VEGAS MOMENT
Nothing to See Here ...
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| August 21–27, 2014
There’s nothing quite like the buildup to a grand opening on Las Vegas Boulevard. And more than three years after it was frst announced that the venerable Sahara Hotel & Casino—a fxture on the north end of the Strip for 59 years—would be stripped down and remade into SLS Las Vegas, it’s safe to say that thousands across the Valley are anxious to get their frst glimpse of the $415 million resort, which opens to the public at midnight as August 22 turns into August 23. It’s also safe to say that this gentleman, who lives nearby, isn’t among the anxious to visit the new kid on the block. Hey, sometimes tending to life’s everyday chores—like transporting the groceries home sans motor vehicle—get in the way of extending a welcoming hand to the new neighbor.
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Photo by Jon Estrada
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“When my son was in kindergarten, he was certain that clouds were made of wool. Time has brought him science, but the wonder hasn’t receded.” BREAKING STUFF & MAKING STUFF {PAGE 16}
News, gossip, sports betting and The Code to unlocking deals at SLS Las Vegas
We’ve Arrived! … Well, Almost With Ikea and White Castle on their way, we’re fnally starting to resemble a real ‘City.’ If only a few other retail favorites would follow. By Jason Scavone
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CHICK-FIL-A: The favorite restaurant
of chicken enthusiasts, Mike Huckabee and—just gonna guess here— most of the members of Skillet is an obvious place to start. But if this Southern staple known as much for its right-wing views as its addictive poultry had trouble coming to terms with Chicago in the wake of their gay marriage controversy, we can’t imagine they’re going to leap at the chance to open on Industrial between two strip clubs, a sex-toy shop
expansion plans are under way for Washington, D.C., Philly, L.A., São Paulo, Moscow and London. Moscow? Isn’t Russia way too busy invading former states to appreciate the sublime beauty of an olive-oil aisle bigger than your average Walgreens? WAFFLE HOUSE: If Eataly had a meth-
addled cousin that it pretends not to know when they see each other at the bar, it’s Waffe House. The breakfast might be subpar compared with a million other places around town, but putting one of these bad boys next to Dino’s would be the cheapest entertainment the rest of us ever got. Corporate is making a huge mistake coming only as close as Phoenix.
HOWARD JOHNSON’S (MAD MEN 1966 VERSION): Time and the inevitable
and what appears to be a used-condom recycling facility. Good thing St. George is a short drive away. CRATE & BARREL: Being the hipper
version of Pottery Barn is like being the funniest guy in the Blue Valentine cast. But people who look down at Target and up at Gwyneth Paltrow’s online magazine GOOP need someplace to shop, too. They just have to go to Southern California to do it right now.
FRIENDLY’S: This Northeast favorite
is a glorifed diner, sure. But it’s a glorifed diner that produces its own line of ice cream and offers up Reese’s sundaes that are big enough
for roughly two average 6-year-olds to climb inside and eat their way out. You just have to travel to about Dayton, Ohio, to get one. (Friendly’s also offers something called a Fribble. Go ahead, just say it out loud. “Fribble.” You’re booking tickets to Dayton right now, aren’t you?) EATALY: On a more upscale tip, Mario Batali’s Eataly—it’s like an Amazon warehouse for obscure packaged and fresh Italian food—has been rumored to come here for a few years. Rumors Batali himself started by musing about bringing this glorious temple of pasta to the Venetian. Right now the only U.S. locations are in midtown Manhattan and Chicago, but
march of culture may have reduced the once-mighty HoJo’s empire to a mere three restaurants, but if they could time-travel a mid-mod orangeroof titan to center Strip and drop Jessica Páre in a booth, we promise to load up on orange sherbet seven days a week. HoJo’s isn’t a destination; it’s on the way to someplace. Someplace like where corporate chef Jacques Pépin once noted they served up “the best Manhattan cocktail in town—it came with a full pitcher for reflls alongside the initial flled glass.” If that didn’t make you weep for being born in the wrong decade, you need to go see if you can fnd where you left your soul. At least you can still make a pilgrimage to Lake George, New York, where one of the remaining HoJo’s celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
MEGA LO MART: Hardware, sundries
and Chuck Mangione as spokesman? When are they going to expand out of Arlen, Texas?
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
August 21–27, 2014
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BEFORE WE START, let’s fre up The Jeffersons theme song, because we’re movin’ on up (movin’ on up!). See, we might have rapid growth, Michelin-starred restaurants and a world-class performing arts center, but we were never really close to being a capital-C City until recently. In the span of a couple of weeks this summer, it was announced we’d get an Ikea in the southwest and a White Castle at Casino Royale. (Not together … even if you could build a sturdy bookcase out of White Castle sliders.) All the other City stuff, like population density and a stripmall-per-person ratio below 1-to-1, doesn’t even matter anymore. Actually, it’s been a good run these last few years for products and businesses popular in the rest of the country fnally dialing up directions to the desert, including the likes of Steak ’n Shake and Dunkin’ Donuts. (Which made a thousand blue-collar East Coast hearts melt at once with the sublime joy that comes from knowing there’s a place to get coffee other than a shop too busy selling Jakob Dylan CDs to notice its brew tastes like the runoff from a dumpster fre.) How will we know when we’ve truly arrived as a metropolis, though? When we, in the spirit of both civic pride and Pokémon, collect ’em all:
The Long Road Home By bob whitby
California road project slowing I-15 commuters to Vegas
THURSDAY, AUG. 21: Another sign that
By Brooke Edwards Staggs
DEVORE INTERCHANGE PHOTO BY ROBERT CHEVEZ/DEVORE INTERCHANGE PROJECT; ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
THE SUN IS SETTING on your California getaway, and you’re ready to trek home to Las Vegas. You leave behind the hell that is Los Angeles traffc and make it to Interstate 15. There’s just one major hurdle left between you and the open road: the Devore interchange. Before Interstate 215 merges into I-15, at the base of the Cajon Pass, traffc comes to a standstill, with drivers limping for an hour along a stretch of road that under normal conditions should take 10 minutes to navigate. Several elements are at work here slowing your homecoming. Some 1 million drivers use the interchange each week, commuting from L.A. jobs to cheaper desert housing, heading for Vegas or the Colorado River, and hauling goods cross-country from ocean ports. In fact, 21,000 semitrailers traverse the route daily, slowing to a crawl as the steep grade of the Cajon Pass kicks in. Making matters worse, the freeway also loses a lane, creating what the
[ TECH ]
WHAT TO MAKE OF STARTUP SHUTDOWNS? In the startup game, failure is not questioned; it’s expected. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, less than 20 percent of startups succeed in giving substantial returns to investors (and industry insiders will tell you it usually takes at least three years before those profits start rolling in, and sometimes, as many as seven). Recently, two of Downtown’s notable startups joined the unlucky 80-plus percent: Ticket Cake, the online ticketing and marketing platform, closed its doors in July; and Factorli, a fledgling manufacturing company that planned to do small runs of products for hardware startups, announced this month it was
Federal Highway Administration has called one of the nation’s worst bottlenecks. The good news: Work is under way to improve the congestion. The bad news: It’s getting worse before it gets better. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) broke ground a year ago on a $324 million upgrade that will take I-15 from three lanes to four, adding a lane in each direction starting from two miles south of the interchange to one mile north. Crews will also add a 2-mile truck bypass lane off to the right of the interchange to improve fow and safety, Caltrans spokeswoman Joy Sepulveda says. In the meantime, don’t expect to break any personal Southern California-to-Vegas speed records for the next couple of years, as work is slated to continue through mid-2016. One thing you can do before your next trip: Check conditions and sign up for email alerts at DevoreInterchangeProject.com.
ceasing operations. Ticket Cake began in Utah in 2011, when founders Joe Henriod, Dylan Jorgensen and Jacqueline Jensen became the main ticket supplier of the Sundance Film Festival. In 2012, they moved the company to Las Vegas and were in the first group of startups to get seed money from the then-new Vegas Tech Fund, the Downtown Project’s investment arm. Despite having 320 event organizers who used the platform and despite processing more than $1.7 million in ticket sales, the founders closed up shop three years after launching. Jensen didn’t wish to elaborate on the closure, but she did tell Inc.com in a video profile earlier this year that they needed to focus on raising more capital and the cofounders were still having to justify small expenses. Unlike Ticket Cake, Factorli
was only a few months old when news came of its demise. After receiving $10 million in funding from Tony Hsieh in May, energetic CEO Jen McCabe unexpectedly parted ways with the startup and also left her position at the Vegas Tech Fund. (Downtown Project spokeswoman Kim Schaefer says the $10 million will be redistributed to Downtown, although she didn’t provide details as to where the money will go.) While the Ticket Cake team is now resettling into different jobs Downtown, it’s unknown what McCabe’s next steps are. (Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful). Meanwhile, this big question looms: What do the failings of two Downtown startups that seemed most likely to survive mean for the Vegas tech community? Before assuming the worst, consider the paper Skill vs. Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital, authored by Harvard students in 2006. It examined evidence gathered from serial entrepreneurs and found that firsttimers only have an 18 percent chance of succeeding, but those who fail and try a new venture have a 20 percent success rate. While 2 percent may not seem like much, it suggests failure actually increases the probability for future success. – Nicole Ely
summer is coming to a close: the year’s final Movies in the Square. Town Square’s free offering winds down with a showing of Disney’s Planes at sundown. Be there or wait until the series returns in 2015. MyTownSquareLasVegas.com.
