There is a block in Atlantic City that is becoming something. Tennessee Avenue — named after the orange property on the Monopoly board, the origin of the Orange Loop — has drawn a community of independent creators, restaurateurs, and artists who believe this city has more stories left to tell.
STAY Tennessee is part of that story. Built on Tennessee Avenue by Bartram Beach Homes in partnership with some of the most distinctive creative talent on the Shore, it brings together four things that have never shared an address in Atlantic City: a world-class karaoke experience designed room by room, a European-inspired café concept rooted in Monopoly iconography and Monte Carlo racing culture, a community art studio expanding one of Brigantine’s most beloved galleries to a wider audience, and five suites above it all where guests can live inside the experience rather than visit it.
The bookshelf door in the lobby is not a gimmick. It’s a declaration of intent.
The lobby of STAY Tennessee is designed around a single idea: that the best experiences feel like discoveries. Velvet couches, low light, an old record player turning quietly in the corner. And a bookshelf along one wall that, if you know where to look, opens into something else entirely.
Behind it: the hallway, the kitchen where Salvatore Spena’s food and beverage program comes to life, and four doors — each one a completely different world, each one designed from floor to ceiling by Kelly Woodyard of The Design Bar Interiors. The speakeasy aesthetic runs from the lobby through every shared space. What happens behind each door is entirely its own.
Vinyl, nightly
Large groups, milestone celebrations, corporate events, anyone who wants the VIP experience without the shared floor
The name is a double entendre — and both meanings are intentional. Sidecar Café is the connected café alongside Mic Drop, with its own entrance off Tennessee Avenue and its own identity entirely. It is also a nod to the famous racing car token on the Monopoly board — the one that has been circling the same streets as Tennessee Avenue for nearly a century. From that single piece of iconography, the brand draws a line through Monaco, the Monte Carlo rally, and the storied Italian café culture of the racing cities: espresso at a stand-up bar, beautiful objects, craft over convenience, the unhurried elegance of a great cup in a room that knows what it is.
The food and beverage program is crafted by Salvatore Spena — one of the most respected names in the Atlantic City food scene — whose menu reflects the same European-inspired commitment to craft that defines the Sidecar identity. Walk in off Tennessee Avenue through the café’s own entrance, or find it through the bookshelf door from Mic Drop. Either way, the room is worth the trip on its own terms.
If you’ve spent time in Atlantic City, you’ve seen Charles and Randi Barbin’s work — large-scale murals stretching across the cityscape, the kind that stop you mid-block and make you look twice. Their gallery, Dune’s Art Gallery in Brigantine, has been a gathering place for the Shore’s creative community for years.
The Tennessee Craft and Art Lab is their next chapter — a hands-on creative studio at STAY Tennessee that brings their passion for art and community to a wider Atlantic City audience. Make something. Learn something. Take it home. The experience changes with the season and the artist in residence, but the invitation is always the same: come in, make something, and leave with more than you arrived with.
This is not a paint-and-sip. It is a working creative studio run by working artists, inside a building on a block that is becoming one of the most interesting places in South Jersey.
We are a collection of properties with great access to the best experiences.