One of Council Oak’s gimmicks will be allowing customers to peer through a window to ogle a refrigerated room of meat so they could pick which chop they want prepared.

The overall operation includes eight kitchens, and 140 chefs, sous chefs, cooks, and stewards. There’s also YOUYU Noodle Bar serving Asian street food Fresh Harvest, a Jack-of-all trades serving soups, pizza, rotisseries meats, and dim sum and then there’s the standard Hard Rock Cafe. Beyond the steakhouse, Hedin is also in charge of Plum Lounge, an invite-only club for high rollers. Hard Rock/Guy RhodesĬouncil Oaks is one of five restaurants inside the $300 million casino. The view inside Council Oak Steak and Seafood. “I can turn around in my open kitchen and look outside,” Hedin says. Hedin, perhaps drinking the company Kool-Aid, says Hard Rock wants to shatter expectations. They’ve got windows at the restaurant and the coffee shop also will have outdoor seating. Hedin says his casino looks different compared to smoky and dingy rooms the general public may expect. Gary’s pandemic capacity rules mirror Chicago’s at a 50 percent limit per room. But Hedin says he’s comfortable with the casino’s HEPA filters and a state-of-the art filtration system. He’s the opening chef at Council Oak Steaks and Seafood, the 100-seat restaurant that opens on Thursday, May 14 with the rest of Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary.Ī casino doesn’t exactly follow the description painted by health experts of a pandemic-friendly environment where outdoor dining and social distancing have been stressed. Now, as the pandemic forced him from his kitchen at River North’s Joy District, Hedin readies to embark on an unusual new undertaking.

Jason Hedin has traveled the world and cooked with celebrity chefs like Laurent Gras at Chicago’s L20 and in Australia with Dan Hunter.

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