The Steakhouse restaurants at Agua Caliente Casino • Resort • Spa in Rancho Mirage and Spa Resort Casino in downtown Palm Springs have each been honored with this year’s “Wine Spectator Award for Excellence.”

It is the sixth consecutive “Wine Spectator Award for Excellence” received by The Steakhouse at Spa Resort Casino, which offers 295 varieties and an inventory of over 2,700 bottles of wine. The Steakhouse at Agua Caliente Casino garnered its fourth award this year, offering guests 345 varieties and an inventory of 4,460.

The annual Wine Spectator awards recognize outstanding wine programs that offer what the magazine calls a “well-chosen selection of quality [wine] producers, along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style.”   

“We’ve worked very hard to create a wine list with depth and variety, as well as quality producers,” said Fred Pearson, director of food and beverage at Spa Resort Casino.

Sandy Josephson, director of food and beverage at Agua Caliente, agreed saying, “the right wine with a gourmet meal can make a great dinner spectacular; our menu at The Steakhouse is fantastic, and so our wine list must be equally so.”

Both restaurants’ strengths were in Calif...

Rancho Mirage, Ca (July 7, 2010) – Gaming industry veteran Brian Hansberry has been hired as General Manager at Agua Caliente Casino, Resort, Spa, a Four-Diamond property in Rancho Mirage, California.

Hansberry comes to Agua Caliente with more than 30 years of gaming experience. He began his career in the late 1970s as a crap dealer at Resorts International, the first casino to open outside Nevada.  Since then, he has become an icon in East Coast gaming operations.  Hansberry has held executive positions at Atlantic City casinos for much of his career, and was selected as one of the “25 People to Watch” by Global Gaming Business magazine.

Hansberry most recently was President and CEO for the Seneca Gaming Corporation headquartered in Niagara Falls, New York.  During his time there, he assisted in the opening of the company’s third gaming resort, and later oversaw all three of the company’s gaming properties, which feature a total of 6,500 slots, 140 table games, and 816 hotel rooms.

An expert in the management of Four-Diamond casino properties, Hansberry will be charged with growing Agua Caliente’s customer base and incre...