Las Vegas is buzzing again
The city that was once the poster child for the crushing realities of the pandemic — sharp unemployment, casinos closed then curtailed, restaurants and bars starved for customers — is reclaiming the upper hand. Visitors are flocking back to Las Vegas, and parts of town, including Freemont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, now look much like they used to before COVID-19.
In July, Las Vegas attracted 3.3 million visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a nearly 130 percent increase over the year before, the strongest month since the start of the pandemic. Nevada recommends that visitors, including those fully vaccinated, wear a mask in public indoor settings but has lifted its capacity limits and distancing mandates for casinos, restaurants and bars.
So what’s in store for those returning to Vegas?
Here are some of the newest attractions.
BELLAGIO
Lio Ibiza: The Mayfair Supper Club, Bellagio’s dinner-and-ashow experience, is turning over its stage for a two-week stint by Lio Ibiza, the famed Spanish cabaret/restaurant. From Oct. 18 to 31, the fiery theatrical show will immerse guests in an allnight, over-the-top party of Ibizan song, dance and dining with the resort’s dancing fountains as a backdrop. See MayfairLio.com for tickets.
CAESARS PALACE
Amalfi: Bobby Flay’s new Italian restaurant inspired by his travels to the Amalfi Coast takes over the space that was the celebrity chef ’s long-running Mesa Grill. Dishes include crispy squash blossoms with ricotta and anchovy sauce; squid-ink fettucine with lobster, shrimp and squid fra diavolo; orecchiette with eggplant Bolognese; and grilled whole fish.
CIRCA RESORT & CASINO
Barry’s Downtown Prime: The new downtown casino has plenty of casual dining options, but Barry’s is Circa’s fine-dining star, where the showiest of shellfish towers and the beefiest of bovine indulgence reigns. The dining areas are tricked out in booths of leather and velvet, antique mirrors, brass furnishings, burnished woodwork and gold ceilings.
Stadium Swim: The aquatic amphitheater of sorts features six pools on three different levels facing a massive, 40-foot-tall highdefinition screen with day beds, cabanas and hundred of chaise lounges for bikini-clad revelers. Order bottle service and sink into the city’s hottest all-day pool party.
Legacy Club: Circa’s rooftop cocktail bar offers panoramic views of the downtown skyline and the Strip’s vast neon alley. The bar’s display of 500 custom gold bars worth $1.8 million gets a gambler’s juices flowing.
CIRCUS CIRCUS
NebulaZ: The new thrill ride within the Adventuredome (featuring 25 rides and attractions) spins riders at 14 rotations a minute. With four arms and eight gondolas that carry four riders each, the ride is only one of its kind in the West.
COSMOPOLITAN LAS VEGAS
Superfrico: Spiegelworld, the entertainment-production company behind the shows “Absinthe” and “Opium,” opened an adults-only dining/cocktail/liveentertainment concept on Sept. 24 described as “Italian American psychedelic.” Think of it as an only-in-Vegas fun house of food and theatrical experiences.
Bang Bar by Momofuku:
Celebrity chef David Chang increased his stamp on Vegas with the opening of this casual to-go concept of spit-roasted meat wraps and bowls set within the resort’s Block 16 Urban Food Hall. Bang Bar joins the signature Momofuku restaurant at Cosmopolitan (Chang also has Majordomo Meat & Fish and his slider concept, Moon Palace, at the Venetian).
Ghost Donkey: This offshoot of the original New York mezcal bar (now closed) is a hidden bar in Block 16. Look for the faux exit door with a donkey painted on it in the back of the food court. Pass through to a secret lair with seating for only 25 guests sipping on high-end mezcal, tequila, specialty cocktails and tucking into truffle nachos.
RESORTS WORLD LAS VEGAS
Famous Foods Street Eats: The Strip’s new $4.3 billion resort features three different hotels that each spill onto a gaming floor and a knockout collection of restaurants and bars. Famous Foods is 16 vendors set throughout a winding, 25,000-squarefoot footpath resembling an Asian street market with hawker stalls. Many are Asian concepts, including Au Chun Shandong Dumpling (pork pan-fried bao, dumplings and Shanghainese pulled noodles); Boon Tong Kee (Singapore’s famous Hainanese chicken rice); Googgle Man’s
Char Kuey Teow (smoky fried rice noodles and Hokkien egg noodles); and Houston’s own Blood Bros. BBQ. There’s even a hidden bar: Press a wall at Ms. Meow’s Mamak Stall (a tiny Asian snacks stall) and enter Here Kitty Kitty Vice Den.
