American Cut, Atlantic City

Gramercy Guy's birthday is in the summer and I know a few things will happen on his birthday. We will go to Brigantine, NJ that weekend, we will have a couples massage (I'm not complaining at all) and we'll go to a steakhouse for dinner. If you're not familiar, Brigantine, is a barrier island off the cost of NJ, just north of Atlantic City. The beaches are really wide and quiet compared to many others in NJ. 

This year, the plan was to check out the new Revel hotel. After seeing it being built for years, it was nice to be able to go inside. This is not your typical casino without windows so you don't know if it's day or night, it's bright and airy with lots of outdoor nooks, pools and bars and views of the Atlantic. The gaming area, downstairs is typical casino, except it lacks proper signage so the employees spend a lot of time escorting lost guest...I know because we were some of those guests.


Massages were at Bask Spa which is really a special spa. They have 30 or so treatment rooms, a helpful and talented staff and some coed space so Gramercy Guy and I were able to relax and unwind together even more after our massages.There was a salt grotto which is exactly what it sounds like, a room of salt bricks that are supposed to be curative; they help detox, open nasal passages and provide a calming effect, or so they say. I'm not sure we stayed in the room long enough to be healed, but I found the yellows and oranges in the room to be very relaxing. The hot tub was nice until too many other guest joined and it got over crowded. The mineral pool felt great, but could have been been a few degrees warmer for me, I'm sure it's that cool for a reason. 


After a steam and a shower, it was off to win some money at black jack and win we did. The pit bosses were friendly and talkative and the dealers were also very personable. We took the money and ran to dinner. 

American Cut is a modern steakhouse by Marc Forgione. The bar area has great views of the beach. The rest of the dining room is very steakhouse with the big tables and leather chairs. The Senator was in town and was able to join use too. He started his meal with a bloody Mary which was great, with lots of mustard seed. Gramercy Guy and I shared a bottle of Curvature (which is a partnership with one of our favs, Pride Mountain).


Dinner was really good. Our waiter helped us navigate the fairly large appetizer menu and the specials. We shared apps for the table and went with the Wood Fired Octopus

 

And the Hiramasa Tartare (yellow tail). What's cool about this is it's designed for your first bite to be a sechuan button which creates a tingling in your mouth, followed by some fish in this order, you're pallet is supposed to be more sensitive and the fish will take on a pop-rock-like effect. Not sure I had the fish flavored pop-rocks but it was certainly tasty. 

The Senator is a vegetarian so he had the Sea Scallops

And Gramercy Guy and I split the Porterhouse for 2, which could have easily been for 3 or 4. I think we had 2 sandwiches with the left overs

For sides, we all shared the Rosemary Garlic Cottage Fries and White Asparagus that was a special that night. 

 

And no birthday dinner would be complete without dessert. We got the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and salted caramel ice cream. They were warm and gooey and delicious. 

The service was great and the food was really good. We even wanted to bring our bone home for Studley, but porterhouse bones splinter so our waiter got us a bone from a rib eye. I would certainly go back to American Cut, but will try some of the other restaurants first. I've heard great things about Amada.