Rivers Casino dining scene has mass appeal

Rivers Casino dining scene has mass appeal
BY MIRIAM DI NUNZIO

When Rivers Casino in Des Plaines opens its doors officially to the public on July 18, all eyes will be focused on the gaming experience, of course. But the Chicago area’s latest casino has more in store than just slots and table games.

The new casino boasts seven eateries where visitors can enjoy everything from small bites to gourmet burgers to high-end steak and seafood, as well as a full-out menu of cocktails, world-class wines and more.

“We wanted to give our customer base a diverse offering when it came to restaurants,” said Richard Schneider, vice president of food and beverage for Rivers Casino. “So there’s a wide variety of food and price points to meet everyone’s expectations and cravings, whether it’s a quick cup of coffee and a made-in-house pastry or a fine-dining experience.”

Schneider stressed that Rivers opted for many local vendors and suppliers, including the Gibsons Restaurant Group, which owns and operates the casino’s high-end Hugo’s Frog Bar & Chop House. Rivers’ restaurants also will be serving up Chicago-based Metropolis coffees, Vienna beef products, fish and meat from Chicago purveyors, seafood from Des Plaines-based Boston Fish Market and brews from Chicago-based Half Acre Beer Co. Although there are no Illinois wines represented, expect the full depth and breadth of varietals from California, Australia, Chile, France and Italy.

“Our whole game plan for the food was to make it fresh, the highest quality, emphasize small-batch cooking, locally sourced, and make the casino a dining destination,” said William McIlroy, the executive chef overseeing all the casino’s food and beverage operations and menus (except for Hugo’s).

Here’s a look at the dining landscape at Rivers Casino:

Hugo’s Frog Bar & Chop House (Monday-Sunday, 11 am. to closing; 847-768-5200): The sleek styling is instantly reminiscent of Hugo’s properties in Chicago and Naperville. The menu (though not finalized at press time) will reflect the classic steaks, chops and seafood that are this chain’s hallmark. This is the property’s most expensive and high-end eatery.

FLIPT (Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.; Sunday-Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.): The funky, casual eatery will be serving up burgers, freshly made to order, as well as a full menu of fixings, fresh salads, hand-cut fries, sandwiches and shakes.

“We tried 30 different burger blends until we found the one we will be serving,” McIlroy said.

MianBar (Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 a.m.; Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 a.m.): This is the smallest restaurant on the property, with just 18 seats, but the menu of noodles and rice dishes is grand in options.

“Roasted duck noodles, classic mango duck salad, seafood noodle soup, pot stickers and dim sum are just part of the menu,” McIlroy said. “It’s a very simple but very authentic Asian menu.”

Lotus Bar (10 am. to 4 a.m. daily): This is the massive, centrally located cocktail lounge (complete with piano or jazz trio).

“This is a respite to just get away from the [gaming] floor,” Schneider said. “We worked with national mixologists to come up with the cocktail menu. And we’ve put our own interesting twist on many of the drinks.”

Specialty cocktails are $15 and boast classics such as Manhattans and gimlets plus more eclectic libations such as Caipirinhas and Bellinis.

The Canopy Buffet: (Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Price: $19, lunch; $26, dinner; $21, Saturday and Sunday brunch). This expansive buffet features nine distinct stations, serving everything from fire-rotisserie chicken, beef and pork, to homemade soups, Italian fare, “American comfort food,” Asian specialties (including hand-rolled sushi), housemade desserts and carving-station fare.

“This is all about small-batch cooking,” McIlroy said, “and a majority will be cooked up right in front of you. That ensures the freshest food throughout the day. Our desserts and pastries, for example, are all individual servings, so a mini-cheesecake is exactly that, not a big cheesecake just cut up into pieces. We make our own gelato, as well.”

The Canopy’s signature soup is the homemade matzo-ball soup, McIlroy said. “It’s very hearty and simple but we are very proud of it.” The buffet also will serve a full brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

Cube (Monday-Wednesday, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Thursday, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.; Friday, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 a.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.): This is the casino’s multipurpose lounge/party room. The venue can be transformed into a nightclub, sports bar, live music stage or private party showcase, complete with patio area.

