It’s a slow news day in Las Vegas and that means we get to coast and do a round-up of restaurant news from Venetian and Palazzo.
Breaking news constantly is exhausting. News round-ups are like taking a day off. In the social media world, of course, “taking a day off” is always in quotation marks because social media never ends.
Yes, round-ups are incredibly boring, but they require introductory paragraphs (sometimes several), and all those words means we’re that much closer to hitting the casino to lose our mortgage payment on Double Double Bonus video poker. Which is an odd thing to lose given we don’t have a mortgage anymore. No car payments, either. Thank you, Casino.org. Moving on.
Anyway, there’s a lot going on a Venetian and Palazzo in the restaurant realm, mainly because between Venetian, Palazzo and the Grand Canal Shoppes, these venues are collectively home to 4,600 restaurants and are roughly the size of Djibouti. Which may lead to you asking, “How big is Djibouti?” First, never ask a woman that question if you value your life. Second, about 9,000 square miles.
We just really like saying Djibouti.
Let’s start with a couple of very exciting restaurant announcements about famed restaurants we’ve never heard of before.
Gjelina opens in Venetian’s “Restaurant Row” later this year. We are already annoyed by the whole “produce-forward” thing, but other people seem to hold this restaurant in very high regard.
Gjelina sits in the spot formerly occupied by a sweet photo op at Venetian. We have a vague memory of the sign saying “Celebrate You” at one point, but it changed from time to time.
Also planned for Venetian is Cote Korean Steakhouse.
Cote, irksomely stylized in all caps in the news release, arrives in 2025. “Cote” is a Korean word that means “flower” or “bloom.” When capitalized, COTE can also mean “subject to occasional episodes of Tourette syndrome.”
Cote is touted as “America’s first and only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse.” It’s also described as “blending the conviviality of Korean barbeque together with the hallmarks of a classic American steakhouse.” Any restaurant that serves its dishes with blended conviviality, we’re so there.
Cote Vegas will be located in the Waterfall Atrium at The Venetian. They thought about making the venue an indoor/outdoor restaurant, but Las Vegas gets chilly in the winter, so that plan was nixed because it was determined it’s too damn Cote outside.
Let’s move on to some renovations, shan’t we?
Lavo Italian Restaurant at Palazzo recently closed for a renovation. Lavo has been around since 2008, so it was about time for a refresh. Lavo reopens in fall 2024.
Sugarcane Las Vegas has also closed for a renovation. Sugarcane, too, sits in Venetian’s “Restaurant Row.” We have had some very enjoyable experiences at Sugarcane, so we hope the overhaul helps it keep its mojo.
In other Venetian and Palazzo restaurant news, we’ve heard once Bazaar Meat closes at its current location on the north Strip, it will move into the closed Dal Toro Ristorante space at Palazzo.
Latest rumor is Bazaar Meat may have extended its lease at its current shitty location. Too many pots on the stove for Jose Andres and his team? When they move, high probability is it will be into the Dal Toro Ristorante space at Palazzo.
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) August 7, 2024
Grand Canal Shoppes is a whole other realm of openings and closings at Venetian, technically. Keeping track of all that would involve “research” or “effort,” so good luck with that.
That said, as we shared recently on another slow news day, Royal Britannia Gastro Pub recently closed and Fogo de Chao is rumored to be taking over the space.
To help keep track of all these restaurant moves, Venetian has a page of “recently opened restaurants” on its Web site. It defines “recently” very loosely, however. Chica opened in May 2017. Wakuda opened two years ago. Hey, it’s a search engine optimization thing.
All these restaurant changes (openings, closings and renovations) are happening during an interesting period for Venetian and Palazzo. Las Vegas Sands sold the resort to Apollo Global Management and Vici Properties in 2022.
In honor of the resort’s 25th anniversary, the new owners have undertaken a $1.5 billion refresh. The renovation will touch just about every part of the resort. As the kids who write news releases say, “a comprehensive top to bottom reimagining.”
The list of changes is long, so just read the news release, already.
We have heard the construction walls have come down on Venetian’s renovated Convention Center. That one aspect of the project cost in the neighborhood of $188 million, and was done by Tre Builders. Tre has its hands in a lot of projects in Vegas, but we mostly know Tre because one of the partners runs the Project BBQ truck at Circa and they are putting our name on their menu because we love their BBQ chicken pizza. Hey, that’s sort of a restaurant update! Not that everything has to be about us.
Venetian also opened its new poker room. Fun fact: The Venetian poker room is nowhere the Venetian anymore. It’s in the Grand Canal Shoppes. Park in Palazzo’s self-park garage, go up to the second level of Grand Canal Shoppes, it’s 30 feet from the elevator. Open 24/7, unlike most things in Las Vegas as the moment. Don’t get us started. Here’s more.
Las Vegas never fails to deliver new and different and delicious. Only the strong survive, and there are new temptations around every corner.
Oh, hell, let’s let ChatGPT take a stab at it, “Las Vegas presents an unparalleled symposium of epicurean delights, wherein an extravaganza of resplendent dining venues proffers an exquisite melange of gastronomic masterpieces, each dish meticulously curated to evoke a transcendent synthesis of sensory euphoria and culinary virtuosity, thus elevating the art of haute cuisine to unprecedented zeniths of sumptuous magnificence.” Reminder: You’re this close to being replaced, casino public relations persons.
We’re dying.
