Rhonda had a great idea the other night… let’s abscond for a night! We’ve been scheduling things around the family for a couple of weeks, which is always a treat, but we hand’t really gotten a chance to do something together besides the quotidian running of errands, etc.

I’ve been wanting to set up and overnight trip to nearby Atlantic City for a while, because it’s a great restaurant town, your opinions about gambling notwithstanding.

Atlantic City is a pretty bombed-out town; it’s incredibly poor, with a heart-breaking stratification between the haves and have-nots. The haves, I don’t think, live in town at all. Whatever money the restaurants, hotels, and casinos pull in must, through financial tricks I could only fathom, remain with the businesses. It’s pretty wild, when you consider the relative affluence of towns like Ocean City, Avalon, and Stone Harbor.

But this isn’t a treatise on Atlantic City or the socio-economics of South Jersey shore towns. Because for however much I hope for a more equitable distribution of wealth in a town like that, I still enjoy the fuck out of the nightlife.

First thing’s first: there are great–and I mean great–restaurants in Atlantic City. You can discount the casino-based places if you like and it’s still a great restaurant town.

We’ve been going to the Knife and Fork since it reopened back in the early 2000s, and it’s always an experience. We’ve wanted to go down and stay over and make a long night of a visit, though; we’ve been down for many dinners over the years, but we have always returned in the same night. So there’s 45 minutes or so each way before and after dinner, or a 90-minute commute, however you like to calculate it. How fun would it be to get a room, have dinner, and make a night of it?

A lot, unsurprisingly.

We hit Renault Winery in Egg harbor City on the way down. Their bottled wine prices are outrageous, but it’s quiet a place: a resort, ice skating rink, outdoor fire pits, little huts and igloos you can rent, a nice bar… We remarked that we’re lucky to live near one of the best and most affordable wineries in NJ in our local Bellview. But we like to try them all! Renault is way out in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a long road. The sign on the street is huge and really old; you get that it’s an old place with subsequent upgrades.

Anyway, we tried their Chardonnay, which was excellent, and a sip of the Meritage, and we took a bottle of each to go. We also split the charcuterie for two.

I found a newly established Marriot in AC for a decent rate, right on the boardwalk, and within walking distance of the Knife and Fork. It wasn’t so cold that we couldn’t stroll down there, so walked we did. We had a great meal and then got lost in the Tropicana for a while.

Breakfast the next morning was at a cute little diner called The Little Goat, which I found when we both realized we wanted some breakfast. They had a special omelette which included ham, avocado, tomato, and Cooper sharp, and I ate the home fries too.

Then: it was errands.