Each has at least one offbeat ingredient-organic apricot jam, Italian maraschino cherries or a splash of Mexican Coke-but the friendly bartenders are crushed serving beer and wine to the gaming throngs and have trouble tracking down the speciality fixings. Craft cocktails are available at central piano bar Lotus for $11. But I end up at Mian, the 16-seat noodle bar one storefront over, where I drop $19 on a giant bowl with chopped duck and a bottle of Tsingtao.īefore hitting the tables, I check out the Rivers bar scene. He came to Rivers from MGM Detroit, but took a buffet research trip to Vegas that included stops at Aria and Wynn.Įxcept for Hugo’s, all of the restaurants here are served primarily by the kitchen behind the buffet, and other than the pasta, all of the food is made in-house daily, down to the hand-cut fries at FLIPT, the gourmet burger joint next door.

When I share the comparison with executive chef William McIlroy, he beams. You can save cash by heading next door to the Canopy Buffet (lunch $19–$21 dinner $26), which reminds me of the gold-standard buffet at the Aria in Vegas in presentation (modern, upscale), variety (especially the seafood and desserts) and execution (mmm, rare prime rib). A small, elegant iteration of Gold Coast mainstay Hugo’s Frog Bar (here, basically a scaled-down Gibsons) delivers high-end steaks and seafood, ranging up to an $86 surf-and-turf with Australian rock lobster tail. If you want to ensure a payoff, come hungry and spend most of your Franklin on food.

That’s why I decided to determine the best way to drop $100 during an evening there. Though Rivers probably still doesn’t need my business, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a nicer spot to gamble in Illinois. Or at least it didn’t the day after its July 17 opening party, when the new gambling mecca just east of O’Hare Airport (3000 S River Road, Des Plaines, 88, ) was so crowded officials asked people to delay visiting.

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