Jumbo lump crab cakes, Chilean sea bass, ahi tuna, fresh sushi, and wok-fired seafood are slated to anchor the food-and-beverage program at Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia, the Cordish Companies and Bruce Smith Enterprise resort set to open in Petersburg by the end of 2027. The project topped out this week, raising its final commemorative steel beam and putting the destination on track for a late-2027 debut.
The Seafood Program
The Prime Rib®, one of the resort's two marquee fine-dining venues, carries a menu built around premium proteins with a notable seafood complement: jumbo lump crab cakes, Chilean sea bass, ahi tuna, and salmon headline the non-steak options alongside cuts of filet mignon, ribeye, and porterhouse. The concept has earned Wine Spectator Award of Excellence recognition in 2026 and USA Today's Top 10 Best Casino Restaurant designation, and it holds a consistent Zagat No. 1 ranking across its Washington D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana locations.
Luk Fu, the resort's Pan-Asian concept, layers in a second significant seafood tier. The menu centers on fresh sushi, wok-fired specialties, and traditional broths incorporating locally sourced seafood alongside poultry and meats — an approach that mirrors broader industry momentum toward regional-sourcing claims in casino foodservice. The concept was named Best Asian and Best Sushi by Casino Player Magazine's 2025 Best of Dining & Nightlife Awards. Both The Prime Rib and Luk Fu are being designed by Beth Bloom Designs, a national hospitality design firm.
Scale and Market Context
The full resort will span more than 445,000 square feet and house 20 dining, bar, and entertainment venues — a footprint that positions Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia among the larger integrated F&B operators in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. For seafood suppliers, the volume implications are meaningful: casino resorts of this scale routinely rank among the highest-volume single-site buyers of premium shellfish and finfish, with crab cake programs alone driving consistent demand for jumbo lump blue crab or Dungeness meat depending on regional sourcing agreements.
The Petersburg location — 25 miles south of Richmond on I-95, 45 miles north of the North Carolina border — puts the property within reach of both Chesapeake Bay supply chains and Carolina coastal fisheries. Whether the property sources jumbo lump crab domestically or leans on imported product from Southeast Asia or Venezuela will be a procurement decision worth watching as the 2027 opening approaches. The aquaculture and import supply chain serving Mid-Atlantic casino operators has expanded steadily, with Philippine and Indonesian blue swimming crab meat increasingly filling volume gaps left by compressed Chesapeake harvests.
Luk Fu's sushi program similarly signals demand for salmon, yellowfin tuna, and specialty shellfish at consistent IQF or fresh specifications — categories where casino and resort foodservice has become a meaningful demand driver alongside fine-dining independents.
The resort is projected to generate $2.8 billion in regional economic stimulus over its first decade and $201 million in annual economic benefits post-opening, with approximately 1,600 permanent jobs — including cooks, servers, and bartenders across the 20-venue F&B operation. Additional dining concepts and local hospitality partnerships are expected to be announced ahead of the 2027 opening.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
