With no Revel in sight, Jose Garces jumps to Playground

Blatstein is set to plunk down $50 million of his own money - not including the $2.7 million he paid to buy it - to breathe new life into the Pier Shops at Caesars and make it Atlantic City's must-go-to attraction. Rendering by Tower Investments and Steelman Partners

Unlike a lot of other big announcements in Atlantic City, Bart Blatstein's The Playground looks like it's actually happening. The Philadelphia developer is still planning to be open by his promised July 4th weekend _ tentatively set for June 26th _ for the reworked music and food venue, which he is modeling after music row in Nashville or 6th Street in Austin.

   Monday, Blatstein announced that Jose Garces, whose succesful ventures at the Revel _ the Guapos Taco truck, Amada and Distrito, were abruptly TKO'ed by virtue of the now-closed casino hotel's abyssmal performance, subsequent bankruptcy and sale to Glenn Straub, will provide all the food at the new venues at The Playground. (Stephen Starr's Buddakan and Continental will remain on the third floor).

   Philadelphia music booker Bonfire Entertainment, which books the Electric Factory, MilkBoy Philadelphia and Underground Arts, will book the music throughout the venue, whose first floor is being remodeled into "T Street" a series of food/bar and music spots, anchored by a central "Monkey Bar" and punctuated at the ocean end by "39N" a  2,000-capacity music venue.

   I did my own sneak peek last week after a trip to the Apple Store at the Pier's entrance, and the Monkey Bar was under construction - a big four sided bar done up in neon orange and wood accents with a view to the top of the pier, up three stories.

Meanwhile, Garces and the other restauranteurs that did so well at Revel and fought tooth and nail to reopen, or find an owner who would, remain in limbo as Straub's plans _ for permanent energy, let alone for the building itself _ have yet to materialize. Even Straub himself conceded last week that a Revel reopening will not happen this summer, at least on his watch.

 But they haven't given up hope. Corie Moskow, who does PR for the Garces Group, said in an e-mail that the Garces group "has every intention of going forward with Revel and "has inventory and equipment locked onsite and is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to come back."

Source: Philly.com