HBG Design’s F&B Design Specialist Alexandra Milkovich, IIDA, NCIDQ, recently provided her perspective on trends in the resort F&B industry for Global Gaming Business’ Casino Style magazine. Here, Alexandra expands on her perspective about F&B design and trends. An Associate and Lead Interior Designer in HBG Design’s San Diego office, Alexandra has undertaken extensive research in restaurant operations and design, culinary arts, and food blogging. She is one of HBG’s go-to F&B venue design specialists and offers exceptional experience in boutique F&B design including amenity renovations.
HBG Design is seeing continued interest in incorporating established F&B brands into the casino resort environment. Co-branding with recognizable names from outside the casino industry to anchor key amenities is not a new concept but is gaining more traction with casinos as a means to broaden market appeal and greater name recognition from an expanding customer base. For a while it seemed like expensive branding fees were deterring the introduction of new branded venues into the casino resort. But integrated branding appears to have made a comeback on an even grander scale and commitment.
Q: Alexandra, when looking to build a new food/ beverage offering at a casino, what are some of the benefits of choosing a big-name brand or celebrity chef?
AM: Having a celebrity name attached to a property is, of course, a great marketing tool for a casino owner. Celebrity chefs are influencers and have a large following of people who want to be part of the next big “thing” in the industry. Unique food and beverage venues provide the ultimate sensory experience in sight, sound, smell, and taste.
We are currently designing a confidential food and beverage amenity with a celebrity chef at a casino property. One of the benefits of working with a celebrity chef is not only their expertise in the culinary field, but also their unique understanding and perspective of how restaurants operate successfully.
Q: What are the benefits of opening an original venue?
AM: Original venues provide the freedom and opportunity to create something unique and progressive, depending on what type of experience the client is seeking to create for its guests. The thrill lies in the possibilities of what could be, in the design, branding and menu. Newness draws crowds, targeting guests looking for unique experiences.
More recently, we see notable brands that are extending into new territory, providing originality of experience with the comfort and reliability of an established brand.
Noted F&B brand Rock & Brews is known for its iconic restaurant and bars, many already integrated within casino properties across the country. The gaming machines located near the Rock & Brews restaurant have typically been some of the most popular with the 65+ demographic, especially.
Rock & Brews is now moving their brand into all parts of the casino, by opening their first ever Rock & Brews Casino and Restaurant in partnership with The Kaw Nation and Kaw Gaming in Braman, Oklahoma, a project designed by HBG Design and opened in mid-2022.
The 71,000 square foot gaming project–part ground-up and part renovation–features an expertly curated interactive rock-inspired entertainment experience that only Rock & Brews–and its co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of iconic rock band, KISS–can provide. The Rock & Brews brand and venues are noted for their heavy integration of rock and roll imagery and iconography.
Across the casino and restaurant, references to musical instruments and vinyl records and murals of rock bands and performers–including a large KISS mural–adorn the walls and ceilings, lending a casual rocker lair vibe.
Inside the large, vaulted Rock & Brews brewhouse, practically every inch of ceiling space is covered with theatrical banners and backlit framed graphics showcasing signature rock and roll graphics. The graphics are framed by a dramatic performance stage lighting truss hanging from the pitched ceiling, painted the signature Rock & Brews branded red. Colorful murals enliven brick walls.
The new Rock & Brews Casino rock and roll vibe fully immerses gaming guests in a concert style environment and high-quality audio and visual experiences with the high-profile F&B brand name proven to attract dining customers.
Q: What are the drawbacks for either?
AM: There are pros and cons to every F&B venture, and every client must decide what is best for their casino operation, their guests and the regional or local market.
Creating a brand-new concept from scratch requires a lot of well-thought-out planning and implementation – from developing the branded concept, to researching and trademarking the name of the restaurant, to creating the menu and the venue design. Most clients we work with will hire branding strategy companies to help craft the concept and streamline the development process. Our designers then shape the physical venue concepts to meet that brand vision.
A celebrity chef driven concept is often tied to the reputation of one individual. Your venue’s success could potentially be affected by the publicity that celebrity receives.
Q: Does the decision change at all for new construction vs. renovating an existing space?
AM: New-build casinos offer the freedom to fully translate an F&B brand concept abundantly into the physical space without confinement. At the recently opened Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, California, a new-build development, the new Redwood Taphouse features a soaring redwood ceiling with a grand center bar element wrapped in natural wood panels. As a ground-up structure, the Redwood Taphouse design was implemented as part of the casino build, allowing the F&B spaces to flow cohesively with the brand language, featuring subtle nods to the tribe’s culture woven throughout the grand spaces.
We also renovate existing space inside existing casinos for new F&B, to remain responsive to changing market conditions and new branding opportunities and to refresh a property’s offerings. Our team is adept at new construction and renovations to achieve brand vision.
The restaurant brand concept often dictates the design concept. Depending on how the concept is translated, there may be physical limitations of existing space infill that make renovation more costly. Nothing is impossible, but there are always cost implications tied to construction and addition. Some clients have preferred to reuse space and rebrand by changing finishes and furnishings, rather than making wide-scale structural alterations.
AM: For example, Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan, renovated the space of their former two-story Hard Rock Café restaurant and bar venue to accommodate their original Kankakee Grille brand concept, which had already opened at their South Bend location. The Kankakee Grille venue is a combination of performance venue, bar, and restaurant with the ambiance of a casual pub with a high contrast, neutral palette, and contemporary transitional design.
The New Buffalo Kankakee Grille design preserves and incorporates the distinctive 12,000 square foot two-level layout, structural framework, and distinguishing metal railings of the former Hard Rock Café space, also by HBG Design.
Near the entrance, a former HRC retail shop was converted to the Kankakee Grille’s new private dining room. The main bar and main dining room tables and booths remain situated on existing tiered levels to accommodate optimal views toward the ‘Kankakee Live’ performance stage. Mezzanine level bar seating provides birds eye views to the stage excitement.
A large decorative light canopy remains over the main bar from its Hard Rock Café incarnation, and the space is separated from the dining floor by custom decorative screening and stone half walls. The Hard Rock Cafe memorabilia cases were replaced by screen ornamentation details that tie to significant Tribal motifs, such as abstracted cattail and sweet grass designs to represent the Kankakee River’s edge.
To blend with Four Winds Casino’s natural aesthetic, the new F&B concept design incorporates a very modern interpretation of stacked stone and uses wooden plank textures at the entrance and throughout the venue interior. Branded elements have been reimagined within a subdued natural gray, tan and cream-colored design palette that ties to the casino’s contemporary cultural aesthetic.
Q: How does the location of the casino itself impact the process of selecting food/bev options?
AM: Food and beverage options are the first consideration in F&B branding. As F&B venue designers, we are often inspired by these edible selections as we design restaurant and bar spaces that enhance these culinary delights.
The venue location, the local market, and the Owner’s target guest are the #1 driver for all types of design. Some locales are better served by warm, comfortable designs, what we sometimes call approachable luxury. Some casinos, especially those in urban markets, require a higher level of luxury, and that means an elevated dining experience overall. The HBG Design team undertakes extensive research with our clients at the beginning of every project to create space designs that are in sync with the F&B culinary options, and that help attract the target market to the casino property.