There are very few things which would cause me to drive two hours to a casino on its opening day—but one of those very few things was in play yesterday, because I’d managed to reserve a table for the opening service of Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse, the first collaboration between Bryan Voltaggio, whose hospitality I’ve experienced many times before at Volt, Range, and Family Meal, and his brother Michael, who’s made his name on the West Coast, and is therefore an unknown entity to my palate.

As you know, I love being present as a restaurant begins—I was also at the opening nights of both Range and Pineapples and Pearls—but as it turned out, there were issues surrounding this particular opening we hadn’t anticipated.

Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse isn’t a standalone restaurant, but rather one within the MGM Grand National Harbor casino, which proved so crowded once its doors opened that within an hour, it had reached capacity, and the venue began advising folks via its Twitter feed that perhaps they should consider coming by some other time.

In fact, as we neared the casino early yesterday afternoon, the roads were packed, and not only was the main parking lot filled—all 5,000 spaces!—but the overflow lot was also at capacity. Police advised us to continue circling the casino and hope for other customers to leave so we’d be allowed into one of those garages—a thing which we did not intend to do. Luckily, as we were about to abandon our hunt and head over to a nearby shopping mall to leave the car and then walk over, we were waved into the garage by an officer—and we found a spot in the first row we checked. Whew!

The friends who were to join us, Mike and Beth Zipser, weren’t that lucky, though, and had to do what we’d been about to do—park at the mall. Good thing we’d all arrived hours before our reservation, planning to spend time before dinner wandering the casino—which since this is Maryland, was smoke-free. Yay!

And not only were we lucky in finding a spot, but we were lucky in how close that spot was to where we wanted to be—for the elevators nearest to our car took us up close to the entrance to Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse, where we found many people studying the menu … and jealous we had reservations while they did not.

Amazingly, even though the casino was at capacity, as we wandered the floor and checked out the slot machines, we came across one of our friends in the midst of gambling—and then were stunned when she turned $1.00 into more than $200.00 while playing Willie Wonka Pure Imagination. Way to go, Beth!

Unfortunately, though the rest of us tried the same machine, it wouldn’t pay out for anyone but her. And considering how good zombies have been for me over the years, I had high hopes for The Walking Dead slot machine, but nope—I ended up just as dead as—nope, never mind. No spoilers here!

But enough about the casino—because I know what you’re really interested in is the food. And it’s a good thing you’re most interested in the food, because I forgot to take any photos of the interior of the restaurant itself. (Sorry.) But each of the dining rooms was decorated differently, with ours having a white-on-blue Wedgewood look.

One aspect of the meal which hadn’t occurred to me until we were speaking to our server is that since it was opening night, we didn’t have to hear the far-too-frequent question, “Have you been here before?”—because no one had been there before!

Now on with the meal …

Aged cheddar biscuits with apple butter

The biscuits we’ve had at other Bryan Voltaggio restaurants, such as Family Meal and Volt, have usually been superb, and these lived up to our expectations. Plus the apple butter blended well with the cheese in the biscuits.

Roasted beef bone marrow, caramelized onion tamale, beef drippings

I’ve had bone marrow many times, but combining it with a tamale made for a unique presentation. We could have eaten these all night.

Caesar salad (Little Gem hearts, Caesar dressing, Parmesan-anchovy hushpuppies)

A decidedly different Caesar salad, with extremely light, extremely flavorful hush puppies standing in for the traditional croutons.

Cacio e pepe (spaghetti, black pepper, pecorino, onsen egg)

My one disappointment of the night … no, not the Cacio e pepe itself, which was fine, but the fact that after having seen an Instagram pic of white and black truffles which had been served the previous night at a VIP party, I’d been hoping all day for some of them to be shaved upon my order. But alas, none were left!

Carolina Gold rice (sea urchin, fried rice, sea beans)

The sea urchins were an unusual but flavorful addition—and ended up being Beth’s favorite dish of the night.

36-ounce porterhouse

The main attraction—a perfectly cooked porterhouse, which Mike carved for us using the Laguiole carving set provided to each table.

And as for the sides …

Bloomsdale spinach (aerated white cheddar, crispy shallots)

Trust me, there is spinach under there! If you’re of the opinion that the traditional steakhouse creamed spinach is a waste of your time and nothing more than glop, this is the place to go to have that opinion changed.

Yukon Gold potatoes mashed with butter, salt, and pepper

Simple, and prepared exactly as it should be.

Russet potato, twice-baked and loaded

Since this is one of the dishes Irene talked about the most during our drive home, I’d call it a success!

We then decided to take a break, stretch our legs, and check out the various dining rooms, and ended up wending our way back to the kitchen, where we met up with the Voltaggio brothers, and were able to thank them for their hospitality.

That’s Michael and Beth bookending Michael, Bryan, and me.

By the time we returned from our wandering, dessert menus had been set at our places, and we chose two.

Upside down lemon tart
(aerated lemon curd, lavender, fennel powder, brown butter, whipped maple)

My first choice is always to go for something light, refreshing, and fruit-flavored …

Chocolate (cake, pudding, ice cream, mousse)

… while Irene, of course, went for the chocolate.

Both were as satisfying as they were beautiful.

After that, it was time to leave the restaurant, leave the casino, and head on home. But we’ll be back! After all, there’s only so much one can eat, which meant we’d never had a chance to taste their Oysters Rockefeller … or Wagyu Beef Cheek with Shawarma Space … or the Umami Cereal. Well, there’s always next time.

And there’ll be a next time!