The Ronson Clan

There was some Twilight action at The Borgata this weekend as actor Kellan Lutz tried his hand at some DJ-ing. Meanwhile, real DJ Samantha Ronson made one of her regular appearances at Mixx, and turned the whole evening into a family affair. And on top of that, Black Eyed Peas members could be seen cavorting all over the property. (The group played Boardwalk Hall Sat.).

Here’s a rundown on a busy celeb weekend from Borgata:

DJ Samantha Ronson celebrated her 33rd birthday with twin-sister and designer Charlotte Ronson Sat. The duo was joined by their family — including mom, writer-socialite Ann Dexter-Jones, and step-dad, Mick Jones of the band Foreigner —  for dinner at Izakaya, where Chef/Partner Michael Schulson prepared a special menu for the group.

After dinner, the party headed over to MIXX nightclub where the sisters’ brother and music-producer Mark Ronson performed a very rare DJ set for the packed-house including Twilight hunk Kellan Lutz. The party marked an epic night for the family, who rarely finds themselves on the same coast, as Sam and Mark hit the turn tables together playing a mix of Ronson hits including his new single “Bang Bang Bang” featuring rapper Q-Tip.

Lutz and Knowles

Kellan Lutz – who seemed to have picked up a few DJ tips from good-friend Sam – hosted a party at SUNBAR Poolside at The Water Club on Sunday night where he was spotted giving the turntables a whirl with RocNation DJ Solange Knowles. Lutz enjoyed a boys night out with dinner at Bobby Flay Steak before heading over to SUNBAR where he was greeted by a swarm of ecstatic female fans. Continuing the night with Borgata’s Social Sundays, Lutz and his entourage returned to MIXX nightclub and partied with the Shore crowd until the early morning hours before retiring to his suite at The Water Club.

Also in-house this weekend were members of the Black Eyed Peas including Fergie, Will.I.Am and Taboo who enjoyed private suites at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. In town for their sold-out show at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Borgata was host to Will.I.Am’s video-contest in search of his own private mixologist.  The crew was spotted filming in MIXX Nightclub during the Ronson birthday bash on Saturday night.

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.

Guy Fieri

Food TV icon and host of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” (which will be filming in the Atlantic City area following the upcoming Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival), Guy Fieri will be busy during his time in Atlantic City at the end of July and into August.

He’ll be a part of Harrah’s Entertainment’s Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival in many facets — see more about the festival here — but one of the most interesting sounding ones will be a Cheesesteak Battle to be held outside of Caesars on the opening day of the festival, Friday, July 30. from 7-10pm. Tickets are $75.

Local pizzeria Tony Boloney’s is one competitor preparing big-time for the event, which is likely to draw national attention. Co-owner Mike “The Butcher” Hauke says he and his team will be going into hiding to perfect the restaurants popular Cheesesteak Ole’, which features the “always-fresh ingredients: juicy 10-spice sirloin steak, fried onions, Jack cheese, homemade Chipotle ranch, shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes.”

“We have sold more than 40,000 of the Ole’s over the past year, and just about every bite is met with a reaction of a smile, a few more chews, then usually a positive curse word if you know what I mean,” says Hauke.  “This steak is straight-up Atlantic City: eclectic, bigger than life, indulgent and something you just enjoy again and again.”

See a two-part video filmed at Tony Boloney’s earlier this year, where Hauke makes a traditional Atlantic City pie from the turn of the century. Part 1. Part 2.

Tony Boloney’s also held the first Pizza Slaughter Fest back in May. See pics from the event here.

A ribbon-cutting held to kick off the 2010 Atlantic City Air Show was held at the Atlantic City Historical Museum July 12 with local dignitaries and event presenters.

A press conference was held earlier today, July 12, to officially kick off the 2010 Atlantic City Air Show.

A few exciting announcements were made — read full story here — including the launch of the Web site njairshows1910.org, which celebrates the Centennial anniversary of airshows in New Jersey. There’s a fabulous online gallery (or “Virtual Exhibit” really)  and pieces from the exhibit are also up at both the Atlantic City Historical Museum and Atlantic City International Airport.

Now we know why his nickname is "Money." (Photo by Tom Briglia)

The above photo, captured by Atlantic City Weekly contributor Tom Briglia during the after party for the Diddy concert on July 3 — not the one at The Pool at Harrah’s that was canceled — at the House of Blues, features boxing star Floyd “Money” Mayweather chillin’ with some good old H20.

Now check out his watch.

