Feeling a bit peckish after my Balinese massage with coconut and lemon grass oils, I order a salad, poolside, for lunch. What arrived was a scant pile of micro-greens, with baby radishes sliced so thinly they were nearly translucent. Exactly two shrimp danced, tails entwined, in an artful pas de deux at the plate's side. Pretty, yes, but I was hungrier after eating than before. That's spa cuisine for you.
Later, when I decided to run to the beach, my somewhat circuitous route took me past the Walk, Atlantic City's quite swanky outdoor outlet shopping mall, which since 2004 has added more than 30 shops, including Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, Perry Ellis, Disney and Nike.
When I finally hit the sand, I overheard a vendor calling out his wares, singing the same words, over and over: "Ice-cold ice water! Ice-cold iced tea! Ice-cold ice cream!" The redundancy of all this - as opposed to piping-hot ice water? - charmed me somehow.
As dusk set in, off in the distance, I saw the enormous pink neon sign atop the Chelsea hotel, the other "new kid" on the beach.
Old is new again
The Chelsea may be new to the shore, but the hotel's developer, Bashaw, says its style of luxury is not.
"Everyone acts as if nongaming is such a big idea, that a hotel without slots in Atlantic City is unheard of, but this town was a world-class resort for over a hundred years before gambling was introduced in the 1970s," said Bashaw. "If you stayed in Atlantic City in the 1920s, everything was cutting edge. Kentucky Avenue was the jazz capital of the United States. The best hotel bathrooms had four sets of taps, for hot and cold water, and hot and cold seawater. We want to hearken back to that era, but update it."
A proponent of architectural history, especially that of the Jersey shore, Bashaw's company, Cape Advisors, is renowned for its highly successful restoration of Congress Hall in Cape May, N.J.
With its purple-and-white striped awning over the entrance, faux-zebra upholstery and terrazzo floors, the Chelsea's design is an affectionate nod to the exuberant style of the 1930s and '40s, when Atlantic City was in its heyday. The hotel's Game Room is decorated with charming photographs of people who played here in the past: Abbott and Costello, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope and a young, and impossibly handsome, Ronald Reagan.
"Atlantic City was whimsical, exotic, only a little naughty," Bashaw said.
