Stakes Supper Club: Another reason to keep your gambling problem

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It’s not Vegas, but Commerce Casino and its hotel, which is just about 15 minutes from downtown L.A. (in favorable traffic), is definitely one of the least depressing casinos that you can drive to from home on a whim. There aren’t slot machines, but there are plenty of tables — 243 to be exact. As if row after row of gleaming, green gambling tables weren’t excuse enough, now there’s another reason to visit: a new supper club called Stakes.

The restaurant has polished tile floors, wall sconces, banquettes with high backs and an aquarium tinted with purple light. On the menu you’ll find, of course, a variety of steaks and seafood (rib eye, filet mignon, porterhouse, rib-eye, lobster tails, salmon) priced between $20 and $34, as well as pasta, salads and soups.

This development is great news for local gambling fans who have long sacrificed quality food for a soul-sucking yet satisfying habit. (Not that I know that much about it, or have ever been physically dragged by ex-boyfriends away from blackjack tables after losing my meager savings and breaking down in tears that made the strangers around me profoundly uncomfortable. Nor have I ever fed a $100 bill into a Price Is Right nickel slot machine and lost it in, like, 10 seconds and then begged my friends for a loaner.)

I’m just saying that if you happen to know anything about gambling locally, you may have found yourself eating cold chicken cutlets off of a beige hospital tray at the Bicycle Casino once or twice and wished there was a place to get a juicy steak, or a jumbo lump-crab cake. And now, at Commerce Casino, you can.

Stakes Supper Club at Commerce Casino, 6131 East Telegraph Road, Commerce. (323) 721-2100.

— Jessica Gelt