Beau Rivage Rebirth
Rebirth is a good thing at Beau
This is basically a trip report from the Beau Rivage, good read
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Beau Rivage hotel and casino was inundated with water and its future changed forever. Its restaurants were wiped out and the entire operation was shut down for one year. In 99.9 percent of the cases, that is a bad thing. For that 0.1 percent there is Olives.
Beau Rivage’s parent company, MGM Mirage, had a clean slate with which to work and they obviously sunk a sizable portion of the $550 million rebuilding budget into its restaurant operations.
Before the storm, Beau Rivage offered a mediocre Italian restaurant, an on-again, off-again fine-dining restaurant whose atmosphere was dictated mostly by huge saltwater aquariums that lined the walls, a Japanese concept and a Chinese concept - the only concept Steve Wynn sent down from his Las Vegas mother ship, The Belagio - Noodles.
Noodles was my favorite Chinese restaurant in the state, and certainly the best of the original Beau Rivage concepts, but it didn’t make the cut.
Lucky for us, Beau Rivage has brought celebrity chef, Todd English’s Mediterranean mega restaurant, Olives, to town.
Visual appeal
Olives is possibly the most visually appealing restaurant in the state. The dining room was designed by architect Jeffrey Beers and is designed to look like an ancient olive mill. It, along with the exposed kitchen, are prime examples that casinos can and will spend money to get the very best.
I have never eaten at the original Olives in Boston, but I enjoyed an excellent meal at the Aspen Olives a few years ago. The Coast restaurant, at least appearance-wise, is better.
On the night of my visit the restaurant had been open one month, the casino was packed, yet the restaurant was only three-quarters full. It should be noted that the waiting line to acquire a table in the all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant stretched about half the length of a football field.
The amuse bouche, a basket of freshly baked breads, two tapenades and a small assortment of the restaurant’s namesake kicked the meal off with a bang.
The good, bad
As I am wont to do, I ordered several courses - five from the appetizer menu - and all were first-rate. The fig and prosciutto flatbread and carpaccio were the best of the bunch. The tuna was hit-and-miss, with each bite as some were flavorful and spicy and others were bland and boring.
The pastrami seasoned ribs was an example of a dish brilliantly conceived yet average when produced. The portion was too large. The ribs were melt-in-your-mouth tender but were the victims of a heavy hand holding the pepper shaker.
The final appetizer - a crab gnocco - was delicate, flavorful and made perfect use of the classic crab-avocado pairing.
The service at Olives was attentive yet spotty at times with several long drags between courses, though nothing that couldn’t - or shouldn’t - be written off to a restaurant still in its honeymoon period.
We ordered three pasta dishes, the best of which was a ravioli that I would certainly order again. The other two weren’t executed to English’s standards but were miles ahead of anything served in the Italian restaurant that previously occupied the space.
The restaurant was filled with a strange mix of casino slot junkies and local members of the upwardly mobile. The man seated next to me asked for steak sauce to accompany his $47.
By 9 p.m. the music had been turned up a notch with a steady techno beat that screamed “big city” and I almost forgot I was home.
Olives should be listed among the state’s top restaurants and is a welcome addition to the Coast’s new restaurant offerings.
Source: Hattiesburg American