Tagged: Revel

A Night at HQ

The new Atlantic City hotel Revel has gotten a lot of buzz since it’s opening. Not only is it the tallest building in Atlantic City, and the 2nd tallest in the entire state of New Jersey, but Revel is essentially the closest thing we have to a Las Vegas hotel on the east coast. Revel is a 6.3 million square foot, 47 story luxury playground with basically anything and everything you need for a good weekend. The hotel boasts 2 nightclubs, one dayclub, a 130,000 square foot casino, 14 restaurants and over 1,800 rooms. Revel is a bit removed from the rest of the hotels on Atlantic City and it’s right on the boardwalk. After we dropped the car off at the parking lot and took the elevator up to the lobby it was almost like we were transported into another world. Every detail design wise was perfectly thought out from the high ceilings to the massive casino that has a built in cat-walk and burlesque club. Finding HQ did take us a bit of time as the hotel is so big but the staff was friendly and made sure we found our way. There are two entrances to the venue, one is downstairs which is for general admittance and table reservations. The other is upstairs which is reserved for only VIP guests (and is a much shorter line). We arrived to HQ at around 12:30 and there still was a big line formed outside of the general admittance entrance downstairs. [Photo via]

Once we stepped into the elevator we could already hear the music pulsating from upstairs. We walked out and immediately to our left was the bar area that was packed as was the rest of this huge 40,000 square foot nightclub. There are two main floors: the first has two bars, the dance floor and the DJ Booth while the upstairs overlooks the dance floor and offers a much more intimate setting. When looking to grab a drink, make sure to use the bar upstairs as that one is far less crowded than the two bars on the first floor. Even at 12:30 AM everyone was dancing on couches and ordering bottles like it was 2007. Speaking of bottle service, HQ doesn’t use sparklers but rather bright white lights that don’t give off the smokey smell that normal sparklers do. There is no VIP section as HQ wants everyone to share the same experience no matter if you spent $10,000 or simply paid the cover charge which was quite unexpected especially in such a large venue. To be honest we didn’t expect too much in terms of the quality of the crowd but we were quite surprised at HQ. Of course you have a bit of the “bridge & tunnel” crowd but as a whole, the people there were a notch above what you would find at comparable clubs and hotels in Atlantic City.

 

The DJ lineup for HQ was quite impressive for Labor Day weekend. On the night we attended, the EC Twins were performing but the night before Chuckie was playing and for the next two days Sidney Samson and Dirty South were slated to DJ. Not only did the EC Twins play one of the best electronic sets we’ve heard in a while, but EMM Group created the perfect atmosphere for such a big club. Considering they only operate generally smaller venues such at SL and Tenjune, we weren’t sure if they could create a grand atmosphere that would be needed in Atlantic City. Let’s just say that HQ is simply a production. The dancers in full costume above the DJ booth, confetti cannons and CO2 cooling air tanks bring the energy to the club and it only helped that Revel booked an incredibly entertaining act like the EC Twins. From spraying champagne and giving partiers shots of Grey Goose to actually getting on the booth to dance during their set, the EC Twins knew how to pump up the crowd. Even when the sound went out for a bit, Marc and Allister Blackham started talking to the crowd so the energy wouldn’t die.

 

HQ was a great change of pace from nightlife in New York. The club was huge and grand but wasn’t pretentious or overcrowded. The talent that HQ books is some of the best in the business and the atmosphere of the club itself is always high energy. As for Revel itself, the hotel is beautiful and really is a one stop shop in Atlantic City and if we could afford it we would get a room here at least once a month. The rooms start at about $300 and boast floor to ceiling windows with stunning views of Revel beach. We strongly suggest checking out HQ nightclub and we’ll definitely be back again soon! But if you still don’t believe us, check out this video we took below and see how crazy the party was for yourself.

I Tre Merli

 Last Saturday I ventured off to I Tre Merli for brunch. After being turned down by Bagatelle for a seat at their beloved Saturday brunch service I luckly made back up reservations at I Tre Merli in Soho. I Tre Merli is the  new home of Day & Night‘s Saturday Brunch Parties in New York City (It was first Merkato 55 which closed down, then they moved to Revel and now they’re at I Tre Merli). On days other than Saturday, I Tre Merli is kind of overlooked due to the power house Cipriani Downtown not too far down West Broadway but Day & Night is planning to change all that. The Koch brothers have taken over the restaurant for the Saturday afternoon implementing a new drink & food menu and reservation system. You can’t call I Tre Merli directly for a reservation but instead you must call Day & Night directly (212-755-1222) to get a table. The Day & Night menu is more based on drinks than food. The food menu consisted of a small page worth of appetizers (all priced $15), a pizza ($18) and three pastas ($20) but the drink menu took up an entire clip board ($475 for a 3L bottle of Rosé and $3000 for a bottle of Dom Pérignon with sparklers are just a few of the options for bottle service). The restaurant begins “brunch mode” at 3 so be sure not to make a reservation earlier than that (make it at 2:30 the earliest). For the brunch that I went to DJ Serebe, the famed DJ who also played at Merkato 55 numerous times, was spinning pulsating house music that could be heard two blocks down. By 3:15 a table of 6 was dancing on their table and by 4, when they dimmed the lights, only a few remained in their seats. [Photo via]

Though I Tre Merli is a restaurant, their food during their brunch service isn’t the main focus. With that said it isn’t too bad. The Pizza Margherita was average though not exactly worth $18. But my Porchini Ravioli with Truffle Sauce was actually good, if not a bit heavy. The Fried Calamari were also decent and up to par with Da Silvano. But to be honest no one really cares about the food here. I’d say only about a half of the restaurant ordered food and less than half of them ordered an entree. The patrons here only care about the four liter bottles of Rosé with sparklers for the whole tables and the latest dance songs being blasted at super high decibels. Its truly like going to a club in the afternoon.

Though I’d say Merkato’s brunches had more of a buzz, I Tre Merli is the next best thing. The atmosphere is perfect and the food is a lot better than expected. The service is also great and you don’t get the usual snobby attitudes that you get at these types of places. The pretentiousness may be too much for some and those searching for good food may want to skip this restaurant all together, but those looking for a party have come to the right spot with Day & Night’s brunch at I Tre Merli!

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