SPECIAL: INSIDE THE PLAZA RENOVATION

Last week, I went on a hardhat tour of the Plaza as it nears the completion of a $35 million renovation. Along the way, I also asked CEO Tony Santo a number of questions that are on the minds of many, from the mechanics behind the Plaza's big Fontainebleau firesale buy. Santo and I also discussed the departure of Firefly, what constitutes a VIP/high-roller at a place like this, why the balconies will be closed and why they decided not to go back to calling the joint the Union Plaza.

I've tried a couple of things with this one. First, there's the Flickr slideshow above. Second, there are two versions of the edited audio in the podcast feed, one a normal MP3 playable on any device and the other an AAC version that will show pictures on iPods capable of displaying them as the interview/tour unfolds. You can right-click on the links in the prior sentence to download either or subscribe to the show (it's free!) in iTunes or Zune. (Aside: If anyone uses Zune, please let us know. Miles doesn't believe it.)

That's what I did on my holiday weekend. How was yours?

UNVEILED: Cosmo's Restaurant Line-Up

Well, I guess it's going to open after all.

For the first time in its tortured history, the $4 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has some actual news of the kind that suggests there will, at long last, someday be tourists to be served in the place. It's that sinuous grey-black building wedged between CityCenter and Bellagio, in case you didn't know, and it's presently slated to open later this year. It's got 3,000 lodging units but it's unclear whether there will be a condo component anymore, as originally planned. (The resort's website refers to "hotel and condo-style accommodations.")

All that may be unclear, but I've got for y'all this morning a list of restaurants expected to take up residence at Cosmo:

* Scarpetta, an Italian place from chef Scott Conant, which was supposed to go into the bankrupt and stalled-out Fontainebleau up the street. This is clearly Cosmo's crown jewel as the New York version of Scarpetta got three stars from the New York Times and New York magazine, was named by Esquire as one of the best new restaurants in America in 2008. There's also one in Miami at the Fontainebleau there. Conant also is doing an as-yet unnamed wine bar at Cosmo.

* Blue Ribbon from Bruce & Eric Bromberg. It's hard to tell what the menu will be because the Brombergs own eight locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, including two sushi places and two brasseries.

* Comme Ca, a French brasserie (so Blue Ribbon will be sushi?) from chef David Myers, left, who has one in Los Angeles, too.

* Estiatorio Milos, a fish place with Greek influences from Costas Spiliadis, who has a place of the same name in New York, Montreal and Athens.

* STK, the requisite steakhouse, from the hospitality firm The One Group, which has STKs in New York, LA and Miami as well. [Note, The One Group's site also lists a restaurant called Yi for Vegas and something undefined called SHH!!. It's unclear if "SHH!!" is just a placeholder or an actual name of something. Those venues, whatever they are, are not to occupy Cosmo, I'm told.]

I'm impressed for one simple reason: They're all new to market. CityCenter has presented a terrific array of restaurants, but only a couple were from chefs who weren't already at Bellagio or aren't called Wolfgang Puck. That said, it also does not sound like the Wynn model of getting great chefs to move to Vegas and work full-time is being followed, but with sparse exceptions Wynn's the only one who's ever really been able to pull that off so I guess that's not fair.

So there you have it. There will be more and there will be a buffet as well. A good start.

The show is UP: Kenny Kerr's Hard Fall

Here's this week's show. Click on the date below to make it play or right-click to save it and listen at your leisure. You can subscribe, too, (it's free!) in iTunes or in Zune.

Jan 6: Kenny Kerr's Hard Fall

He was the longest-running solo headliner in Las Vegas history, but just a few years since the end of his last gig, he’s probably largely unknown to most of you. Kenny Kerr was the first female impersonator to go mainstream on the Strip, opening in the late 1970s at the Silver Slipper, paving the way for Frank Marino. But Kerr’s story is that of great success and constant financial problems, and when Steve spoke to him in December he had left a gig at a small Italian restaurant miles from the Strip because the owner hadn’t paid him. This hour, hear Kerr provide some fascinating history about Las Vegas, go into some shocking detail about drag queen life and, of course, some delicious slaps at his archrival.

