Skip to main content

How a Steakhouse in a Casino is Upping the Cocktail and Food Pairing Game

michael jordan steakhouse

Say you’re at a casino. You’re a gambling man and you’ve just went on a run, cashing out with a couple thousand more in your pocket than when you started. What’re you going to do with that money? Going to walk quietly away and put it in your bank account? Maybe, but the more fun options would be to a) let it ride or b ) treat yourself to a nice meal to celebrate.

Luckily, just about every casino has options for that, usually in the form of a fancy steakhouse. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Las Vegas; Atlantic City; Lake Charles, Louisianap or at a smaller casino in Washington State, you’re going to be able to find a place to dine without having to leave the casino environment.

Find the restaurants that are putting time and effort into crafting meals worthy of your winnings.

The thing is, not all casino steakhouses are created equal. Some offer very expensive dishes and drinks and don’t follow through on quality. They’re catering to people who want to blow money and don’t care about the caliber. These are not the places you want to go to. Instead, you want to find the restaurants that are putting time and effort into crafting meals that are worthy of your winnings (as if you were doing it at home). Better yet, you’ll want to find a place that creates all-star meals, but championship-level cocktails as well. If they can put those two things together with exemplary service, well, then you’ve got yourself a three-point play.

You may be wondering about the basketball puns, but wonder no more! In order to see how a steakhouse can live up to the higher standard we just spoke of, we visited Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse at Ilani Casino Resort in Ridgefield, Washington (just over the state line from Portland, Oregon) for a cocktail and meal pairing. Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, which has locations in Chicago and Connecticut as well, is one of the anchor restaurants in the casino resort and serves up not only numerous of cuts of prime beef (“Steakmanship,” they call it), but also a rotating menu of spirits and cocktails that caters to the variety of people that visit Ilani.

To get an idea of the different pairings you can make at the restaurant, here is the menu we sampled. Each is worth traveling for, as they exceeded our expectations. All three courses were slam dunks, you might say.

(Sorry we’re not sorry about the puns.)

Course One

Deviled Short Rib and New Orleans-Style Barbecue Shrimp paired with Brandy Crusta

Paired with: Pierre Ferand “Cigare” Cognac, Combier, fresh lemon, Luxardo Maraschino, Angostura bitters

Why it worked: The citrus components of the cocktail, in addition to the oak and spice components in the cognac, played against the succulent short rib bone marrow while enhancing the spiciness of the shrimp. While you wouldn’t want to do a bite of the short rib with a bite of the shrimp and a sip of the cocktail, alternating is a great way to experience a nice array of sensations, textures, and flavors in one course. Having a cocktail that can apply to two very different dishes isn’t the easiest thing to create, but the Brandy Crusta does just that.

Course Two

Bone-In New York Strip Steak (dry-aged 28 days) and MJ’s Delmonico (dry-ged 45 days) paired with John Wayne’s Last Ride

Chase McPeak/The Manual

Paired with: Old Forester, Punt e Mes, Campari, chocolate bitters

Why it worked: First, we must say that these steaks were simply divine. As we mentioned above, quality is at the top of the steakhouse’s tenets. This isn’t just lip service. These steaks were the epitome of perfectly cooked. The richness, then, of the steaks and their accouterments would need a strong, spirit-forward cocktail to cut through the fat and myriad flavors — like John Wayne’s Last Ride. The whiskey, bitters, and Italian amari work in union to highlight the flavors of the steak. They play off each other, making everything taste better with each successive bite or sip. (If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve had a great steak with a great bourbon, and you know what we’re talking about.)

Course Three

23 Layer Chocolate Cake paired with Second Circle

Chase McPeak/The Manual

Paired with: Angel’s Envy bourbon, Taylor Fladgate Ruby Port, maple syrup, Angostura bitters

Why it worked: As with the steaks, this pairing needs a small precursor note. This cake is not just called a 23-layer cake because of MJ. It is literally 23 layers of decadence on a plate. That decadence is the key to both the food and the cocktail. The bourbon stands as a strong, smooth backbone, with the port and maple helping to round out the body. Bourbon and chocolate go together, port and chocolate go together. This is a case of A + B = C. Thankfully, the sweetness in the cocktail ingredients is muted by the whiskey and bitters, so it is not an overwhelmingly sugary pairing (which, considering the cake, it could’ve easily been).

Editors' Recommendations

Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…
Will Robot Bartenders Change How You Make Cocktails At Home?
barsys app

Robot bartenders, as weird as it may seem, are nothing new. As technology advances (seemingly at a pace with humanity’s consumption of all things distilled), more companies are producing products capable of taking the role of your friendly neighborhood bartender — if your bartender didn’t have eyes, or a heart, or the knowledge that whenever you walk into a bar, he should queue up “Let it Rock” by Kevin Rudolf and featuring Lil Wayne (though this last one could easily be programmed).

These same robot bartenders, though, have primarily been the domain of bars and restaurants (such as this bar in Vegas), as products like Makr Shakr are meant for a much larger scale than the creation of beverages for personal consumption. However, a new product may be changing the game by that technology into the home for right around $1,000.

Read more
How to Craft Your Own Spicy Cocktails at Home
spicy cocktails recipe tips hot sauce tequila sunrise pc in the raw

Warmer weather means music festivals, pool parties, beaches, and road trips. It’s also a great time to spice up your drink: a hint of heat makes gin, beer, and tequila cocktails feel even more refreshing and creative.

While micheladas, Bloody Marys, and even margaritas are are practically begging for a little Tabasco or sliced jalapeños, why limit yourself? I recently had the opportunity to help judge 15 beautifully crafted spicy cocktails for the national finals of the Booze & Infuse competition at the annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo, an homage to all things capsaicin-driven. The variety of drinks — riffs on Martinis, Daiquiris, even Tiki themes — was astounding. “There’s so much more to spicy cocktails than a Bloody Mary,” says Hot Sauce Expo founder Lisa Seabury.
The Expo allows chili-heads the opportunity to sample hundreds of (mostly indie) labels, ranging from sweet to smokey to volcanic, at six cities throughout the country each year. The 15 finalists brought their A game, producing artful, well-balanced drinks under a 90-second speed clock in front of a crowd of about 1,000 hopped-up fans. “We’re like the Slayer concert of cocktail competitions,” Seabury jokes. The winner (New Jersey’s Carlos Ruiz for 2018) scored $5,000. The newest round of regionals are slated for in June at Chicago’s first Hot Sauce Expo.
Drinks are heating up at more buttoned-down spots as well. Liquid Lab, a New York-based cocktail consulting company, offers a very popular Tomato Basil Martini (recipe below) with touch of heat at its private events according to co-founder Parker Boase. At New York’s La Contenta Oeste, bar manager Alex Valencia offers up a wide range of agave-based cocktails all with extra heat. The Mayan (coconut-infused Milagro tequila, housemade corn purée and lime juice) features habanero bitters.

Read more
These Cocktails Will Perfectly Pair With Some of Your Favorite Vinyl Records
Booze and Vinyl Flannel Shirt

Is there anything more perfect after a long-ass day of backbreaking or mind-numbing work than picking out your favorite vinyl album, mixing up a drink (or just pouring a double or triple pour of your favorite whiskey), and settling into your favorite chair to tune out the rest of the world for a little while? We think not (especially if you're listening on one of these systems).

"Booze & Vinyl" (Running Press, 2018)

Read more