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Wahlberg brothers launch latest eatery at Foxwoods

 With the Yankees and Red Sox playing a for-pride-only game on the bar TVs of the new Wahlburgers eatery at Foxwoods Resort Casino, the celebrity Wahlberg brothers marked the latest opening with an appearance Thursday afternoon that delighted fans at the massive resort.

Visitors were lined up outside as officials, invited guests and media members milled about along a red carpet and inside the compact eatery. The brothers first worked the red-carpet line of mostly social media influencers and some of the fans lucky enough to snap selfies with Donnie, Mark and Paul Wahlberg.

Walhburgers, which serves a variety of burgers, sandwiches, salads, bar-food sides such as fries and tots, along with cocktails and shakes, continues a string of recent additions to Foxwoods built around TV and movie celebrities. Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen opened this summer; Guy Fieri's Kitchen & Bar has been at Foxwoods for several years, and Sugar Factory posts celebrity photos on its pillars at the always-evolving casino concourse.

Paul Wahlberg is the chef of the three. Donnie is the singer/movie star and founding member of New Kids on the Block, and Mark is the former rapper Marky Mark who is also an accomplished actor. All three areinvolved in running the restaurants. A previous location at the Westfield Trumbull mall, which debuted in 2017, closed in 2020. A more recent outlet is in Springfield, Mass., a short walk from MGM Springfield casino. 

Donnie Wahlberg at the grand opening.

On Thursday, Mark Wahlberg said he was "happy to be back in New England and to see this guy," gesturing to his brother Paul. "There isn't a bad thing on the menu. We all have our own particular favorites but this guy does an amazing job and everything tastes (good)."

Asked how much he gets involved with the food business, Mark Wahlberg said, "Financially, I'm very, very involved. I let Paul handle the creative. I handle the business and the growth strategy. And Donnie's been kind of working with marketing on the creative side."

Wahlberg said he and Paul have been doing this "for a very long time. We started out with our Alma Nove in Hingham (Mass.), first restaurant we had, named after my mom."

Marketing via TV has helped Wahlburgers to open some 90 restaurants internationally, according to business reports. The TV series "Wahlburgers" ran from 2014 to 2019 and included Paul and his brothers working to expand the restaurant chain. 

The bar area of Wahlburgers.

"He (Paul) plays the schmo really good. He's not a schmo. He is a guy who is so endearing, has so many great qualities, but he's funny as heck," said Mark. "Comedic timing; he's fantastic on the show. He's just taken this character on... he's the only one who's never broken character."

The official opening of the Foxwoods location (in the spot formerly held by a more basic burger joint, Fuddruckers) follows the summer opening of the Pequot Woodlands Casino at Foxwoods in the area of an underused banquet space. A quick tour of that casino spot Thursday gave us views of oversized, high-minimum slot machines (a few with personal, side TV screens to watch sports while you're gambling) and plenty of bar seats for wagering while imbibing.

While a Great Wolf Lodge is being constructed at Foxwoods for 2025 opening, Foxwoods President and CEO Jason Guyot agreed that Foxwoods recently has concentrated a lot of renovations around the busy Grand Pequot Concourse that is already home to several of the 30-plus eateries at the resort. "It's exciting, there's bars, casino, restaurants, Hell's Kitchen, it's amazing," he said.