On this inaugural New Year’s Eve at the Encore Boston Harbor (www.encorebostonharbor.com/), a good time will be had by many. That’s one sure bet at the luxury casino and resort owned by Wynn Resorts. Open since late June, Encore features 15 places to eat and drink, which is more up our alley than games of chance. We recently attended a dine-around to get a taste of several of the venues. We were so engrossed with the food and cocktails that we forgot to lose any money at the tables or slots.

But one thing was obvious: Encore Boston Harbor is hell-bent on showing its customers a good time. That starts when you walk in the main entrance to a fanciful carousel slowly spinning in the lobby. These aren’t just ordinary carousel horses. They are encrusted with fabric flower blossoms. Some of them have wings. They are hypnotic.

Working up an appetite

Encore brings Vegas pizzazz to the waterfront while still honoring local fare and dining traditions. (There’s even a Dunkin’ franchise in the casino.)

We started at the Oyster Bar, which was conceived as an ode to New England seafood. The night we visited, the venue featured oysters from Maine and Massachusetts. The quahogs on the raw bar came from Wellfleet. The provenance of the lobster was less clear but was labeled as local. No such claims were made for the sweet king crab legs and the crunchy shrimp cocktail. We imagine that customers understand that huge crabs and giant prawns on steroids aren’t really New England seafood, but they do suit a casino air of excess. Keeping in mind that sparkle and salt are made for each other, Prosecco is the perfect drink in the Oyster Bar.

Just down the hallway, Waterfront has a similar finger-food obsession, but the sparkling drinks are craft brews. Many of these were local, and they were neatly matched to lobster poutine, crispy fried chicken skins (right), and—for vegetarian gamblers—hot shiitake sliders. The chicken skins, by the way, came with a nifty side of malt vinegar aioli. The green curry corn nuts seemed to encapsulate the theme of Waterfront: somewhat familiar, but just a little over the top. It’s a swanky way to begin your immersion in the party world of the casino.

Moving on to main courses

We couldn’t taste all the menus, but a couple of the leading restaurants caught our fancy. The elegant Rare is a worthy addition to the Boston steakhouse scene. In addition to some great waterfront views, Rare has a boast-worthy and unusual beef program. For lovers of supersoft, super luxe cuts of wagyu beef, Rare imports cuts from Kobe and the Kagoshima prefecture. It’s one of eight restaurants in the U.S. with wagyu certified Kobe beef. (One of the others is the steakhouse at Wynn’s Las Vegas casino.) The menu also includes Hokkaido tenderloin, the ultra-tender Japanese “snow beef.” The photo at right shows a small piece of Kobe (left) next to a more intense cut of American wagyu from Snake River Farms in Idaho. From big dishes of caviar to shellfish towers to table-made Caesar salad, Rare hits all the marks for steakhouse excess.

The Encore dining room with the strongest Vegas vibe is Sinatra. It’s conceived as a tribute to the leader of the Rat Pack and purported old buddy of Steve Wynn. While Wynn is out as the head of his eponymous gaming empire, his personal stamp remains. Sinatra certainly headlined many times at Wynn’s Golden Nugget, and the casino entrepreneur landed the exclusive restaurant naming rights from the Sinatra family. Bling is a way of life here, from the Sinatra Smash cocktail (see below) to “Frank’s Spaghetti with Littleneck Clams.” That last is widely imitated, based on the recipe from Patsy’s in New York, where Sinatra actually ate often and where the staff took the garlic out of the sauces because Ol’ Blue Eyes detested garlic as much as he otherwise loved Italian-American food. It’s really clams in a light basil-tomato sauce. The dessert platter shown here is a lot of fun—a lot of Italian sweets atop a gold record. The record is edible—a huge round of milk chocolate. We’d advise splitting one for the table.

Even sweeter endings

Sports fans who want to take a break from gaming will find On Deck Burger Bar their perfect place to hang. Not only does it offer a panoramic view of the casino floor from its balcony perch, the walls are punctuated with 33 very large TV screens (75 inches large, we’re told), all tuned to sporting events somewhere in the world. We’re sure that Encore can barely wait until Massachusetts legalizes sports betting, but in the meantime, On Deck neatly replaces the cacophony of slot machine sounds with competing sports announcers.

The gastronomic emphasis is on burgers, beers, and milkshakes. That might sound a little juvenile, but it’s adults-only. We’ve always been believers that a little sugar at the end of a night of extensive alcohol consumption helps the body metabolize the poisons. The bar’s signature milkshakes are non-alcoholic, but they’ll give you such a sugar buzz that you might be calling for a side of Ozempic. Again, keeping with the sports theme, the Patriot Shake is a Boston cream pie shake in a vanilla frosted glass studded with chocolate malt sixlets and topped with sprinkles and whipped cream. Lest that seem too skimpy, a football shaped ice cream sandwich straddles the rim of the glass. When we saw it coming to our table, we kind of hoped Stephon Gilmore would swoop in for an interception.

The milkshake inspired a kind of shock and awe, but we were more pleased with the finesse of the bartenders throughout Encore. The cocktail program has a way of putting just the right, if slightly excessive luxe twist on some classics.

ENCORE BOSTON MANHATTAN

The key to this variant of a Manhattan is the rye whiskey from Vermont’s Whistle Pig distillery. Naturally, Encore has its own signature blend of this spicy rye, and the triple hit of bitters nicely cuts the sweetness of the Carpano vermouth.

3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 oz. Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
2 oz. Encore Boston Harbor Bespoke Blend Whistle Pig Rye whiskey

Add all ingredients to iced cocktail shaker. Stir 16 times. Strain into chilled coupe glass.

SINATRA SMASH

Whiskey drinkers with a sweet tooth often prefer Jack Daniel’s. Whiskey drinkers with a super sweet tooth prefer Gentleman Jack, which is even sweeter than Jack Black. (It’s the favored whiskey of people who drink bourbon and Coke.) Frank Sinatra purportedly always drank Gentleman Jack. This drink augments the sweet whiskey with syrup and cassis, and it was Frank’s favorite. It’s surprisingly good.

5 blackberries
1 oz. Gentleman Jack
1 oz. Lemon & Lime Cordial
1/4 oz. Monin Vanilla syrup
1/2 oz. Crème de Cassis

Muddle berries in bottom of cocktail shaker. Combine rest of ingredients, add ice and shake. Strain over fresh ice.

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Thanks to Encore Boston Harbor for the great night shot at the top of this post. It was taken by Barbara Kraft.