Sh*t You May Have Missed… Like Eureka! Finally Setting a Debut Date
Hey all, BigAZMarty here with this week’s news about our favorite place, Las Vegas!
1) If you are at Bally’s and need a non-gambling break or just out and about or need a place to have a safe first date, The Twilight Zone by Monster Mini Golf might be just for you! Read LVRJ here for video and photos as well as a fairly detailed article, note however the price, probably the cheapest thing to do in Las Vegas at $11.95 for visitors and $9.95 for locals for 18 holes. The location also has a wedding chapel as well as 4 bowling lanes, to top it off they have a small events center for private parties as well. To Serve Man, indeed.
2) Well, this is never good, the Eataly at Park MGM will open without its famous chef Mario Batali who has been forced to step down from his company and his place on TV’s “The Chew” show, read LVRJ here. After rumors of Todd English being the reason Aria stripped his name from The P.U.B. this may be a big issue coming to hit Las Vegas next. Wonder who else is going to get “exposed” as a celebrity chef/creeper in the #MeToo age?
3) Well perhaps this is why Merulo Group didn’t complete the purchase as initially agreed upon of the SLS, seems they have a lot of EB-5 fund investors to pay off and those people will lose their ability to gain a green card if the resort goes into bankruptcy, read details on LVRJ here. Until the North Strip gets Resorts World, whatever Wynn is going to do with Alon land, the former Fontainebleau opens as a “Marriott” and All Net Arena Resort gets built out, and the Convention Center out to the Strip I’d think SLS, Lucky Dragon and perhaps The Strat will have a hard time getting walk-in business. However with SLS’s Monorail station perhaps they can comp Monorail passes with the rooms to get past that….. you know why walk when you can ride type of marketing?
4) WSOP events announced starting May 30th at Rio and big event July 2 – July 14 read LVRJ here and scroll to the bottom of the article for a link to the WSOP link itself. 78 events this year and televised on ESPN again. I will have to say this they normally have the best fireworks view of the strip from Rio so why not fill the place up with poker players as well?
5) The former WNBA team will have a new name while at the Mandalay Bay Events Center as MGM Resorts is the new owner of the team, and the new logo has a solitary googie star in it, Las Vegas Aces! Read LVRJ here for more details. A hidden gem is that MGM Resorts is going to sink $10M in arena improvements! I could only hope that it’s more leg room and slightly wider seat (10 years ago saw Shania Twain and it’s the smallest seat in Las Vegas at maybe 16″).
6) Well, that didn’t last long, Circus 1903 is closing at Paris Theater on January 7 per Kats at LVRJ here. After sporadic show dates (I managed to be there at all times they were not showing which is sorta impossible) and not sparkling user reviews, something new should be coming soon. Caesars Entertainment seriously needs to do something as whatever they’ve been working on new hasn’t been working and they have a lot of empty theaters. Seriously there is a lot of Broadway shows that would do good in Las Vegas, why not be the “west Broadway” of the US?
7) Want some food challenges while you visit Las Vegas? LVSun has a nice write up on food challenges available in Las Vegas, read here. Carmine’s challenge sounds like the perfect Porterhouse for two.
8) Lindsay Sterling’s Christmas Tour is stopping at The Cosmopolitan’s The Chelsea for a fun violin romp, I have to admit it is a rather good mix of classical violin and a mix of everything else. Read LV Weekly c/o LVSun here. December 22 is the date.
9) Is Jerry’s Nugget (Main Street north of Spaghetti Bowl a couple of blocks…sorta near The Palomino) becoming a low rolling foodie paradise? Read LVSun article here on Contento Pizzeria and Bar in Jerry’s Nugget.
10) IGT is showing off some of it’s new “millennial” drawing slot machines, read and view here via LVSun. 4D and Haptic tech? Gestures? Check. A slot machine that uses tablet tech? Check. I’ll have to see this on the floor and in use to see if it’s just too complicated for the people with money and want to lose it (not millennials). The bad thing seen is the picture, there shouldn’t be any reason to be “taught” to play, that would entail a lot of casino hands on and that’s not a good thing.
11) Henderson Raiders land rush is on as new real estate developments east on St Rose Parkway from the M Resort and the previously announced Raiders Practice facility. Sounds nice, but we’ll see if this ever pans out, read LVSun here, 103 acres and a lot to fit in that footprint. Oh and by the way Lion Habitat Ranch is out near there which houses the former MGM Lions from MGM Grand. Not sure how those FedEx warehouse/sorting facilities are going to fit in there though across from the Henderson Executive Airport.
