MGM touts its attractions, food offerings

Remember the Plainfield Dog Track? You drove an hour to watch greyhounds chase a fake rabbit and each race was over in about a half-minute. Connecticut’s casinos made that place a distant memory.

Today impressive technology makes the modern casino an alluring whirl of flashing lights, video and sound. But without fine food, hotel and entertainment options, not to mention solid ties to the surrounding community, all you have is a sad slots parlor somewhere.

The state’s massive casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, know this, and they not only sport large theater and arena facilities but they have diversified with convention business as well as thrill rides, racing karts, business and community partnerships and alluring national and local chain restaurants.

Tornado-raked Springfield, Mass., meanwhile, welcomed a reset of its downtown fortunes, endured a long siting process and staked a proud market flag in late August with $960 million MGM Springfield, featuring many hungry slot machines but comparatively few restaurants, non-gaming attractions or show venues. That makes the ones they do have critical for return customers, along with any smart additions to their property downtown in the next few years.

We were there at the opening and returned recently to try out a few of those attractions and restaurants:

⏩ A great thing about MGM is how it has employed many people from the city, surrounding towns and Connecticut. But the absolute best feature is how architects, designers and MGM planners have weaved in elements of Springfield’s industrial and literary history into its hotel, bars and industrial-chic design elements.

For instance, the only image of Springfield-born Theodor Geisel of “Dr. Seuss” fame hangs on the bar wall in MGM’s Chandler Steakhouse (where the chef is “Hell’s Kitchen” season 14 winner Meghan Gill). The name of the restaurant comes from the 1846 Union House/Chandler Hotel, and part of the signs on that building were preserved in the lobby of the new hotel.

At TAP Sports Bar, which borders the outdoor Armory Square, you can

Joe Amarante / Hearst Connecticut Media Dan Hickok prepares drinks with copper bar tools at the Lobby Bar.