FRIDAY, AUG. 22: Late August means
shopping for school supplies. But a lot of families in Southern Nevada don’t have the means to buy the necessary items. Communities in Schools’ annual Fill the Bus drive helps kids get what they need to be ready for the bell. The bus will be at Sam’s Club, 7100 Arroyo Crossing Pkwy., from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, and at the Sam’s Club at 8080 W. Tropical Pkwy. from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow.
SATURDAY, AUG. 23: Here’s a brand-new event that should have
legs: the Las Vegas Dash n’ Splash, a 5k run and “epic” water fight. In a nutshell, runners are armed with squirt guns filled with colored water. They navigate a course and blast one another. Chaos ensues. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Craig Ranch Regional Park. Runners: $25; Spectators: $7 (includes water shooters and water balloons); LVDashnSplash.com.
SUNDAY, AUG. 24: Did Jesus have to go to
summer school? What constitutes an appropriate vacation for good Catholics? The answer to these and other burning questions will be provided at Sister’s Summer School Catechism, a lighthearted play based on one nun’s unhappy summer spent babysitting students who weren’t paying attention in Catholic school. The final performances at The Smith Center are at 3 and 7 p.m. today, following shows Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $35-$40; TheSmithCenter.com.
MONDAY, AUG. 25: That strange wind whooshing through the
Valley today? It’s a collective sigh of relief from all the parents who survived summer and are oh-so-happy that today is the first day of classes for the Clark County School District. That extra traffic on the road? Same thing. Drive safely.
TUESDAY, AUG. 26: For those about to eat, we salute you—
because you’re going to spend Aug. 22-28 dining at some of Las Vegas’ best eateries in support of Three Square. Time once again for Restaurant Week, the embarrassment of prixfixe menu riches that both fills your stomach and supports the area’s largest food bank. You know the drill: Eat at one of the dozens of participating restaurants, and a portion of your tab goes to Three Square. HelpOutDineOutLV.org.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 27: Another sign
summer is coming to a close: Today is the Las Vegas 51s’ final regular-season home game. If you haven’t caught a baseball game at Cashman Field this year, you can right that wrong at 7:05 p.m. Tickets: $10$25; LV51.com.
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J A M E S P. R E Z A
WHAT’S THE PROPER WAY TO SAY ‘HUNTRIDGE’?
August 21–27, 2014
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WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE SKY THIS
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time of year? Gargoyles, sheep, mushroom clouds, bunnies, maps of Africa, lost schooners, melting dollops of vanilla ice cream, the profle of George Washington, tacos. Tacos? Yes, tacos. Come monsoon season over Vegas, the mind gets its annual Rorschach writ in vapor. When my son was in kindergarten, he was certain that clouds were made of wool. Time has brought him science, but the wonder hasn’t receded. Last year, he built his seventhgrade science project around his photographs of the sky before and during the Mount Charleston fre. The dust and smoke had risen from the peaks, joined the sky-bound water and hovered rust-orange over the city: The schooner sails had taken on fame; George Washington was, once again, a redhead. One could not tell where the fre’s destruction ended and the sky’s creation began. But even the purest of skies builds its clouds around the swept-up particles of our dry earth. Up there just wouldn’t be the same without down here. It needs our dust; it’s hard to say whether it’s indifferent to our dreams. “The Old Testament God repeatedly says he wants praise,” the writer John Updike said.
Breaking Stuff & Making Stuff
Mad musings on the creative life GREG BLAKE MILLER
“And I translate that to mean that the world wants describing.” Or perhaps it simply wants observing—the upward glance, almost furtive in a world of phone-watchers, the calm effort required to see and smell the sky. (The scent of cloud-cover is its own genre, calling out for the wine taster’s descriptive powers.) This is the season of the plausibly implausible: The rolling clouds give one the sense that the Red Sea could, indeed, be split, and that Moses, or at least Heston, trod desert soil not unlike our own. This, of course, is all very oldfashioned of me. I am writing to a mental soundtrack of Segovia and Leonard Cohen and the rattle of wind on palm fronds. Which brings me, as things will, to texting, which Updike never linked with God, but which can be a handy way to get a friend to look up. Here, with
apologies to everyone involved, is a snippet of text dialogue between my 13-year-old son and a friend. Both of them live in Henderson, a mile or two away from one another: Him: Did you see this cloud? Her: What cloud? Does it say “sent” on ur phone? Him: The really dark one. Now it’s right above me. Her: Wait, did you send a pic? Him: No. Look outside. Her: Look outside where? Him: Go outside. And look at that cloud. Her: Where are you? Him: At my house. Her: Then how am I supposed to see a cloud that’s over there? The happy end to this story is that she did, indeed, go outside, see the cloud, and agree that, yeah, it was a cloudy day. By that time, my son had sent her a video of the cloud. Later, she watched it and at last shared my son’s astonishment: “Wow, that cloud IS huge. In the video.” As I was saying, we live in a time of wonders. Former Vegas Seven editor Greg Blake Miller is the director of Olympian Creative Coaching & Consulting—personal training for the creative mind. Visit OlympianCreative.com.
IS THERE A FOOD OR CUISINE INDIGENOUS TO LAS VEGAS? I’d vote for steak and eggs. Or, in the words of the late G.L. Vitto, “The Great Boo-fay!” Seriously, though, “eating local” may be all the rage, but our city is too young, dry and (for most of its history) remote for anything to develop like the Cajun/Creole scene in New Orleans. I suppose Anasazi-based crops such as corn and squash—both of which my grandmother grew in her Las Vegas backyard—qualify, but unlike Northern Nevada, which has a rich history of Basque immigrants who transplanted their shepherding culture there, Las Vegas has almost always been an import city. To wit: Flights full of fresh seafood touch down daily in our desert (shrimp cocktail, baby!). But we simply don’t yet have an abundant selection of local sources for farm-to-table goods. Most of the foodstuffs found at our farmers markets are more accurately “regional.” While new ideas (hydroponic indoor farms?) are bandied about for growing more here, for now, what few sources we have typically lose ground to development (Gilcrease Orchard is a prime example). Witness Mario Batali’s heralded Bet on the Farm market at Springs Preserve (reopening December 1). The website clearly states that items are “limited to what’s in season, locally grown in the Las Vegas areas or trucked in from SoCal.” Sure, truly local items (honey, eggs) are offered, but the strongest advantage Bet on the Farm has over your supermarket is that its produce is not flown in from South America. Meanwhile, many of my neighbors have trees that produce copious amounts of lemons, pomegranates and figs … Now there’s a missed opportunity! Questions? AskaNative@VegasSeven.com.
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
Look, Up in the Sky! It’s a …
Who knew this was a problem? Though given recent efforts to revitalize the Streamline Moderne theater (which opened at Charleston Boulevard and Maryland Parkway in 1944), I guess it was bound to come up. As someone who waited with my grandmother in lines stretching about 100 feet to the street to score a seat for first-run Disney movies at the Huntridge, and who then enjoyed dozens of concerts during the theater’s second (perhaps third?) life, I’m one of those who embraces the soft, rolling pronunciation of “Hun-tridge,” rather than the hard-syllable “Hunt-ridge” I’ve occasionally heard. Still, that’s not as cringe-inducing as “Ne-VAW-duh” ... though residents of the Huntridge neighborhood may disagree.
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ANTHONY CURTIS
The Swan Songs of Summer How best to say goodbye to summer? With DJ Jazzy Jef, the Fresh Prince, the brothers Jonas and, of course, little people
August 21–27, 2014
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IT’S HAPPENING, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT
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or not. Summer has one thin weekend left on the calendar before the big, offcial Labor Day blowout. Sure, the pools will stay open for another month or so, and the temperature won’t dip in any meaningful way for at least another three weeks. But the end is nigh. Which means you’re too late to start up a summer romance. You missed your chance to come up with a summer jam (guess you have to settle for Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”— just like the Killers did when they covered it at the V Festival in England). And there is virtually no chance you can get into camp. (Besides, you’re 35—you look ridiculous in a neckerchief.) But there’s still a little air left in the beach ball. If summer is staring down the barrel, it could do worse than getting a Will Smith sendoff, dipping back to the time when summer jams were actual summer jams. No, really, because when Smith dropped in on DJ Jazzy Jeff for a surprise appearance at Ditch Friday at the Palms Pool on August 15, he ripped through “Summertime” (and ripped off his shirt).
