AURORA BUFFET
SOARING EAGLE HOTEL
Mt Pleasant MI

The new Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, MI was completed in 1997 & quickly became the standard by which other Native American casinos around the country were measured.  The original facility contained a very large buffet restaurant named “The Firefly” primarily due to its extensive fiber optic ceiling.  It was determined, by management, that dividing this original space into two restaurants would increase sales by providing more choices for the patrons. One restaurant would be a new 24 hour diner while the other would be a smaller buffet.

The existing buffet, with its warm outdoor design scheme, had a loyal customer base.  In order to appeal to this base and attract new customers, AVD designed a reconfigured restaurant with highly organic forms, colors and materials.   This included the use of curvilinear walls and ceiling patterns, natural wood, faux stone floor tiles, venetian plaster wall finishes, and a color palette of olives, browns and golds.  In addition, the space includes three “night sky” ceiling treatments with fiber-optic stars that replicate the night sky.  These “night sky” elements include simulated motion comets and shooting stars.

In order to increase the efficiency of the space, the entry was relocated such that patrons could flow directly into the servery area rather than have to cross through dining space.  The servery food stations were designed in a soft, flowing pattern with colored back-lit panels above to differentiate each one.

To create a strong visual connection between the gaming floor and the buffet, a large wall was opened and the restaurant was extended out into the casino floor.  Continuous custom butt-glazed laminated glass was installed on top of a new curvilinear four foot tall wall.  This glass contains cattails and grass blades sandwiched within laminated panels.  This material allows vision into the restaurant from casino but maintains an implied privacy as well as acoustical separation from the gaming floor.  This wall configuration was also used to separate the existing adjacent bar, primary circulation path, and queuing space from the new dining area.