In Banter: Drama at Casino Montreal, a visit to Cirque's mothership, Aria v Bellagio, news on the Fontainebleau, Matt Goss and Krave and more.

Links to Stuff Discussed:

Steve's Las Vegas Weekly column on Kenny Kerr
The website for the Casino Montreal
A YouTube video of the Royal Ascot Sigma Derby-esque game at Casino Montreal
The website for Martini Time, a live cooking show at the M Resort
The sites for Viva Elvis and Criss Angel Believe
VegasHappensHere.Com on the snake-box thing and gay-travel survey
LVA blogger Dave McKee’s post on the emptiness of CityCenter’s Crystals
The Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz in Fontainebleau’s sale to Carl Icahn

Vegas Friday Foto Fun

[Update: A commenter noted that the KYK4FSH plate could be related to this fishing group. Totally possible!]

I don't have much time -- still laboring to get back on track after the benefit -- but I've had these images sitting on my desktop waiting for their blog moments. When better than a Friday of a holiday weekend?

First of all, someone needs to tell Google Maps...


...that the Boardwalk Hotel is no more. Isn't it odd what they have on the map and what they don't? Miracle Mile Shops is there but P-Ho isn't? Boardwalk is there but that gateway to CityCenter, Monte Carlo is MIA? Was the Boardwalk ever the most significant landmark in that area of the Strip?

Next, here is yet another reason...


...to love Holly Madison.

I had to be at the Hard Rock one Sunday recently when Rehab, the original Sunday pool party, was going on. Beyond how impressed I was by the crowds...



...I was also amused by the display case.


And as if the implants weren't enough, they have these T-shirts:


It made me wonder. Other than the sexual connotation of "I rubbed one out," I can't think of any other connotation. Am I missing something or is this simply a single entendre? Why not just write, "I spunked in the pool at Rehab" or something? Same thing, no?

I was stuck at a light up on the north end of the Strip the other day and wondered as I stared at this billboard...


...whether Arthur Weiner gets many calls these days.

And, finally, a little license plate fun. Or something. Is this...


...not offensive to Jews? What does it mean, anyway? My instinct is that's code for "Jew for Jesus," but I'm a little surprised the Nevada DMV would OK the use of a slur on a license plate.

F'Blown?

Ut oh. The Review-Journal is reporting that Glenn Schaeffer, the only top executive involved with the Fontainebleau Las Vegas with any gaming experience, has left the company. The now-ex-CEO also was supposed to lend some of his significant private art collection and vaunted art expertise to the project, I believe, so I wonder what's happened with that, too.

Why do I get the feeling that this place is shaping up to be a financial disaster that will make the $1 billion New Aladdin look like a mild blip? There are problems with this place from every conceivable angle. Their financing is on the rocks, the building itself looks from the outside incredibly intimidating and unwelcoming, they'll never sell those luxury condos and the Turnberry folks have destroyed the property values of their own high-rise residents next door by turning Strip views into views of the back ass of a parking box. And now their gaming-related leadership has bowed out.

And this was the project that seemed solid two months ago when CityCenter was about to drift into the sea. Eek.

Fontainebleau Opening Delayed?

The Vegas meeting market is abuzz with rumors that groups scheduled for conventions at the $2.9 billion Fontainebleau are being told to relocate to other properties. The resort is due to open in October 2009 but is now caught up in a financing snafu in which lenders including bailout baby Bank of America that are on the hook to provide $800 million have said they won't put up the money. F'bleau is suing, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley are livid and the one major Strip project under construction that had pre-secured enough money to see it through to completion is now in danger of shutting down.

Thus, while F'bleau has not officially postponed its opening, there are signs that such a move is imminent. For one thing, it's almost May and the resort's website isn't taking reservations yet or even showing images of the room product. Aria, which is scheduled to open in December, is. Vdara, an Aria neighbor at CityCenter which also is planned for an October opening, has been taking reservations for months. And until last week, CityCenter's financing was far more iffy than F'bleau's.

Anyhow, I wasn't the only reporter chasing the word that F'bleau had told conventions to move, which would be the surest and most concrete indication that they're planning for a construction shutdown and a completion delay.

