Not too long ago, Tropicana contacted Quaker City Mercantile looking to join other resort and casino properties in Atlantic City that had glitzed up their acts over the last few years in hopes of becoming the East Coast's answer to Las Vegas. Their general manager had been impressed with our fashion work and our restaurant work for Philadelphia's megastar restaurateur, Stephen Starr, who had just opened up the Continental and Buddakan at the new pier in AC.

Tropicana wanted us to help them reposition THE QUARTER, their collection of clubs, restaurants and shops. We knew that the work needed to be driven by evocative imagery that drove right to the heart of the space's essence, so we gathered up some beautiful model friends, had a few drinks and let them loose in THE QUARTER with one of our favorite photographers. Extremely simple, but very impactful. Plus, it was a lot of fun.

The GM really liked all of our work, but then things went horribly awry. Tropicana's parent company, Columbia Sussex, tried to force the General Manager to violate New Jersey State law by laying off a number of employees. Long story short, the GM walked out, Columbia Sussex lost their gaming license in New Jersey and the casino is now under the control of New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice Gary Stein and up for sale. Needless to say, we haven't contacted his honor to see if he'd like us to do any more work for Tropicana.