JASON SCAVONE
After that, Smith got into the Fresh Prince theme, and rocked his “Apache” dance (sans Alfonso Ribeiro), which is cool and all. But where’s the love for Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime?” We thought this was supposed to be on-theme. Admit it: You were always jealous of your friends who had summer birthdays. They never had to go to school and bring enough cupcakes for the class. Just pure pool parties and water-balloon fghts and no responsibility as far as the eye can see. Joe Jonas got to relive that fne tradition August 15 at Beacher’s Madhouse, where the club honored Jonas the best way it knew how: with little people. Little Spinner, the world’s smallest stripper, danced for Jonas—as did a mini Miley Cyrus stripper. Then there was a mini Jonas Brothers concert
for Joe and Nick. That’s when they knew they made it. The following night, Joe, Nick, Nick’s girlfriend Olivia Cuplo and a crew of about 30 took over XS, where Joe hung out with a blonde in a black bustier. She was not, for the record, mini. A new report suggests that Americans are drinking bourbon at a rate not seen since the 1970s. (We’ve never been more proud of you, America.) A big slug of whiskey might not be the ideal summertime cocktail (which we know, empirically, is gin-based), but the brown stuff is important to the exploding business of craft cocktails. And one of the ground-zero bars for the movement, Chicago’s Aviary (from chef Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, the team behind foodie hajj destination Alinea), is rumored to be coming to Mandarin Oriental, in a rebrand of an existing bar there. Right now Craig Schoettler is the property mixologist at Aria, but before he came to the desert, he was stirring it up at—wait for it—Aviary. By the time it arrives, though, you might have to trade your summer gin for cool-weather bourbon. Oh no. Not that. Anything but that.
Last year I was a panelist at a tablegames conference, and Sam Nazarian, the top man at SBE Entertainment, which owns SLS Las Vegas, was the lunchtime speaker. During his talk, Nazarian made multiple references to the locals market and SLS’ plans to appeal to that market with “value.” Really? How does the coolest, hippest new joint on the Strip do that? After all, SBE is a company known for its posh Los Angeles nightclubs and high-end restaurants. SBE already has a presence in Las Vegas with Hyde Bellagio, which is a happening place … with $9 beers. So when I had a chance to talk with SLS executives, I asked how they intended to make the nighttime party culture and the value stance mesh. The answer was that SLS has done its homework and realizes that a casino in Vegas is vastly different from a nightclub in L.A. Hence, they’ve set “intelligent price points” for the restaurants and bars relative to other Strip properties. I won’t know what that really means till the doors open (at midnight the evening of August 22) and I can make some straight-up comparisons, but the restaurant plan sounds enticing. One thing I can confirm right now if you’re looking for an immediate deal: Get “The Code.” The Code is the name of the players club, and it’s clear that SLS wants to leverage the club for its locals marketing campaign. An area of the SLS website labeled “Serious Local Specials” states that customers with a Code card and local ID will have access to special happy hours with $5 drinks from 5-7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and there are other benefits for “dining and staying.” Specific details weren’t clear, but I gathered that the buffet, which is being touted as a gourmet-style effort, is a likely target for discounting to local Code members. It’s all a little cryptic right now, but here’s the reality: New casinos almost always open loose. Sometimes they stay that way. Usually they pull back. But they almost never get looser. Hence, the smart play is to sign up for the club early and see what comes your way. While we’re on the topic of opening loose, SLS also says that it will offer a more player-friendly gambling product (including better video poker pay tables) than Las Vegas Strip norms. My experience has been that a casino rarely says this then doesn’t follow through, especially during the opening honeymoon period. Whether or not SLS lives up to its promise will be obvious from the start (and I’ll investigate and tell you about it here), but this is potentially more good news for players. Just make sure you obtain The Code before you play. Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.
ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA
LOOKING FOR A BARGAIN AT SLS? HERE’S THE CODE
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BETTING more—and it got outscored by an average of nine points per game. Dig deeper, though, and you’ll see the Redskins ranked ninth in total offense and 18th in total defense. Should we expect Washington to rebound to the 10-6 record it posted in RG III’s rookie season? Probably not. But with a schedule that includes the Texans, Jaguars, Titans, Vikings, Bucs and Cowboys (twice), getting to .500 is realistic. Over (Even, Westgate)
With or without a healthy Tony Romo, Dallas is headed for a fifth straight nonwinning season.
Trouble in Big D
August 21–27, 2014
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Brace yourselves, Cowboys fans: It’s going to be another long year
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LIKE MOST MIDDLE-AGED MEN, the list of people who annoy me grows longer by the hour—and hovering near the top are people who feel compelled to reveal to others their list of people who annoy them … usually in 140-character increments (#WhoGivesaF***). So I’ll spare you the specifcs of my irritation list, but for one exception: I’ve reached the zero-tolerance zone for people who offer up absurdly obvious advice. You know, you really should eat less and exercise more. No shit, Sherlock? This is why I’ll never waste your time with inane tips, like, oh, I don’t know, “Don’t overreact to NFL preseason results.” Because you already know that, aside from key injuries, nothing that happens in August means diddly once the real games kick off … What’s that, Cowboys fans? Your defense—which was historically horrifc in 2013 (allowing 415 yards and 27 points per game)—has surrendered 726 yards and 64 points in two preseason games? And that defense, which lost its top two players from last year to free agency (end DeMarcus Ware) and a season-ending injury (linebacker Sean Lee), faces a slew of talented QBs in Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, Jay Cutler and Andrew Luck, plus two games each against Eli Manning (who owns the Cowboys), a healthy Robert Griffn III, and Nick Foles and the explosive Eagles offense? OK, maybe not everything that happens in the preseason is meaningless. With that, let’s resume my NFL season win-total recommendations with the
MATT JACOB
This is the fifth year that Going for Broke columnist Matt Jacob has made NFL win-total recommendations, and the fourth time he’s doing so for all 32 teams. Here are the results to date: 2010: 22-10 2011: 8-6 2012: 22-9-1 2013: 14-17-1 TOTAL: 66-42-2
NFC East and NFC North, using the best available numbers/odds from MGM Resorts, William Hill, Station Casinos and Westgate Las Vegas (formerly LVH) … NFC EAST
Eagles (9½ wins): I can only call ’em as I see ’em, and with respect to the 2013 Eagles, I saw ’em with Stevie Wonder’s vision: Not only was I sure Philadelphia (10-6) would stay “under” its 7½-win total, I tabbed it my favorite play for this division. Suffce to say, I’ve come around on head coach Chip Kelly’s fast-break offense—just not all the way around. See, that offense faced one crappy defense after another last year. Not so in 2014, as
seven of Philadelphia’s opponents ranked in the top eight in total defense in 2013. Beyond that, I’m not convinced that Kelly has fxed his own leaky defense, which ranked 29th last year. Under (-125, MGM) Cowboys (8): As if the aforementioned defensive woes and brutal schedule weren’t enough, Dallas has a quarterback (Tony Romo) coming off back surgery, a head coach (Jason Garrett) who makes Norv Turner look competent and an owner (Jerry Jones) dealing with a philandering scandal. Oh, did I mention the last four Cowboys teams, with far fewer question marks, failed to produce a winning season? No wonder every wise guy in town has a Cowboys “under” ticket in his pocket. Under (-200, MGM) Giants (7½): Glass half-empty: New York started 0-6 last season and didn’t notch its frst victory until October 21. Glass half-full: Tom Coughlin’s troops closed on a 7-3 run, allowing more than 21 points just three times. The 7-9 fnish marked the frst time since 2004—Coughlin’s frst season—that the Giants failed to at least hit .500. While you can argue New York didn’t upgrade signifcantly in the offseason, I’m still willing to bet it will avoid a second straight sub-.500 season— but I wouldn’t even wager the water bill on this one. Over (-155, Station) Redskins (7½): On one hand, Washington earned every bit of last year’s 3-13 record: It gave up 478 points— only Minnesota (480) surrendered
Next week: NFC South, NFC West. Matt Jacob appears at 10 a.m. Fridays on “First Preview” on ESPN Radio 1100-AM and 98.9-FM.
PHOTO BY MATTHEW EMMONS/USA TODAY SPORTS
NFC NORTH
Packers (10½): The answer: Aaron Rodgers and Kate Upton. The question: Who are two celebrities worth every dollar they’re paid? Upton goes without saying. As for Rodgers: Since 2009, the Packers are 52-19 when he starts under center in the regular season; 3-5-1 when he’s doesn’t. This year, Green Bay should encase Rodgers in bubble wrap, as its schedule includes the Bears (twice), Panthers, Eagles, Patriots and Falcons, plus trips to Seattle, Miami, New Orleans and Buffalo (in mid-December). Translation: The Packers’ margin for error is slimmer than Upton’s waist. Under (-125, Station) Bears (8½): Chicago has won at least seven games for nine straight years (hitting 9-7 or better fve times), which is probably why Bears “over” has been hit hard this summer. Two additional reasons: Chicago’s offense will be even more lethal than last year (only Denver scored more points than the Bears did), and the defense (ranked 30th in points and yards allowed) can’t possibly be worse. Over (-145, Westgate) Lions (8): Explosive passing attack, solid running game, talented defensive line, improved offensive line (only Peyton Manning was sacked less than Matt Stafford in 2013)—really, if the pass defense is just mediocre, Detroit (7-9 last season) should challenge for the playoffs. … Come again? The Lions hired Jim “Somebody Check My Pulse” Caldwell to be their head coach? I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Over (-160, MGM) Vikings (6): Minnesota’s quarterback depth chart reads Matt Cassel, Christian Ponder and rookie Teddy Bridgewater. And that’s not even the scariest part. This is: 13 of the team’s 16 games will be played outdoors, including eight home contests at the University of Minnesota (the Vikings’ temporary home while their new stadium is being built). Then there’s the schedule, which begins: at Rams, vs. Patriots, at Saints, vs. Falcons, at Packers, vs. Lions, at Bills. Somebody get poor Adrian Peterson a Kleenex endorsement, as he’s gonna be crying a lot this autumn. Under (+145, MGM)
The Yogi Bulls
Billionaires and celebrities are blissing out as meditation charges back into the mainstream By Ben Widdicombe The New York Observer
IN A CITY WHERE MONEY IS A MANTRA , a surprising new trend is keeping Wall Street titans grounded, even as markets fuctuate. Some of New York’s most successful fnance and business leaders—including billionaire hedge funder Dan Loeb and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio—have adopted the daily practice of transcendental meditation.
