🏋🏾♀️ What’s up with Bart Blatstein in A.C. | Down the Shore
Plus, a lifeguard on trial.
A garden of exercise equipment, wrapped in a wall of Showboat’s signature porte-cochere marble, has sprouted to life on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
Well, not quite to life — the gym and beach bar are still awaiting final permits, postponing the July 26 grand opening of the Fusion Beach Club. The imported palm trees are patiently staving off browning as the season for outdoor exercise gardens and beach bars at the Jersey Shore ticks away.
Behold Bart Blatstein’s latest big thing: a Venice Beach vibe on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, courtesy of the ambitious Tony Chowdhury of Philadelphia’s Fusion Gym chain. Will it open in time for summer? Between Blatstein’s past record and Atlantic City’s many layers of approval, you never know.
Click here to read more about this big idea, which really does look fun, complete with basketball and pickleball courts, DJ booths, two bars, and a shipping container sauna. Read why Blatstein (and others) are more bullish on Atlantic City than ever.
In other news, I sat in last week on a long-sought civil trial of a former Margate lifeguard. Steven Chasens, now a 70-year-old Coral Gables, Fla., acupuncturist, was sued by Rachel Neufeld Del Rossi, 61, now a Cherry Hill retail worker, for what she described as years of relentless inappropriate sexual assault beginning in 1979 when she was 15 years old. She was working that summer as a mother’s helper on the Argyle beach, she testified, when two lifeguards preyed on her.
The city of Margate and another lifeguard had already settled with Del Rossi when the trial began, admitting no culpability, and the jury verdict was resoundingly in favor of Del Rossi: $3 million in damages. Click here to read more.
📮 Is Atlantic City ready for its moment as other beach towns get bought up and prices skyrocket? Let me know what you think by replying to this email and I’ll include your most interesting responses.
Have ideas or news tips about the Shore or this newsletter? Send them to me here.
⛅ Some lingering affects from the Canadian wild fires, but weather otherwise looks summery.
👇 Keep scrolling for news and tips, trivia, a shore memory, and a predictions check-in!
— Amy S. Rosenberg (Follow me at @amysrosenberg, or 📷 on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me here.)
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Shore talk
🚜 Ventnor’s public works team intervened at the shoreline with a very pregnant sting ray, and there is video.
🌊 North Wildwood wants to extend its seawall.
👀 The annual Ray Romano sightings picked up on LBI last week, including one at LBI Table.
🚪 Cori and Jeff Brennan have kept their almost-century-old Sea Isle City bungalow largely the same, embracing its imperfections.
🐕 Reed’s Farm in Egg Harbor Township, founded by Cookie Till of Steve & Cookies, is dealing with the fallout of one of their dogs killing a neighborhood dog while spending the night away from the farm.
🚨 Three people were rescued last weekend from the water, including an after-hours swimmer in Ventnor. Don’t swim after-hours, the beach patrol warned.
☘️ The upper floors of the old Shamrock Beef & Ale are now for sale around the corner, rebuilt as a 10-bedroom house.
🤍 RIP Atlantic County Commissioner and Deputy A.C. Mayor Ernest Coursey.
What to eat/What to do
💻 Get a locals pass to attend the largest annual DJ trade show in North America at Hard Rock by registering here.
🪕 Vibe to the Pine Barrens Folk Night on Friday at the Anchor Rock Club, featuring Jackson Pines.
🎹 Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca says it’s a big weekend for music in Atlantic City, with Low Cut Connie, the Black Keys, David Lee Roth, and the Avett Brothers all in town.
🎸 Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Secret Service band playing at the Ocean Drive in Sea Isle.
🦀 Order a $19 mango crab salad at Tomatoe’s in Margate, but be prepared for a 20% tariff surcharge. (The crabs are sourced from Indonesia, the restaurant says).
🌵The Blue Cactus taco shop in Ocean City has opened at a new location on Haven Avenue.
😌 Light up in a cannabis lounge. Two are now open in Atlantic City.
🥶 Sign up for a day of “cold plunges, sauna, breathwork, pilates, and kettle bells,” hosted by Adam Holland of the popular Doc’s Fitness kettle bell class at the John Holland Boathouse in Ventnor.
Shore snapshot
Predictions check-in
So here we are, it’s August, and time for a midsummer check-in on my 2025 predictions. Here are three:
Full speed ahead for Icona in Wonderland in Ocean City: Owner Eustace Mita has sought goodwill by opening up a bagel and coffee shop and a pizza place on the boardwalk at the former Wonderland Pier site, and allowed some lighting for the Ferris wheel. He plans to take the first formal step toward his luxury hotel project before City Council on Aug. 21, when the council could vote to designate the lot as in need of redevelopment — a move that could fast-track the plan. Correct.
Houses and historic motels will be demolished at alarming rates, and the culture of affluence will continue to spread. Reports from Asbury Park have a new penthouse apartment selling for a record $7.6 million. And just the other day, some random guy told me the Shoobies would soon be buying out all of the locals like me. Um, thanks? Correct.
Teens will return, but towns are ready. For the most part, teenage mayhem was kept under control. (Cape May County typically records the highest rate of juvenile arrests in the state). Correct so far.
🧠 Trivia time
Lucy the Elephant was moved two blocks in seven hours! Nobody had the answer.
This week: Prior to becoming the hip and elevated food experience on Arctic Avenue in A.C. that is Angeloni’s Club Madrid, the joint was just Angeloni’s II.
Its signature Monday food & drink deal was:
A. Mozzarella & Manhattan
B. Meatball & Martini
C. Macaroni & Margarita
D. Minestrone & Merlot
If you think you know the answer, or were there back in the day, email us at downtheshore@inquirer.com. First one gets a shout-out.
Your Shore memory
Dee Gredesky responded to my question about selling a Shore house too soon with this (painful) memory:
My grandparents’ home was on 18th street in North Wildwood. It was big enough for my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, my parents and sister and I to all be down at the same time. When my grandfather passed away in 1980 (after my grandmother did a few years before), my dad and two aunts sold the entire property for $40,000. Yes, I said 40 thousand, NOT 400 thousand. I tried talking them out of it, but they didn’t listen. I was quite young at the time and had no say. My father regretted that decision until the day he died, and I guess I will too!
Send us your Shore memory! In 200 words, tell us how the Shore taps into something deep for you, and we will publish them in this space during the summer. Send to downtheshore@inquirer.com.
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