New To Fidelia's Market

By Joseph Albano
Published on 11/2011

"New to Fidelia’s Market, Mohegan Sun’s Food Court, is Geno’s Bagels, Subs and Sweets and Wok-on. Geno’s is an oasis of tantalizing confections [signature sandwiches, paninis, bagels, and Chinese food favorites!]"

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Geno's Pub scores at Mohegan Sun

TheDay.Com
By Rick Koster
Published on 2/26/2009

One thing about restaurants and/or bars owned by Sports Dudes is that you can count on massive memorabilia overkill. Yet, to walk into Geno's Pub in the Mohegan Sun Casino - and "Geno" would be UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma - is much more like walking into the bar at a small, quirky, but very nice hotel.

There are a few tastefully framed photographs on one wall depicting exciting moments in the program's history, and that's about it, sporty-wise. Everything else is exposed brick and wood and cantilevered ceiling and a vaguely amoeba-shaped room. Nice bar, a few comfy tables ...

And here I was expecting to charge into the place and give Geno a few tips on how we ran the ol' shuffle offense back at Kimball High School in Dallas. It's a constantly shifting pattern of picks-and-rolls where all five players rotate through a system that results in a sliding, back-and-forth scheme between high and low post. Why, in fact -

Oh, wait, you want to know about food.

Well, Geno's got a pretty nice little restaurant going on. It's a very limited menu, but that's okay. The idea is to offer a break and comfort to gamblers and, as such, there are representative appetizers, sandwiches and burgers associated with pub food as well as a few fried seafood and high-end steak choices. There's also an extensive wine list, designer martinis, and a reasonable beer selection including a Red Hook-crafted Geno's Ale.

Openers include chili cheese fries, nachos and wings - and something called Onion Pave ($6.95), which is a large square bird's nest of buttermilk-marinated, deep-fried onion strings. Served with a curious but effectively addictive dipping sauce of orange, horseradish and Dijon, this can serve as a meal unto itself. But the onions are delicate, the batter perfectly crisped, and it's fun just to try to extricate one onion strand from another in the maze of goodness.

We passed on the rather standard sandwich selections and, from the fried seafood menu - yes, ours is a region inundated with fried seafood, too - I tried the half-pound fried shrimp basket ($15.95).

It comprises a huge heap of medium-to-large crustaceans and an even huger heap of French fries. It comes with small containers of forgettable cole slaw, dipping sauces and lemon. The cocktail sauce is tangy with a bit of a pleasant sting. The faux Remoulade is mostly mayo and improved by a dousing of Tabasco. There's nothing particularly great or particularly awful about Geno's fries. They're just okay. There are no bad french fries, after all.

The shrimp, though, are pretty great, and I'll tell you: Geno doesn't scrimp on the shrimp. There's a lot - this is a good deal. Not only that, but they've peeled the tails off for you so you can eat each individual savory in toto. Could the batter have used a bit of paprika? Of course it could have! But this is Connecticut, so...

Still, it's a delicate batter, deftly fried to provide textural crunch without overcooking or overpowering the shrimp.

There are three steak options in a casino full of often-great steak choices: a 16-ounce sirloin ($24.95), an eight-ounce tenderloin ($27.95), and a 20-ounce porterhouse ($29.95). I chose the tenderloin and was rewarded with a pie-slice-shaped piece of meat, cooked exactly as requested: medium rare. Dry-rubbed with adobo-happy spices, it was pretty excellent. It comes with fries, a piquant steak sauce, and a nice side of warmed tomatoes and artichoke.

There are four sides available for the vegetable-inclined among us, but My Wife opted, from a small pizza menu, to try the Four Cheese pie ($10.95) with mozzarella, Romano, parmesan, and gorgonzola and goat cheeses. (Isn't that five?) It was quite good. The crust was crispy thin, and there was a sufficient tomato sauce presence without overwhelming the cheese blend.

For dessert, we tried the Mountain Chocolate Cake ($6.25): Very thick and fudgy and chocolately. We weren't remotely hungry but couldn't stop eating it, which is a testament to its taste.