PHOTO BY ADAM JONES/NEW YORK OBSERVER
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| August 21–27, 2014
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NATIONAL
The Bunnyfish That Ate Downtown
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craig palacios and tina Wichmann want to show me the secret passage. The principals of Bunnyfsh Studio are walking me through Inspire, a three-story theater, café, bar and newsstand designed by their Downtown Las Vegas-based architecture frm, and they’re pointing out all the cool features they baked into it. There are quite a few, from the wall-mounted rails that act as Inspire News Café’s magazine racks, to the raw concrete fnish of the building’s façade, to the 70-somethingyear-old Heywood Wakefeld theater seats that Palacios and Wichmann salvaged from a church. To my eyes, nearly every design element of Inspire is a capital-lettered Special Feature. And the architects had to fght for every last one. “The contractor never really saw our vision,” Palacios says. “Until the day we opened, he would tell me straight-up, ‘I don’t see what you’re doing here.’” That’s funny, considering how fresh and modern Inspire feels. The news café is a pleasing assortment of surfaces—glass, wood, concrete and glossy paper—framing an ever-changing human portrait. Walk a few steps and you’re in Wayfarer, a dark, mid-century modern bar straight out of Mad Men. Next to it is the 150-seat theater with the aforementioned cast-iron church seats, a theater that’s already seen heavy use hosting everything from late-night va-
riety shows to independent flm. You get several entirely different experiences at Inspire, and that’s even before you go upstairs and check out the casual co-working spaces, the spectacular rooftop patio, the cozy speakeasy bar Tokyo 365 … and, oh yeah, the secret passage, designed for building owner Tony Hsieh and Inspire proprietor Michael Cornthwaite to get from rooftop to second foor without fghting the fow of traffc to the rooftop party. It’s pretty impressive stuff, and it seems even more so after Palacios tells me how little direction he got from Hsieh. “He just said ‘Get on a plane and go check out the lobby of the W Hotel in Austin. It’s what I want,’” Palacios says. “It was diffcult at frst to fgure out what he was talking about, but very shortly we realized that the lobby of the W is four or fve distinct rooms with different purposes, and they’re very different architecturally. You don’t notice when you transition from one to the other, and there are bars everywhere. People are working there during the day, partying at night … and you don’t even notice that transition.” “The circulation and destination components of the design were blurred,” Wichmann says. “Rooms there were destinations, but they were also part of the exploration. It’s fun.” Somehow, Bunnyfsh Studio was able to assimilate those offhanded instructions and convert a former one-
level 7-Eleven convenience store into a vibrant, three-level urban space with virtually no local precedent. Before I can ask how, exactly, they managed to pull that off, both Palacios’ and Wichmann’s phones blow up, and the interview is cut short. This won’t be the last time this happens. It’s pretty tough to fnd an interview-size hole in Bunnyfsh’s schedule, because this one architectural frm, thanks in part to its gift for understanding what Tony Hsieh wants and what Downtown needs, is pretty much single-handedly reimagining the entirety of Fremont East.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW bunnyfish’s downtown project list is kind of like a friendly Godzilla: ever growing, ever advancing, and changing the landscape before our eyes. It includes Natalie Young’s breakfastand-lunch joint Eat; the Hydrant Club membership dog park; Cornthwaite’s cocktails-and-charcuterie lounge Scullery; the Downtown location of local Tex-Mex favorite Nacho Daddy; the John E. Carson building and several of the businesses inside it, including Bud & Vine, Carson Kitchen, Grass Roots and O Face Doughnuts; the bar, lounge area, “backyard” and crash pads at the Gold Spike; the recently revived Bunk-
house Saloon and its outdoor campus; the former Azul club, now a multipurpose space called Place; the casino of the Western Hotel, which they turned into a convention hall; and several others in various states of planning and execution. And they’re not limiting themselves solely to Downtown Project or Fremont East spaces; Bunnyfsh designed the third Vegas location of beloved coffee bar Sambalatte, now open at the Monte Carlo, and they’re currently helping a client to remake the interior of the Ice House on Main Street, transforming it from a nightclub to offce space. And the neat thing is, you can see the through line in all these places. For such a relatively young frm—Bunnyfsh frst set up shop in Emergency Arts in January 2011—they’ve not only amassed an impressive portfolio, but have forged a recognizable style. The Bunnyfsh look is a mix of the raw and the fnished in a constant visual tug-of-war. Wichmann offers an example from the Inspire build-out: “We had a discussion with the contractor, who said, ‘You’ve got these existing trusses, and you want to keep them. What do you want to do with them? Do you want to paint them?’ And we said, ‘Just dust them off.’ The contractor mused that such a design choice would have to be carried all the way through; surely, they’d have to make chairs out of barrels and create some sort of hackneyed country road-
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY MAIR
August 21–27, 2014
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Take a look at our city’s ever-evolving core. Like what you see? You can thank two friends who stumbled into architecture, formed a frm with a funny name and then found themselves in the right place at the right time. B Y G E O F F C A R T E R
house. But Wichmann and Palacios stood frm: No barrel chairs, and no paint on the trusses. Just dust them off. “We like the tension between new and old—to pay homage to the existing structure and its heritage, but not just add a bunch more old stuff in there,” Wichmann says. “For us, the challenge of design is to bring those two elements together and have them ft.” David Baird, director at the UNLV School of Architecture, agrees that this approach to the old buildings of Fremont Street—keeping as much of the skeleton as possible, and laying down new skin only where it fts—is the correct one. “Dealing with the existing building gives it a sense of continuity, [of] history, of the quirkiness that goes with having to deal with all the little peculiar things that were done historically in that area,” he says. “A lot of times, when you scrape an area and you build from scratch, you lose a lot of that character. Almost like a patina. Think about the pans that you cook in: You don’t scrub them completely clean. You let them have that patina, and they add to the favor in a way that you really couldn’t [get] if you were just starting from scratch.”
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Close encounters: Palacios and Wichmann squeeze into the phone booth at the Scullery, designed by their Bunnyfish Studio.
“a bunnyfish is two different things,” Palacios says. “It’s like black and white coming together to become gray.” The name Palacios and Wichmann chose for their frm is not only emblematic of their design philosophy, but of the partners themselves. At frst blush, they seem to share a brain: Both are of similar age (Palacios is 42, Wichmann 40); both are stylish dressers; both have dynamic personalities. Yet they come from decidedly different sensibilities. The short story is “They met at UNLV,” but the long version is where you fnd all the favors that make the cooking pan. Wichmann, of Korean and Dutch descent, was born in Tehran, Iran—her father was a civilian military consultant—and when her family relocated to America, she was perpetually the new face in the neighborhood: She estimates that her parents moved around Southern California “maybe 10 times,” trying to fnd better schools for her to attend. Eventually, she got a bachelor’s degree in psychology “with a little bit of emphasis in neuropsychology,” and promptly went to work for a pharmaceutical research company. “I’m a pretty detail-oriented and attentive person, and so I ended up moving into regulatory affairs and managing FDA audits and things that really are interesting, but not that fun,” she says. “I was in my mid-20s, and I thought to myself, ‘Do I want to still be doing this in 20 years?’” What Wichmann did enjoy was architecture. Growing up in so many different new homes, she had almost continual access to construction sites, and
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HOW TO MAKE A BUNNYFISH
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took full advantage of it. “When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I would walk up the hill and make friends with all the construction workers. They would put aside refrigerator boxes or scrap pieces of marble, and I’d go up there, I’d bring them down the hill and I’d build things in my backyard.” In 2004, Wichmann, who took some undergraduate architecture classes at UCLA while pursuing her degree in psychology, began work toward a master’s degree in architecture through a bridge program, which allows applicants with unrelated undergraduate degrees to accelerate their architecture education. By 2007, Tina Wichmann, unhappy FDA auditor, became Tina Wichmann, happy architect. “I needed to do what was important to me,” says Wichmann, who sealed the deal in 2013 by moving to Las Vegas full time with her husband. Her professional partner’s route was no less circuitous. A Las Vegas native— his mother was a cocktail waitress at the Four Queens, his father captain of the showroom at the Desert Inn—Pala-
cios’ frst interest was fashion, much to his parents’ dismay. “To come from two immigrant parents and be living in Vegas and tell them you want to become a fashion designer, they’re like, ‘Shut the fuck up. Get out of here. You could go park cars and make 75 grand a year. What are you talking about?’” Palacios left town in 1993 after a short, unsatisfying stint at UNLV (“I was a crappy student”), decamping to San Diego and then Seattle, where he and his wife bought a condo and he did construction jobs. Construction came naturally to Palacios; he’s worked in that world since age 14, and alongside fashion, it’s kind of what gets his heart started in the morning. But even that love had limits. “I did concrete, masonry, foundation stuff,” he says. “But it got to a point where I realized I was maxed out, like I wasn’t going to be able to go any further.” He returned to school, soon getting an associate’s degree in art at a community college. He attempted to transfer to the University of Washington, but was compelled to return
to UNLV in 1999 because of a clerical issue. Drawing on his twin passions— construction and design—he decided to work toward an architecture degree, and he got one. He’s also about halfway to achieving a master’s in construction management, but says he’s unlikely to complete it. “You remember that part in Forrest Gump where he’s running, running, running, and then he’s just like, ‘I don’t want to run anymore?’” Palacios says. “Well, I just didn’t want to go to school anymore.” Palacios and Wichmann met while in that master’s program, and soon struck up a friendship. “We had classes together, gravitated together, bounced ideas off each other,” Palacios says. It’s ftting that the duo’s friendship and professional partnership emerged from … well, from both of them hitting a wall and turning left. It explains why everything they do is suffused with a sense of play—even the company logo is designed to be spray-painted on walls, like a graffti tag—and why each of their projects is distinguished by a fun element: Nacho Daddy’s wall of beer bot-
tles; the Hydrant Club’s namesake giant freplug; the wonderfully gaudy, 1970sinspired look of O Face Doughnuts. This is the kind of stuff you do only after you’ve cleared a few hurdles in your life. You not only do what’s important to you, but also what feels good.
