Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hard Rock offers new food, drinks
The dining and drinking changes keep coming at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood as a massive new guitar-shaped hotel prepares to open in October. A new food court featuring healthier options and the new 24-hour center bar have opened in recent days, and so has an expanded Bol Asian restaurant.
The food court and center bar have moved from previous locations, but the renovated Bol remains in its former casino-floor site near the garage escalators.
Bol, which offers Vietnamese pho and Chinese dishes such as wonton noodle soup, fried rice and General Tso’s Chicken until the wee hours (1 a.m. weekdays, 3 a.m. weekends) has nearly tripled its capacity, from 58 to 160 seats. It opens daily at 11:30 a.m. It has added 6,200 square feet of space, including a full bar, and plans to increase menu options.
The new center bar, closer to the new expansion wing, features a lounge area. The new bar area will not serve any food.
The new food court, located near the pool on the property’s west side, debuted the last week of July.
It features an all-day breakfast kiosk named “Egg” and a stand named “Healthy,” with salads, grain bowls, vegan and gluten-free items.
The new food court also features pizza and Italian food (Sirico’s, a carryover from the previous site), Asian cuisine
(Asian Palace, with trendy wrinkles such as bao buns and hangar steak skewers), burgers (Shake N’Burger), and a new hot dog stand (Lucille’s).
Ark Restaurants, the company that ran the previous food court since the Hard Rock’s 2004 opening, will operate the new food court. Seminole Hard Rock spokesman Gary Bitner says the new offerings reflect current dining trends. “These days, it’s all about fresh salads and healthy choices, along with good pizza and all-day breakfast,” Bitner says.
Among the stalls that have disappeared: an icecream stand, a dessert kiosk with pastries and cakes, a Jewish-style delicatessen and a stand featuring Latin/ Cuban cuisine.
At the new food court, a high-temperature dome oven is in place at Sirico’s to make pizzas. Egg will feature omelets and egg sandwiches, including one with avocado and turkey ($7.95) and a New York BEC
($6.95, with bacon, egg and cheddar on English muffin). Healthy’s offerings include an Asian pear arugula salad, kale and quinoa bowls, and a zucchini with goat cheese wrap.
Many new food options are on the horizon when a new wing near the guitar hotel opens later this year. A total of 16 restaurants will be on the property when construction is complete, a Hard Rock spokeswoman said earlier this year. Council Oak steakhouse will move to a new location from its temporary ballroom site, but high-end Japanese restaurant Kuro will stay in its current space in the old wing.
It’s unclear if any previous restaurant tenants from the outdoor Paradise Shops (razed to make room for the new hotel), such as Gloria Estefan’s Bongos Cuban restaurant, will be part of the new lineup. It’s also unclear if chains such as Johnny Rockets and Hooters will return. Steve Martorano, the local Italian-American chef who had a restaurant at the Paradise Shops, says he will not return.
The Hard Rock Cafe moved to its bigger new digs in the expansion wing last November. Blue Plate, Hard Rock’s overnight diner, remains temporarily housed in the same ballroom as Council Oak. No word on when it will move to a new home.
Hours for the food court stalls (except Egg) are 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday (until 1 a.m. for Sirico’s) and 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday (4 a.m. for Sirico’s). Egg’s hours are 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 6 a.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday.
Bol’s hours are 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-3 a.m. Friday-Saturday. For more information, call Bol at 954-585-5104.