Michele Stueven
Until last week, the only thing that sleepy Mettler, California, at the bottom of the Grapevine on Highway 99, was known for was watermelon stands and the spot where James Dean got a speeding ticket before his fatal crash in Cholame. On Thursday, it became the new landmark home of the Hard Rock Casino Tejon.
Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe in Florida, in partnership with the Tejon Indian Tribe, opened the first phase of the entertainment destination located 15 miles south of Bakersfield on Tejon Indian Tribal land in Kern County, and it’s a landmark development for the region. Fifteen years in the making, the facility is owned by the Tejon Indian Tribe, led by Chairman Octavio Escobedo, and will be managed by Hard Rock International.
The 150,000-square-foot gaming floor features more than 2,000 slot machines, more than 50 live table games, including blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ’em, and Three Card Poker, and exclusive VIP rooms for blackjack and baccarat.
Wind sculpture at casino entrance (Cristian Costea/HRI)
The property houses a collection of historic music memorabilia, including guitars from Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, as an homage to the legendary artists responsible for the local Bakersfield Sound. Costumes from Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Cappell Roan, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and numerous others dot the casino floor.
Dining and nightlife include the Hard Rock Cafe, Deep Cut Steaks and Seafood, YOUYU, and a marketplace food hall with various options, including artisanal coffee and pastries, street tacos, and wood-fired Italian classics. The Airstream trailer that once lived at the Mirage Hotel in Vegas, which closed in 2024 and is now being redeveloped by Hard Rock International, was retrieved and resurrected as The Roost, serving Southern-style comfort food in the food court.
Food hall (Cristian Costea/HRI)
The stunning interiors weave tribal and regional elements throughout the building, including the towering wind sculpture at the entrance of the casino. And to ensure that gaming, dining, and drinking are as comfortable as they are aesthetically pleasing, the various spaces boast about 65 different types of chair designs. The next phase, projected for 2027 on the 320-acre property, will include a huge resort with a hotel.
The interior designers for the project were WATG, Wimberly & Rockwell, while Klai Juba Wald Architecture + Interiors served as the architect of record.
The privately funded project generated thousands of construction jobs and 1,000 permanent roles that include about 80 tribal members upon opening and incorporated infrastructure improvements in the surrounding area at no cost to taxpayers, guaranteeing long-term investment in community services, education, and economic development initiatives for the Tejon Indian Tribe.
Chairman Octavio Escobedo and daughter Julianna (Michele Stueven)
The tribe is Kern County’s only federally recognized Indian tribe, and after almost dying out, it re-established its federally recognized status in 2012. Led by Chairman Octavio Escobedo, the tribe, originally known for its basket weaving, currently consists of 1,523 citizens and is growing. Most of the tribe’s citizens live in Kern County, and many are lifelong residents of Bakersfield.
“It’s a change of direction for our tribal members,” the Bakersfield-born Escobedo told LA Weekly during the wildly windy opening ceremony. Attending members attributed the boisterous weather to the Tejon ancestors giving their blessing. The Chairman’s family is one of the largest in the tribe, and those roots run deep. His lineage can be traced back to the valley for at least 200 years, when his ancestors migrated from the coastal Chumash region.
“It’s a pivotal moment in history where everything changes from today on,” he said. “We have a lot of needy tribe members and the homeless who can now get the help they need. It’s hard times out there right now, and we have more services now than before. This casino provides the resources for that. Now that we have full-fledged education and health care programming, we’re starting to see steady re-growth of the Tejon Tribe.”
Take a tour of the casino in our photo gallery, with pictures from Cristian Costea, Makenzie Beeney, and Michele Stueven
For Hard Rock Casino Tejon high rollers (Makenzie Beeney/HRI)