Encore, encore! Everett needs a new pair of shoes.

Last Sunday, a new luxury hotel/resort opened in Everett, a gritty, down at the heels, blue collar town just outside of Boston. Of course, no one in their right mind who knew anything about the area would brand something as Everett. So Encore is going with Encore Boston Harbor. To quote Stanley Kowalkski/Marlon Brando/Tennessee Williams: “And do you know what I say? Ha ha! Do you hear me? Ha ha ha!”

Okay, Everett is part of the Port of Boston. But when I think Boston Harbor, I’m thinking Boston’s waterfront, which has become the “it” place over the last couple of decades. All the $10 a day, sandlot parking lots have been done away with, and in their place are office buildings, and upscale condos, stores, and restaurants. Plus an admittedly nice harbor walk.

When I think Everett, I’m thinking offloading LNG tankers. Admittedly, you can’t see the offloading LNG tankers in this picture, but does that look like a harbor to you? Or does it look like a backwater?

But harbor or backwater, Everett is now the home of Encore Boston Harbor “a $2.6 billion five-star global destination gaming resort.” (Source: Encore)

It’ll be interested to see how that $2.6 billion “global destination” pays for itself. Maybe there are enough tourists and conventioneers who’ll be drawn by the idea of gambling, watching a prize fight, or “high energy nightlife.” (The only nightlife they’ve got coming up that I’ve heard of is Shaquille O’Neal, former NBA great who’s apparently a DJ now.)

Or maybe there are enough locals who’re sick of trekking to Connecticut to Foxwood or Mohegan Sun, the two resort casinos there.

Anyway, Encore BH opened to great fanfare.

I’m not sure how many folks showed up, but they anticipated a crowd of 50,000. (Yes, you read that right!) And people – from the looks, mostly gawkers -  did wait 3 hours to get in.

I found all the hoopla a bit embarrassing. It seemed more like something that would happen in Worcester if a “global destination gaming resort” opened in The Heart of the Commonwealth. Rather than in The Hub of the Universe, where you’d think we’d be a bit more sophisticated and jaded.

Anyway, the TV stations all gave it breathless near round-the-clock coverage. (You’d think it was a blizzard or something.) And I believe that The Boston Globe live tweeted it for 24 hours.

Thus,I know that there were four opening day arrests: one for trespassing, one for 2 a.m. disorderly (was alcohol involved, I wonder?), and two for cheating at roulette.

As for glitz and glam, I don’t know. I just don’t see Boston as a glitz and glam kind of place. Of course, it wasn’t when I moved here 50 years ago. It was somewhat dumpy, somewhat dowdy. The “best” restaurants were a few mediocre seafood places and the stuffy and venerable Locke-Ober’s, where women were only welcome in the dining room on the Saturday when the Harvard-Yale Game was played here.

Now, Boston is hipper and more happening. Young folks want to live here. Techies, biotechies, and financial types make a ton of dough, bidding up housing prices. (Which I will one day thank them for.) I don’t see these as the sorts who’ll flock to Encore, but what do I know?

Will I be flocking there?

I don’t gamble, but I told my friend K – who does like to – that I would be interested in popping over with her at some point. I also told my niece Caroline that I’d go with her. (Aside to others in the fam: any interest? LMK.)

At Encore, I plan on moseying around and checking out the sites – like the $28M Jeff Koons statue of Popeye. (Encore’s owner, Steve Wynn, is an art collector.) I will do my usual “spend $10 on the slots” and call it a day. But I understand it’s all electronics now, so no more roll of quarters. Alas! It’s pretty easy to know when your roll of quarters is gone. I’m guessing it’s a little easier to keep playing when you don’t actually have to physically put a coin in the slot.

But I will not be paying $68 for a lobster roll, nor will I be eating at an Italian restaurant called Sinatra, no matter how wonderful it is.

I hope this pans out for Everett. That town could use a new pair of shoes.

I hope it brings about the town’s hoped for renaissance. Or naissance, as I don’t think they’ve had one that they can re-up. I hope that a lot of those promised good jobs go to folks who need them.

I hope that it brings Massachusetts all the tax revenue promised. That there’s some entertainment I’d actually like to see. That the surrounding area gets beautified. (Encore is really plopped in the middle of ugly old post-industrial nowhere. To get there, you can drive in through crowded urban roads; take an Encore shuttle bus from the Sullivan Square T-stop (or risk life and limb dodging traffic in Sullivan Square if you care to walk); or take a water ferry from Boston Harbor – a pretty enough prospect when you’re in Boston Harbor, but once you turn the corner and are getting closer to Everett, not so much.)

I’m not a big believer that casinos turn out to be the miraculous economic engines they’re always supposed to be. Sure, it worked in Las Vegas, but how’s Atlantic City doing? And all those casinos and river boats that were supposed to make up for the loss of manufacturing jobs and provide alternative employment to recycling heaps and prisons? How’s that all working out?

But, hey, most of those other places aren’t “a $2.6 billion five-star global destination gaming resort.”

Still, Boston is a place that people come to for college, for hospitals, for sports teams, for history. Gambling and big name, Vegas-style entertainment? I’m scratching my head on this one.

That said, Steve Wynn must have made a few good bets along the way if he can afford to pay $28M for a statue of Popeye…