“People will be able to enjoy football or basketball games on giant screens, or dance the night away,” Schneider said. “This room is all about flexibility.” The menu for the room is all about small bites and cocktails.

The Coffee Spot (9 a.m. to 7 a.m. daily): This option is all about a quick cup of coffee, homemade pastries, breakfast sandwiches a selection of sandwiches, salads and other coffee-shop favorites.

Note: The restaurants are located inside the casino, so patrons must be 21+over to dine at any of the eateries. For more information on Rivers Casino, 3000 S. River Rd., Des Plaines. Call (847) 795-0777 or visit riverscasino.net.

Starbucks Releases Full Meals Under 500 Calories

Starbucks Bistro Boxes Take On Chain Restaurant Dishes

Starbucks keeps pushing further and further afield from its core coffee business in search of the big bucks. They've tried publishing books, serving alcohol and installing small convection ovens to heat up breakfast wraps. Success outside the coffee arena has been mixed. But that hasn't dissuaded its executives from trying new things.

Their latest foray into foodstuffs more complicated than muffins is the Bistro Box, introduced at selected Starbucks nationwide yesterday. The boxes, which sell for $5 and $6 depending on size, are being billed as healthy alternatives to most other fast food meals. They all include some combination of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and all are under 500 calories.

They look pretty good, considering what they might have been, especially the four appetizer options. But HuffPost Food noticed certain resemblances between the entree Bistro Boxes and dishes served at other chain restaurants. We decided to compare the four entree Bistro Boxes with their competitors at more established food chains. Here's what we found:

Starbucks' Chicken Chipotle Wrap Bistro Box (above) offers "Grilled Chipotle-spiced chicken, fiery pepper jack cheese, and soft whole wheat tortillas are served with lime-cilantro slaw and avocado & roasted tomato salsa," and will set your diet back 380 calories. 

The McDonald's Chicken Chipotle Snack Wrap(below) has fewer calories, with just 260. But it's also smaller and doesn't include anything like cilantro. 

Starbucks' Chicken Lettuce Wraps (above) let you assemble your own faux ssam with red lettuce and a mix of vegetables. At just 360 calories, including a mini-chocolate, it's hardly an indulgence.

By contrast, the Chang's Signature Chicken Lettuce Wrap appetizer at PF Chang's, with 640 calories in a whole order, is a veritable gut-buster. But for our money, the retro, non-authentic crunch of the PF Chang chicken is worth the caloric expenditure.

There's something very aspirationally Mediterranean about Starbucks' inclusion of a Salumi Plate among their bistro box offerings. It gives lunchers an Italian smorgasbord of flatbreads, cheese, olives, prosciutto and two kinds of salami to assemble mini-sandwiches and the like. It's the fattiest of the bistro boxes, packing in 420 calories, but also the most distinctive. 

Most chains don't really have an equivalent dish. The closest we could find is Subway's Italian BMT, below, which includes salami, pepperoni and Black Forest ham. Subway calls it an "old-world favorite." A true Italian grandma probably wouldn't abide by the suggested non-fat mayo as a condiment, but 450 calories isn't too bad. Just watch out for the footlong option; that'll bump your intake up into the 900-calorie stratosphere.

Sesame Noodles, the lightest of the Bistro Box entree offerings with just 350 calories, is also one of the weirdest. The sesame noodles are apparently tossed with "broccoli florets, carrots, red peppers, sugar snap peas and a creamy peanut dressing is served with a cucumber carrot salad, crunchy sesame peanuts and baked tofu with lightly spiced lime glaze." That's a lot of veggie.

Panda Express makes some kind of attempt at vegetable inclusion in their chow mein. Allegedly, the noodles are wok-stir-fried with "shredded onions, celery, cabbage, and bean sprouts." They must do the trick in terms of health, on some level, because a serving only has 500 calories. But who are we kidding? This is fast-food chow mein. It just tastes like oil! 

