Toast to the Coast
A Sumptuous Celebration in Atlantic City

Revelers made a "Toast to the Coast" at this champagne sand sculpture in the lobby of Harrah's Atlantic City

Champagne flowed in Atlantic City’s annual Toast to the Coast, a food and wine spectacular that may be one of the largest celebrations of sun, sand, surf and sumptuous food and wine, ever.


Hundreds of guests assembled in the casino lobbies of Caesars, Bally’s, Harrah’s, and Showboat, to raise their (free) flutes of the bubbly at 8 p.m. on Friday night in a coordinated if giddy appreciation of this old city by the sea. From June 26 to June 29, 2008, there were expositions, shows, celebrity chefs, wine tastings (more than 125 wines poured), gala dinners, dine-arounds and glitzy parties.

Gourmet samples from chefs at Caesars Atlantic City	Roland Mesnier and Guy Fieri

“Look at all of you,” said an amazed Giada De Laurentiis, the Food Network star, when she took the stage on Saturday at Caesars Circus Maximus. Adoring fans filled the 1,600 plush ruby-red mohair stadium-style seats to watch her cook halibut with grapefruit-fennel salsa, the entreé that would be served at the sold-out $250-a-plate Vine & Dine banquet she headlined with other celebrity cooks: Guy Fieri, Ingrid Hoffman, also of Food Network fame, and former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier. It was a fun and rowdy affair compared to the elegant luncheon earlier in the day at Mia, Caesars’ drop-dead-gorgeous fine dining restaurant, hosted by Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio, the celebrated Philadelphia chefs who also guide the kitchens of Le Bec-Fin and Brassier Perrier.

“Ah, there are people here who love good things,” said Perrier in greeting his guests. “Welcome.”

For more information about Harrah's properties in Atlantic City, please visit www.harrahs.com.