It’s been almost a year since the Hard Rock Casino Tejon flung upon its doors at the base of the Grapevine to eager throngs of curious onlookers, weary travelers and those who simply couldn’t believe that the dusty flats 25 miles directly south of downtown Bakersfield could host a high-end casino.
Thus far, the overseers of the new Interstate 5 destination have but one regret: It’s too small.
“No,” Jeff Hook, chief operating officer of Hard Rock International, emphatically told SFGATE when asked whether they made the initial casino footprint big enough. “We knew that on the first day. I’ve never been in a casino that has 100% occupancy. We had every single one of those slots full.”…