12) While not in Las Vegas, a previously famous casino in North Lake Tahoe is in process of being bought out of bankruptcy by none other than Larry Ellison, so if your Oracle licensing fees go up next year, you will know why. The CalNeva in North Lake Tahoe was owned for a bit by Frank Sinatra and has a fairly sordid story some of it here (not exactly the most accurate but close). Now for the details and even though it was announced in Oct/Nov time frame why it hadn’t been sold yet, read LVSun here. I was in it pre-renovation and it was very much run down, the remodel was 70% done and then the owners ran out of money…hence the bankruptcy.
13) This caught my eye since I was attempting to catch the original opening date that PH had announced and missed by a LOT (was Oct 1… not a good date either). But the pic itself is making me think, I gotta get there and see it since the old Planet Dailies cafe was a favorite of ours. The PH flood of the summer changed all that and then they announced a complete revamp and rename to Cafe Hollywood, read and view LVSun here. Oh and hey Moe Vestro, supposedly they have a gelato counter!
14) MarC of EDGE Vegas has 5 fun things to do this holiday in Las Vegas via TravelVegas here. So much holidays already.
15) MarC of EDGE Vegas also found the newly remodeled Tower Premium Room at the Luxor’s East and West towers (not the pyramid, the two towers between the pyramid and The Excalibur. Check out here at FrontDeskTip.com. These rooms are up on the Luxor site and they look like a MGM version of the Paris Burgundy room, a little touch up in the bathroom from some photos I’ve seen on the Luxor site (like Paris short bathtub was not replaced nor was the skinny door into the shower). Let’s hope they don’t do something odd like rename it the Omni or something silly like that and remove all the Egyptian theme.
16) Vital Vegas here shows more progress on the Resorts World project, i.e. cranes doing crane stuff and people in hard hats up on the structure and not just staring up from the ground level. Hopefully will be a ton busier than this in 2018-2020.
17) Vital Vegas here also has that Boomer Bar is set to close after 16 years, if you are looking for bar stuff read in there they are looking to sell stuff.
18) Vital Vegas here has the taxi free publication 24/7 is going out of print and closing up, you’ll have to collect hotel mags now. Moe Vestro of course is an avid collector.
19) Vital Vegas here is reporting that the Auto Collection at The Linq is shutting down due to high lease costs. If I were them I’d look to hook up with Barrett Jackson or Russo Steele auto auctions and see if they could do a rotating museum piece while offering parts of the collection up for sale at auction. I’ve never seen this collection, why because it’s in probably one of the worst smelling parking structures in Las Vegas. The smell is due to the Las Vegas Wash runoff flooding and drying up under the parking structure.
20) NOW I have a reason to go to the Palms, A.Y.C.E Buffet is sneak peaked at here on Vital Vegas, it always looks great when it’s brand new doesn’t it? One of my work mates has spent recent time in the Park Place rooms and absolutely loves it as that tower is more of a studio or apt feel.
21) Eater Vegas has the Christmas Day restaurants list and map here. If you lucky enough to live in driving distance here is a trick if you do not have any kids or family plans after the morning present openings, drive in on the afternoon and arrive before or at 5PM, it’s dead and it’s a great time to get in town and if you tip well (it’s Christmas after all) you will make a lot of peoples day.
22) Eater Vegas here has the date for Eureka opening in Emergency Arts (space formerly The Beat), Feb 12 is the opening date and the pic of the burger is very nice.
23) Finally a new Punk Rock label Runnin In Place is up in Las Vegas for local punk bands, read DTLV here. Have a listen to the tracks in the article if you are interested. They currently have four bands in rotation and clips from each are included in the article. Dark Black sounds like early “X” without some of the county vibe, Brett Vee is more heavy, throbbing sound, not so much punk as rock (Queens of the Stone Age B-Side stuff maybe). Moon Blood is yup classic garage punk at it’s finest, raw and unfiltered but with a higher octave than the Devotchkas scream vibe but needs a tad more bass guitar or another voice in a lower octave to harmonize/scream with. Oversight strikes me as Joey Ramone singing for Black Flag… just does and it works somehow. An early Punk Rock Christmas listen!
That’s it for the news around town this week… and now over to our Editor-in-Chief, LasVegasJunkie, for our stuff and more.
Gracias, BigAZMarty! Another busy week…
- BSiegs returns with part one of a two-part trip report filled with booze, fun, gambling, friends, and good times.
- BSiegs shares his reviews of Top Chef Master Lorena Garcia’s Chica restaurant at the Venetian.
- BSiegs returns with part two of a trip report filled with booze, fun, gambling, friends, and good times.
- Chief Editor LasVegasJunkie returns with the Las Vegas Junkie Podcast Episode 4… Please keep expectations extremely low.
That’s all Folks!
[Photo Cred. LasVegasJunkie]
A computer professional who has worked at several types of positions with several different businesses and still learning and changing.
Introduced properly to Las Vegas and Laughlin by the spouse and have been going ever since 1990.
A frequent visitor from not to far away where it’s almost always 10 degrees warmer than Vegas.
