“This will be as much a food destination as it is a gaming destination,” says Horseshoe Baltimore vice president and assistant general manager Alex Dixon, who gave us a sneak-preview tour today. “We wanted to strike the right balance between gaming and hospitality.”

So get ready to put your money where your mouth is.

Guy Fieri’s Baltimore Kitchen & Bar is one of the casino’s three celebrity chef-driven restaurants. Diet be damned and indulge in Old Bay wings, a massive mac-n-cheese bacon burger, or the Guy-Talian Deli salad laden with imported Italian meats and cheeses.

Celebrity chefs Aarón Sánchez and John Besh will also join the culinary roster with upmarket Mexican cuisine at Johnny Sánchez. Menu items will include sophisticated south-of-the-border fare such as lobster-and-mango ceviche, cactus salad, blue-crab corn elote, and braised goat stew with warm tortillas. The space also includes a swank private room for tequila tasting.

Although the Horseshoe is counting on drawing tourists, there’s plenty for the locals, too.

Hometown celebrity baker Duff “Ace of Cakes” Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes, will supply his creative confections at Jack Binion’s Steak House. Furthering the local angle, Horseshoe has a unique food court/grab-and-go area that invokes a farmer’s marketplace, featuring Baltimore-based businesses such as Lenny’s Deli, Tark’s Grill, and Heavy Seas Alehouse. (Can you say, “Bye-bye buffet?”)

Explains Dixon, “We are paying homage to the history of farmer’s markets in Baltimore. Some of these spots are also an homage to folks in the county.”

Equally refreshing, there’s no big-chain coffeehouse in sight. Baltimore-based The Mallow Bar will serve their signature crunchy rice cereal treats as well as a full roster of coffee drinks. (We’re told casino honchos found The Mallow Bar while scouring the Baltimore Farmers’ Market.)

“This could have been a Starbucks,” points out Dixon, “but we thought it would be unique to have something from the local market.”

Restaurant reservations will soon be available on Open Table. 

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