But I doubt the actual summer will be quite the same now that this new mega-entertainment center is in gear for its first warm season, especially with its multimillion dollar lineup of new restaurants piling onto Atlantic City's growing stash of high-concept casino restaurants.
The third floor houses a range of impressively designed eateries. There's a family-style fish house chain from Baltimore, Phillip's Seafood; a branch of Boston's tony wine bar and New American bistro, Sonsie; and a kitschy but handsome faux-Dublin Irish pub called Trinity, where the hearty chicken pot pies are as big as platters and the burgers are indulgently deep-fried. That's right. Beer-battered to a sinful crunch with a curried dip.
The biggest Pier draws, though, will undoubtedly be the branches of two of Stephen Starr's Philly hits: Buddakan and The Continental.
The more casual Continental features one of the wildest restaurant designs I've seen, with a blue water moat wending around a retro fireplace hearth in the "outdoor" cafe, and funky back rooms set behind sliding glass doors and portholes that evoke the inside of a futuristic submarine.
The Buddakan space is only slightly more restrained, but beautifully rendered to evoke an Asian courtyard set beneath a starry-night painted "sky." It feels more intimate than the Chestnut Street original, but still draws heavily on its design signatures, with its own big glowing Buddha and a golden onyx community table. The menu also leans heavily on Philly's more familiar Asian fusion offerings, rather than the edgier, authentically inspired items from the Manhattan branch.