No Easy Fix Where Fast Food Reigns

No Easy Fix Where Fast Food Reigns

By Nancy Walsh

Proximity to fast-food restaurants encourages consumption of the typical high-fat, high-calorie offerings of these venues, but increasing access to supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods is not likely to reverse the swelling obesity epidemic, researchers cautioned.

Among low-income men, a 1% increase in the availability of fast food within six-tenths of a mile (1 km) of the home led to an 0.13% increase in consumption of fast food, according to Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues.

Yet the availability of grocery store and supermarkets -- presumably offering healthier choices -- was not related to local residents' diet quality or consumption of fruits and vegetables (P>0.10 for interaction), the researchers reported in the July 11 issue of theArchives of Internal Medicine.

Targeting neighborhoods lacking access to healthy foods, commonly referred to as "food deserts," has become a popular initiative as policymakers attempt to improve nutrition among lower socioeconomic groups.

But evidence has been lacking as to the efficacy of these efforts, so Gordon-Larsen and colleagues analyzed longitudinal data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, in which 5,115 participants, ages 18 to 30, were followed for 15 years.

For each participant, they identified all fast-food restaurants within one, three, five, and eight kilometers of the home, as well as the number of grocery stores and supermarkets.

When interviewed at years two, five, seven, ten, and 15, participants reported the number of times each week they ate at establishments such as McDonalds, Burger King, or KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken).

The quality of their diet was assessed with the Diet Quality Index (DQI), which calculates how closely the individual adheres to dietary guidelines.

In general, men's diets were worse when compared with women's diets:
Fast food consumption, 2.1 versus 1.6 times per week
DQI, 46.5 versus 53
Meets recommendations for fruits and vegetables, 5.6% versus 8.7%



The researchers found a dramatic difference in consumption of fast food according to income (P<0.05 for interaction) for men, with a 1% increase in the number of fast-food establishments within a 1-km and 3-km radius of the home being associated with an 0.34% increase in the frequency of consumption.

Other findings were mixed, however. Having a supermarket within a 1-km to 3-km radius led to greater consumption of fruit and vegetables in men (DQI coefficient 2.14 (95% CI 1.19 to 3.83, P=0.01) though not in women (DQI coefficient 0.80, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.08, P=0.15).

In addition, increased grocery store availability with a 1-km to 3-km radius was linked with a lower diet quality in high-income women but a higher diet quality for low-income men (P<0.10 for interaction).

In an accompanying commentary, Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, and Paul A. Simon, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles, emphasized the complexity of low-income food environments.

"In many disadvantaged communities, the food environment is more swamp than desert, with a plethora of fast food; convenience stores selling calorie-dense packaged foods, super-sized sodas, and other sugar-loaded beverages; and other nonfood retail venues selling junk food as a side activity," wrote Fielding and Simon.

Among the factors that may be influencing food choices, according to Gordon-Larsen's group, could be the lack of a car among low-income residents and the fact that supermarkets carry not only healthy foods, but also a wide range of unhealthy products.




And a possible explanation for the inverse correlation between fast food availability and consumption among higher income women could reflect their choice to eat at fast-food establishments other than those specified in the CARDIA questionnaire, such as sandwich shops.




The authors also pointed out that simply classifying restaurants as healthy or unhealthy may be inadequate to explain how the environment influences diet and to help find solutions.




"Alternative or complementary policies include subsidies to small grocery stores for increasing access to specific food such as produce and reduced-fat milk," Gordon-Larson and colleagues observed.

Their study was limited by the possibility of errors in the food database and the lack of information on specific foods consumed.




In addition, no information was provided on food availability and consumption in the work place.

They concluded that simply providing additional supermarkets would have little benefit, "and that alternative policy options such as targeting specific foods or shifting food costs (subsidization or taxation) should be further considered."

