The new land-based Hollywood casinos coming to Joliet and Aurora are betting that the way to a gambler’s heart is through their stomach.
Still months from opening its redeveloped suburban casinos, Hollywood parent company Penn Entertainment announced the latest restaurant additions Thursday: twin food halls featuring a trendy taste of Chicago, a slice of New York and another helping of culinary star power.
Boulevard Food & Drink Hall will include Lucky Goat, a new burger restaurant by celebrity chef Stephanie Izard, the first suburban locations for Antique Taco and Pretty Cool Ice Cream, and the debut of Five50 Pizza in the Chicago market.
“It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” said Shawn McClain, whose hospitality group is developing the food halls in partnership with Penn. “We get to expose great brands to the suburbs of Chicago, who obviously know these brands but can’t always get downtown.”
Penn previously announced that celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis will bring Italian restaurants to both locations, with the Joliet casino slated to open in the fourth quarter this year and the Aurora one next year.
The planned food halls have a more distinctively Chicago flavor.
A James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur, McClain cut his teeth as head chef at Trio in Evanston, later creating Chicago’s Spring and Green Zebra restaurants before moving on to Las Vegas, where he opened Sage and Five50 Pizza at the Aria Resort & Casino in 2012.
Now based in Detroit, his restaurant group — McClain Camarota Hospitality — has a steakhouse atop that city’s iconic RenCen tower, as well as several venues in Las Vegas. His last Chicago restaurant, the vegetarian Green Zebra, closed in 2018, but McClain said he “jumped at the chance” to reenter the market where he launched his career.
His ongoing relationships with Chicago restaurateurs helped put together the new all-star lineup at the Hollywood Casino food halls.
McClain worked with Izard at Spring more than 20 years ago at the start of her culinary career — before she became the first woman to win Bravo’s “Top Chef,” in 2008.
Izard went on to open the acclaimed West Loop restaurant Girl & the Goat in 2010, and has since added Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat and Cabra in Chicago. She has also expanded the Goat brand to California, most recently opening Valley Goat in Silicon Valley.
Lucky Goat will be her first fast casual restaurant, featuring specialty burgers, fries and milkshakes.
“It’s a concept that I’ve not done before,” Izard said. “Folks love burgers and chicken sandwiches. It’s just a fun thing, easy to eat, but bringing great flavors and just putting my own twist on things.”
An Evanston native who now lives in California, Izard, whose name means mountain goat in French, said the new concept may be ripe for broader expansion of the Goat brand, depending on how the first two suburban Chicago locations fare.
Other acclaimed Chicago restaurants are breaking new ground with the food halls as well.
Antique Taco, a hip taco joint with locations in Wicker Park and Bridgeport, which has been ranked among the best in the city by the Chicago Tribune, will venture for the first time into the suburbs. Pretty Cool Ice Cream, another city staple with locations in Logan Square and Lincoln Park, will also set up shop in Joliet and Aurora.
To celebrate the announcement, Antique Taco and Pretty Cool Ice Cream will be giving away free food and Hollywood Casino merchandise at their Chicago locations Friday from noon to 2 p.m.
McClain launched the Five50 Pizza concept at the Aria in Las Vegas in 2012, along with the upscale Sage restaurant, both of which closed at the onset of the pandemic in 2020. A mix of New York- and Neapolitan-style, McClain described the pizza as “combining the best of both worlds,” with old school flavors and a more developed crust.
He believes Five50 will play well in the land of deep dish and tavern style.
“It was something near and dear to our heart, and we really were looking for a new home,” McClain said. “It’s taken us a few years, but we thought with this food hall and social dining hall, that would be a perfect opportunity to bring it back.”
In addition to the established brands, McClain will also bring a bespoke cafe called Dailies to both food halls, which will feature Chicago-based Big Shoulders Coffee.
The food halls will join previously announced Giada-branded Italian restaurants, adding more culinary pizzazz to the Joliet and Aurora casinos, two of oldest in the state, which are in the process of being reborn.
Launched in the 1990s when the state legalized riverboat casinos, both Joliet and Aurora are still operating as permanently moored barges.
The state’s sweeping 2019 gambling expansion bill, which added everything from six new casinos to sports betting, allowed all casinos to be built on or moved to dry land.
Rivers Des Plaines became the first to convert to a land-based casino, paying a $250,000 Gaming Board fee to expand over dry land in 2020. The state’s newer casinos, including Bally’s Chicago, Wind Creek Chicago Southland and Hard Rock Rockford, are all land-based.
Penn is building the new $185 million Hollywood Casino Joliet in the Rock Run Collection, a sprawling 310-acre mixed-use development adjacent to the Interstate 80 and Interstate 55 interchange. The facility will feature expanded gaming, with 1,000 slots, 43 table games, a retail sportsbook, a 10,000-square-foot event center and restaurants.
The $360 million Aurora casino complex being developed near I-88 and Chicago Premium Outlets mall will include 1,200 gaming positions, a 220-room hotel, a retail sportsbook, a spa, an outdoor entertainment area, a 12,000-square-foot event center and restaurants.
While the new facilities may provide a boost to gaming revenues, Penn executives are hoping the food offerings will differentiate the Joliet and Aurora casinos in an increasingly competitive market, attracting visitors who might have no interest in splitting aces or rolling the dice.
“We fully anticipate that we’re going to see a lot of customers who just come in and they want to experience the amazing food that we’re going to offer at the social hall, grab a drink and maybe never hit the casino floor,” said Jaime Williams, regional vice president of marketing for Penn Entertainment.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
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