The New Hamptons?

Glamour aside, assembling a hotel out of a pile of old rubble isn’t all about choosing the right shade of pink for the ballroom walls and testing the crisp white hotel linens at home (which Bashaw does). With less than four months left until the hotel’s soft opening, the roof is leaking, the carpets are getting trashed by construction boots, and the southern-facing windows on 11 floors are the wrong size.

“Fifty of the new doorknobs have been stolen,” Curtis Sachs announces later that day in another construction meeting held in the orange-brick car dealership. Various suggestions are offered: Search the lunch pails of the workers. Shut down the parking garage to the construction guys. “A sniper?” offers Jimmy Bertino, the general contractor. Bashaw laughs and moves on, suggesting plastic adhesive sheeting for the motel-room carpets, storing the doorknobs and other easy-to-grab items in a safer, locked area, and more security throughout the building.

When they get to ordering staff uniforms, Curtis Sachs gets ribbed for gently suggesting that there’s a “bell curve” for uniform sizes, and that the average size of an Atlantic City employee is probably a bit more generous than, for example, that of hotel workers in Manhattan — that it’s more in line with the average Cape May employee.

“What are you trying to say?” says Patrick Logue, the director of operations for Congress Hall and the Chelsea, with a dry raise of his eyebrow. Everyone laughs.

Anyway, this summer, it seems inevitable that the uniforms will be perfect, the deejays will be cool, the cabanas will be chic, and for the first time, you’re going to want to meet your friends from Bryn Mawr in — of all places — Atlantic City. And there will be Bashaw during the Chelsea’s July opening weekend, impeccably tailored and greeting guests like old friends.