But, alas, I received a somewhat cagey statement a few minutes ago from the crisis-management PR folks F'bleau has hired to deal with this drama. Have they been telling groups to find other places to convene? This was the official line:

“We have not changed the opening date for Fontainebleau Las Vegas, although that is a possibility. If we were to postpone the opening, we would inform any convention groups affected by such a decision.’’

Uh, OK. Strange, though, that the rumors are so persistent. Could it just be competitors playing dirty pool?

Interestingly, there really aren't that many conventions scheduled for F'bleau, and none until January 2010, three months after the scheduled opening and only seven on the LVCVA's calendar through May.

I guess, as they say, this one is developing...

Random pix I haven't shown you

While dumping extra images off my camera's memory card and organizing stuff on my laptop, I came across a few shots I'd taken in recent months for this blog but never had a reason to post.

The first was this one from our suite at Trump a while back. I liked it because it struck me that for all the fanfare, the Fontainebleau is really just a humungous version of its little brother up the block, the Riviera.


See that? The Riv is in the foreground looking so itty bitty, but the shape's the same and so, to some extent, is the exterior. This also shows just how grotesquely large the F'Bleau is. It may make us forget how sprawling and imposing the MGM Grand is when all is said and done.

Meanwhile, one day I was coming west on Spring Mountain Road and I noticed this:


Fun, huh? Of course, Wynn Road has been there for many more years than Wynn Las Vegas. I don't know exactly how long, but it was already there in 1996 when I first moved here. But I've never seen anyone shoot the two signs together, so I did.

Over at Las Vegas City Hall one day, I learned about a little free museum they have that you have to ask the clerks to let you into. Most of the stuff is obvious -- old city maps and pictures -- but I'm thinking we're the only city in the world whose museum offers a collection of...


...mayoral Bobbleheads?

This one has nothing to do with Vegas, but "Lost" fans will appreciate that I was playing my Petcast co-host Emily at Word Twist on Facebook when the seven-letter answers were...


...OCEANIC and COCAINE. Makes you wonder if the fact that the name of the airliner is an anagram for the drug means anything to explaining what's happening on the show.

And, finally, just something nice to look at.


Who said the desert landscape around Vegas is boring or ugly?

Bad, AOL News People

I just went to look at my e-mail and was stopped by this new headline out front on AOL's home page...


Can't see it? How about now:

And I'm like, "Whoa!" Did something break when I wasn't looking? The biggest new hotel being built on the Strip right now is either Aria or Fontainebleau. I hadn't heard of any delays in either of those.

Alas, you click on the link and it takes you to a 4-day-old Reuters story about the shorning and delays for The Harmon, which was never supposed to have more than 400 hotel rooms and had lost its 200 condo units because of construction mistakes. In fact, oddly, at 400 rooms, The Harmon actually qualifies as the SMALLEST new hotel to have been built on the Strip in as long as I can remember. Sure, it's a piece of the largest construction complex, CityCenter, but this headline is bad.

Just saying.

Las Vegas - Is Boom Overextended?

Yes, that's the famous headline from this June 1955 Life Magazine issue. And the focus and topic, in these tough economic times, of my Las Vegas Weekly column. I actually wanted to provide a scan of the entire Life spread but the Weekly folks didn't do it and my printer/scanner broke for good the other day. So you'll all have to wait!

Boom Cycle
Can Las Vegas ever be overbuilt?
By STEVE FRIESS

Every now and again, if you’re around Vegas long enough, you hear about the June 20, 1955 issue of Life Magazine with a Moulin Rouge showgirl on its cover. The issue is, to many, the “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment for Vegas journalism for the question its headline asked:

“Las Vegas—Is Boom Overextended?”

It’s a punchline to many on the Strip. Six months ago, Sheldon Adelson himself referenced it in an interview in advance of the Palazzo opening in response to my question about whether the city could be overbuilt. The implication was that almost since the dawn of the destination, naysayers have wondered whether the city could continue to sustain its own urge to constantly grow.