WHEN BUNNY MET TONY when you look at the firm’s long list of Downtown Project-funded ventures, it’s easy to assume that DTP owns Bunnyfsh Studio—or that Hsieh was given some sort of buy-12-get-one-free punch card. In truth, though, these two parties came together through what the DTP used to call a “serendipitous collision.” Late one night, the Bunnyfsh crew was hanging in their Emergency Arts offce when an unannounced visitor arrived. “Suddenly, Tony pops in, and I didn’t know him,” Palacios says. “I didn’t even know what Zappos was.” Hsieh politely inquired about the renderings taped to the walls, then
INSPIRE THEATER BY SILVER LINING STUDIO
August 21–27, 2014
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Palacios and Wichmann pose during their 2007 graduation from UNLV (1). Years later, the friends formed Bunnyfish Studio, whose Downtown works include the Inspire Theater newsstand (2) and theater (3); the interiors of Eat (4) and Carson Kitchen (5); the Hydrant Club (6); and the secret passage at Inspire Theater, tagged with the company logo (7).
EAT, CARSON KITCHEN, HYDRANT CLUB COURTESY BUNNYFISH STUDIO; SECRET PASSAGE BY ANTHONY MAIR
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disappeared for a week. When he returned, he brought several confdants with him, including Shift CEO Zach Ware; Zappos executive and Vegas Tech Fund partner Fred Mossler; and Todd Kessler, an attorney with Downtown Project’s real estate partner, Resort Gaming Group. “Tony goes, ‘You should come see what we’re doing,’” Palacios recalls. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, cool, give me your card.’ And he said, ‘No, no, grab your stuff. Let’s go.’” Palacios followed Hsieh to his suite in the Ogden, where Palacios began rearranging the Post-it notes on Hsieh’s idea wall. “It was, ‘Laundromat, dog park, grocery store, children’s school,’ and as an architect you realize that arranging things in that linear fashion doesn’t work. The deli should be with the grocery store, and so on. We started moving things around, and sometime during that process my heart started beating. I’m like, ‘I don’t even know this guy, and I’m rearranging his stuff.’ And I looked over, and he was smiling.” That night, Hsieh gave Palacios sev-
eral books on architecture. (“The list of architecture books that he had read surpassed most architectural professors,” Palacios says.) They looked out the window of the Ogden and discussed the growing portfolio of properties Hsieh owned. In the ensuing weeks, Hsieh invited Palacios to look at several vacant properties—“We’d go break into a building and crawl around the rafters and stuff; it was great”—but it was all on the level of two friends with a shared enthusiasm; there was never any business talk. Then, one day, Downtown Project work began to trickle in. Ware brought them a project that was ultimately killed, and Young asked them to design the interior of Eat. And one night, while Palacios and Wichmann were having a drink at the Downtown Cocktail Room, Hsieh and Cornthwaite approached them with a challenge: a three-story theater, bar and café complex, housed inside a one-story building. “I remember them saying, ‘We want a theater, we want the bathrooms to be front and center, and we have a lot of stuff we want to put into this
very small footprint,” Wichmann says. “Craig usually has a roll of trace paper and a pen somewhere, so he was able just to go, ‘Well, da-da-da-da-da,’ and they looked at it and said, ‘That’s exactly what we want.’” Continues Palacios: “They took it, rolled it up and said, ‘OK, this is as far as we want to go with this now,’ and we kept drinking and hung out with them the rest of the night. Two days later we get a call from [Resort Gaming Group CEO] Andrew Donner, who asked, ‘What was your involvement with these drawings, who are you, and how many people do you have in your frm?” One day later, Bunnyfsh Studio had a contract in hand to design Inspire, a project that would lead to many others. Not to mention Fremont East’s frst secret passage.
THE TAG during an increasingly rare free moment, Palacios and Wichmann join me on the rooftop of Inspire. The view
from up there really is one of the city’s best; you’ve got the tourist-fueled chaos of the Fremont Street Experience on one side and the growing and ever-changing Fremont East district on the other. After a few moments admiring that view—“You should have been up here on New Year’s Eve; there must have been 200 people up here, plus a llama,” Palacios says—the partners lead me around an inconspicuous corner, through an unremarkable door … and just like that, we’re in Inspire’s secret passage. There’s really not much to say about it, to be honest. It’s an unadorned stairwell, which empties onto the second foor via another semi-hidden door with a key-card lock. There’s only one thing of interest inside: a piece of stenciled graffti depicting a round fsh with rabbit ears. In a rarely accessed hallway, Bunnyfsh Studios actually managed to sign their work. “We’re both architects and taggers, as it turns out,” Wichmann says, grinning. Then, right on cue, her phone rings.
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August 21–27, 2014
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When you look at the firm’s long list of Downtown Projectfunded ventures, it’s easy to assume that DTP owns Bunnyfish Studio— or that Tony Hsieh was given some sort of buy-12-get-onefree punch card. In truth, though, these two parties came together through what the DTP used to call a “serendipitous collision.”
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NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and a mini resident takes on Surrender
Miami to Ibiza Bobby 'Runway' Gleason dishes on the sounds of SLS’ party spots. (Spoiler: Sundays have all gone Pete Tong.) By David Morris
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Will your Las Vegas bookings mirror what you are doing in L.A.? While there will be shared residencies per se, Create in Los Angeles has the ability to offer a wider spectrum of music. It’s a place where we try new things and showcase upand-coming artists and different genres of music. Vegas caters to a more mainstream crowd, and once you typically lock your residents in for that year, you typically do 12 to 20 shows for each resident. So there is not much room to bring in anyone else.
August 21–27, 2014
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
Will the music programing be similar across all of the SLS nightlife/daylife venues? Life, our electronic-dance-music megaclub, will be open Fridays and Saturdays, and then Sundays starting August 31. Foxtail will be more open format and celebrity driven, with appearances, local talent and celebrity DJs. The Foxtail pool will be electronic music, while Life Beach will be a mix of open format and electronica.
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MENTION THE NAME BOBBY RUNWAY to anyone on the Hollywood scene and they will immediately tell you that the former DetroitDJ-cum-L.A.-promoter is one of the most charismatic people they know. While Robert Gleason has left his promoter days behind, he is now responsible for all talent buying (read: DJ bookings) across SBE’s nightlife portfolio in L.A. as well as the new SLS, in Las Vegas. Following a recent walk of the new property, including Life Nightclub, Foxtail and the Sayers Club, we sat down with Gleason, now in his eighth year with SBE, to discuss what will set the resort’s nightlife and entertainment offerings apart from the rest of the city.
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A lot of turntable talent has already locked in residencies with other resorts. Does that make your job more challenging? It does, but surprisingly there are a lot of artists available without residencies. We have also taken a different approach to our bookings. We are a new venue on the Strip, and we want to grow and we want artists who are going to grow with us. We want to build artists and not just take artists for one year and then see them go somewhere else. We want to fnd artists on the upswing of their career, in whom we see potential. Some of these artists may not be megastars right now, but they will be in the next year to fve years. Can you give some examples? Rebecca & Fiona defnitely—we see
potential in them. We have worked with them a lot; they have a residency with us at Create, and played SLS Miami during Ultra Music Fest. I also think Erick Morillo is a unique booking that some people may view as controversial. Controversial how? He is in the process of rebuilding his career, but at the same time he is probably one of the most intellectual artists out there. It is a statement booking, in that we’re not going in the same direction as everyone else on the Strip. We are going after artists who are intellectually minded in their music and want to create something special with us. We want artists who will leave the fans saying, “We want more.” We don’t want artists in a booth on the stage,
but ones who’s night we can create an entire theme around. That is the concept that will help distinguish Life. We want our guests to know that when they come to the SLS they’re going to get a show. I’ve been hearing some buzz about your Sundays. We are going to try to bring in some unique sounds that haven’t been heard in a mainstream format in Vegas before, sounds that have traditionally been done in after-hours formats. We are really going to gear our Sundays toward more of the Ibizastyle residencies, and offer a more intellectual sound. A lot of the Ibiza residents are also very excited to bring their brands over after the summer has rapped. This is something that our VIPs really seem to enjoy, and we hope
that the Vegas industry as well as all of our guests will as well. Will you partner with Ibiza’s Ushuaia nightclub like you did during Ultra in Miami? They have their Ants party, and we love that island staple. Our partnership in Miami in March was great, and I can certainly see some cross promotion in the future. I can tell you already that we will be doing a Pete Tong residency [called “All Gone With Pete Tong”], and he will be spearheading our Sundays. SLS Las Vegas opens to the public at midnight on the evening of August 22. On August 23, Life Nightclub opens with Erick Morillo at the helm. Laidback Luke, Dirty South and Deep Dish with Pete Tong play Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, respectively.
