The Brook opens Lucky's restaurant

The Brook casino opens Lucky’s restaurant in Seabrook, taking you 'back in time'

Bob Albright news@seacoastonline.com

SEABROOK — A flight of bacon is never a bad thing, and it’s just one of the many sumptuous offerings The Brook CEO Andre Carrier is betting will hit the mark at his new restaurant, Lucky’s. “You can’t have a proper breakfast menu without a proper bacon menu, right?” Carrier asked with a wry smile. The unique offering features four thickcut slices with varying flavor profiles from chipotle sugar to jalapeno. Opened last Thursday, the restaurant not only serves breakfast all day starting at 8 a.m., but lunch and dinner fare as well seven days a week, including a daily early bird special that includes soup or salad and a glass of wine or a draft beer. “It’s kind of a homage to yesteryear,” Carrier noted of the daily specials that include a full Italian dinner on Saturday and a roast turkey dinner on Sunday. “We’re trying to put you in a time capsule and take you back to another place.”

A self-proclaimed “food geek” and the president and CEO of the Eureka Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Carrier has seen the integral role restaurants and fine dining play in the entire entertainment experience in Vegas and wants to bring that component to The Brook. He brought on longtime and accomplished New Hampshire executive chef Corey West to oversee all the food service at the bustling casino and sports betting mecca and plans to add another specialty restaurant to the mix this fall. “In the West, casinos are seen as some of the most innovative places for grand restaurants,” Carrier noted. “I think in the East, it is still not seen as a place for foodies, so we are really lucky to have Corey join us.” The contemporary, 120-seat restaurant fits seamlessly into what was an old banquet room and has been completely redone. Carrier, West and others spent the better part of two months fine-tuning the lunch menu alone and felt like they struck gold, or more precisely, a “Pot of Gold.” “We stood there in the kitchen, our test site, and we all bit into it and we all said, ‘now that’s a sandwich,” Carrier enthused of the Pot of Gold, a tasty riff on a traditional Reuben that has already become a crowd favorite. “It has been fun to work on and it has been fun to build,” Carrier noted. “The customer reaction early on has been really good.”

Lucky’s is just the latest addition to the 90,000 square-foot entertainment destination, which also offers a range of casino table games, a live poker room, the state’s only Stadium Gaming area with live dealers and digital screens, and simulcast racing seven days a week. Carrier, who grew up in Jackson, New Hampshire, and his business partner, Greg Lee, bought the former Seabrook Park in 2019, the same year sports betting was legalized in the state. While the building was in disrepair, Carrier saw solid bones and a location that could not be beat. A multi-million-dollar renovation project over the last four years ensued, yielding an enlarged casino floor, over 500 new gaming machines, an outside deck, upscale showroom, ballroom, event space and New England's largest sportsbook. “It was like ‘Extreme Makeover – Casino Edition,’” Carrier offered with a laugh. The Brook employs upwards of 270 people and along with Eureka Casino stands out as the only 100 percent employee-owned casinos in the country. The Brook is also the largest charity casino in the state, donating 35 percent of daily games of change revenue to local New Hampshire charities. In 2022 alone, The Brook wrote a check of $4 million to charities like Make-A-Wish New Hampshire, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Hampshire, Annie’s Angels, and Rockingham Nutrition Meals on Wheels. “The numbers are really impactful,” says Carrier. “We’re at $11 million in total contributions since we purchased the business in 2019.” New Hampshire enjoyed the early pole position when it came to legalized sports betting, but even with both Massachusetts and Maine joining the fray recently, Carrier feels the entire entertainment experience at The Brook still stands alone. “I think facility-wise we have a great place to watch and enjoy sports together,” said Carrier, who welcomed a sea of green to The Brook’s gigantic outdoor deck for the Celtics’ rousing Game 7 win over the 76ers Sunday and is expecting even a larger crowd for this weekend's Preakness Stakes. “I think it’s unsurpassed and the indoor/outdoor environment we have at The Brook is better than any place in New England.”