The reason I bring this up is because, by some quirk of fate, I found a copy of that very issue for sale for a mere $25 at the Casino Chip and Gaming Tokens Collectors Club convention at the Riviera last week. I’d bought a copy before, but it was sealed in plastic and never read; the fact that I now had a shot at another copy, unwrapped, on the exact 53rd anniversary of its publication was a minor thrill I couldn’t refuse.

It also took on more resonance this year because Vegas is in one of its worst slumps ever. Occupancy and room rates are down, gambling revenues are on track to fall for only the second time since 1970, the last time being in 2002 following 9/11.

At the very same time, the frantic building continues unabated. The various CityCenter structures, the Fontainebleau, Wynn’s Encore, Echelon and a new Caesars tower all are poised to add more than 19,000 high-end rooms to the already staggering inventory in the next couple of years. Now Adelson is looking at moving the Sands Expo Center elsewhere to make room for 7,000 more rooms, Wynn wants another 5,000 in place of his golf course, Station Casinos wants 10,000 more just west of the Strip in its Viva project and someone—maybe the Plaza folks, maybe not—is going to do something big on the former Frontier property.

Which brings us back to where Las Vegas was in 1955 when that seemingly foolish headline and article were written.

Read the rest HERE

EXCLUSIVE: What FB's iMac Screens Will Look Like

(UPDATE, 6/16, 10:42 a.m.: I had posted links to an older version of this demo. I just updated the links to direct you to the new ones. They're largely the same file but this one does seem to work faster and better.)

My USA Today piece on the Fontainebleau's $15 million deal to put Apple iMacs in every room appeared on Friday on the cover of the Destinations section. You can read that here.

But here's a fun bonus: There's a Flash demonstration of what "iFB," as they're calling it, does that I'm able to share exclusively with you folks. Mac users can click here to download it and PC users can click here. They're ZIP files that open up as applications, but I promise you there is no spam in there.

And if you don't want to download anything, here are a few screen shots. Click on any of these images to make them bigger and more readable.

This is a close-up of the personalized greeting...


Here's the main screen:


And another screen with your local weather, etc.:


And, finally, here's a little sneak peek of the restaurant line-up for the Miami property, which reopens after a $500 million renovation this fall. Some of the same restaurateurs are coming to the $3 billion Vegas property as well as more.


One of the coolest parts of the FB-Apple thing that is new from my USAT piece is the idea of a touch-screen wayfinder board in the lobby of a resort that gives you personalized directions. Methinks the days of a deliberately confusing resort layout that forces guests to wander in circles in the casino -- Binion's Horseshoe comes to mind -- are over.

The Show is UP: The Win and Yang of Poker

Here we are with 2007 WSOP champ Jerry Yang (center) and his father and brother-in-law at the LV Rocks studio last week for a really great and rare in-studio conversation. Also, hear on the show what the Fontainbleau folks are saying about their mysterious plans for their Vegas showroom.

Here's the show 411. Click on the date to hear it or right-click to download the show and listen whenever you want. Or subscribe via iTunes here or via Zune here:

June 5: The Win and Yang of Poker

A year ago, Jerry Yang was a just a 39-year-old social worker from Temecula, California, with six kids, a hefty mortgage and a wife who worked nights to make ends meet. Today, he’s living proof of why the annual World Series of Poker is the one championship that anyone can win. Yang spent $225 to enter a local satellite tournament that led him to a seat at the 2007 Main Event where he walked away $8.25 million richer. Next month, he begins a defense of that crown but this week, he’s live in our studio to talk about the year that was, what he’s done with all that money and how he feels about the changes being made to this year’s W.S.O.P.

In Banter: CityCenter's brief strike, more details on Fontainebleau, a tour operator thinks straight men are neglected in Vegas and K-Fed is Father of the Year?!?

Fontainebleau: An iMac In Every Room

I had been sitting on this because we thought I had it exclusively for a major publication but then the Fontainebleau folks prematurely and accidentally posted a new brochure online and it got out on other blogs, so here goes:

The new $3 billion Fontainebleau in Vegas opening fall 2009 and the one renovated for $500 million in Miami opening this September will offer a groundbreaking amenity: A full-fledged iMac in every room. There are a number of thoughts behind that and I'll have a lot more really soon.

But my question is: Is that cool? Would it persuade you to stay there? Does it add a coolness factor?