PETE TONG BY PHIL FISK; REBECCA AND FIONA BY ARVIDA BYSTRÖM
August 21–27, 2014
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On the SLS roster, clockwise from left: Pete Tong, Rebecca & Fiona, and Erick Morillo.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
GHOSTBAR The Palms
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO AND JOSH METZ
August 21–27, 2014
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Aug. 21 Benny Black spins Aug. 22 PJ Produkt and Mark Stylz spin Aug. 23 Presto One and Exodus spin
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
TAO BEACH The Palazzo
[ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY AMIT DADL ANEY AND JOE FURY
August 21–27, 2014
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Aug. 24 Technicolor spins Aug. 29 Havana Brown spins Aug. 30 Eric D-Lux spins
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
MARQUEE
The Cosmopolitan [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY BOBBY JAMEIDAR AND TONY TRAN
August 21–27, 2014
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Aug. 22 ATB spins Aug. 23 Dash Berlin spins Aug. 25 Carnage’s Black & White Party
DINING
FOOD STYLING TIPS FOR THE HOME COOK While the food you cook at home doesn’t have to stand up to the harsh conditions of a photo shoot, you still want it to look good when it hits the table. Here are a few tips from Fields-Moonen on how to impress your family and friends with a knockout presentation.
➜ Choose the freshest and prettiest ingredients. They look and taste the best. ➜ Put your herbs in an ice bath before using to keep them looking super green. And don’t overcook your veggies!
Picture Perfect
➜ Use the proper tools when preparing your food: a good cutting board, quality knife, mandolin and micro plane will make all the difference in your plate.
Food stylist Roni Fields-Moonen gets culinary creations ready for their close-ups
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AS THE EGGS BENEDICT HITS HER TABLE, it’s already a drop-dead gorgeous dish that would inspire “ooohs” and “aaahs” at any weekend brunch. But Roni FieldsMoonen doesn’t dig into it. Instead, she stares at it, locking a mental image into her mind. Then, along with the chef, she tries to determine what elements are likely to suffer over the course of a 30-minute photo shoot under hot lights. The hash cylinder might break down quickly. The perfectly cooked soft-boiled eggs are a bit unstable, thanks to their runny cores. And the Hollandaise sauce will set over time. The chef is willing to fre up order after order, replacing them every few minutes to keep them fresh. But that doesn’t work in a photo shoot, where top food photographers might spend 15 to 20 minutes just arranging a plate to get the perfect angle. That’s why today’s photographer has hired Fields-Moonen, who is Las Vegas’ top food stylist. Over the next two hours, FieldsMoonen plays with every aspect of the dish. She orders a dozen overcooked
eggs that look beautiful and are easier to manipulate. She observes how decorative pepper sauces run over time, then painstakingly adds four a touch at a time to get a version that looks the same, but stays in place. Finally, she assembles a version of the eggs Benedict by hand that would probably offend the chef’s taste buds, but which perfectly represents his visual creation. Not every restaurant or magazine employs a food stylist, whose job might involve anything from keeping a foamy head on a beer to creating an ice cream sundae that doesn’t melt. Many photographers learn the tricks of the trade themselves over time. But when the budget is there, most print editors and TV producers realize how invaluable food stylists are, and will often fy in their favorites from another city to get the best shots. Fields-Moonen, who also does hair and makeup, began styling in 1999, while working as an art director for a South Florida magazine. “I started directing all the photo shoots,” she says.
“And we never really had a budget for a food stylist.” While shooting the cover of the magazine’s food issue, she became increasingly dissatisfed with the way a pasta dish looked in photos. So she sat down and styled a more photogenic version. As she got more into the craft, other magazines began hiring her. She came to Las Vegas in 2011, after meeting her now-husband, celebrity chef Rick Moonen, in Mexico. “I was doing his hair and makeup for this TV pilot,” she says. “And part of [Rick’s] job was to make all these dishes to present to a table of 10, and he was running out of time. So I told him I would help him plate his food.” The chef was a little shocked by the offer, but was impressed with the results. She soon began styling for all of Moonen’s shoots. And since their relationship brought her to our town, Fields-Moonen has developed an enviable portfolio of top-chef stylings. So the next time a photo of a luscious-looking morsel makes your mouth water, you very well may have Fields-Moonen to thank!
➜ Contrast on the plate is good. A monochromatic color scheme is often unappetizing. ➜ Unless it’s Thanksgiving, three complementary items are all you need [on a plate], with the possibility of smaller garnish ingredients. ➜ Let meat rest before cutting it, unless you like all your side dishes swimming in blood. ➜ Pay attention to the actual placement on the plate, and that servings are proportionately balanced. Use care when dishing out items, and wipe off any food smears.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
August 21–27, 2014
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By Al Mancini
DRINKING
Cooler Than Cool
August 21–27, 2014
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
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Get the recipe at VegasSeven.com/ CocktailCulture.
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IT’S A SPECIAL COCKTAIL THAT
bears the name of its casino. But it takes an even more special cocktail to bear the name of a beloved casino that once stood where a shiny new resort now reigns. Such was the challenge for SLS Las Vegas beverage director Ryan McCallum, who gives a respectful nod to the property’s past with his Sahara Cooler ($15), which will be served property-wide when SLS opens at midnight on the evening of August 22. It’s a fitting tribute, being Sahara-orange in hue. “There’s a libation out there for everyone,” McCallum says. “As beauty is in the eye of the drink-holder, it’s our job to find that perfect drink for them.” But success goes deeper into that glass than just the color: Ketel One Oranje matches beats with Aperol (a low-alcohol bitter Italian aperitivo flavored with orange peels), and gives it an alcoholic boost. Passion fruit puree imparts a refreshing, sweet-tart character; and the Stiegel Radler (a loooow-alcohol fruit beer) puts some sophisticated texture on the palate. In all: a delicious tribute to a venerable patch of Las Vegas history. Says McCallum, “It packs a good punch, too.”
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A&E
“There are a lot of incredible local bands that you’re going to see here and you’re going to say, ‘I did not know they were this good.’” MUSIC {PAGE 72}
By Cindi Moon Reed
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
LET’S JUST GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY FIRST:
Jason Scoppa used to be a male model. And while he jokes about having gained weight and being too old to feel sexy, this married father of two still carries the effortless, good-natured, open demeanor that comes from being beautiful. The grit of his Detroit background tempers the effect of a
stint in New York and an adulthood in L.A. He’s one of the popular kids, but he’ll let you sit at his table. Add an ear for music, and it seems natural if not destined that Scoppa would ascend the world of nightlife. His latest project brings him to Las Vegas, where he will open an outpost of his 3-year-old Hollywood hot spot the Sayers Club in
One of the things you do there is a cover-band show called Sessions, which you plan to host at SLS. The event has done well in Hollywood and even drawn guests such as Prince and Slash. But now that you’re in the land of cover bands, how do you plan to stand out?
You’re looking to blur the lines between a lounge, a live-music venue and a nightclub. What does that look like? The vision for me has always been like, “I love music, it’s my passion, but I just wish there was a party around it instead of CO N TIN U ED O N PAGE 68
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The Sayers Club at SLS will be part live-music venue, nightclub and lounge. How will that work? Creator Jason Scoppa explains.
What is your vision for translating the magic of the Sayers Club in Hollywood to Las Vegas? What I like about Vegas is that there’s not a lot of people in this lane, and I think it’s going to work really well here. The times that I have been in Vegas in the past, there has never been anywhere that I wanted to go per se. We’re going to do some of the same things here that we do there.
It’s a cover show, but it doesn’t have any of the shtick to it—it’s really just incredible musicianship, incredible vocalists and the occasional guest. We don’t have any set order, so we’re basically surfng the vibe in the room. That creates a cool thing between the audience and the show because we don’t know what’s going to happen next. It’s proven that particular show will work. … We’re going to be experimenting with residencies from different artists, both new and big talent, as well. So we don’t really discriminate by the level that a musician is at, we just want quality.
August 21–27, 2014
Say What?
the SLS. Scoppa paused from opening preparations to chat about his aspirations for this combined music venue, lounge and nightclub.