12 Signs That The World Is Running Out Of Food

12 Signs That The World Is Running Out Of Food

By Michael Snyder

Tonight millions of American families will shovel huge piles of food into their mouths without even realizing that starvation is rapidly spreading in Africa.

Right now Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are experiencing the worst drought conditions that they have seen in 60 years.

Tens of thousands of African families have abandoned their homes as they desperately search for food and water. Hundreds of thousands of farm animals have died because of the drought. Considering the fact that approximately two-thirds of the people living in the region "make their living by raising goats, sheep, cattle and camels", the word "catastrophic" just is not sufficient to describe what is happening.

Every single day, thousands more head to Dadaab, the biggest refugee camp in the world. Dadaab was originally designed to hold 90,000 people, but now over 360,000 precious people are camped there. In addition, approximately 30,000 desperately hungry people are standing outside the fences waiting to be admitted. It is projected that by the end of the year there will be over a half million people living in Dadaab. Sadly, this is just the beginning. According to the United Nations, there are already 10 million people in the region that are facing severe food shortages, and many fear that if the drought continues we could actually see mass starvation in Africa in 2012.

Hopefully the world will be very generous as they hear about what is happening in the Horn of Africa. But the truth is that food is getting tight all over the globe. Last summer an unprecedented heat wave caused Russia to put restrictions on the export of wheat. Some of the key agricultural areas of China, Pakistan, Brazil and Australia have experienced unprecedented flooding over the past 12 months. Natural disasters have hit U.S. crops hard in many states as well. Crop diseases such as UG99 wheat rust continue to spread. The world continues to lose topsoil at an alarming rate. Things simply do not look promising.

Meanwhile, the price of oil has absolutely soared over the past year. The methods that we use to produce and transport our food take a lot of oil. If the price of oil continues to climb that is going to make it very hard to feed the entire planet.

Most Americans have no idea how desperate things are becoming in many areas of the globe already. Just check out what a recent article in The Guardian had to say about the situation at Dadaab....

"Every day 1,000 Somalis stream across the Kenyan border to Dadaab, which is full to bursting with 367,000 people and already constitutes the largest refugee settlement in the world. They arrive malnourished and dehydrated but – after a walk lasting weeks – grateful that they have made it to a point where they will get food and water."

Sadly, the suffering is not limited to one refugee camp. There are millions of Africans that are now in danger of starvation.

A recent article in The Telegraph described how bad things are getting in parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda....

"Two consecutive poor rainy seasons have resulted in one of the driest years since 1950/51 in many pastoral zones," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said. "There is no likelihood of improvement [in the situation] until 2012," she added.

A lot of these people don't have any money. If aid was not rolling in from elsewhere they would be dropping dead all over the place.

Food prices are rising so quickly in these areas that it is becoming difficult for anyone to be able to afford to buy food.

TEAR Fund executive director Steve Tollestrup says that food prices in the region are really getting out of control.....

"For example, yellow maize prices in the Ethiopian Jiiga grain market had risen by 117 per cent from May 2010 to May 2011, while white maize at the Mandera market in Kenya had risen by nearly 60 per cent."

In some areas of the Horn of Africa we are starting to see food riots. For example, the following is a very brief excerpt from a recent Reuters report....

"Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse people protesting in the capital on Thursday against high food and fuel prices and a shortage of maize which has enraged many in east Africa's biggest economy."

When people cannot even feed themselves they have nothing left to lose.

Today, there are approximately two billion people that spend more than half of their income on food.

So what are they supposed to do when the price of food doubles?

Are they supposed to spend every penny they have just on food?

Most Americans have no idea what it is like to have to scratch and claw just to survive each day.

There are hundreds of millions of people around the globe that are engaged in a desperate struggle to survive.

Meanwhile, the speculators and the big Wall Street banks feel no guilt at all when they drive up the price of food in order to make a few extra bucks.

Look, the truth is that what we are seeing in Africa right now is just the beginning.

When the global economy crashes, things are going to get a lot worse.

