I want my money back: Our trip to the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival

So yesterday we headed to Atlantic City for the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival. I was so excited for it – after all, I love food AND wine! I won 2 tickets (worth $30 each) for the Grand Market at Bally’s from a blog, and then we bought the tickets to the Melting Pot event ($100 a ticket! Ouch!). We left our house around Noon. A storm had just passed, and it was still raining a bit. It wasn’t all that bad though.

We’re driving on the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) and I turned on KYW 1060 to listen to the traffic report. They say that I-76 is closed after Conshohocken. So we decide to get off of 76 and get on the Blue Route and just take it to 95. The next traffic report says to take the Walt Whitman because there is flooding near the Ben Franklin Bridge. So we take the Walt Whitman. There is a good amount of traffic, but nothing compared to what’s coming towards us. Everyone was coming home from the beach early since the weather wasn’t good at all.

We got on the Atlantic City Expressway and it was raining pretty hard. It looks like we caught up with the storm. Just as we were pulling up to the parking garage at Bally’s it started really coming down. What a mess. And apparently Bally’s must be really losing money, because now it costs $20 to park there!?!? WTF! The last time we parked there is was like $5!

So we went into the Grand Market, and there were tons of booths set up. They handed us a wine glass as we entered. There as wine, beer, food, ice cream, etc. It was pretty crowded. I did end up purchasing some Biscotti from My Boy’s Baking because it was SO good. The flavor is Caramel Walnut.

After walking all around the Expo, we looked at the clock and it was about 3:30pm, which meant it was time to head to Harrah’s for the Melting Pot Event.

Here are more details about the event. This will be important later on when I tell you about it:

The Melting Pot Presents: The Art of Fondue hosted by Duff Goldman and Ingrid Hoffmann
Date: Sunday, August 2
Time: 4-8pm
Location: The Pool at Harrah’s Resort
Ticket Price: $100

Sizzling Ingrid Hoffmann and Duff Goldman show everyone how Simply Delicioso fondue can be with the aid of Atlantic City’s own The Melting Pot restaurant. They’ll be serving up fabulous fondue desserts and pairing them with wines and champagnes. This cheese and chocolate extravaganza is sure to delight every dessert-lover. Unique styles and presentations will melt in your mouth. Nothing will be more cool – except maybe the location: The Pool at Harrah’s Resort.

Menu

Quattro Formaggio Cheese Fondue – Fontina, Gruyere and Gran Queso Cheese blended with roasted garlic, basil and tomato pestos and fresh mozzarella Perlini.
Paring : Ruffino Libaio “unoaked” chardonnay

Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue – Fontina, Butterkase and Buttermilk Bleu cheeses with white wine, scallions and a hint of sherry.
Paring: Simi Sonoma Chardonnay

Filet Mignon Florentine – Filet Mignon marinated in black pepper, chopped garlic, rubbed sage, kosher salt, blended oil and lemon zest.
Paring: Ruffino Modus – Super Tuscan

Limoncello Balsamic Sirloin – balsamic sirloin marinated in lemon, zest and juice
Pairing: Kim Crawford Pinot Noir

Shrimp Diablo shrimp marinated in Dijon mustard, crushed red pepper flakes, Tabasco sauce and fresh parsley
Paring: Kim Crawford Gisborne “Kim’s Favorite” Chardonnay

Lobster Tail
Paring: Simi Russian River Chardonnay

Pure Milk & Dark Chocolate Fondue – dippers include Strawberries, Banana, Pineapple, Brownies, Marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats
Pairing: Inniskillin Vidal VQA, Canada

So we finally got to Harrah’s (where it only costs $5 to park!) for the Melting Pot event. This is what I was most excited for. After all, the Melting Pot is one of my favorite restaurants. Now I’ll start off by saying that I was expecting to sit down at a table, watch a demonstration, get to taste each of the items listed with the wine that was pared with it.

We hand over our tickets, and walk up to this balcony in the Pool area. As we are walking through the crowd, I saw Ingrid Hoffman walking by me looking at me, so I say hello, and she smiles and says hello back. It was weird because I felt like she knew me…LOL! So there are tons of people standing around in line. We’re wondering what is going on. It turns out that it’s just a bunch of lines and you have to stand in them and to get the food. There’s NO demonstration, there is nowhere to sit. You get a little black plate with a plastic sharp thing to eat with. Seriously…I’m not joking.

I noticed on my tickets that it said we have seats 3 and 4, so right there that is one reason that led me to believe that it would be a sit down affair. Another thing that led me to believe this was the description of the event (that I posted above).

The first station we went to was the dessert station. I picked up a TINY plastic glass that was filled ¼ of the way full with wine, a plastic plate and some dippers (marshmallow, brownie, and rice krispy treat) and a tiny little cup of chocolate. That’s my chocolate fondue right there. Wow.

So we were talking to another couple that we were standing next to. They were under the same impression as us – that it was going to be a sit-down-at-a-table type thing, where you watch them make everything, etc. So we were hoping that maybe this was just the beginning. That there was something else planned for this event.

So we decided to try the cheese fondue. We stood in line (did I REALLY pay all of that money to stand in line?!) and I put some bread cubes on my plate (there were NO veggies at all, just bread). I asked one of the workers if she’d spoon some cheese over top of my bread so that I wouldn’t have to individually dip each piece of bread. You would’ve thought I asked her to hold up a bank! She finally spoon a tiny bit over the bread – oooooooohhhh, thanks a lot.

The next line was the meat/shrimp/lobster line. We had to stand in this line for quite a while. And once we got up to the front of it, they were out of shrimp and lobster. So we stood up at the front until they brought some more shrimp out. Once the shrimp came up, we moved over to the side to get some. We were waiting there at least 10 minutes, and the lady put TWO shrimp on my plate. Seriously!? We did not pay $200 for TWO freakin’ shrimp! So then SHE gives ME attitude! It took everything I had not to shove those two shrimp up each of her nostrils!!!

And while we were standing in the long line for the meat, we were talking to the people in front of us. They were also under the same impression as us that it was going to be a sit down affair, etc. We were all appalled. And one of the girls in that group wasn’t 21 years old, so she couldn’t even get any water!!! She had to go downstairs to get water. Wow.

So I was chatting again with the couple that we met at the beginning. We were just standing there because we couldn’t even believe what was happening. At this point it was like 5:15pm (we had been there for an hour) and we had no idea what else to do. So I approached a worker and asked when the demonstrations will occur? Because I knew I didn’t pay $200 ($100 for each ticket) just to stand in line all evening and eat cold food! He said that there wasn’t anyth
ing else going on. I said to him “So I paid $200 to stand in line for some runny cheese?!” and he said “and to meet and greet the chefs!” – I didn’t come here for a meet and greet. I came here for a fondue experience, and this was NOT it.

So at that point, we were done. I was absolutely disgusted. If I would’ve known this is how it was going to be, we wouldn’t have purchased the tickets. And I have a feeling everyone else feels the same way. Because people were just standing around like “Really?!”

I can go to the restaurant, have a lot of cheese fondue, a salad, a huge share of meat fondue, chocolate fondue, and several martinis TWO different times for what I paid for this pathetic event. This was false advertising. Do you really think people would’ve purchased tickets knowing that they’d spend most of their time standing in line for cold food, and having to eat standing up? There are many guests that left feeling taken advantage of and horrified by the way they were treated.

So over the next few days I’m going to be drafting up a letter to send to the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival people, as well as the Melting Pot. I’m so disappointed.

Ingrid Hoffman:

Duff Goldman:

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