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Movies, concerts, stage and a French artist with American taste
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ALBUM REVIEWS
The
HIT LIST
By Pj Perez
TARGETING THIS WEEK'S MOST-WANTED EVENTS
By Camille Cannon
ALT-ROCK
I AM GIANT
Science & Survival
(Sony Music) New Zealand quartet I AM GIANT is back with a second set of heavy, dynamic rock music that defies trends. Offering a sound somewhat reminiscent of Lostprophets, Blindside and even early Thirty Seconds to Mars, Science & Survival excels on the strength of Ed Martin’s acrobatic vocals, backed by giant guitar riffs, machine-precise rhythms and surprisingly catchy melodies. Even when I AM GIANT takes a breather from its insistent wall of sound on songs such as the lush, almost delicate “Dragging the Slow Dance Out,” the music is still sonically interesting and emotionally compelling. ★★★★✩
AMERICANA
Alejandra O’Leary and the Champions of the West Heartspace Timepiece
(Self-released) With a sound as diverse as the cultural mix hinted by her name, Portland, Oregon-spawned, Detroit-based singer-songwriter Alejandra O’Leary leads her band through nine songs spanning the breadth of popular rock music’s history. From the opening track (“Now Now”)—which shifts from moody grind to rollicking rave-up—to the bratty, Blondie-esque “Talk Me Down,” Heartspace Timepiece works despite its scattershot approach, even when the band approximates an alt-country pose on songs such as “Windows.” ★★★✩✩
ELECTRO-POP
Vow
Make Me Yours
(The Native Sound) Deviating from the rest of its 1980s-revivalist peers, Los Angeles-based duo Vow’s latest recording—a woefully short fivesong EP—eschews radio-friendly dance-floor ditties in favor of dark, driving songs that owe more than just a small debt to Cocteau Twins. Featuring the rich, sultry vocals of Julia Blake, songs such as “Miles Away” and “Palm” build on multi-instrumentalist Andrew Thomas’ rumbling bass lines and programmed drum-machine beats to create the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day. ★★★★✩
IT’S A SHARK THING Syfy drew 3.9 million viewers for the July 30 premiere of Sharknado 2: The Second One. Whether you weren’t among them or you just want to see the flick in theaters, August 21 is your best viewing opportunity. Cinemas across the country (including several local outposts) will show the sequel on a big screen for one night only. Fandango.com.
FYF FEST IS LIKE COACHELLA CONCENTRATE
If you just can’t wait for Las Vegas’ own Life Is Beautiful festival on October 24-26, then you should make the trek to the L.A. Sports Arena & Exposition Park for the 11th annual FYF Fest on August 23-24. In fact, the two festivals have enough variations in their lineup that it’s worth attending both. Headliners for FYF include Phoenix, the Strokes, Interpol, Haim, Grimes and Earl Sweatshirt. But being in a music-industry city, the non-headliners are equally exciting: Mac DeMarco, Albert Hammond Jr., Man Man, Future Islands and Ty Segall. The festival is sold out, but tickets are available on StubHub.com for $121.60 and up, which is about the same as the original price. Who wants to carpool? – Cindi Moon Reed
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[ ROAD TRIP ]
FOREVERMORE, FOR NOW Given the recent announcement that Trifecta Gallery will close in January, we recommend you take every opportunity to visit the Arts District staple until then. Through August 29, see Su Limbert’s Forevermore, which was crafted specifically for the space. The paintings and sculptures employ a folk-art aesthetic to explore life’s cyclical nature. TrifectaGallery.com.
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GOOD DEAL, GOOD CAUSE Consider one ticket to AFAN’s 28th annual Black & White Party on August 23 to be the equivalent of several tickets to various Strip shows. The entertainment lineup includes performances from Jabbawockeez, Jubilee! and Absinthe star Melody Sweets. Treating yourself to a night out is even sweeter knowing proceeds support Southern Nevadans living with AIDS. AFANLV.org.
August 21–27, 2014
INTERPOL BY ELIOT LEE HAZEL; FOREVERMORE PHOTO COURTESY OF TRIFECTA GALLERY
Interpol is one of 59 music groups playing FYF.
CALL IT A HIPHOPOPOTAMUS Art collective ISI Group takes over Brooklyn Bowl once again, this time for a Call of the Wild-themed show and auction on August 27. In addition, don’t miss performances from some of local hip-hop’s finest: RNR and Marion Write, plus an open-style b-boy cypher. Maybe you’ve got your own skills to show? Vegas. BrooklynBowl.com.
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STAGE Her show won’t go on.
STRIP BITS
PHOTO BY GERARD SCHACHMES/CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT
Combing through this, that and the other on the entertainment scene SWEEPING UP ODDS AND ENDS —including odd endings, the endings of oddities and a curiosity or two in between: • Iron your leisure suit—the Australian Bee Gees show has been extended through 2018 at Excalibur. In conveying such news, one should never squander the chance to say that this tribute show is stayin’ alive. Or that it’s got a night fever that just won’t break. Or that I made a couple of jokes that got the whole world cryin’. … I’ll stop now. • In Judaism, when there is a death, we say “Kaddish,” which is a prayer for the dead. With the merciful expiration of the unfortunate being that was terminally ill from the day it frst drew breath, I will say Kaddish for Pawn Shop Live! Born January 2014 at the Golden Nugget. Died August 2014 at the Riviera. May it (forever) rest in peace. • Beginning this month, comedian Matt Kazam brings his Defending the Caveman-ish show, called 40 Is Not the New 20, to the Riviera. Suggested subtitle: No Shit. • Aussie-themed Sydney After Dark, featuring ladies from Down Under shucking their tops, briefy strutted and shimmied before shuttering at Planet Hollywood’s PH Showroom. Producers are searching for a more intimate venue they apparently feel better suits the sensual revue. There’s a counterintuitive joke here about hot women believing smaller is better. But I won’t make it. • Speaking of counterintuitive … a production of Mamma Mia that isn’t a hit? Holy Rainbow Spandex, Batman! Worldwide, this candy-favored musical is rarely less than a sugar rush for audiences—nearly every version, whether a tour or standing
production, has succeeded, including a healthy previous Vegas run at Mandalay Bay. This time around, the show, revived at the Tropicana, was tentative and unfocused, at a venue long off the main loop for big-league shows. Does that make the Trop Mamma Mia’s … Waterloo? Nope—just a not-so-cool production that got an appropriately lukewarm response. • Lower on the show-failure radar was Magia, Latino illusionist Reynold Alexander’s prematurely clipped Vegas debut that arrived at the Clarion Hotel in May for a run through July, only to vanish midrun. Though Magia (Spanish for “magic”) was underwhelming in its execution and destined to be little noticed at the offStrip Clarion, the suave Alexander is an accomplished magician and culturally unique among Vegas’ plethora of prestidigitators. Despite his disappearance—and with a bigger budget and better positioning—he’s worth a reappearance. • Finally, in news that reverberated around the planet, Celine Dion announced she’s put performing on hold, canceling Caesars Palace shows through next March, as well as an Asian tour in the fall. Though an illness causing infammation of her throat muscles was part of the explanation, helping her husband, René Angélil, battle cancer while raising their three kids was the driving motivation. Caesars will reshuffe its schedule and go on. But anyone who prioritizes family over career—you, me, a global superstar—earns a Great Big Standing O. Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.
A&E
MOVIES
MEMORY LAPSE
Can we trust Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites with our memories?
This classic dystopian novel fnally gets the big-screen treatment. Too bad it’s kind of forgettable. By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
AT THIS POINT IN THE DYSTOPIAN MOVIE
cycle, I’m ready for a story about a teenager with zero interest in questioning the system, let alone starting a revolution. A spineless conformist— that’s what the genre needs. Meantime there’s The Giver, director Phillip Noyce’s flm version of the 1993 Lois Lowry best-seller, which remains a staple of the young adult shelves alongside the Hunger Games and Divergent books. So here we are again. It’s the future. Life is like Logan’s Run with shorter haircuts. (That flm, starring Michael York and Farrah Fawcett-Majors, remains the shaggiest of all dystopian totalitarian adventures.) Speaking of hair: Meryl Streep, in the steely role of the Chief Elder, sports a ’do that can only be described as “disgruntled food co-op manager.” So: Future. Planet nearly ruined thanks to “climate control.” Animal and plant life, destroyed. The surviving communities, resembling a postapocalyptic edition of Long Island’s Levittown, adhere to strict rules of
conduct, conformity, heavy doses of mood-stabilizing drugs for all citizens and a nightmarish take on peace, equality and socialism. As there always is in these stories, a sorting ritual determines the role in society each young citizen will play. Our hero, Jonas, played by Noyce’s fellow Aussie Brenton Thwaites, is selected for a very special occupation: that of the Receiver of Memory, to be schooled by the current and controversial RM, played by topbilled Jeff Bridges. Books are banned in this future, as are “stirrings” of a sexual nature and music, even. The Bridges character is able to transmit knowledge and sensory recollections of what snow was like, and the color of an apple. Jonas’ pals Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) join Jonas in his
mission to change the way things are in this most emotionally Botoxed of all possible worlds. Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgard portray Jonas’ parents, who know their kid is special but can’t give him the leeway he craves, lest the entire society crumble. The world according to The Giver isn’t above killing off elders and unhealthy newborns by the hundreds, a sinister plot point alluded to, nervously, by Noyce and by screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide. Like Pleasantville, Noyce’s flm establishes its colorlessness literally; much of the footage is conveyed in black and white or sepia tones, with splashes of color strategically placed to establish what lies beyond the present circumstances. It’s not a lousy experience. Taylor Swift shows up in a glorifed cameo.