Right now a significant percentage of the global population can barely afford to buy enough food to eat. Most people do not realize this, but when the global financial system totally collapses there is a very real possibility that we could see mass starvation.


More than 3 billion people, close to half the world's population, live on less than $2 a day


Over the past year, the global price of food has risen by 37%



Just about every major agricultural commodity has been skyrocketing in price
Check out what a recent Bloomberg article had to say about what has been happening to many key agricultural commodities over the past year....



"Corn futures advanced 77 percent in the past 12 months in Chicago trading, a global benchmark, rice gained 39 percent and sugar jumped 64 percent. There will be shortages in corn, wheat, soybeans, coffee and cocoa this year or next, according to Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank Groep. Prices also rose after droughts and floods from Australia to Canada ruined crops last year. European farmers are now contending with their driest growing season in more than three decades.

According to the World Bank, 44 million more people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices


Sadly, rising food prices is not a new trend. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the global price of food has gone up by 240% since 2004


A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population owns approximately 1% of all global wealth


The average income per person in the poorest countries on the continent of Africa has fallen by one-fourth over the past 20 years


It is estimated that over 80% of the world's population lives in countries where the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening



Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry every single night


Every 3.6 seconds someone starves to death and three-quarters of them are children under the age of 5


It is estimated that the entire continent of Africa only owns approximately 1 percent of the total wealth of the world



According to the most recent "Global Wealth Report" by Credit Suisse, the wealthiest 0.5% of the global population controls over 35% of all the wealth on the planet



Want to know how serious surging food prices are affecting the rest of the world?

Click here to check out photos of riots resulting from surging food prices around the world>

Crooks Posing As Health Inspectors Scam Restaurants

Crooks Posing As Health Inspectors Scam Restaurants
Scammers Demand Money, Police Say

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Police are searching for scammers posing as Iowa health inspectors and targeting restaurants throughout Des Moines.

Investigators said scammers are specifically targeting central Iowa's Asian community hoping that restaurant owners and employees will give in to extortion.

Police said the crooks are falsely informing restaurant managers that customers have filed complaints. The fake inspectors then say that they can make the problems disappear if the owners provide cash.

"The most recent example was a Des Moines area restaurant that literally lost thousands of dollars out of their bank account as a result of these scammers," said David Werning with the Department of Inspections and Appeals.

In the past few days, as many as 10 central Iowa eateries have reported similar attempted scams.

"It appears they are targeting Asian-American restaurants. It's our belief they're picking these restaurants because, often times, the owners and operators don't have a clear understanding of the English language," Werning said.

The owner of one restaurant in Ankeny said a caller identified himself as a federal food inspector and asked for sensitive personal and financial information. The owner said she hung up the phone.

"She didn't fall for the ploy this time -- she hung up on the scammers," Werning said. "But her first experience, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of several thousand dollars from the company's bank account. So she learned a lesson the hard way. Some of the tactics have been bullying. If you try to argue with them, they get very forceful."

Authorities said restaurant owners and employees should know that state inspectors will never ask for personal information, never threaten to close up the restaurant if owners do not cooperate and would never suggest problems can just go away if the owner hands over cash.

Anyone who receives a call like this should call police and the Department of Inspections and Appeals.

Shark fin ban debuts with mixed reactions

Shark fin ban debuts with mixed reactions

Restaurants in Hawaii are adjusting to the nation's first total ban on shark fins — a pricey Chinese delicacy that activists are trying to eliminate from people's diets to save the world's sharks.

Thursday was the last day the restaurants could legally serve shark fin under a state law enacted last year prohibiting the possession, sale or distribution of shark fins.

The law took effect July 1, 2010, but gave restaurants a year to use up any remaining inventory. Now, restaurants serving fin will be fined $5,000 to $15,000 the first time they are caught. A third offense would result in up to a year in prison and a fine of $35,000 to $50,000.

Royal Garden, a restaurant in the Ala Moana Hotel whose entrance featured giant shark fins in a large glass display case until last year, served the last of its shark fin a week ago, except for a few bits a handful of customers reserved to savor on Thursday. Going forward, the restaurant plans to offer a vegetarian or imitation version of the dish by substituting gelatin for real fin.