He’s just asking for someone to try and snatch that $100 bill. Like anybody would ever try.

One column we used to run in the print version of Atlantic City Weekly, “Waltz Through Time,” written by James Waltzer on a near weekly basis for a year or so, offered such a terrific portrait of the old Atlantic City that we miss it. And so do our readers.

And now with everybody in a 20-mile radius of Absecon Island interested in Atlantic City history, and reading (or re-reading) Nelson Johnson’s Boardwalk Empire — congrats Plexus Publishing! — with sights on September’s premiere of the HBO series of the same name, we thought our Web viewers would like to read some of these beautifully crafted and researched stories.

We’ve re-uploaded a few of the old columns to our Web site’s “Local History” page today with new images and will do more of the same in the coming weeks and months.

Happy history reading.

Atlantic City Weekly is covering two big local current events, both of which are underway and run for the next couple of days.

Click here for a photo gallery from Thursday’s Miss New Jersey Pageant Parade. And stay tuned for more as the prelims and finals happen through Saturday.

And click here for the latest from the LPGA ShopRite Classic festivities currently underway at the Seaview Golf Resort in Galloway Twp. AC Weekly’s Lori Hoffman will be covering the event over the weekend so stay tuned to acweekly.com.

Ambrosio

Here’s a hint.

It’s in Atlantic City.

And it’s at a venue that is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Still don’t know?

Read on here.

After hearing about a traveling fashion museum currently at Boscov’s at the Shore Mall — about 15 minutes outside of Atlantic City — we went over to check it out.

Apparently, since late April and through this weekend, various vintage clothing items — some with Hollywood connections — have been on display in the upper level community area at Boscov’s. There have also been a few fashion shows, featuring the TV legend London, his fascinating collection of clothing and models wearing some of those precious items.

This Saturday, May 15, three fashion shows (all for free) will take place upstairs at Boscov’s at 11am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm. London will talk about his expereinces collecting the items in his famous collection and models will wear dresses once worn by the likes of the late Lena Horne, Vivian Lee, Grace Kelly and Marylin Monroe.

London lives in Pennsylvania and along with being a fashion collector is also a fashion designer.  Here is a photo gallery of some of the collection currently on display at Boscov’s. And here is what you’ll see at the Boscov’s entrance at the Shore Mall:

Although everyone’s still talking about the sour economy and the turbulent times in Atlantic City, there are still a lot of good things happening in the resort town that usually slip under most people’s radar.

For instance, the Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association (MBCA) held its 9th annual Scholarship Award luncheon last Friday, April 23, at Trump  Plaza. It was a record turnout for the fundraiser and during the luncheon several local students and a teacher were awarded scholarships.

2010 MBCA's Teacher Award recipent Jennifer Afandor with scholarship recipients Eric Bannister-Holmes, Alexander Shuster, Kamisha Battle, Christien Goodard and Andrew Wilsey with keynote speaker Doug Groff and MBCA Scholarship Committee co-chairs Alex Marino, Rick Santoro and MBCA president John Schultz.

Student Scholarship were awarded to Andrew Wilsey of Ocean  City, Christine Goddard  of Galloway Twp., Alexandra Shuster of Margate and Kamisha Battle and Edward  Bannister-Holmes of  Atlantic City.  The Trump Educator Grant was given to Jennifer Afando of the Sovereign Avenue School in Atlantic City.

To find out more about the MBCA and its scholarship program, click here.

Also recently in Atlantic City, at the House of Blues at Showboat’s Club Harlem Ballroom specifically, the city’s annual Freedom Fund Awards Luncheon was held with the theme “NAACP, The Church and Civil Rights: Together We Can.”

Luncheon guests (L to R) Kimble Hawkins, Keva Cooke and Shayne Simmons. (Photo by Lou Perri)

The luncheon included several members of the local African-American community, the NAACP and local churches. The keynote speaker was the Rev. Dr. James Coaxum, III, pastor at St. James AME Church in Atlantic City. Church Leadership Awards went to Union Baptist Temple and Jethro Memorial Presbyterian Church. Outstanding Community Service Awards were given to Thelma Witherspoon and Derek Cason. Jamall Washington was the recipient of the Youth Achievement Award, and Bishop James Washington, president of the Fellowship of Churches, accepted the Distinguished Leadership Award.

Harrah’s Entertainment was a co-sponsor of the luncheon.

See more pictures from the event by clicking here, which will take you to acweekly.com’s photo gallery of the event.