Back from Chicago

My apologies to everyone who got tired of looking at Stanley Ho‘s wizened mug. S&G was on a brief, unannounced hiatus, as yours truly ventured to the cold but wondrous place that is Chicago, home to the greatest architecture in America. My visit was not impelled by any desire to see the Chicagoland wonders of Gary Loveman or Peter J. Carlino but rather those of Richard Wagner and Giacomo Puccini, whose Lohengrin and The Girl of the Golden West were playing — quite spendidly, too — at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

However, I did cast my eye around the Loop with thoughts as to where the city fathers might put the downtown casin0 for which they’ve been lobbying. Even more than traffic issues, what’s likeliest to keep it out of the heart of Chicago is a sheer dearth of space. If you think The Cosmopolitan has a small footprint, you should see some of the sliver-like skyscrapers they’re erecting now. Unless you’d put a casino in that Donald Trump monstrosity that looms over where the Sun-Times building used to be — and ship in the customers by river, I’m foxed as to where you’d put such a thing.

Also, it’s a time-honored political tradition to place casinos where traffic and commerce currently aren’t, so I’d look for near-downtown areas that have some lebensraum and could use an economic shot in the arm. Lastly, I’d rule out Penn National Gaming, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International as prospective developers, since they have significant Chicagoland exposure already. (Then again, Caesars is so crazy these days, you never know.) Wynn Chicago has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

P.S.: We happened to be there for Restaurant Week and if a Vegas-based gaming company thinks it’s going to impress Chicagoans with its gustatory offerings (and prices), think again. Joel Robuchon and one or two other chefs might make a splash. But if your “Kings of Cooking” are Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck, don’t bother.