ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A celebrity restaurant inside Atlantic City’s leading casino will close in June, both parties announced Monday.
Bobby Flay Steak at the Borgata casino will close on June 30.
The casino and the restaurant’s parent company, Bold Food, made the joint announcement in a press release that was short on details.
It only said both parties “made the mutual decision to close the restaurant as part of the companies’ evolving business strategies.”
The next day, the restaurant will reopen as a new venue owned and operated by Borgata and its parent company, MGM Resorts International.
The Borgata did not give any information on the new eatery, saying details will be released “in the coming months.”
Atlantic City’s casinos, and the restaurants inside them, have been operating at reduced capacity since reopening last summer amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The limits on capacity have eaten into profits for both gambling and food and beverage operations citywide. The venues currently are limited to 50% of capacity.
The Borgata was the last of Atlantic City’s nine casinos to reopen last summer, about three weeks after the others did. The company said at the time it wanted to fully prepare to resume doing business amid the changed landscape of the pandemic.
Bobby Flay has been a draw for the Borgata. The restaurant’s entrance way is lined in red leather from floor to ceiling, and the dining room features four large wine displays, lobster tanks and a ceiling of wood panels.
It is not the first top-line restaurant to close in Atlantic City during the pandemic. Last fall, Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr told The Associated Press that Buddakan and The Continental will not reopen.
Both those eateries, located in the Playground Pier jutting out over the ocean, have been closed since the start of the pandemic restrictions in March 2020.
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