ATLANTIC CITY — According to his Web site (redrocker.com), Sammy Hagar has revealed that Sammy’s Beach Bar at Bally’s Atlantic City will not be re-opening after suffering extensive damage from Hurricane Sandy in October. Hagar (pictured) posted the following statement on Friday, March 8.

“Following months of ongoing discussions, Sammy Hagar has regretfully been unable to come to terms with Caesars Entertainment on the rebuilding of the Sammy Beach Bar & Grill at Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel and Casino. Since opening in May 2010, the restaurant had been a popular boardwalk destination until it was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. While Hagar continues to explore a new partnership in the region, he and his Hagar Family Foundation will remain committed to the Atlantic City community through which he has supported local children’s charities for the last several years.”

While one thing may or may not relate to the other, Hagar’s longtime friend, Don Marrandino, who served as president of Caesars Entertainment’s eastern division for three years, resigned Jan. 4, about two months before the announcement by Hagar.

ATLANTIC CITY — The Celebration of the Suds, a.k.a. the Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival, returns to the Atlantic City Convention Center for the eighth year Friday and Saturday, April 5-6.

The 2013 event will be an amazing experience in taste and sound including hot music to compliment cool brews. Over 90 different breweries from around the corner and across the country will showcase their unique libations.

The focus of the A.C. Beer Festival is the promotion of craft beers and the brewers that create them. This event is the perfect opportunity for beer aficionados, beer lovers and the casual beer drinker to speak to company representatives and brewers responsible for some of their favorite brews. And it’s an opportunity to discover and taste new brews and special “limited release” beers and ales.

Each year the festival organizers review the event and look to further enhance the beer lover’s experience and make each year better than the last. Now in its eighth year, the festival has grown to be one of the country’s largest celebrations of beer.

Rusted Root performs Saturday night at the Celebration of the Suds

For 2013 festival producers will bring in musical headliners Reverend Horton Heat and Rusted Root and New Jersey’s own Bouncing Souls to kick off the weekend. All bands and performers will be featured on the event web site under “sounds”

The 2013 Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival will also feature culinary demonstrations from area chefs, beer seminars hosted by beer personalities and brewers, and some “off the wall” activities. Additional festival vendors will offer great food and some unique beer-related apparel and goods. This year’s festival will appeal to absolutely everyone (aged 21 and over).

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ATLANTIC CITY — The second annual Gilda Rocks On event at the Taj Mahal’s Hard Rock Cafe shattered its no-less impressive inaugural numbers on Thursday night, Nov. 29, raising almost $250,000 for Gilda’s Club of South Jersey, an organization that provides free support programs to all cancer sufferers and their families. The organization is named after the late Gilda Radnor, an Emmy and Grammy award-winning comedienne and original cast member on Saturday Night Live who passed away in 1989 from ovarian cancer.

Event co-host Isabel Allen with Jerry "The Geator with the Heater" Blavat

For a photo gallery of this year’s event, click here.

Another Grammy award winner, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts, was this year’s featured performer. Also among the dozens in attendance was famed DJ (and AC Weekly columnist) Jerry “The Geator with the Heater” Blavat, and new cast members of the popular Legends in Concert show taking place at Bally’s Atlantic City.

The legendary Dion rocked the house down at the Hard Rock

Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming, and his wife Isabel, a longtime Gilda’s Club of South Jersey board member, served as co-hosts.

Last year Isabel Allen, along with fellow board members Joan Licursi, Phyllis Lacca, and Hard Rock senior director of brand philanthropy Annie Balliro, came up with the idea for the inaugural Gilda Rocks On benefit over a lunch engagement.

C.J. Brando as Adele.

Legends in Concert at Bally’s refreshed the cast with new faces on May 25, including the first appearance ever by an Adele tribute artist, the talented C.J. Brando.

The show also features tributes to Whitney Houston, Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Darin, Justin Timberlake, and the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis.

Go here for a review of the show.

Caesars Entertainment employees "blow bubbles for autism" on Thursday, April 26, on the Boardwalk.

