Part of the embrace of resort-style casinos in Southern California is its incorporation of fine dining, where guests can splurge their spoils after a lucky play. For the Great Oak Steakhouse at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, that means sampling several ounces of premium Wagyu steak for dinner or taking a $350 shot of whiskey.
The upscale restaurant, which seats up to 235 guests, reopened this month after seven months of renovation. It now includes a lounge bar with a new cocktail and wine menu and shares a door with the casino’s Italian kitchen, Paisano’s.
Andre Pinto, executive chef of Pechanga Resort Casino, said that guests have been happy to return after the restaurant’s reopening and that staff are also enjoying the new kitchen.
“The menu is more elevated and high-end, and the guys love the presentation of how we bring our food to guests,” Pinto said.
The chef’s table private dining experience will debut in January at Pechanga Resort Casino’s newly renovated Great Oak Steakhouse.
(Watchara Phomicinda )
In January, Pinto will roll out his new Chef’s Table experience, which is part of the restaurant’s effort to elevate its dining experience. The space is an enclosed room with glass walls and a tableside view into the kitchen with a long table that seats 10-12 and is surrounded by bottles of wines from around the world.
Guests at the chef’s table can expect what Pechanga officials describe as a Michelin-star dining experience, with an eight-course menu including appetizers, entrées and desserts that change every six weeks. Those taking part in the dinner can watch their food prepared in front of them and have chefs come out and explain the inspiration and concept behind each dish.
“I’ve worked in many different high-end restaurants, and having an open kitchen here has always been one of my goals. It’s a dream come true,” Pinto said. “Guests can see behind the scenes, which can be intimidating for some of the cooks, but they’re learning, and we like the interaction with the guests.”
Andre Pinto, executive chef of Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula.
(Courtesy of Watchara Phomicinda)
The rollout of the first Chef’s Table menu will pay homage to Pechanga’s other eateries, taking the most popular dishes from each restaurant and reconstructing them into upscale bites.
“We’re going to take guests through a journey of the menu and the tastes of Pechanga,” Pinto said. “One of the dishes is going to be a loco moco, and it’s something that when you look at the plate, it does not look like one, but when you bite into it, you’ll know the flavors.”
The regular menu for the steakhouse will be seasonal and changed every three months. The reopening menu this month features both American and Japanese Wagyu beef; lobster served with sweet onion soubise, lardons, pearl onions and roasted potatoes; and Scottish salmon served with seasonal vegetables and trout roe.
Part of the expansion of the steakhouse was the creation of a lounge bar, which seats about 40 people, including the 14 bar-side seats and 10 tables that can each seat up to four guests. The space has two TVs behind its bar for sporting events. The bar opens daily at 3 p.m., two hours before the steakhouse and Paisano’s next door. Hungry guests can order food earlier off of the bar menu, which includes smashed sliders ($24), shrimp and scallop toast ($22) and Wagyu and tuna belly ($35).
Pechanga Resort Casino’s new mixologist Nicholas Dukes pours a cocktail at the newly reopened Great Oak Steakhouse in Temecula.
(Watchara Phomicinda )
In recent months, Pechanga has added property mixologist Nicholas Dukes and sommelier Zachary Abeyta to its team . They are both working to expand the wine and liquor options throughout the casino, including at Great Oak.
The bar includes local and international selections from around the world, and the higher the shelf, the more rare and higher the price. The more expensive liquor bottles run up to $7,000, but guests can purchase single glass pours that are still pricey, but only commit them to a partial bottle with the high-end price tag. A column dedicated to the bar’s whiskey menu pays homage to the liquor by making a variety of old-fashioned cocktails using whiskey sourced from Mexico, Tokyo or North Ireland, each priced at around $18.
Dukes said his approach to mixing cocktails involves incorporating fresh-pressed juices, house-made syrups made from dehydrated tea leaves and local ingredients.
The cocktail menu also has exclusive drinks to the lounge bar for $16 each, such as the Great Oak Martini made with Chopin Vodka, Hendrick’s Gin, Lillet Blanc, cucumber, basil and Meyer lemon; the Royal 75 made with Empress 1908 Gin, butterfly pea flower, local honey, Meyer lemon and champagne; and El Draque Noir made with Ron Zacapa No. 23 Rum, mint, blackberries, demerara sugar and lime.
“Mixology is just a fun word for a bartender who’s really good at trivia,” Dukes said. “It’s facts, understanding origins and spirits, how they meld together, how they pair with food and how to present it to a guest based on their preference.”
Pechanga Resort Casino’s new sommelier Zachary Abeyta inside the wine cellar of the newly renovated Great Oak Steakhouse in Temecula.
(Courtesy of Watchara Phomicinda )
Sommelier Abeyta’s wine list has introduced 150 new wines at the property’s restaurants that feature California wines as a specialty but also include wines by the bottle and the glass from Chile and South Africa.
“We’re trying to make it a little more modern but also keep it traditional,” Abeyta said. “It’s really good for maybe someone dining by themselves who wants to have a good glass of wine, but they want to avoid ordering the bottle or a couple who comes to enjoy a class with our food. It’s nice to have a really solid glass of wine that is of good quality and not worry about the rest of the bottle.”
With the combination of fine-dining dishes and rare selections of liquor and wine, the team at the Great Oak Steakhouse is hoping to deliver big for everyone visiting the property in the long term.
“The program that we’re trying to build here is creating something that people are not hesitant or intimidated by and where it’s welcoming and enjoyable,” Dukes said.
The Great Oak Steakhouse
Hours: 5-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 5-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Bar hours: 3-10 p.m. Sundays- Thursdays, 3-10 p.m., and 3-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Where: Pechanga Resort Casino, 45000 Pechanga Parkway, Temecula
Online: pechanga.com
Vargas writes for the Southern California News Group.