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FJ reader Tom (aka bat55w sent in a Sands Bethlehem trip report to accompany the photos in the previous posts. Here goes:

Some thoughts on Sands Bethlehem... I didn't want to get up early and go stand in line. This isn't Vegas and lets face it, its a soft opening so there wasn't going to be alot of hoopla anyway since the official opening is on June 9th. There will be celebrities and Sheldon and alot of hand shaking and congratulating etc etc on that day. I will probably go check that out to see who shows up. Anyway, I got there at about noon. Traffic wasn't too bad although the main traffic light out in front of the casino wasn't working yet. The overall vibe is industrial as you would imagine. From the self parking garage, there were no signs pointing the way to the elevators. All there was were the doors in the picture I took. Since they were the only ones it was intuitive but if you are parked far away from the doors, it is not easy to figure out where to go.

The casino is rectangular in shape. If you look on the website, they show a portion of it as closed. This is actually finished space that has no machines and a large curtain seperates it from the rest of the casino. I speculate that they needed event space since the hotel is not open and they just decided to cordon off part of the casino for now. At the center of the casino is the Coil bar, which as a large coil decorative motif. Also, as you walk in from the parking garage, just in front of you is the bar/lounge molten. In the ceiling was steel frame look that mirrors a machine shop design. Part of the ceiling has some windows for a little natural light.

I walked around, took photos and finally decided to eat at the Irish Pub called St James gate. The restaurant had two bars, the one I sat at had a 1 foot high lip on part of the bar which made it impossible for the bartender to serve people at this bar. They said that they were going to cut it down in half. Really poor design. I mean, who thinks putting a little one foot wall up between the customer and the bartender is a good idea?? Anyway, as I said before, I had bangers and mash and it was good but not exceptional.

The food court is called The Market Gourmet Express. There are no chain restaurants here, every counter is staffed by Sands employees. There were different counters for each food type just like a regular food court. They had a coffee/snack bar with ice cream, a sushi/oriental food counter, a burger and hot dog counter, a pizza, pasta and cheesesteak counter and a salad counter. They also have a buffet/bar called the Cobalt Cafe. This is really a buffet, not a 24 hr cafe like in Vegas. But it also has a bar as you can see from the picture. Kind of a wierd set up actually. This place is much smaller than a typical buffet so I suspect they are expecting most people will eat at the Marketplace and not the buffet. Lunch price for the buffet was $11.95. I did not go in to see what the selection was like..The names of the bars, Molten, Coil and Cobalt all have a steel manufacturing connection.

Emeril's was closed when I arrived, it is open from 5-11pm. The kitchen was visible from outside the restaurant and as you see from the pictures Emeril himself was cooking some corn on the cob on a grill. The kitchen was very busy preping for dinner service and there were lots of guys standing at the doors for some reason. Maybe they were security. I asked one if they were booked up and he said they were booked solid for at least the first week. I will definitely check this place out eventually. Prices are pretty steep, but they are actually in line with similiar places in AC. A 9oz filet is $39 and a 14oz NY Strip is $38. I notice on his menu online that he is planning to open his first burger joint at the Sands Bethlehem at some point in the future. I would love to try that out too.

As far as the gambling goes, I am not really into slots that much so I don't know what to check for but they had plenty of machines. They also had blackjack and three card poker machines. Didn't play any today. I have been to both Harrah's Chester and Philadelphia Park racino's and they are basically slot parlors at racetracks. There is not much different with Sands at this point except some better dining choices and a much better bar selection. However, if they finish developing the rest of the site as planned, this place could be a really cool place to visit. I spent about an hour walking around the rest of the site and I was really blown away by the possibilities here. The blast furnaces are really cool close up and some of the buildings have large machinery inside. For someone with a mechanical engineering degree and 18 years purchasing machine parts and castings, this place is a lot of fun to explore.

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