A group of young talents from the Atlantic City area has come together to form an ambitious new charity that they will kick off with AC’s first ever pop-up restaurant – outdoors, under the stars, and for 200 to 300 people.
The nonprofit is called For Atlantic City By Atlantic City and it is the brainchild of Michael Brennan, the award-winning chef of Ventnor’s Cardinal Bistro, and friends including Carl Fleck and Lenny Schafer of the Iron Room in Atlantic City. For the first pop-up extravaganza, Brennan will be the kitchen mastermind, while Fleck and Schafer will craft cocktails for the guests. There is a kickstarter to fund the project and Brennan said he hopes to send $30,000 of the fundraising proceeds to the Atlantic City Boys and Girls Club.
“Basically, having grown up in this area and watching the steady decline of not only our economy but the environment around us, I wanted to be able to help,” Brennan said via Facebook. “We came up with 4 AC x AC as a way to get my generation involved in a project on a larger scale.”
The pop-up dining experience will be at the Surf Stadium (aka Sandcastle Stadium) at Bader Field on Sept 7. “We will roll out the red carpet for our guests and invite them back to the 1920’s in Atlantic City,” the description on the Kickstarter page reads. Supporters who pledge $250 or more will get to try out some of the culinary creations for the dinner at the group’s test kitchen.
The other members of the 4 AC x AC committee include Roxy Brennan, Alexis Kull, Daniele DeSantis, Michele Giampaolo, and Chelsea Errichetti, according to the Kickstarter page.
“We had this idea of coming together, putting together what we do best – which is throwing a party – and making something of it and giving back to our city,” Brennan says in the video to support the campaign.
You can learn more about the event on the Kickstarter page here. If you’re interested in sponsoring the event as a business, you can email Michael.
This is such a nice idea for a local organization. Equal parts restaurant, charity, and party. Using Kickstarter can be very powerful too so that $30,000 seems doable. Who wouldn’t want to dine under the stars for a good cause? I hope they promote it well. Since it’s a nonprofit they can get a ton of free press, funding, and volunteers following a guide like the one at https://www.opticalabs.com/what-is-charity-fundraising/
Go Michael Brennan! More people should do stuff like this.