Indian Casinos Stake Claim to Resort Visitors

Dining, shows, upscale lodges in the cards.

Article and photos by Spud Hilton
San Francisco Chronicle - March 21, 2004

Coarsegold, Madera County -- At first I really missed the cha-clank, cha-clank, cha-clank of coins crash-landing in the basin. I mean, honestly, what rocket scientist thought up slot machines that don't dispense cold, hard silver?

But when the Double Diamond Triple Flaming Hyper Turbo Jackpot machine spit out a cash voucher for $109 -- a clean, portable, spendable check issued from the First Bank of One-Armed Bandits (and yes, they still have arms) -- I realized that they don't make slots the way they used to. That might be a good thing.

And when we ambled back to our room, a stylish, roomy refuge where we suited up for a late dinner at the San Francisco-style steakhouse right off the casino floor, I realized that they don't make Indian casinos the way they used to -- and that's definitely a good thing.

Open since June on a hillside near the Sierra foothills town of Coarsegold, Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino is among the growing collective of tribal gaming palaces in California adding the word "resort" to their resume, upping the ante for tourism and gaming dollars by incorporating hotel rooms, improved dining and venues for name entertainment

It's no bluff, either.

In Southern California, the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula sports 522 rooms and suites, 2,000 slot machines and 86 table games, a 1,200-seat theater, seven restaurants and a health club. It is the largest tribal gaming hotel in the state -- at least until Harrah's Rincon Casino and Resort near San Diego finishes its 450-room expansion in December. Closer to the Bay Area, Cache Creek Casino in Brooks (Yolo County) will open an expanded casino in April and a 200-room hotel and health spa in June. (See "If you go" for more Indian casino resorts in the state.)

Before you get too impressed with those numbers, though, a little perspective: Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas has 2,471 rooms and 24 restaurants. Indian casinos in California have a long way to go before they're in that league.

From the outside, the $180 million Chukchansi looks more like an L-shaped Western alpine lodge than the next Bally's -- like Yosemite's Ahwahnee, only with updated design touches, more parking and fewer faux outdoorsmen. The place is owned by the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians and run by the Sacramento entertainment firm that developed and built it. (Eventually, tribal leaders will take over the operation.)

During a recent stay, I had an "Is this the right place?" moment in the airy alpine-lodge lobby, struck by the rich African mahogany, Indian rugs, stone pillars, grand piano and overstuffed chairs and couches. West-facing picture windows look out over the brushy foothills of central Madera County. I thought, "What's wrong with these people? Don't they know every square inch of floor should have blinking, beeping, booping slots?"

Apparently, they don't -- and that's a good thing.

Chukchansi has 192 rooms (expansion is likely in a few years), including a pair of 1,500-square-foot Presidential Suites, each a two-bedroom sanctuary with hot tub, wet bar, living and dining rooms, plasma screen TVs and a mountain of granite and marble. The standard rooms are a little roomier than typical hotel lodging and include some of the lodge-theme touches, including elements of nature (leaves, trees, stone) in most of the designs and furnishings, earthy tile throughout the bathroom and a polished granite countertop.

The alpine lodge and Indian themes run across every surface that isn't a slot machine or blackjack table -- or the insides of several of the seven heavily themed restaurants. There are plenty of nods to Yosemite National Park (the park entrance is about 50 miles up Highway 41), as well as plenty of tasteful design references to the Chukchansi Indians, staying well away from the cheesy drugstore Indian statues typically associated with tribal casinos.

Maybe it's the newness, but the casino floor has a spark, a vibe, that more closely resembles the Vegas scene -- or at least South Lake Tahoe -- than the smoky, depressing havens for hard-core day-trip gamblers that typified the Indian casinos of a few years ago. On a Friday night, the slots were spinning and players crowded around the tables for blackjack and some sort of mutant four-card poker.

It's worth looking up from the sea of 1,800 slots and 46 tables on the casino floor. Giant logs and cut beams crisscross the high ceiling, as if lifted right out of a lodge at Yellowstone. Slate, teak, oak and granite are around every corner. (They don't make logs and boulders like they use to, apparently. Most of the decor's "natural" elements were fabricated, based on casts of the real things. The fire department thinks that's a good thing.)

The elaborate design and the theme restaurants were a priority from the start, said Doug Shipley, president of the Cascade Entertainment Group, which built the resort. "A slot machine is a slot machine. A table game is a table game. There's very little you can do to set yourself apart in a casino environment."

You don't notice it right away, but even though Chukchansi's restaurants are in the casino, the casino feels distant when you're inside the restaurants. During a pricey, generously sized meal at Vintages, the upscale steakhouse, I didn't once hear the beeps and boops of the slots just 20 feet from the heavy windows and double doors.

The last test of Chukchansi's status as a destination resort? Entertainment, which included the mandatory generic blues band in Firehouse Blues, a dark, airy brew pub; and top acts in the Half Dome Theater. The, um, name entertainment during my stay -- '80s love-ballad band Air Supply -- found plenty of fans eager to relive slow dances in the gymnasium, but the venue itself was more like that gym than a theater, with a decidedly temporary stage and most folks sitting in rows of padded folding chairs. (If nothing else, the expanding tribal casinos are providing more work for '70s and '80s acts that before just worked Konocti Harbor Resort or, eventually, the Modoc County Fair.)

Still, by the end of the night, it was easy to forget we were in Coarsegold, not Vegas -- or at least Reno -- especially when returning to the casino floor.

And the coins? It turns out that, while silver is no longer the gold standard here, slot makers recognize the Pavlovian music of coins dropping. When I hit the "cash out" button, the voucher printer whirred while the machine played a static-laced sound recording: Cha-clank, cha-clank, cha-clank.

A good thing? Sure -- if you're the one with the voucher.

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IF YOU GO

-- Chukchansi Gold

Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino, 711 Lucky Lane (off Highway 41), Coarsegold, CA 93614. (866) 794-6946, www.chukchansigold.com. 192 rooms and suites, six restaurants, brew pub with live music, theater/conference space. Hotel: Standard rooms, $99 Sunday-Thursday, $149 weekends. Vintages Steakhouse: Dinner for two with wine, salad and appetizer was $75 total (there's no tax). Deuce's Diner: Diner fare with fries and drinks for two, $16. Goldfield's Cafe: Breakfast (pancakes, eggs and juice) for two, $15..