Dining in Connecticut

The yin & yang of Mohegan Sun's new restaurant; TAO to open March 23

By Joe Amarante

The state's restaurant scene could use some good news and a big score for newly optimistic diners after a year-plus of takeout and closings. So here's one in Uncasville.

TAO Asian Bistro and Lounge – the long-awaited replacement for upscale Bobby Flay's Bar Americain restaurant at Mohegan Sun Casino, will open March 23.

We chatted the other day with Mohegan President Jeff Hamilton and Managing Partners of TAO Andrew Goldberg and Paul Goldstein during a quick tour of the lavish new eatery.

TAO's debut has been pushed back a few times due to COVID and the complexities of assembling the lavish set pieces of this Asian food experience – flourishes such as lighting fixtures, small statues, fountains and the big centerpiece, a 16-foot-tall Quan Yin statue in the main dining room with more outstretched arms than the Red Sox bullpen.

“When we were closed,” said Mohegan Sun President Jeff Hamilton, “we kept the construction project going but it slowed pretty significantly. I think COVID has been, from a restrictions standpoint and then even from a materials standpoint, really, really difficult.”

TAO's managing partners said there were targeted vendors such as artists and producers who also had COVID issues. The procurement of the antique doors of the restaurant are an example, said Hamilton. But now the place is ready and the staff has been undergoing training.

“It's almost an emotional experience every time you walk in here,” said Hamilton. “You're just amazed at how beautiful the restaurant is.”

Hamilton said officials didn't hold back the opening due to COVID restrictions and lower numbers of visitors to the resort “but luckily it's timed perfect where we're opening” in a more upbeat moment.

Officials said the first day of accepting calls brought more than 1,500 reservations for the opening month.

Goldberg credited Hamilton with sticking to the plan for TAO despite ups and downs during a tumultuous time for casino and all restaurants.

“For us,” said Hamilton, “I think over the last seven or eight years, what we've done is try to stop depending so much on gaming, right? I mean you think about the Expo Center, the additional hotel tower, more meetings and conventions. I think strategically food and beverage is an area where we want to create more destination (offerings)... experiences that are more and more unique. You're never going to experience anything like TAO in the state of Connecticut.”

Hamilton estimated the cost of the 300-seat TAO build-out, including a 4,200-square-foot kitchen “where the magic happens,” at $8 million.

During the pandemic, Mohegan hosted a bubble basketball tournament and quietly hosted Bellator mixed martial arts and Showtime boxing matches in the mostly empty Mohegan Sun Arena, for nationwide TV. That filled up floors of the hotel with production staffers during the past year.

The busy Expo and Convention Center was gushing business prior to the pandemic, with its last big hurrah being the vast Wine & Food Fest in January 2020. In recent weeks by contrast, part of the facility is being used as a COVID vaccine outlet.

“Just over the last weekend,” said Hamilton, “we did over a thousand (vaccine) shots each day.”

Mohegan's TAO becomes the sixth and latest of the chain, joining two in New York and ones in Las Vegas at the Venetian, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Hamilton said aside from the big TAO opening, officials are looking to reopen valet parking sites before summer begins and (if the situation allows it) the Arena to live shows or events, if at limited capacity. First up is likely is the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction events May 13-15.

Asked what makes TAO different from the average Asian cuisine eatery, Goldberg said, “I think it's our people. I think we care so much about the people of this community here. We care about our teammates. I think anybody can make great Chinese food, but I think it's the way we make people feel when they're in the room, that we care about them and that the guest experience is everything.”

The company did takeout and virtual hookups with fans during COVID, like so many other entities, showcasing partner/chef Ralph Scamardella on Zoom making recipes.

Of the cuisine, Goldberg said, “We call it the greatest hits of Asian food. It's not a fusion; it's pan-Asian.”

TAO cuisine chief Goldstein said the food is “authentic Hong Kong, Japanese and Thai. … We don't like the word 'fusion' because we don't infuse it with anything. It's authentic... We have chefs who are from there; our chefs go there quite frequently actually.”

Along with craft cocktails and Asian menu favorites such as Satay of Chilean Sea Bass, Lobster Wonton and Peking Duck, Scamardella and Mohegan's Patrick Woodward designed “a great surf-and-turf specifically for this venue,” said Goldstein. “It's a 32-ounce bone-in ribeye, it's called a tomahawk steak...and it comes with a lobster and it's done Chinese style.”

A highlight of the new Mohegan site, which has completely transformed the former (more open) space that was Bobby Flay's Bar Americain on the edge of the attractive hotel lobby, is the dramatic entryway and different spaces of TAO:

• There's an entry hallway with arches leading to a host or hostess, then the 1,600-square-foot Ink Lounge (with changeable mood lighting and posh furnishings for about 40 people). “As the energy grows,” said Goldberg of the lighting, “it gets darker throughout the night.”\

• Then there's a water portal, a walkway to the main dining room with water flowing on the glass ceiling and down the exterior of the glass walls.

• The 3,800-square-foot main dining room also has a secondary bar with seats and four adjacent private dining rooms. Modern music will be at a lively but not overpowering volume for guests conversing, said Goldstein.

• The original TAO in New York (circa 2000) was the carriage house for the Vandebilt estate, where renovations revealed beautiful aged brick behind some walls that the partners have recreated in all of their venues for a feeling of warmth, they said.

The word Tao in Chinese philosophy refers to the absolute principle underlying the universe, enveloping the ideas of yin and yang and a code of behavior that is in harmony with the natural order. Quan Yin, depicted in the dining room's focal point statue, is one of the major deities in Buddhism (goddess of mercy and compassion) and one of the most popular used in feng shui.

So in a key spot at Mohegan, the neat but comparatively sterile look of Bar Americain has been replaced by a colorful, lush series of Asian-accented spaces.

“It's also one of our favorite things...” said Goldstein. “We've taken over a lot of venues in the past... and what we love to do is to rearrange it so much that people walk in and say, 'Wait, that used to be the front door and that kitchen used to be..., you know? Totally change everything.”

Joe Amarante is a former TV, arts, dining and travel writer and editor at the New Haven Register and Hearst CT.