
Robert Cray and AC Weekly editor Jeff Schwachter
The Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival, held July 29-Aug. 1, was a complete success. It was held during a beautiful weekend weather-wise, which brought foodies from all over into Atlantic City.
AC Weekly staffers attended several of the 40 events held at Harrah’s Entertainment’s four properties in town – as well as the kick-off party at the Chelsea – and had a blast.
One highlight for this writer was the Blues, Brews and BBQ event at the House of Blues featuring a concert by the Robert Cray Band and some mighty tasty food from Food Network stars the Neelys. (The BBQ spaghetti was simply amazing.)
Another mind-blowing event was the Grand Market at Bally’s. You had to be there to understand the massive size of this event, which included what seemed like hundreds of vendors offering information about their product(s) and offering samples.
I sampled some very hot coffee at one of the tables and wound up spilling it all over my red shirt. Thankfully, the friendly folks from the New Jersey Beer Company (njbeerco.com) gave me a T-shirt to wear. (Due to the tight-fitting medium sized Tee — see pic — I also got a larger T-shirt from the Brownies Squared table. The company, based in Mays Landing, bakes some delicious brownies, and I’m not just saying that because they lent me a shirt.)

NJ Beer Company homies with Schwachter (and his new T-shirt - thanks guys!)
John McCarthy and the rest of his N.J. Beer Co. crew — great tasting ale, by the way — happened to have their table set up right next to Atlantic City’s own Tony Boloney’s table at the Grand Market.
The night before, Tony Boloney’s owner Mike Hauke took the trophy in Guy Fieri’s Cheesesteak Battle. The next day Hauke was pretty much a legend as his pizza shop on Oriental Avenue was packed with people trying to get a taste of his prize-winning eats.

Tony Boloney's Mike Hauke with his Cheesesteak Battle trophy and Schwachter's pre-coffee-drenched shirt
AC Weekly associate editor Lori Hoffman filed a few reports over the weekend that you can read here, here and here.
Also, AC Weekly columnist David Spatz sent us this report from the four-day festival, which mentions the fact that two of the biggest names at the festival may each open a restaurant in Atlantic City in the not-too-distant future.