can wager closer to home. So city planners are aiming for another market altogether: the upscale traveler who may not want to gamble. At Atlantic City's newest hotels, you may be shocked — shocked! — to discover that gambling isn't going on here.
The rebirth began in earnest in 2003, at the Borgata, which brought celebrity chefs and Dale Chihuly glass sculptures to its casino on the city's marina. Next door, in June, came the debut of the Water Club (double rooms from $349; 1 Renaissance Way; 800-800-8817; waterclubatborgata.com), a forty-three-story tower connected to the Borgata by a shop-lined passageway (Hugo Boss, Just Cavalli). Splashing fountains are the first thing I heard as I walked into the lobby; the aquatic theme is carried thirty-two floors up to the two-level Immersion Spa, which has one of the hotel's five pools as well as cushioned chaises overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
What you won't find is a casino. Still, for dinner, most guests do make their way to the Borgata, where brand-name restaurants surround the casino floor. You can dine at Bobby Flay Steak, for instance, or SeaBlue, Michael Mina's only eatery in the Northeast (his signature dish, lobster potpie, is revelatory). The newest entry is Izakaya, a Japanese spot serving sushi in what feels like a black-box theater, with pictures of geishas on the walls. (Somehow, it works.)
You can't visit Atlantic City, though, without going to the boardwalk, site of the famed Steel Pier amusement park, numerous saltwater-taffy shops and most of the city's casinos. It's ironic, then, that this is exactly where you can have the true non-gaming experience. "A couple might come to Atlantic City and play blackjack for a few hours, but they don't want to live that," said developer Curtis Bashaw as he took me on a tour of his new Chelsea hotel (111 S. Chelsea Ave.; 800-548-3030; thechelsea-ac.com). "They can stay here and enter the lobby without going past 2,000 slot machines."
The Chelsea opened in August as the first non-gaming hotel on the boardwalk in four decades. Bashaw, whose company, Cape Advisors, is best known for luxury hotels in nearby Cape May, took what used to be a Holiday Inn (now the Chelsea Luxe tower, where rooms start at $189) and an adjacent Howard Johnson's (Chelsea Lite, with smaller, less lavish rooms) and transformed them into a paean to midcentury-modern design. Highlights include private cabanas on the beach — Atlantic City was a prime shore destination in the early 20th century, before jet travel took Northeasterners to warmer climes — a saltwater pool and two restaurants from Philadelphia impresario Stephen Starr. (A two-year-old outpost of Starr's Buddakan is just up the boardwalk at Caesars Palace, as is the new, state-of-the-art Qua Baths & Spa.)
"Atlantic City is still a gaming destination, and some areas are still gritty," Bashaw says. "But we want to celebrate its history and create an oasis for people." Bashaw is right, of course: MGM Grand plans to open a 3,000-room casino colossus next to the Borgata in 2012, and parts of the boardwalk and surrounding streets leave something to be desired. Work remains to make the transition to that non-gaming oasis a little more seamless. There's been enough progress, however, to persuade a non-gambler like me to try another visit. Perhaps even on my birthday.
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