Thank y’all so much.”Īmid the Southern-seashore decor, lunch was already cooking, and a tribe of servers in still-creased blue polo shirts beamed from one corner, ready to swoop in post-photo ops to start their debut service. The most important people here are you gamers and guests. I’m funny about putting my name on a brand, but I’m proud. “This is the largest grand opening we’ve had,” she said.

A Deen-themed retail shop buffers the cavernous 364-seat restaurant from the slot-machine soundtrack.įlanked by a trifecta of Joliet Mayor Tom Giarrante, casino senior vice president and general manager Darren VanDover and executive chef Peter Jeschke, Deen accepted a ceremonial key to the city. All the while, the steady beeps and bells of slot machines rang from the gaming area, where patrons carried on oblivious to the Deen-sparked pandemonium. From the casino’s main lobby, an impatient crowd snaked across the dizzily patterned carpet back to the parking garage.

But last month at Harrah’s Joliet, Paula Deen was a bona-fide celebrity, leaving a trail of shaky camera-phone snapshots and yelping fans in her wake.įlown into Joliet for a matter of hours, Deen was there to cut the ribbon on the casino’s new Paula Deen’s Kitchen restaurant and buffet. To her critics, she’s a hypocritical diabetic she-devil. To her followers, she’s a half-sugar, half-butter demigoddess.

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