August 21–27, 2014
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SHORT REVIEWS
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The Expendables 3 (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
The leitmotifs in Expendables 3 involve fist-bumps (Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s primary means of communication) and that old action standby, the teamassembly sequence. Director Patrick Hughes shot most of Expendables 3 in Bulgaria. The climactic and semi-endless assault features tanks, helicopters, motorcycle stunts only a digital effects specialist could love and some terrible staging and editing. Even so, the movie’s less a failure than a shrug, and it’s pleasant in a numbing way to see everybody again, killing, killing, killing.
Let’s Be Cops (R) ★★✩✩✩
The laughs are loud, lewd and low in this spoof of cop “buddy pictures.” Jake Johnson of TV’s New Girl is paired with Damon Wayans Jr. in this farce about two losers losing their way through L.A., a tough place to be a single guy with zero status. Next thing you know, they’re walking the streets in uniform with fake guns and fake name tags. Co-writer/director Luke Greenfield (Something Borrowed) lets what few laughs there are land. Johnson’s timing is sharp, and Wayans has that Wayans way with dopey under-reactions to crazy situations.
What If (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
What If brings up the distinctions among wit, jokes and robotic banter, and this romantic comedy has a bit of the first and a few of the second, but it’s largely a case of the third. The script, adapted from the play Toothpaste and Cigars, does a few things right. We sense potential in the early meeting, at a party, of a med-school dropout (Daniel Radcliffe) and an animator (Zoe Kazan). From there What If contrives the usual reasons for the leads to come together. Why did the film’s charms elude me? I felt arm-twisted by What If, for all its tossed-off verbiage and wisecracking.
Thwaites has promise; Rush has more than that. But for a movie decrying the concept of societal “sameness,” The Giver is a hypocritical movie indeed. To borrow another phrase from Lowry, each new entry in the teen dystopia genre has become a sort of “comfort object,” imagining a terrible future while placating younger audiences with heroes and heroines who can make a difference. We all need that sort of thing in our pop culture lives, I suppose. But The Giver gives off an air of wearying familiarity, without much in the way of design wiles or cinematic wonder beyond the spectacle of Streep competing for her share of the movie against her own hair. The Giver (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
By Tribune Media Services
Into The Storm (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
In the spirit of Sharknado 2, Into the Storm goes into blender mode and mixes its elements of wind column terror, smoothiestyle. Top-billed Richard Armitage, an Englishman doing his best generic heartland dialect, plays a widower with two teenage boys struggling to connect with their father. But Into the Storm, directed with bland efficiency by Steven Quayle of Final Destination 5, reminds us that unless a movie establishes certain baseline levels of human interest, it runs the not-unentertaining risk of coming out squarely in favor of its own bad weather.
Get On Up (PG-13) ★★★★✩
Everything about Get On Up, a provocatively structured and unusually rich musical biopic, is a little better than the average specimen in this genre. What Tate Taylor (The Help) achieves in his James Brown story works as inventive showbiz mythology. Most moviegoers will simply want to know if Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42, has even a quarter of the fierce charisma and a tenth of the dance moves of the man he’s playing. And yet the actor, like the film, works in a stealthy way. Get On Up hits all these high points.
Guardians of the Galaxy (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Like the ’70s cassette mixtape so dear to its hero, Guardians of the Galaxy scavenges all sorts of “greatest hits” precedents to come up with its own summertime fling. It’s looser, scruffier and more overtly comic than the average Marvel action fantasy. And despite the usual load of violence, the film owes its relative buoyancy to Chris Pratt as the wisecracking space rogue at the helm. Pratt seems to be growing into a quirky action hero before our eyes, the way Robert Downey Jr. did in the first Iron Man.
Boyhood (R) ★★★★✩
A Most Wanted Man (R) ★★★✩✩
Lucy (R) ★★✩✩✩
Magic in the Moonlight (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
By the midpoint of writer-director Richard Linklater’s gentle marvel, the roundfaced Texas boy played by Ellar Coltrane has become a lanky, plaintive teenager. Linklater made the film with a group of actors over a 12-year period, starting with the kids played by Coltrane and Linklater’s daughter, Lorelei, at ages 6 and 9, respectively. The audience travels through the narrative with these characters. I love Boyhood. In completing this simple, beautiful project Linklater took his time. And he rewards ours.
In Taiwan, a hard-partying 25-year-old American studying abroad has just hooked up with a new boyfriend. He’s a delivery boy for a drug lord (Choi Min-sik), and Johansson’s Lucy is forced to deliver a briefcase to a hotel room. The briefcase contains a synthetic superdrug. After one of Lucy’s captors kicks her in the stomach, her bloodstream is suddenly flooded with the stuff. She becomes a kind of superwoman. She’s quite good in Lucy, working both sides of the street: plausibly terrified victim in one section, unfeeling bad-ass the next.
It’s impossible to watch the character anchoring Anton Corbijn’s cool, clear-eyed film version of A Most Wanted Man without forgetting the fate of the actor who plays him, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. As Gunther Bachmann, the German intelligence expert created by novelist John le Carré, Hoffman is an unhealthy specimen, a drinker, out of shape, though his mind is needlesharp. Filmed largely in Germany, under gray skies, the movie is solid le Carré. It’s chilly yet humane, and human-scaled, uninterested in the lethal glories of technology.
This Woody Allen film is set in 1928 in the south of France. British illusionist Stanley, played with a tight grimace by Colin Firth, has been invited by a fellow magician (Simon McBurney) to debunk an American mystic working her way through the Cote d’Azur. Then something happens to persuade the skeptic Stanley that Sophie (Emma Stone) is the real deal. Magic in the Moonlight strolls along, muttering familiar axioms about the infernal inconvenience and bedevilment of romantic attraction.
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SEVEN QUESTIONS
a slump. We were hurting. Interest rates were 20 percent, and it was impossible to do business. When I bought the Sahara from Del Webb, I bought Don’s contract for four more years, and here’s what this man did: He knew the place wasn’t doing well, so when we started our promotions with Los Angelesarea travel agents, he volunteered to show up [to the promotions] and work with us. He would get up there and do his act, and the travel agents were going, “What? Here’s Don Rickles.” This was gratis, because he wanted to help out. I never forgot that. What a great guy. What a pro. What’s the biggest difference between that era and today? The industry has evolved. You had a live orchestra onstage, you had an opening act, you had a bigname act, you had a gourmet room—in our case, the House of Lords and a specialty room called Don the Beachcomber—and players never paid for anything. When The Mirage opened [in 1989] with superior food outlets and wonderful room products, we discovered that folks would pay up for a better room, food and celebrity chefs. What did hosting Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon mean for the property? Jerry Lewis was doing it for the right reason; it was something we could help out with, and we loved it. Jerry could get all the names to come there. All Jerry had to do was pick up the phone and call Sammy, and Sammy’s there. Jerry’s raised well over $2 billion over the years for MDA. What a dedicated human being to have done that. What are your impressions of SLS? I’m very impressed with what [owner] Sam Nazarian did in renovating that property. For me, I guess I would have imploded it and started over. But he took something [that existed], knew what to do with it and he did it. When I walk around inside and look at how the traffic flows and see the overall fairly low cost of entry, I say, “This place is gonna work.” He’s going after a market that’s similar to the Cosmopolitan; it’s going to be a fun place to be.
August 21–27, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
The former Sahara hotel owner on the power of marquee names, why he’ll always be grateful to Don Rickles and why SLS will succeed on the north end of the Strip
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By Paul Szydelko You were keeper of the Sahara brand from 198295. What are your fondest memories? There was very little walk-in traffc, so you had to run marquee names in the showroom to attract people from other hotels. Don Rickles was there on and off for almost 30 years. We got George Burns to celebrate his 80th year in show business, and we brought him back to the Sahara in the ’80s. He had been a fxture at the Sahara way before I bought it; he introduced Bobby Darin and Ann-Margret on the Conga Room stage.
You’re always trying to get a stable of names to round out your year—we had Tina Turner under a multiweek contract prior to her breakthrough album Private Dancer. We had Billy Preston and Turner together. Even Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Frankie Valli and James Brown. I brought in acts that I really liked—Ray Charles, the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith. We had a lot of talent in those days. What was Rickles like to work with? If you remember 1982, Las Vegas was really in
Did you recognize anything on your tour of SLS? There are little things that you can see. If you go into some of the elevators, you’ll see some of the brass fttings still there. And it brings back a lot of memories for me. I could pick out the spots where we built the new Casbar Lounge, I could pick out the spot where we had the Conga Room. This was where the deli we built used to be. But you really can’t go back. When I hear things like, “We have to make Las Vegas the way it used to be.” No, we don’t. We’re going to do something different, bigger and better. That’s where I want to go. I don’t want to live in the past. Time after time, folks try it. It just doesn’t work. You gotta go for something new, you gotta take the chances, you gotta roll the dice, and that’s exactly what Sam Nazarian has done. What’s new at Lowden’s Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall in Laughlin? Find out VegasSeven.com/PaulLowden.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
Paul Lowden
You still own the land where the former Wet ’n Wild was. Are you optimistic about the area? Sam’s uniquely positioned long term, because you’re going to have two mega projects creating a new north end of the Strip. Between Genting Group’s Resorts World Las Vegas [the former Stardust] and the old Frontier site purchased by Melco Crown, you have two very big, wellfinanced companies that know what they’re doing. It’s terrific.