ATLANTIC CITY — On Thursday, April 26, the four Caesars Entertainment properties — Caesars, Harrah’s Resort, Bally’s, and Showboat — attempted to break the Guinness World Record for most bubbles blown simultaneously in support of April as Autism Awareness Month.

Caesars Entertainment employees and Legends in Concert cast members all participated on the Boardwalk between Bally’s and Caesars blew bubbles to support Faces 4 Autism — a local Ventnor organization dedicated to autism education and support. Members of the Legends in Concert cast that participated were Tina Turner, the Blues Brothers, Liza Minnelli, Elvis, Debbie Gibson and Ray Charles.

'Legends in Concert' performers Debbie Gibson and Tina Turner blow bubbles for autism.

Autism Awareness Month encourages everyone to accept and value the diversity of individuals impacted by autism.Bubbles have significance in the early childhood to adult years of those affected by autism. They are used in activities for skill development and the figurative expression of feelings of isolation.

Through understanding bubbles and their many forms for an autistic individual, it is hoped that Blow Bubbles for Autism will help the community understand and accept those impacted by autism.

ATLANTIC CITY — Bally’s Atlantic City hosted a special Soap Opera Weekend last Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, in its Park and Garden Ballrooms, which included a meet and greet with the stars of the longtime daytime drama The Young and Restless.

Cast members of 'The Young and the Restless' at Bally's

On hand to answer intimate questions about the show and their personal lives were Greg Rikaart (a.k.a. Kevin Fisher on the show), Stephen Nichols (Tucker McCall), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Newman) and Michael Muhney (Adam Newman).

Click here to see a video of the event.

Along with the meet-and-greet, the weekend-long festivities also included a wine-tasting event and a concert featuring the cover band Port Chuck (pictured left) — a foursome comprised of General Hospital soap stars  Steve Burton  (Jason Morgan) Scott Reeves (Steve Weber), Brandon Barash  (Jonny Zacchara) and Bradford Anderson (Damien Spinelli).

ATLANTIC CITY — Bally’s Atlantic City recently began a year-round schedule of its famed Legends In Concert series — the pioneer of live tribute shows and the longest-running entertainment attraction in Atlantic City’s history. Eight performances will take place each week through Dec. 31 in Bally’s Palace Theater.

The 2012 edition of the stage show spectacular, which features live recreations of yesterday’s and today’s hottest superstars backed by a live orchestra and dancers, promises to be more popular than ever. The initial Legends 2012 production will feature tributes to Tina Turner, the Blues Brothers, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles and, of course, Elvis Presley, with performances at 8pm Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 7:30pm and 10pm Saturday, and a special matinee each Wednesday at 3pm. Tickets are available now at $32.50. Go here or call 800-745-3000 to purchase tickets.

For a video preview of Legends, click here. To see a photo gallery, click here.

This week’s “Legends Performer of the Week” is Cookie Watkins as Tina Turner (pictured above).

Cookie brings more than a celebrity impersonation to her performance the award-winning live tribute show Legends in Concert. Music has been Cookie’s mainstay since Duke Ellington brought her onstage to warble out a few tunes at the ripe age of 14.  The Duke gave Cookie a coming-out party at the Rainbow Room when she turned 18.  She even warranted a special mention in his book Music Is My Mistress.

Always thought of as the little girl with the big woman’s voice, Cookie studied opera and classical music before her out-of-the-box smash hit Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover brought her to the forefront of the dance movement.  Soon she was lending her vocal expertise to such smash hits as Shades of Love’s “Keep in Touch” (Body to Body).

Known to Underground music fans as “Iron Throat,” Cookie has been highly influenced by R&B legends like Aretha Franklin, Patti Labelle, Bobby Womack and the legend she so enthusiastically tributes, Tina Turner.

No stranger to Broadway, Cookie also performed in hit stage musicals like Guys & Dolls, Sweet Charity, and Hair before touring with the original cast of Beehive and Marie Wilson.