Signature restaurants/bars:
The resort’s higher-end dining options include Viva! (modern regional Mexican cuisine); Brezza (modern coastal Italian fare); Wally’s Wine & Spirits (an L.A. import gourmet market); and Genting Palace (luxe Cantonese). Drinking diversions include Gats
by’s Cocktail Lounge with an enviable cache of pricey champagne) and Starlight on 66, a clubby lair on the resort’s 66th floor.
Coming soon: Resorts World has dining and drinking venues arriving in the fall, including Zouk Nightclub (mega club with spin master Tiesto in the house); Caviar Bar (chef Shaun Hergatt’s den of roe gold); Bar Zazu (Europeanstyle cafe for tapas and wine); Eight Lounge cigar bar; and Carversteak (billed as the city’s largest steakhouse specializing in dryaged American and wagyu beef ).
THE VENETIAN RESORT LAS VEGAS
Wakuda: Michelin-star chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s new restaurant at the Palazzo Tower is a major get for the Venetian. The resort’s first high-end, purely Japanese restaurant is set to open in early 2022.
Estiatorio Milos: Known for whole fish flown in daily from the Mediterranean, the Greek restaurant relocated this year from Cosmopolitan and offers exquisite seafood, a raw bar and Greek wines by the glass set within a space inspired by Greek landscapes.
Brera Osteria: Inside the resort’s St. Mark’s Square, this new Milan-inspired restaurant offers Italian fare such as housemade pasta, risotto, seafood dishes, cured meats and fresh warm breads. The Aperitivo Hour, 3 to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, is a perfect time to visit for cocktails and pre-dinner nibbles.
VIRGIN HOTELS LAS VEGAS
Todd English’s Olives: English’s Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, a former must-do at the Bellagio, returns to Vegas in a sexy incarnation with flatbreads; beef carpaccio; honey cake topped with crème fraîche and sevruga caviar; wood-roasted chicken with olives; classic veal Parmesan; and hand-made pasta dishes.
One Steakhouse: The snazzy new steakhouse from restaurateur wiz bothers Michael and David Morton occupies the space that was their former MB Steak. The menu packs a punch: Maine lobster bisque; raw oysters and shellfish platters; filet mignon tartare; Rhode Island fried calamari; charred Spanish octopus; Alaskan king crab pasta with white miso butter; and steaks for two, including a chili-rubbed tomahawk and double porterhouse.
Casa Calavera: The hip Mexican restaurant is the place for Baja shrimp cocktail; Oaxacan Caesar salad; carne asada and pork carnitas tacos; and a variety of perfect margaritas.
WYNN LAS VEGAS
Delilah: In an age when every move is captured for social-media posting, this decadent new venue audaciously enforces a “no photo” policy. Why? That could be Justin Bieber, Drake, 50 Cent, Tiffany Haddish, Kendall Jenner or Jared Leto sitting next to you tucking into chicken fingers and caviar with their champagne.
Opulently designed and featuring a variety of intimate spaces, Delilah offers up live music, deejays and Sunday jazz.
Casa Playa: Adjacent to the Encore Beach Club, this coastal Mexican restaurant opening this fall will offer seafood platters, ceviche and crudos, duck confit tamale, octopus in red mole, carnitas served family style, adobo fish, chicken pibil, fish tacos and a large selection of mezcal and tequila.
Lake of Dreams: Fifteen years after it opened, the resort’s openair performance piece has been reimagined by its original creators. Wynn spent $14 million to upgrade the production, set on a 3-acre lake, that combines music, puppetry, film, lights and plenty of Vegas magic. There are 12 new high-tech acts in the free show that runs nightly every half hour beginning at dusk.
ON THE STRIP
FlyOver: This new high-tech flight ride is an immersive, multisensory experience that sends guests flying over a variety of landscapes. Riders sit on moving platforms with their legs dangling within a 52-foot spherical screen. Next to Hard Rock Cafe across from T-Mobile Arena, FlyOver offers a full bar, pre-show entertainment and a 25-minute ride. Tickets start at $34 for adults and $24 for children; flyoverlasvegas.com.