"It's nothing compared to the real one, but that's the only thing we can do," said Ian Tam, Royal Garden's manager. He said he would use the alternatives to try to please customers, but he doubted they would be satisfied.

"Just like imitation crab meat — you can tell," he said.

Environmentalists have hailed Hawaii's law as a landmark development in their campaign to prevent the rapid depletion of the world's sharks. Data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature say about a third of open-ocean shark species are in danger of becoming extinct, primarily due to overfishing.

The legislation was designed to go a step further than the previous law, which aimed to control shark finning — the act of cutting fins off sharks at sea and dumping their carcasses in the ocean — by banning the landing of shark fins at Hawaii ports. The latest law aims to choke off demand for the product.

Activists say Hawaii has spurred others to follow suit, like Washington state, where the governor signed a bill in May banning the sale, trade or distribution of shark fins. Similar legislation is being considered in California and Oregon.

Relatively few Hawaii restaurants are affected by the law as only about a dozen establishments in the islands served the luxury item. The dish was particularly popular with Japanese tourists because it cost so much less to order here than back home.

Daniel Leung, general manager of Panda Cuisine, a restaurant near Ala Moana Center, said he's happy with the law. He didn't want to serve shark fin for environmental reasons, but put it on the menu because big-spending customers wouldn't come to his restaurant if he didn't offer it. Now that it's banned across the state, he doesn't have to worry about losing any business.

"I really think it's a good law," Leung said. "We should have had the law a long time ago."

Leung noted shark fin itself is tasteless, so diners will be able to enjoy the same flavor eating the imitation version but spend a lot less for their food.

The flavor in shark fin dishes comes from the ingredients it's cooked with, like the rich sauce poured over shark fin fillet or the savory pork and chicken base in shark fin soup.

Fast food chains to serve alcoholic drinks

Fast food chains to serve alcoholic drinks

Fast-food outlets such as Burger King and Sonic in a handful of cities is moving towards serving beer and wine. The move is not without controversy, though, and has drawn fire from several critics.

A way to pay for your meal of choice won't be the only thing fast food chains are going to require their patrons to present. Assuming you get the newest addition to the menu, you are going to have to show them something else: your ID card proving that you are at least 21 years old. That's right, certain outlets of popular burger-serving franchises have begun or will begin to sell alcohol. This has been done “in an attempt to boost business,” according to USA Today.

Following suit of Burger King's new “Whopper Bars” - kiosk-style shops with limited versions of the general menu - which now serve beer; Sonic Drive-In will also be testing the spirit waters by including beer and wine to their drink list at two restaurants in South Florida soon. Whopper bars are generally located at places such as malls and airports among other venues that need to be space-savvy. At first Burger King had no intention of including alcohol in North American stores, but it has since had a change of heart. Beer is now sold at the Miami, Las Vegas and Kansas City outlets.

Sonic Drive-In - known simply as Sonic - is a fast food chain centered around the theme of diners from the 1950s.

The coffee connoisseurs at Starbucks also plan to profit off of local beer and wine in a few of their shops in the company's native Seattle.

In a society with an economy that has seen better days, putting alcoholic beverages on the menu is a means to "compete with casual dining - and can boost typically slow evening business," said Ron Paul, president of restaurant consulting Technomic. "For consumers, it's basically about having it your way — even if it's having a beer with your burger."

But of course, with every new trend there seem to be those who want to criticize it.

Michele Simon of the Marin Institute - an alcohol watchdog group - stated "Fast food plus fast alcohol equals fast drunks." to USA Today.

Christopher Muller - dean at the School of Hospitality at the University of Boston - said that "You don't want someone downing a quick beer, then getting into their cars and driving off. It's a delicate balance of risk and reward."

But apparently Burger King, Sonic and Starbucks are perceiving selling alcoholic drinks as more of an opportunity than a risk.