In November 2020, L’Auberge opened Red Lotus Asian Kitchen, a Vietnamese and Pan-Asian restaurant. Soon, Hollywood Casino “will be a place not just to gamble, but for entertainment, food and a little more broad appeal,” Mollura says.

That space will now be converted into venues for banquet halls and meetings.The renovation process is expected to begin in winter 2021. Mollura says the casino has wanted to get rid of the buffet for a while now, and once COVID-19 safety concerns arose about buffets around the country, it reaffirmed their decision to brainstorm different dining options. Both the bar and Big Chicken will have outdoor seating with river views. Hollywood Casino also plans to add a sports bar to its offerings.

“It’s something downtown that doesn’t exist. “I think a lot of people are really going to like it,” Mollura says about Big Chicken. The Baton Rouge location will be the third Big Chicken in the U.S., with other two locations in Las Vegas and Glendale, California. It will sell crispy chicken sandwiches, soul food sides, milkshakes and alcoholic beverages. In February 2022, Hollywood Casino plans to open Big Chicken, a fast-casual chicken restaurant and bar created by former LSU and NBA basketball player Shaquille O’Neal.

So it came down to expanding the food and beverage outlets.”

“In order to move the casino to the land, we had to prove we had serious economic development,” says Aaron Mollura, vice president of marketing and food and beverage at Hollywood Casino. Some casinos have already opened their latest additions-including new dining options-while others are just getting started on their expansions. It gave them the opportunity to revamp and rebrand their businesses. It began in 2018, when John Bel Edwards signed a bill approving riverboat casinos to move their gambling spaces on land.

Buffet at l'auberge casino baton rouge