Cookie allows the audience to savor the saucy effects of Tina’s “Higher” before a seamless transition to the throaty “Better Be Good to Me” followed by “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”  But Cookie and her audience know nothing tops the high-energy, stand-up hit and closer “Proud Mary,” and that is exactly what Cookie does Tina — proud!

For other Legends bios, click here.

Blues Brothers Meisner and Messina

ATLANTIC CITY — On Friday, Feb. 17, Bally’s begins a year-round schedule of its famed Legends In Concert series — the pioneer of live tribute shows and the longest-running entertainment attraction in Atlantic City’s history. Eight performances will take place each week through Dec. 31 in Bally’s Palace Theater.
The 2012 edition of the stage show spectacular, which features live recreations of yesterday’s and today’s hottest superstars backed by a live orchestra and dancers, promises to be more popular than ever. The initial Legends 2012 production will feature tributes to Tina Turner, the Blues Brothers, Liza Minnelli, Ray Charles and, of course, Elvis Presley, with performances at 8pm Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 7:30pm and 10pm Saturday, and a special matinee each Wednesday at 3pm. Tickets are available now at $32.50. Go here or call 800-745-3000 to purchase tickets.
This week’s Legends in Concert Performer of the Week is the duo of Dan Meisner and Joe Messina, who perform as the Blues Brothers.  Meisner and Messina got their start in 1990 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. Dan was the original opening cast member of their Blues Brothers Show, while Joe worked as a sound tech and then later joined the cast of their Monster Show as none other than Beetle Juice.  It wasn’t until 1997 that Dan and Joe teamed up to entertain thousands of happy Legends In Concert guests on cruise ships and in Legends shows in Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City. Go here for their full bio.

ATLANTIC CITY — Tickets are now on sale for southern New Jersey’s premier black-tie fundraising event. The 29th annual Atlantic Cape Community College Restaurant Gala is scheduled for Thursday, March 22, at Bally’s Atlantic City.

With the theme “Dine like Royalty,” the gala promises to be the region’s crowning event in 2012, featuring lavish décor, trumpeters and a sumptuous feast. Guests will be served thousands of hors d’oeuvres prepared by students from the Academy of Culinary Arts and culinary specialties of 40 of the area’s best restaurants in this progressive dining experience. An elegant “Dessert Extravaganza” headed by executive pastry chef Eugen Ess of Trump Taj Mahal will complete the night’s events.

Each year hundreds of guests attend the gala, which also features several genres of live music, including the Don’t Call Me Francis band, Sensational Soul Cruisers, Ocean City Pops and Lenny Mitchell.

The event has raised $2.5 million since 1984. Gala proceeds benefit student scholarships at the Academy of Culinary Arts at Atlantic Cape Community College and Atlantic Cape Foundation operations.

Tickets to the gala are $200 per person and can be ordered by contacting Lauren Canzanese at (609) 463-4672, e-mailing acccfdn@atlantic.edu, or clicking here.

Winner Brian Brown of Cape May Court House shows off his receiving skills on ‘Sal the Salmon.’ (Photos by Tom Briglia, PhotoGraphics)

Harry’s Oyster Bar and Seafood Restaurant at Bally’s is a great spot to catch all the NFL AC’s hottest football playoff action. To kick-off the postseason the restaurant offered an event that calls for football … and fisherman skills.

Last Sunday, Dec. 18 at about 2:30pm at halftime of Sunday’s first football game, the Dennis Courtyard recreated the Seattle fish market when six contestants put on fishmonger gloves to catch the flying fish. Harry’s chefs tossed the fish up in the air until only one contestant was left standing or, in this case, holding a salmon.

Five of the contestants have already been selected through a radio contest with the luck sixth being chosen on site during the event.

Five participants received a one night mid-week stay at Bally’s AC and a $20 gift card for Harry’s, while the grand-prize winner received a Champion’s Football package, which includes a $200 gift certificate to Harry’s, two rooms on Saturday Feb. 4 and two rooms on Superbowl Sunday Feb. 5, with prime seating to watch the big game on their flat screens.

The winner was Brian Brown of Cape May Court House.

Buzz Muller of Absecon grabs a big fish at Harry's Oyster Bar Sunday.