MGM executives opened their $1.4 billion resort and casino at National Harbor yesterday with a warning to prospective visitors issued via video at a press conference: “We are not in the hotel business. We are in the holy sh*t business.”

VIP guests got to see exactly what they mean as they toured MGM National Harbor, which the company has dubbed “Vegas on the Potomac” and “the first luxury gaming resort in the Capital region.” Besides a 125,000-square-foot casino, it includes a 3,000-seat theater, shops, restaurants run by celebrity chefs and a 308-room hotel with a two-story spa and salon, a ballroom and 50,000 square feet of meeting space. Nightly room rates for the hotel start at $299.

Actress and designer Sarah Jessica Parker dropped in to open her first brick-and-mortar boutique, called SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker. Marylander Bryan Voltaggio oversaw final preparations for his first culinary collaboration with his brother Michael, a restaurant called Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse.

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